MobileMe smtp server keeps going offline

Question

MobileMe smtp server keeps going offline

I have 11 email accounts (due to the consulting work I do) with various services (Gmail, AOL, Exchange, etc.) Recently, the only mailbox I'm having problems with is MobileMe! My outbound messages are stuck in Send mode and when I check, I find that the SMTP server is offline. I reenter the password info, try checking and unchecking SSL, etc. and sometimes it works, and other times it doesn't. I recently upgraded to Liion but can't say for sure that the problem started with the upgrade, but it is a very recent phenomenon as I would have noticed it earlier. MobileMe is my most frequently used mailbox.

MacBook Pro 15, Mac OS X (10.7), 6 GB memory

Posted on Jul 30, 2011 3:55 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 7, 2011 6:33 AM in response to Nestor Holynskyj

I'm having the same problem since upgrading to Lion; the Mobile Me SMTP server keeps going offline. Sometimes I can get it to go back online, only to have it go off again. I'm not sure it's Lion or changes Apple may have made since more or less discontinuing Mobile Me. Obviously, since no one has replied to your message despite a number of view, no one seems to have an answer.

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Answer 2

Sep 8, 2011 1:33 PM in response to Michael Blair1

Same problem here and today is the most recent loss of MobileMe's SMTP service.

Mail's Connection Doctor says MobileMe smtp is working properly but i still get the error message after every timeout.

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Answer 3

Sep 8, 2011 2:12 PM in response to Nestor Holynskyj

same here. and this is after it stopped working AGAIN a few weeks ago. you never have this problem with hotmail or gmail.....ugh.

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Answer 4

Sep 8, 2011 2:19 PM in response to Nestor Holynskyj

This is what I posted on another thread; truly a problem for me on the road overseas, with time critical work in hand:

Mail has been completely unreliable since the update to Lion on the main machine.

When it stops working (always this means unable to send; Mail downloads perfectly well), I have a perfect internet connection, and onnection Doctor reports:

"connection and login to server succeeded"

and the message that tells me, "Huston, we have a problem":

smtp.me.com:kit_L Trying to log in to this SMTP account failed. Verify that userame and Password are correct"

O correctf course, they are.

Very frustrating, and yesterday this necessitated opening, copying, and sending from me.com—a huge timewaster for time-critical responses.

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Answer 5

Sep 14, 2011 4:23 AM in response to kit laughlin

I finally decided to contact Apple support and was shown the fix. The tech admitted that there are some problems with Mail and Lion. Here's what I needed to do:

Make sure there are no messages queued in the Outbox
Quit Mail
Open System Preferences (not the Preferences in Mail, Calendar, or Address Book)
Go to Mail, Contacts, and Calendars
Delete any Mobile Me items
Quit System Preferences
Open System Preferences
Go to Mail, Contacts, and Calendars and add your Mobile Me account
Launch Mail

This procedure worked for me. Of course, YMMV

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Answer 6

Sep 14, 2011 9:49 AM in response to Nestor Holynskyj

Nestor, that sounded like such good advice! I follwed it, including a Restart to assist, and sent myself a test message. This was the result:

1. Mail connection to the internet successful

2. Mail took about two minutes to send the message, but in the meantime Connection Doctor reported that the SMTP server could not be found; please check username and PW, then

3. Message sent, but Connection doctor still reports that the smtp.me.com address to my dot mac email stil cannont be found.

I am getting the impression that our dot mac accounts are being moved to the iCloud, and it's the now-out-of-date me.com addresses that are problematic.

Still a glacially slow service on a reasonably fast connection here, certainly not workable. In the meantime, I am redirecting the dot mac address to gmail, and quite enjoying the experience.

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Answer 7

Sep 14, 2011 10:11 AM in response to kit laughlin

Kit:
Sorry to hear that. FWIW, the first message that I sent out did take a little long, but later ones processed quickly. It's been "Day Two" and I'm still running fine. I did not get the "SMTP server could not be found" error during the relaunching process. I was pleasantly surprised with the responsiveness of the Apple Support team. I used the Express Lane service which is a chat line, but you do "speak" with a real human. You may want to go down that route as well. I can't speculate on whether me.com is in the process of being moved to iCloud. The only admission of a problem was the one I noted in my message.

Good luck!

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Answer 8

Sep 14, 2011 11:50 AM in response to Nestor Holynskyj

And I assume you all know that in Mail Prefrerences, if you UNCHECK "Use only this server", you can use any outgoing mail server with MobileMe. The individual servers may balk, some may allow you to use them to send mail from different accounts.

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Answer 9

Sep 14, 2011 11:54 AM in response to kit laughlin

I forgot to mention this: When you add the me.com account this way, it doesn't check the "Use SSL" box which you need to do as part of the process. See if this helps.

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Answer 10

Sep 14, 2011 11:56 AM in response to Jeffrey Lee

While that's true, I don't want any potential reply from going to different mail account--I want it to return to my me.com account.

I have a local smtp server configured as well that I use as an emergency, but that's not a solution for me either.

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Answer 11

Sep 14, 2011 7:22 PM in response to Nestor Holynskyj

It doesn't matter what mail server you send it with. Mail sent from XYZ account thur the ABC smtp mail server will appear to have come from XYZ and any replies will be sent to XYZ.

The only exception that I'm aware of is Gmail.... if you use their outgoing mail servers, then the Sent From will be changed to the email account associated with the outgoing Gmail server.....

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Answer 12

Sep 14, 2011 9:33 PM in response to Jeffrey Lee

Mail is now working properly; I did follow Nestor's advice above—maybe it took a while to ramify. Interesting times indeed—I wish I know which of the acitons resulted in this outcome. Thanks to all who contributed. cheers, kl

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Answer 13

Sep 16, 2011 9:17 AM in response to kit laughlin

Oh dear: I spoke too soon. With no changes at my end, and after a great day yesterday of sending many many emails without a hitch, inlcude three this morning, Mail cannot send once again.

This is becoming a real problem, rather than a momentary inconvnience. KL

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Answer 14

Sep 29, 2011 9:48 PM in response to Nestor Holynskyj

September 29 9:48 PM mobileme is down. here is the message from Apple

http://www.apple.com/support/mobileme/system_status_more.html

System Status

MobileMe Mail
75% of MobileMe members may be unable to access MobileMe Mail. Normal service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience.

www.me.com web apps
Some MobileMe members are unable to access MobileMe applications at me.com. Normal service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience. Read more

MobileMe Find My iPhone
Some MobileMe members may be unable to access Find My iPhone. Normal service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience.

All other MobileMe services are online and fully operational

Last updated: 09/29/2011 21:22 PDT

Recent System Status History
Return to MobileMe Support page

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Answer 15

Oct 7, 2011 4:29 PM in response to Nestor Holynskyj

For those of you that configured your MobileMe email address back when it was dot-Mac:

Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Account Information. In the Email Address field, make sure it does not have both a username@mac.comandusername@me.com address entered there. If there's a mac.com address, simply delete it, close Prefs and save. If you have both mac.com and me.com domains specified, it causes smtp chaos—and also causes the connection to the incoming server (mail.me.com) to hang. This even though Network Diagnostics says everything is fine with all servers.

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