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Level 1

141 points

Mail won't send after Lion upgrade and AT&T won't help

I upgraded my new MBP to Lion and now I can't send mail if I'm on my network at home. After looking at other threads (like this one: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3192956) and based on the symptoms I'm having, I think the problem is likely an AT&T problem. When I use the Lion laptop on a different network, mail works and I can send mail with no problems. That suggests to me that the network is the issue.

I called AT&T to tell them this and they feel everything is working on their end so it must be my email client. They want to charge me to talk to tech support because I'm using an email client instead of their web interface.

Does anyone using AT&T have the same problem? Does anybody know how you get through to a big company like AT&T who isn't listening?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 2.2 Ghz Intel Core i7

Posted on Aug 2, 2011 4:43 PM

25 replies

Aug 20, 2011 11:20 AM in response to Kerry M

Kerry,

My daughter who had the ATT account I tested with, has now been gone from her prior location too long for me to still use the account I tested with in SL. When I tested previously, the stopage was not constant -- it would come and go.

Ernie

Jim Constant Author

Level 1

141 points

Aug 20, 2011 11:36 AM in response to Kerry M

No problem, Kerry. Looks like we're in the same boat. But there's hope. I've somehow managed to get it working again but the fix isn't as straight forward as it was the first time.

Unfortnately, I tried so many things in many different ways and don't think I can recreate my steps exactly for you. But a combination of these things ended up working for me. First I started rebuilding mailboxes (Select a mail box then select Mailbox > Rebuild.) I started with my Sent folder and then others when that didn't seem to fix it. I did others as well but it didn't resolve the problem, though I suppose it couldn't have hurt.

I then noticed that when creating a new email, I had two SEPARATE dropdown boxes next to From: in my New Message window. Perhaps that should be the case for some people depending on how they have things set up but it didn't make sense to me. So, I just decided to delete all of my accounts (a MobileMe and a gmail account). Then I added the MobileMe account back and let it do a bunch of processing to sync things back up. I then made sure the TLS certificate was selected again (I believe it was set back to None). I threw a restart or two in there and viola. I'm sending mail again. And, I now only have one dropdown box next to From: in my New Message window and it has the correct choices in there (a mac.com, a me.com, and a gmail.com).

Give those things a try and let me know if it works for you.

Jim

Kerry M

Level 1

5 points

Aug 21, 2011 9:00 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Ernie, it's working this morning, and I've done nothing different! So you're right, it seems to come and go. Jim, thanks for the tip. I may delete accounts and reset them again, if it doesn't become more reliable soon, but that would require some care since I have a decade's worth of old mail archived in various mailboxes on my hard drive, and for professional reasons I don't want to lose them. I'm sure there's a way to export them before deleting the account and then to import them, but it will take some careful thought. Right now I'm hoping ATT figures it out - which shows how foolish I am!

JJHCG

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2011 11:17 AM in response to Jim Constant

I have had the same problem—I can receive but I Mail won't send consistently. I spoke to Apple Care twice. The first time I received a fix that worked immediately (or so it seemed) but the problem came back the next day. I called Apple Care again and we spend a lot of time together only to find out from his supervisor that this is a known problem and Apple is working on a fix. I was told to keep up to date on the Software Updates as a fix will be coming soon. At least I know that I'm not going to be able to fix it myself. I hope this helps.

Kerry M

Level 1

5 points

Sep 12, 2011 8:17 AM in response to JJHCG

Thanks very much!

Sep 30, 2011 11:59 AM in response to Kerry M

I had same problem you guys are describing...could receive but not send emails after Lion upgrade. I only experienced it at home versus at work (inconsistently on both on my macbook air and my desktop mac).

You may possibly be going down the wrong with with the AT&T and the Certificates.

For me the solution was when you compose an email there are two dropdown listboxes next to From: ...in the second one select smtp.me.com:yourusername Until Apple makes a change you might need to do that each time you send or reply to a message.

I think it has something to do with if you don't do that then port 25 might get used which can be blocked by a lot of ISPs.

Apple support helped me solve this problem and said it was a known issue they are working on.

Sep 30, 2011 12:16 PM in response to Blue John

I feel obigated to point out that this behavior was documented in both Mail in Snow Leopard, as well as Entourage. Most have thought it to be more of AT&T's problem, and in all cases it can come and go.

Ernie

Jim Constant Author

Level 1

141 points

Sep 30, 2011 1:35 PM in response to Blue John

Thanks, John. I think you may be right that it's really not the certificate causing the problem. The behavior is so erratic that when you're trying 27 different things to fix the problem eventually several of them seem like they could be the culprit.

Every so often I've had to delete my accounts and recreate them to get it working again. But next time I'll try selecting smtp.me.com:yourusername as you suggested first.

Glad to hear Apple is aware of the issue and working to fix it.

Jim

thegrip

Level 1

10 points

Oct 14, 2011 10:56 AM in response to Jim Constant

Hi Jim,

I have a MacBook Air with Lion and have had spotting sending with Mail with AT&T also. I saw that my TLS was none, so scrolled down and put in the MobileMe certificate. Now it works and I can send emails! Thanks for the help,

Mark

May 29, 2012 3:34 AM in response to Jim Constant

I always wondered why I had this spinning thing in my Outbox in Apple Mail. Found out NONE of my e-mails had ever sent from my new Mac. They should prompt you like Outlook does when you have unsent mail in your Outbox before closing. Thanks for the post!

Mail won't send after Lion upgrade and AT&T won't help