Cannot send mail after upgrading to Lion

Hi,

Yes I played with TLS Certificate with out any effect.

As an aside I have also telneted into smtp.gmail.com ports 25 and 587 without error as per gmail's trouble shooting guide.

I think i'll try the recommendation from Tony T1 next.

Yes, I tried creating a new user account while I was on the phone with Apple Care. It worked, but slowly. Then, as advised by the tech I was talking to, I went back to Mail and deleted my MobileMe mail account, quite Mail, restarted, and then created a new Mail account. I got a few messages out before the problem reappeared.

I appreciate all the suggestions people are offering!

Just now I tried a solution suggested by a contributor to a parallel thread on the same topic. He suggested setting the SMTP option to "none" and leaving "Use only this server" unchecked. With that setting I was able to send out my first message in several days. Hope it sticks. Wonder if this works for others here.

trying that now !

my experience has been just like when i first installed Lion...it seems to work for a day or about 10 emails, then it freezes up again ..i fiddle randomly with settings, especially the TLS certificate then it works for a day etc etc

This is how you fix sending in Mail.app using MobileMe account on Lion without worrying about ports and authentication and all that other stuff that is a pain to modify and confuses people that aren't familiar with the terminology:

1. Open Mail.app, go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts, select any MobileMe IMAP account, and click the minus at bottom of column to delete it.

2. Quit Mail.app. To make sure it is actually quit, go to  > Force Quit. Force Quit Mail.app.

3. Go to  > System preferences > Mail,Contacts,Calendars. Make sure your MobileMe account is on left side, select it, then check mark Mail & Notes on right side. Wait for it to stop spinning.

4. Re-open Mail.app, and send yourself an email. Your MobileMe mailbox will be repopulating, so it may take longer for the initial sending test to process. 😮

BE PATIENT FOR initial SENDING TEST ONCE YOU RE-OPEN Mail.app. The account has to redownload messages from server, so it may take a bit longer than average.

If this RESOLVED issue, please Like.

⚠ If this doesn't work, then it may mean you didn't fully quit Mail.app after doing the first step to delete the MobileMe IMAP account in Mail.app Accounts Preferences. Clicking the red dot is not the same as fully quitting application. If you didn't actually quit Mail.app before re-adding by checking "Mail & Notes," you'll probably still get the same error.

That is why I included steps to "Force Quit" after deleting account instead of advising to go to Mail > Quit Mail.

➕ I am assuming same issue may occur for the other options contained in the new Mail,Contacts,Calendars System Preferences in Lion such as Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo, and Aol. It appears an old manual configuration causes conflict with attempted configuration from check marking "Mail & Notes" for the account in  > System Preferences > Mail,Contacts,Calendars. This prevents proper SMTP server settings from saving.

It would also be nice for someone to reply if they are receiving a SMTP error after updating to Lion for non-MobileMe accounts and if this same process resolves for other accounts.

Awesome. Would be very nice to know if this is a resolution for non-MobileMe smtp errors in Lion because I certainly understand how the inability to send from Mail.app can be very inconvenient.

Hopefully this resolves the problem you're experiencing, but regardless, please keep us updated.

Also, to verify, who is the provider of the email address in question?

Tony T1

I don't have a "Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist " to delete.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

So far, this (jeffery's solution) has worked to resolve the issue I was having with the Mail app. I have no other accounts to test.

I wasn't having problems until this last week or two. Definitely something more recent than my upgrade to Lion.

Stevens solution is working for me...for 1 day so far..fingers crossed !

I paste his words below..

"Just now I tried a solution suggested by a contributor to a parallel thread on the same topic. He suggested setting the SMTP option to "none" and leaving "Use only this server" unchecked. With that setting I was able to send out my first message in several days. Hope it sticks. Wonder if this works for others here."

MobileMe IMAP email should be sent with SSL configured and Password Authentication. When you do a new configuration of the account by selecting "Mail & Notes" for MobileMe in  > System Preferences > "Mail,Contacts,Calendars," it automatically configures a new smtp.me.com server in the Outgoing Server List in Mail.app. If after doing this process it prompts you to select an outgoing server in Mail.app, you should select "MobileMe (MobileMe)" and it should be specified to always use this server. The smtp.me.com server should have SSL enabled and Authentication: Password.

Perhaps Stevens method prevents the conflict and then allows the correct settings to save.

Who is the provider of the accounts and can you please provide the complete text of error? Also who is your phone service provider ( or ISP? ) that is the provider of the other POP accounts?

You can edit the 'user' parts in the information, for example the parts for 'user' in 'user'@'domain.com' and after the smtp.'domain'.com:'user'

Okay.

You provided SMTP server settings for your MobileMe account earlier. What are the SMTP server settings that you are using for your Telmex account config?

Also, what is the complete error you are receiving when attempting to send using the Telmex account? There should be additional details for why the message is "Unable to send message with server 'smtp.domain.com'"

Did you delete the account and any telmex SMTP servers, then Force Quit Mail.app, then re-add the POP account via Mail,Contacts,Calendars ( with Mail closed )?

If you did attempt that, I would repeat the process, and after you reopen Mail.app you may need to go in and manually edit the Telmex smtp server to use Custom Port 587.