Mail shows my SMTP is "offline": How do I get my SMTP "online"?

I tried everything listed in this thread and could not get my mail to send. However, I decided to create a new account just to see if it would work. It was a different ID on the same mail server, so I figured if it worked I could compare settings. I created the new account and it sent mail just fine, and as soon as i tried the old account it also worked. I don't understand why this would make the old account work, but maybe it will help someone else out there.

Okay, fixed it on mine. In Mail.app:

1) Mail menu | Preferences.

2) Select problematic account in list on left.

3) Select "Edit SMTP Server List..." from Outgoing Mail Server drop-down.

4) Fix username by appending domain name
(append "@gmail.com" if standard account, or your own domain if apps user).

5) Re-enter password.

Save your preferences.

This fixed it for me too. The key is to re-enter the password otherwise it just will not work.

These are rather detailed instructions for what worked for me. I now can finally send securely, authenticated and reliably, in 10.10.3

Part 1: Clear out Apple Mail settings

1. Open Mail -> Preferences

2. Under "Accounts", go to the email account for which the SMTP connection can not be established.

3. Under "Advanced", un-check "Automatically detect and maintain account settings"

4. Under "Account Information", go to "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP), and choose "Edit SMTP Server List..."

5. Under the SMTP Server List, remove the SMTP servers that are not working, by clicking the minus sign.

6. Close the SMTP Server List by clicking "OK."

7. Verify the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) entry is set to "None".

8. Close Apple Mail

Part 2: Clear out Keychain settings

1. Open the app "Keychain Access"

2. Choose the "iCloud" Keychain in the left menubar

3. Click on "Kind" the list of entries by kind

4. Carefully go through the list of items of kind "Internet password." Go through the list one by one, and look for the ones that have "Where: smtp://..."

5. Remove internet password entries that are SMTP connections to the server you cannot connect to.

6. Do this slowly so you don't accidentally remove wrong entries.

7. Close Keychain Access

Part 3: Start with a clean slate

1. Restart the computer

2. Close down virus checking software

3. Close down any running apps for monitoring connections, such as Little Snitch and Hands Off

Part 4: Re-establish an SMTP connection

1. Open Apple Mail

2. Go to Apple Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts again

3. Click on the account for which SMTP is not functioning

4. Under "Account Information", go to "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP), and choose "Edit SMTP Server List..."

5. Create a new SMTP server by clicking the plus sign.

6. Under "Advanced" un-check "Automatically detect and maintain account settings.

7. Type in the SMTP information that you know should work.

8. Press "OK"

9. Verify "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" has selected the correct server.

Part 5: Keychain entry

1. A pop-up window pops up, asking you to trust a certificate.

2. Carefully note down the name of the certificate. In my case, the certificate was issued by Comodo

3. You must trust this certificate.

4. Open Keychain Access

5. Find the new certificate under the "Certificates" menu.

6. Click on the certificate

7. In the certificate, click on the "Trust" triangle to open the trust section.

8. Set the following three entries to "Always Trust": "Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)", "Secure Mail (S/MIME)", and "X.509 Basic Policy". Leave the other entries at "no value specified"

9. Close the certificate window

10. Close the Keychain Access app

Part 6: Check if it works in Apple Mail

1. Open Apple Mail

2. Open Window -> Connection Doctor

3. Mine finally showed "Connection and login to server succeeded." Hurray.

Key points:

* Make sure mail settings are not synchronized

* Don't run Little Snitch or Hands Off while you set this up

* Use both Apple Mail and Keychain Access app while setting this up

somebody messed with it, I am 100% sure about port settings and the uncheck of automatically detect account settings. Ports changed in 2 out of 3 mail boxes as well as the "uncheck". It is tiresome to have to rebuild your mailboxes every other month.

This worked for me without restarting the computer. I quit Keychain then Mail. When I reopened Mail I heard the swoosh of all the things in my Outbox sending.

One thing that was confusing was that when I opened Keychain Access I did not have the option of "iCloud" in the left hand menu bar so I simply went to Passwords and deleted all of the ones for comcast, which was the account giving me trouble. Seems to be working fine. THANK YOU!!!!

I added the 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 DNS servers to Accounts.

Then I deleted my gmail address that kept going Offline. When I chose "gmail" in the outgoing server pull-down menu, it became online.

BUT then when I shut down Mail, in order to reopen it because of ONE new gmail address (I have two other gmail addresses and 2 Yahoo addresses in there) it proceeded to reload all the messages from ALL those addresses, a 2-hour process. There is no window asking you what to synch, it just rebuilds everything as though you never had MacMail.

Is this what was supposed to happen?

I am at a loss

Read and tried all the suggestions:

- gmail accounts complete deletion

- smtp changes

- Keychain deletions

- DNS 8.8.8.8 or 4

- login adding the @gmail.com after my name

- even played with the ports 25 vs 587

- cleared the cache

- rebooted 5 or 6 times

all of this just started after I updated to 10.10.4 earlier today

any wizards that know why so suddenly after the update and more importantly: how to fix it?

I am having the same problem, My work email is through GoDaddy (smtpout.secureserver.net) and after the last update my outgoing mail server always says "offline". I also have a gmail account and that is working fine. I have tried everything on this feed including deleting and re-installing the account - nothing is working for me. Right now I can reply to emails coming to my work address, but the replies go out over my gmail address which I don't want people to use. Very Frustrating.

Update: I found the answer for me on a different post and it has worked. Delete the gmail account.

"I also could not send outgoing via comcast smtp, though I could get incoming. I kept getting the message that the comcast outgoing server was offline. when I tried to "edit smtp server", I could type in my password,but it wouldn't stay there (it would be gone the next time I checked, and the server was still reading "offline").

This helped me. I had two email accounts on Mac Mail. One was my comcast account, the other was my gmail account. i simply deleted my gmail account (Mail>Preferences>Accounts, then click on Google IMAP account and delete it by clicking the "-" on the bottom of the accounts list. Confirm you want to delete it, close and re-open mail, then try to send. Once successful, you can re-add your google mail account." GaseousDoctor

If it's solely a Gmail problem:

• "Sign on" to Gmail.

• Go to this site, ""Less secure apps": https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps.

• Click on the circle for "Turn on".

• "Sign out" of Gmail account.

Finished.

I added the 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 DNS servers to Accounts.

I deleted the gmail address that kept going Offline. When I chose "gmail" in the outgoing server pull-down menu, it became online.

I shut down Mail, and upon reopening it proceeded to reload all the messages from ALL those addresses (although only one of my 5 addresses was deleted), a 2-hour process. There is no window asking you what to synch, it just rebuilds everything as though you never had MacMail.

It worked, my email address was online. Then 24 hours after, it went offline again.

Then a techie friend helped me put in the smtp information in the advanced tab. It worked for 48 hours, then went offline again.

Today I followed the link to Gmail to the "security/lesssecureapps" and I found the "Turn On" already selected.

Now what? An appointment at the Apple Store tomorrow. This HAS to stop.

this worked! - I've been putting off trying to fix this as it didn't seem straightforward. I also did the checking that my mail preferences were set correctly, it it was definitely this fiddle in the 'new message' that did it. Thanks!

I just had the same kind of problem. I was prompted by my ISP (Comcast) to change my mail PW because of a security issue. I did and then entered the new PW in the basic Mail prefs for that account. Incoming mail worked fine, but outgoing didn't and was all diverted to the outbox.

Looking at Mail prefs, the outgoing server was listed as "SMTP at Comcast.net (offline)" The diagnosis was easy, clearly the password change had not been picked up in the outgoing setting, but how to change it? Lots of bashing around got me nowhere, even though I remembered from the good ol' days of 10.6.8 that there was a screen specifically for entering outgoing server settings.

I finally found this thread and the answer way back on in the first or second post:

1. on the MAIN settings page (not advanced) for the address in question, click and hold "outgoing mail server" and select "Edit SMTP server list"

2. In the scrolling list at the top, select the server that isn't responding

3.Click "Advanced" below

4. NOW you'll see the place to put in a new password

That works just fine.

Yet another example of Apple hiding something that used to be out in the open in the interests of "protecting" the innocent. Maybe in some future OS they'll give us a single option for "Pro" CP use that lets us access all this the old, easy way and avoid these endless snipe hunts (but I'm not holding my breath)

I am having the same problem and I've tried this and everything else I can think and nothing seems to work. I've entered and erased my account numerous times and even though Mail feet's the info automatically from my ISP. It still won't work. And the tech support for my ISP even set up an account using my info and password and it would work for them. But not on my computer. They were on the phone for over an hour trying to figure it out. They even logged into my computer to see for themselves that it goes offline all on it's own.

There was a printout that I had from a while back when I had this problem with my older mini. It said to turn of mail. Go to Home/Library/Preferences and delete (don't empty trash yet) that com.apple.mail.plist file. Restart Mail, setup your account and wait for Mail to find your existing POP mail folders and download any IMAP mail again. I can't find that file in this mini's Preferences.

Anyone? :-)

I've been struggling with this for a long time also... tried the above recommendation, and finally got it to work. Key is to make sure you have the right password. These days we use so many different passwords for so many different accounts it's hard to keep them straight sometimes.

Rich