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error using multiple email addresses in IMAP account

Thanks for reading - any help, advice or direction you can offer is very much appreciated!


Here is my situation: I use a single IMAP account with several email addresses. If it's important to know, they are all set up as aliases, so I can receive mail in one single account at all of the addresses and can send email from any of the addresses through the same SMTP account.


This behaves radically differently in Mail (iPhone and iPad) under iOS 6 than it did in iOS 5, and I need the behavior I had in iOS 5.


I am seeking help in figuring out how to make iOS 6 Mail behave the way iOS 5 Mail did.


Here's how I set it up in iOS 5: I used the primary email address (also my login for the IMAP/SMTP account) to set up the account on the iPad. This all worked. Once it was set up, I went back to settings and added the other email addresses as a comma-separated list in the "email" field after the primary one.


Then, when I went to compose a message (from mail, or from any other app), the default "from" address was the primary e-mail address (the first one listed), and it allowed me to tap on the "from" field and select a different one.


This changed in iOS 6, like this:


I set up the account the same way as above. With just the primary e-mail address it was fine. But when I added the other addresses and saved it, it seemed to choose one address at random from the list as primary (not the first one, not the last one, not the one first or last alphabetically, just one in particular - and the same one each time I tried this). Then when I compose mail, it defaults to that alternate email as the "from".


So:


I need to have it default to the primary email address as the "from," I need to have all the alternate emails available to me to choose from, and I need to have it all set up as one account. I have tried to set up a second account on the iPad with all the alternate email addresses, but since the IMAP and SMTP logins are the same, the iPad won't let me.


Any ideas, suggestions, direction, solutions, etc. are very much appreciated!


Details: iPad 2nd gen. WiFi+3G, iOS 6

iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iOS 5.1, iOS 6

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 1:59 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Sep 24, 2012 7:21 AM

I think this is a bug, and I've reported it as such. More reports usually equals faster service: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html


For now, I've come up with the following work-around:


1. Leave your multi-account as-is set up on your iPhone, but remove your preferred default e-mail address from the list

2. Set up a new e-mail account with IMAP access (i.e. Gmail or whatever)

3. Create a new IMAP e-mail account on your iPhone/iPad with the details of this new account for the IMAP (receive) settings, but with your original e-mail account's SMTP (send) settings. Also, set the "Email" field in the account setup to be your preferred default e-mail address.

4. Set this new mail account as the default in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars


Now, when you create a new message, you should see that your default "from" address is correct - since it is the only choice for the new mail account you set up in iOS. As long as the SMTP settings are correct, it doesn't matter that your IMAP settings don't match.


You should still be able to select any other "from" address as well, which will use your original multi-account settings, which are also correct.


All of your received mail will come in through your original multi-account inbox, and your new account's inbox will likely stay empty.


It seems like I'm forgetting a step here, but this should give you the right idea for a workaround if it isn't exactly right. Feel free to add corrections if you find them.

46 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Sep 24, 2012 7:21 AM in response to JeffW

I think this is a bug, and I've reported it as such. More reports usually equals faster service: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html


For now, I've come up with the following work-around:


1. Leave your multi-account as-is set up on your iPhone, but remove your preferred default e-mail address from the list

2. Set up a new e-mail account with IMAP access (i.e. Gmail or whatever)

3. Create a new IMAP e-mail account on your iPhone/iPad with the details of this new account for the IMAP (receive) settings, but with your original e-mail account's SMTP (send) settings. Also, set the "Email" field in the account setup to be your preferred default e-mail address.

4. Set this new mail account as the default in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars


Now, when you create a new message, you should see that your default "from" address is correct - since it is the only choice for the new mail account you set up in iOS. As long as the SMTP settings are correct, it doesn't matter that your IMAP settings don't match.


You should still be able to select any other "from" address as well, which will use your original multi-account settings, which are also correct.


All of your received mail will come in through your original multi-account inbox, and your new account's inbox will likely stay empty.


It seems like I'm forgetting a step here, but this should give you the right idea for a workaround if it isn't exactly right. Feel free to add corrections if you find them.

Sep 24, 2012 12:03 PM in response to Brian Pratt

Brian, yes, this workaround would normally work, but might not work in all cases (like mine) due to some SMTP restrictions on the server - I'll try.


I also got to level 3 support with Apple (wasted 2+ hours on this...), and they were unable to resolve it. So I followed their requirements for reproducing it, and did so successfully. I sent this back to the rep and asked that he reproduce it and report it as a bug.


I also included the process in the form on the link you offered and sent the bug report that way.


Keeping my fingers crossed that this helps!


Thanks for your help and suggestions!

Sep 28, 2012 7:27 AM in response to Matt-u

Matt:


One alternative that's a bit easier is to use Sparrow, which is a gmail-style email client for iOS. I am trying it and I like it. It handles this particular issue really well.


The downside, of course, is that it cannot be the default mail client when you email something from another app.


Hoping Apple will fix this...


hope it helps.


Jeff

Sep 30, 2012 4:59 PM in response to JeffW

Hi,


I am having the same issues (iPad and iPhone) and just reported it via the link Brian provided. On iOS 6, my multiple eMail addresses for GMail seem to be picked alphabetically, not in order of preference as defined by the comma separated list. I had no problems on iOS 5.x - it would pick the preferred one as default.


Cheers,

Marco

Oct 3, 2012 12:47 PM in response to JeffW

I spent time with Apple's support on this, too, for both iPad and iPhone. The tech didn't seem to believe me and had a difficult time following what was the problem. He finally said to try working around it by creating a second account for that host and we ended the call. When I tried the second account, the Apple system complained I already had an account with that sign-in info and wouldn't let me proceed.


So I started to play with the positioning and number of email aliases in the account. Of course the aggravating thing in that process is the fact that the comma key is not available when you're in the email-address field---what's with that?! Anyway, what I found out is the number of email addresses in the field changes which address becomes the default, and the it isn't affected by alphabetic order. To me it doesn't have a lot of logic (other than a possible tie in to multiples of 5), but here's what I found worked on my iPad:


10 email addresses makes the default address the last one in the line.

7-9 email addresses makes the default address the 4th one.

5-6 email addresses makes the default address the 5th one.

1-4 email addresses makes the default address the 1st one. (On the iPhone this only worked on 1-3)


I ended up using the 6 email address on both iPhone and iPad and it now chooses the 5th one as my default. Now if I didn't have to copy and paste to create a comma, things would be back to fairly normal.

Oct 3, 2012 3:19 PM in response to KellyTheK

Kelly:


This is very helpful information that I will also pass along via email to the Apple engineer working on the case for me.


I had the same issues trying to get most of the level one and two Apple support folks to even understand what I was talking about. The level three guy finally got it, and was the one who asked me to reproduce and document it. As I noted earlier, when I did he said he sent it to development as a reported bug. We can only hope for a quick resolution.


And yes, I had three people suggest creating a second account for sending, but the iPad won't allow it.


Thanks for testing this further - this is likely useful information and actually provides a workaround (now I know where to list my desired default address to make it actually default!)

Oct 3, 2012 3:44 PM in response to JeffW

Hi, Jeff.


Glad it worked for you! Yeh, I got passed up the chain of support, too, but the second-level guy (it might have actually been third-level) was the least helpful. I finally asked him to please make sure both the email-address and the missing-comma issue was added to the bug list.


I used your description along with my work around to report the bug via Brian Pratt's link. Thanks for writing such a clear analysis so I didn't have to spend the time on it. 😀


I find the commonality in the multiples of five an interesting piece of the puzzle. Five addresses = fifth address is default, and ten addresses = tenth for default. If I had a stupid amount of time to waste, I'd see what happens with more than ten.

Oct 3, 2012 5:25 PM in response to Saphod

If I add some other e-mails after the ones that are already put in, nothing changes. If I then delete the one that was always picked before (alphabetically), it jumps to the next one in alphabetical order. It doesn't matter which position, it's whatever comes first in the alphabet.


No idea why there should be a difference between iPhone 4 and 5 if both are using iOS 6.


BTW: I found a blog post with the same issue here:

http://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/09/ios-6-from-field/

Oct 3, 2012 7:31 PM in response to Saphod

Actually in the email field to get a copy you do not have to copy and paste. You have to press the ".?123" key then press the "#+=" key and the comma will be at the top right corner.


I tried fixing this issue by moving the email order around but it's stuck one a particular email address that has been defaulted. It's bugging me. If anyone figures it out please post it.

error using multiple email addresses in IMAP account

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