Can't send e-mail, but can receive

Hi Barb

I'm from New Zealand and having a similar problem with my Mac email. It has been working perfectly up until a week ago and now I can receive emails but can't send them most of the time. On the odd occasion it will work but then it stops again. I am using a macbook pro with Mac OS X 10.6.8. In Mail Connection Doctor I get a red dot under status for SMTP and details say: Trying to log in to this SMTP account failed. Verify that username and password is correct. I contacted my ISP and everything is working on there end so I'm presuming it is a problem with Mac mail.

At this stage I am using Thunderbird for my email and it is sending and receiving emails perfectly which is another reason I think it is a Mac mail problem. I have also tried sending emails using the same account from my iphone and 2 other computers and they are all working?? It's got me baffled.

Greetings all!

Same issues Barbara is having...but with multiple ESP's, so I have to believe it's something other than an ESP issue. Firewall..check. Port scan to ensure mail ports arent blocked...check. Emailed from web apps to ensure everything still worked...check. Surrounded my iMac with candy, flowers, candles and incence....check (okay, not really😉). If it's not an Applie issue, this is one heck of a coincidence.

I actually found my GMail accounts to be more reliable with Apple Mail, until a few days ago. Seems to have coincided with a recent IOS upgrade earlier this week, but cannot say for sure.

Help us Obi-Wan....Uh, I mean Apple People.....you're our only hope.

P.S. Thanks all for posting this up. I've been trying to figure this out for two days (new to Mac). Thanks to you guys, I can save what little hair I have not pulled out.

Copy of my reply to your other (duplicate) thread:

I understand you being upset, but doubleposting is not at all helpful; in fact, it makes matters very confusing.

Having someone else make a phone call to support for you is not realistic; how would they be able to discuss your machine?

Since you believe it is an Apple problem (reading your threads, I am of a different opinion and attribute it to your ISP), my suggestion is that you book an appointment at your nearest Genius Bar. That service is free of charge.

Hello Everyone,

I have found a universal fix for this problem.

Many people have worked out that some issues simillar to this problem you guys are exhibiting is actually due to their computer. In my case Mac Mail did not wish to communicate with my Bigpond (Australia's AT&T) SMTP Server. So instead i signed up with SMTP2GO and created a free account. This is a SMPT server service that allows you to send email no matter who your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is. The downside because it is free I can only send up to 20 emails a day but for what I am doing at home this is perfect as I use my School email mostly. Once you create the account set this up in place of your SMTP server settings in Mac Mail. You do have to use a custom port (2525) and authentication but this is pretty easy under the advance collum.

Directions:

Open Mail> Click Mail at top Left Corner> Click Prefrences > Click On your account > Next to "Outgoing Mail Server" Click the down button then click "Edit SMTP Server List" > Click on the Plus Sign to add Server details > Click on advance to select "Custom Port" ? Authentication "password" put in your details. > Click "OK" > Delete any other server entries as well. > Close and SAVE.

Any questions please ask

Here is a link to the free SMTP service:

http://www.smtp2go.com

The Account is free.

Have a Nice Day Kind Regards,

Sam - From Australia

Wanted to let you guys know that I changed my outgoing gmail from POP and it's working again. Not optimal, but it works. Maybe it'll work for you. Be careful though, not sure of security implications associated with the change. I don't use my gmail for anything important, so it's not a problem for me.

I still side with Barbara in that AT&T and GMail stopped working with the latest IOS update, and it worked just fine before that. No other updates to my machine.... So either it's an amazing coincidence, or something to do with the latest update.

High hopes for my transition from PC to Mac are begining to fade a bit.... 😟

P.S. My iCloud email still works. 😮

If you want your issue fixed, I wouldn't wait but instead, address it with AT&T. I don't have AT&T and have no problems with Mail receiving or sending. If it was an Apple issue, there would be more reports than about half a dozen out of thousands. It depends on your settings in Mail and AT&T's servers and their settings - unless you are exclusively using a me.com account (which goes through Apple's servers), Apple has nothing to do with your ISP (which appears to be AT&T). Using different servers which seem to work proves my point that it is an AT&T problem. Or, if you want Apple to be aware of it, book an appointment at your nearest Genius Bar, take your machine, and explain your predicament.

It really isn't my logic (and unless I am totally wrong/ignorant about this, this is how it works):

You sign on to the internet using your modem which connects to the interet via your ISP (in this case AT&T).

Once on the internet, obviously you can access whatever you want: Yahoo Mail, or any other site.

Using Yahoo Mail from a web browser means you are using Yahoo's mail servers. They have nothing to do with your ISP's mail servers.

Sending Mail from your computer - not a web browser - will connect you to your ISP's (AT&T) mail servers.

And here are copies of:

the headers from an email I sent from my Yahoo email account via my web browser (not using Mail):

Received: from [71.222.39.137] by web120205.mail.ne1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:30:20 PDT

X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.8.123.450

xxxxxxxxxxx@webxxxxx.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>

xxxx@webmail-xxxx.sysops.aol.com>

Message-ID: xxxxx.xxxxxx@webxxxx.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>

(the "xxx" represent long strings of numbers/letters). As you can see the email was sent from Yahoo's mail server (to someone with an AOL email address). There is absolutely no mention of my ISP's mail servers (because they aren't involved at this point at all).

Now here is a header from an email I sent from my Mac Mail app:

X-Smtp-Server: smtp.centurylink.net:xxxxxx@xxxxenturylink.net

Message-Id: <xxxxx@xxxnturylink.net>

References: xxxxxx@xxxenturylink.net>

xxxxxx@xxnturylink.net>

As you see here, the mail server is centurylink, which is my ISP; so emails originating from my computer/Mail app will go through my ISP's mail servers.

If I am wrong, hopefully someone will chime in with the correct information.

FWIW, above "links" really aren't links, they do not actually work (no idea why it would show up as links except that it contains an '@').

Glad to hear it's working; if you want to figure out the mail servers, check your headers in any email you send out from your Mail app vs. any you send from your browser/Yahoo account to see what they say.....

This happens to me every couple of weeks or so - usually when tryng to send an email in a hurry. My latest solution - so easy it seems untrue - was to go to Mail/Preferences/Accounts/Account Information for the relevant AOL account, uncheck the 'Enable this account' box and then re-check it. I did this, and the email flew off - hurrah! Let'ssee what happens next time...