Do I need these SMTP account names?

Question

Roger Barre Author

Level 2

352 points

Do I need these SMTP account names?

I have two mail accounts: xxxxWORK@mac.com and xxxxHOME@mac.com.

When I open Mail Preferences/Accounts, those are the only two accounts listed.

But when I open Mail Connection Doctor (as I did today because mail wasn't working), I see the following:

xxxxWORK@mac.com - Account Type: iCloud IMAP - Connection and login to server succeeded

xxxxHOME@mac.com - Account Type: iCloud IMAP - Connection and login to server succeeded

smtp.mac.com (WORK) - Account Type: SMTP - Trying to log in to this SMTP account failed. Verify that the username and password are correct.

smtp.mac.com (HOME) - Account Type: SMTP - Trying to log in to this SMTP account failed. Verify that the username and password are correct.

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So here's my question: do I even need these two smtp.mac.com accounts? What would happen if I deleted them from the SMTP Server List?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Sep 29, 2014 5:36 PM

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Answer 1

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Oct 2, 2014 7:50 AM in response to Roger Barre

Hi Roger Barre,

For each email account there will usually be two email servers listed, one for incoming mail and one for outgoing mail. In the case of iCloud, IMAP is used for incoming and SMTP is used for outgoing, as listed in the following article:

iCloud: Mail server settings for email clients

If you are having issues sending email or connecting to the iCloud SMTP servers, you may find the following article helpful, in particular the portion under the heading If you can receive messages but not send messages:

iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Mail

Regards,

- Brenden

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Answer 2

Roger Barre Author

Level 2

352 points

Oct 2, 2014 8:01 AM in response to brenden dv

The odd thing is I have no problem sending mail at all through these two accounts. But still, in Mail Connection Doctor, the two IiCloud IMAP accounts have green lights next to them, and the two smtp.mac.com accounts have red lights next to them.

When I go into Mail Preferences:Accounts I see the outgoing mail server selected for each is iCloud, not SMTP.

Does this make sense?

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Oct 2, 2014 12:04 PM in response to Roger Barre

Try Mail/Preferences/Accounts/Account Information - elect the outgoing SMPT server you want to use and then check Use only this sever.

Troubleshooting sending and receiving email messages

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Answer 4

Roger Barre Author

Level 2

352 points

Oct 2, 2014 2:20 PM in response to Eric Root

It gets weirder.

I went into Preferences, and for each count chose the SMTP server and checked "Use only this server".

I closed Preferences and re-opened it: the SMTP server choice had reverted to the iCloud IMAP server. And it works fine. So I'm still able to send and receive, but Prefs keeps choosing iCloud IMAP as the outgoing servers. That's all fine ... my only question remains why when I open Mail Connection Doctor do I see a red dot next to the SMTP servers and a message saying trying to log in failed?

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Oct 3, 2014 7:23 AM in response to Roger Barre

It means the SMTP isn't connecting to the server. Is there anything in the Show Details option?

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