mac mail and bt mail account

I have had exactly this problem over the last few weeks and it has also occurred with a friends wife.

I was successfuly using iPad, iPhone and MacBook Pro with BT internet and have for years, when all three devices started showing username or password is incorrect - ok?

since I had not changed the password I knew this was a system error.

calling bt more than once a lady in bt suppo spent an hour on the phone and eventually got it working again.

this lasted two days.

then it started again with username or password is incorrect- ok?

this time I could not get it corrected and reset all my important accounts to use my Apple Mac email address.

several days later I had a brainwave.

i used the Yahoo! Preset on the iPhone and iMac (never used before ever - always told to use “other”) and it worked!

Still can’t get it right on the MacBook Pro which is why I am looking here.

Well as long as all the server settings are correct then Apple Mail will work with any email account. It is just an email client like MS Outlook or Thunderbird. I use Apple Mail with various providers including Virgin Media without issue. It would be worth checking your account settings just in case BT have tweaked then since you last added them.

Mail > Preferences > Accounts > your BT account

It shouldn't matter that you are now using BT Infinity as that is just the name of the router they provide.

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44917/~/what-are-the-settings-for -outgoing-and-incoming-bt-email-servers%…

IMAP

Incoming Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com

Port: 993 (this should be automatically populated if you tick the SSL Encryption)

SSL Encryption: Enabled (but not STARTTLS)

Username: your email address including the @btinternet.com or @btopenworld.com part

Password: your btinternet password

Root folder/path:

Folder separator: . (full stop)

Please do NOT enable "secure password authentication" (SPA). It's not needed when you use SSL encryption and won't work.

If your IMAP client supports it, we recommend you also set up the following folders:

• Trash
• Sent Items
• Drafts

SMTP

Outgoing Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com

Port: 465 (this may not be automatically populated on selection of SSL, so you'll need to check this)

SSL Encryption: Enabled (but not STARTTLS)

Authentication: PLAIN

Username: your email address including the @btinternet.com or @btopenworld.com part

Password: your btinternet password

Is this as far as you are getting?

Normally when adding an account you enter the basic info first:

after clicking Sign In, Mail will try and retrieve the rest of the data automatically (although for me this fails for often then not), then if it does fail in El Cap it will automatically change to manual configuration...

and here you need to manually enter your username, incoming/outgoing server.

That all seems fine, but it looks like this may be issue with the outgoing server settings.

Are you having probs getting or sending emails, or both?

You may need to do a manual setup. Delete the account, then add it back. After filling in the 1st screen, hold down the option/alt key while clicking Continue. Fill in the necessary information, then click continue until all screens are filled in.

Hello bigbad.

For what it's worth I have had problems with Mac Mail for months. My Web host says that Mac mail seems to have a bug which changes the port numbers sporadically. It seems that the password disappears similarly (though not at the same time) and has to be re-entered. After much discussion I finally agreed to download Mozilla Thunderbird and my web host talked me through the installation.

Result; all my problems have disappeared.

So instead of wrestling with Mac Mail, try Thunderbird. I cannot believe that BT cannot link with this. It might also be worth reviewing your email supplier for BT are far more expensive than most and the service (from an earlier experience) is often poor,

I have just been getting the same problem in the last week with the password not being accepted. I have noticed that the password request is coming up only in relation to contacts and calendar synching. I have therefore deleted the contacts and calendar links on my mac, but kept the BT Yahoo mail account and the problem has stopped and I can use my mail for both sending and receiving without password prompts. It does mean I have had to sacrifice the calendar and contacts synching but I don't use mine for that anyway so it's no big deal. I hope this helps.