iPhone cannot verify server identity

Today whenever I enter my e-mail on iOS 10, iPhone 7 a message pops up with 'cannot verify server identity'...previosly this gave you the option to continue, details or cancel...now on iOS 10 the continue option has been dropped so I cannot simply click and get my e-mails...does anyone know how to fix? I have searched online with no joy as all are much older versions of iOS. or based on safari issues.

[Re-Titled by Host]

iPhone 7, iOS 10.0.3

Posted on Oct 19, 2016 1:33 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 21, 2017 12:23 AM

If you're able to receive but not send mail, I can confirm that this is all related to a bug in the SMTP server settings stored on the device. Someone else mentioned a version of this solution earlier, but here's a step-by-step guide to how I finally cleared it up after a day of dangerously high blood pressure:


If you have more than one mail account, skip to step 2.


  1. Only applicable if you have one mail account on your phone: Create a bogus mail account with fake settings. Just get it to be saved as a legit-looking account, and you should be OK.
  2. Delete the problematic account.
  3. In any other mail account, find where all your SMTP servers are listed (Account > SMTP).
  4. The one from the problematic account should still be there. Tap on it to get the details, and hit Delete Server.
  5. Make sure you don't have multiple listings for it. If you do, delete those, too.
  6. Re-add the account you deleted. You should finally get the full Cannot Verify Server Identity dialog with Continue, Details, and Cancel.
  7. Assuming you need to trust the certificate, hit Details. You should see the Trust option. Tap it!
  8. You may need to repeat step 7 to cover both incoming and outgoing servers.
  9. If you created a bogus account in step 1, be sure to delete it or Mail will get stuck on trying to get it to work.


This worked for me. I hope it works for you if you have the same problem I did.

126 replies

Jul 15, 2017 5:48 PM in response to geemiker

geemiker wrote:


I had the same issue. Switch off SSL on in and outgoing email. Go to your email account advanced settings and switch SSL off. Same for the outgoing server. Swimming ch SSL off and problem was solved for me

That's a very risky solution. It means that any time you are using a public Wi-Fi network everyone on that network can read all of your incoming and outgoing email with only a little bit of knowledge and effort. And can also capture your user IDs and passwords.

Aug 3, 2017 11:59 PM in response to GolfProAL

Hi,


My story short, maybe someone helps: all answers (up to this date) on this thread didn't work for me.

I've tried them all, multiple times.


I manage iPhones in my company, and I had several other iPhones with same email certificate and working without problems. I've changed to another iPhone and still didn't work. This issue is apple ID specific, I guess it has some bad left-overs from previous accounts.


What I did, and maybe you can, is to get another email account, with same credentials and that you know it works fine already on another iPhone. With that account, I got immediately this misfortunate "Trust" button


So, it looked like this:


- delete all email accounts, restart iPhone

- create another email account that you know it works on another iPhone with the same email certificate

- when verified, create your email account with "non-working" certificate

- It should be verified without problems, if not

- use outgoing mail server SMTP settings of previous working email for non-working (Primary off / Other SMTP settings on)


Cheers,

Aug 11, 2017 2:05 PM in response to spudson1

If you turned off SSL be certain that you do not connect to any public Wi-Fi spots (like Starbuck's). All of your email will be sent and received in the clear, along with your user ID and password. There are usually hackers hanging around public Wi-Fi spots to steal the identities of the unwary. It would be a much better idea to find out why you can't connect to the server using SSL.

Aug 14, 2017 8:07 AM in response to spudson1

To be clear, this is not an iPhone problem. The phone is reporting that the SSL certificate on the server is either expired or not the correct certificate for the domain name of the server. Microsoft voided a lot of certificates earlier this year, which required that any domain that uses Microsoft server technology had to update their certificates. Most did, but apparently some have not.

Aug 14, 2017 7:24 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Yes we understand this is an Exchange server certificate issue but the focus is on the fact the message that appears on the iPhone is missing the continue option. For me this is only an issue for new users as all existing users emails are still operational on their phones. If the certificate was voided other iPhone's would throw the "Cannot Verify Server Identity" message. I believe original issue was the iOS update no longer supports the feature to continue for an untrusted SSL such as a self signed certificates which will work.

Aug 15, 2017 4:44 AM in response to GolfProAL

BearBeaty thanks for the tip. I tried this on my business iPad and it finally worked (gave the option to trust). I guess the trick is to ensure when you delete and reinstall your account, that you have gone to the smtp side and wiped out all outgoing servers that referred to your domain. Once clean, when you reinstall it gives you the option to trust.


Many thanks!

Aug 15, 2017 6:57 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you for your responses, Lawrence. I contacted my web/email host and they had me change the outgoing mail port and mail server. Of interest, the original port (25) and server (mail.mydomain.com) still work on my MacBook, but not on my iPhone. When I asked support why this would have happened, the response was "Due to some technical error, it fails with the current settings"... thanks, that helps! Anyhow, I appreciate your assistance, and my outgoing mails seem to be outgoing once again!

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iPhone cannot verify server identity

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