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AOL suddenly not receiving email

I have an iPhone 7+ and since yesterday am unable to receive aol email through the mail app on my iPhone. I have 4 other email accounts that are working fine, plus I can send email from aol. When I try to send, it give an error message that the imap.aol.com server is not responding. I spent over two hours on the phone with both aol and Apple support with no resolution. Any suggestions? I tried deleting the account several times already, plus I have checked that the server port is correct, which it is. My username and password are correct as I can send email from aol. Plus, I can login successfully using safari. Any ideas? Thank you!

Posted on Mar 3, 2018 12:00 PM

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Posted on Mar 3, 2018 3:50 PM

Okay, so if anyone has the same problem I had as described in my previous post (email not able to receive mail, can send mail in iPhone mail app) and all the usual tricks don’t work (delete mail account, re-add, change server port number, etc), here’s what I did:


1. Delete mail account

2. Reset your password using your internet browser, either on your iPhone or desktop

3. Do a hard reset on your iPhone- for iPhone 7+, hold down the power button and the down volume button until the phone shuts off, wait 10-15 seconds at least

4. Turn on iPhone

5. Try re-adding your email account


Those 5 simple steps are what worked. As I said, I spent over 2 hours on the phone with aol and Apple and none of their tricks worked. Any time I tried to receive mail (by swiping down on the screen) I would get an error message that said, “the imap.aol.com” server is not responding”. Plus, when I would try to re-add my account, it would tell me that my username or password were incorrect, even though I could log in successfully using my safari browser and was able to get my emails that way. And again, I was able to add my account and send email, I just wasn’t receiving any in the iPhone mail app. I have 4 other email accounts (yahoo and google mail) and those were working fine.


I hope this helps someone out there at some point!

35 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 3, 2018 3:50 PM in response to MozeyO

Okay, so if anyone has the same problem I had as described in my previous post (email not able to receive mail, can send mail in iPhone mail app) and all the usual tricks don’t work (delete mail account, re-add, change server port number, etc), here’s what I did:


1. Delete mail account

2. Reset your password using your internet browser, either on your iPhone or desktop

3. Do a hard reset on your iPhone- for iPhone 7+, hold down the power button and the down volume button until the phone shuts off, wait 10-15 seconds at least

4. Turn on iPhone

5. Try re-adding your email account


Those 5 simple steps are what worked. As I said, I spent over 2 hours on the phone with aol and Apple and none of their tricks worked. Any time I tried to receive mail (by swiping down on the screen) I would get an error message that said, “the imap.aol.com” server is not responding”. Plus, when I would try to re-add my account, it would tell me that my username or password were incorrect, even though I could log in successfully using my safari browser and was able to get my emails that way. And again, I was able to add my account and send email, I just wasn’t receiving any in the iPhone mail app. I have 4 other email accounts (yahoo and google mail) and those were working fine.


I hope this helps someone out there at some point!

Jul 19, 2018 9:49 AM in response to MozeyO

Hi MozeyO,


I am far from "tech-y" so please bear with me here. I have had the same AOL error messages on my Iphone 7 for days, tried everything and nothing worked. I ended up going into my AOL account from my computer and fixing it this way:


Sign onto your AOL account through your computer.

choose your Name at the top right to get into your Account

"Account Security", scroll to bottom

"Manage APP Passwords"

"Iphone Mail"

Select your APP from the Dropdown list

click "Generate" in the blue box, a code will pop up, (write it down).

User uploaded file

I then went into my Iphone and deleted the AOL mail from the phone so I could get a fresh start. Setup AOL again... Settings, Accounts & Passwords, Add account, choose AOL, here's the trick... when you go to setup the AOL account instead of using your regular AOL password, Use the Password that was Generated on your computer (the one you wrote down). Now you should be good to go!

Hope this helps!

Mar 24, 2018 8:12 AM in response to MozeyO

Thank you so much! I have not had the ability to send email for the past 3 days. This is on a MacPro (using Mail), iPhone X (using mail app), iPad Mini 4 (using mail app). After 2 calls to AOL and being told the problem is "known" with Apple users and is the result of AOL, Yahoo and Verizon forming one company under Oath Media. They said there is not a known fix - yet. I called Apple and was told the same thing.


I had deleted AOL and the re-added the account across all devices, only having the problem continue.


Your solution solved my problem on my iPhone X and my iPad mini 4.

Apr 10, 2018 10:18 AM in response to MozeyO

I have had this issue on my iPhone, Mac and MacBook intermittently over the past year. Some days all I have to do is keep re-entering my password and it suddenly works. As of yesterday all was fine - suddenly today it all no longer works. I am so scared of AOL and Apple's incompatibility that I am trying to migrate everything out of it but as we all know, that can be a real pain!


I will be glad to add the step of a hard reset on all devices (the only thing I had not been doing) but it's just nice to know that I'm not crazy - it's a known bug.

May 9, 2018 4:13 AM in response to MozeyO

Just got a new iPhone 8. Having same problem. Can’t receive or send mail. Same imap.aol.com problem. When I deleted aol and try to reinstall it tells me there’s a problem. I will try to follow steps but how do I change password. And which password am I suppose to change. I can’t keep up with all the passcodes thanks in adva

Jun 22, 2018 9:27 PM in response to MozeyO

Hi, Yes it’s me 2 having these same problems, phone and tech support, apple, aol, Verizon, countless hours trying to figure this problem out. Reaching out to the apple communit. Trying everything, the Verizon guy said, just down load the aol app. Why should I do that, did not have any problems b4 I changed my password.

i tried yr fix in the previous post, as it was a fix for many, unfortunately not for me. Same error message comes up, imap password incorrect & would not be able to retrieve my mail. This is SO Frustrating I could Scream,,,,,,

Aug 1, 2018 5:32 AM in response to MozeyO

probably way to late to join this but I had same problem and then worked out it was due to the 2 factor password system I'd set up. So try logging on through a browser and trigger a password (for iPhone) in the security settings then enter that instead of your normal AOL PW. This avoids doing a hard reset which is not good for the phone

Aug 19, 2018 6:28 AM in response to Guy016

I have tried all of the above suggestions and nothing. I to thought it is a problem with the 2 factor password system. Only one of my AOL account is effected. The other two are fine, just the primary. When you say log on through your browser and trigger a password, do you mean through Itunes. Sorry I am not the smartest on this.

Aug 23, 2018 11:54 AM in response to lisafromarlingt

I did this:


Step 1


- logged in to AOL using my desktop browser

- clicked on my name and then 'account security'

- clicked manage app password and generated an iPhone password


Step 2


Then on my iPhone I went to:


- Settings, accounts & passwords, add account, then added aol details but where is says password put the password generated by step one above not your usual AOL password.


Hope it works.


Guy

Sep 13, 2018 4:12 PM in response to MozeyO

I had the same question. Log into your aol account thru safari and go to your security settings and set up your two step verification and right below it is Manage Ap Passwords. Chose the device your setting up and it will give you a password to use, use that password as your regular password on your iphone or ipad instead of your regular password and your should be golden. Good luck! PS I just did it and it works like a charm.

AOL suddenly not receiving email

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