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

Top-ranking reply

MozeyO Author

Level 1

24 points

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!

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35 replies

lore258

Level 1

4 points

Sep 26, 2018 8:36 AM in response to MozeyO

Question is why does this happen on an apple phone or iPad not on any other device

Tanya_76

Level 1

4 points

Nov 15, 2018 6:19 PM in response to MozeyO

I had this problem before. I managed to fix the situation but couldn't figure how I did it to fix on my iPad. I gave up. 🙂🙂

Thank you so much.

avisfl

Level 1

4 points

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.

Guy016

Level 1

8 points

Aug 19, 2018 1:54 PM in response to avisfl

Use another device to log into your AOL account, the one that’s not working, and generate a two factor security code which you can then enter on the device you are trying to fix. Let me know if it worked? Good luck

Higg275

Level 1

4 points

Nov 30, 2018 5:51 AM in response to MozeyO

I'd like to offer another solution to this problem, if the one above does not work for some. Like the person above, I was able to log into AOL to send/receive mail via a browser, but my iphone Mail and my MacMail stopped sending or receiving. When I would try to download messages it would say, "Unable to log into account"....(something about password begin wrong)....Even though it was correct. Everything was correct. I tried everything. What FINALLY worked is this: I logged into my AOL account via a web browser. I went to "account security". There, I found a slide-button that says "Allow apps that use less secure sign-in". I turned this ON. Suddenly, my MacMail and iPhone began to work! Oddly enough....it was as this exact moment that my WIFE's aol stopped working on her phone and on her computer. So bizarre. To try to fix it I did the same thing with her account. I logged in online via a web browser and went to account security. For good measure, I changed her password, just in case AOL was trying to force us to do this for security reasons. Then I looked at her "Account Security" options. Interestingly, her "Allow apps that use less secure sign-in" was already on. Hmmm....so I turned it off. Logged out. Logged back in. Turned it back on. Logged out. Then opened mail on her computer. I then changed the incoming and outgoing passwords in account preferences to match the new password. It didn't work. So, I closed the MailApp. Reopened it...It worked! Please try it if you are stuck.

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AOL suddenly not receiving email