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Level 1

53 points

AOL mail not working on iPhone

Okay weird problem. I have been using AOL for over 20 years and have had the same email address. I have others, but this is my main email, so changing it as my main email would be cumbersome.

Anyway, a few days ago, my iPhone stopped updating with AOL email messages. I could access messages that were on my phone from that point and before, but nothing current, as in the past few days. So I went through Apple's troubleshooting steps of deleting the AOL account from the Settings on my iPhone, reinstalled it, and lo and behold, my phone's settings keeps telling me I have either the wrong password or the wrong email address/Name.

I tried this several times to no avail.

So I went onto my browser to make sure I had all my details correct (name, email address, password) and verified I did. So now, scratching my head, I used Safari to access AOL's site directly through the browser on phone. It asked me for my email address and password, and it works fine! Okay, so then I downloaded the AOL app, went through basic setup, same email, same password, and it also works fine!

Weird!

At this point I just removed the "Mail" icon from the first page of my Home Screen and replaced it with the App I just downloaded. It works fine, as does Safari. So obviously there is something wrong with my phone's settings. I just did the latest iOS update to see if that would help, and it doesn't.

So at this point, while I have AOL mail on my phone, both with the newly downloaded App as well as with a Safari Browser window, I would LOVE to know why the stock "Mail" app no longer works, and why my phone's "Settings" keeps spitting back an error message even though the password and email address work everywhere else but there.

[Re-Titled by Host]

iPhone 6s Plus, null

Posted on Mar 7, 2018 8:04 AM

Best reply

Spoyledbrat923

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Apr 20, 2018 5:52 PM

Ok after dealing with this for 7 weeks it finally dawned on me. When u go into settings for ur AOL account under account security there is a 2 step log in process. Click manage. Make sure it’s turned on. Then under Connect Apps click manage. Click the down arrow for create a new application and choose IOS mail and the device is whatever device u r using (ie: iPhone, iPad etc). Click create. It will give u a password. Copy the password. Then go into create an aol account through the iPhone mail app and use the copied password. Hope this helps.

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248 replies

ChiroVette Author

Level 1

53 points

Mar 23, 2018 8:16 AM in response to Nugrl

Nugrl, I ended up just bailing on it. The truth is, in looking back over the last 15 months I have owned this phone, the AOL email has never really worked right. By the way, the same for my iPad, which is waaaay older, and I bought it back in like 2014. lol

Anyway, the problem I have always had, even before this issue, is that the communication between the AOL app and my AOL on the PC, using either Explorer or Firefox, has been that mail I deleted or read on the PC, for some reason passing understanding, would forever show up on the email/AOL on my iPhone and iPad. This has always been the case.

Anyway, I decided that the convenience of having one app on my home screen to administer all my emails, was simply not even close to being worth this insanity. So I deleted the "Mail" app off my Home Screen and replaced it with the actual AOL app I downloaded from the App Store, and that works perfectly!

Oh and as an added benefit, the communication between my phone and PC is perfect. When I delete an email on the PC, it goes to my Deleted folder on both the PC and the iPhone, and when I read an email, it goes to my "Old Mail" folder, both of which are supposed to happen but never did with Apple's proprietary "Mail" app.

Now if I need to see my Yahoo mail on my phone I just click on that; if I need to see my gmail; I click on that, and so on.

You might consider trying the same thing and just being done with this toxic-waste "Mail" app.

Mar 27, 2018 6:26 AM in response to ChiroVette

Work around:

Delete your AOL email account across all devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac).

Using Safari or Firefox, change your AOL password.

Do a hard reset on your iPhone/iPad. Simply restarting my MacPro worked, too.

After all reboot, add your AOL email accounts with the new password.

I was not able to send or reply to email prior to this fix. It has been working for me for the last 4 days.

AOL is aware of the problem and blames it on the "merger" with Verizon and Yahoo. However, they say they do not have a solution or a time frame when it will be fixed. For now, the above solves the issue.

Nugrl

Level 1

12 points

Mar 27, 2018 1:09 PM in response to Emilie in Key Largo

I did try deleting my AOL account from my Apple devices but I don't have anything AOL installed on my PC. I then changed my password and then tried add my AOL account back onto my iPhone and iPad and it was still a no go for me. Very frustrating! I'm glad you were able to get it working again though!

fmgrlz

Level 1

4 points

Apr 24, 2018 4:21 PM in response to ChiroVette

Yes! I have this same problem!

I tried everything you mentioned, plus the most recent 2 suggestions to either turn on or off AOL's 2-step authentication. Still not working.

Anyone else have a solution? Thx!

Apr 28, 2018 6:21 PM in response to Emilie in Key Largo

This is correct. All of these companies that trade services and email users are getting everything all messed up. They have to give Apple the correct server settings to build into the iPhone which Apple does, but then those companies have to make it work properly. They don’t, and that’s how these things get broken.

May 2, 2018 11:48 AM in response to Spoyledbrat923

Thank you! This fixed my issue and It's working again. Tried calling AOL support and they didn't know anything. What's weird with my email is that it looked like it got hacked or something because it popped up for me to enter in my password on my two phones. I logged in online fine and then changed my password and turned on 2 factor authentication and didn't think anything of the App Password link. Tried that after a couple days of frustration and it's now working. Glad I found this link!

May 3, 2018 6:03 AM in response to Emilie in Key Largo

I’m having the same issue also my emails been working on this iPhone for the last three years and all of a sudden it just stopped yesterday no incoming No outgoing.

I’m going to give this a try hopefully it works. Will update

May 3, 2018 11:33 AM in response to ChiroVette

Go to login.aol.com and use your email address and Password to login.

Towards the bottom of the page, turn off “2nd verification” iPhone has no way if doing that with current mail program.

Mine works perfectly and all my notes came back too.

dctm

Level 1

4 points

May 4, 2018 12:22 PM in response to ChiroVette

I had issues sending. all the support pages kept advising me to check outgoing server. Which I kept doing. The real issue was the port on the server. I went to Apple logged in got my out going port for smtp.aol.com which was different than the port on my phone. So I deleted that server and again entered the same server but with a new port and now my mail is sending again.

May 5, 2018 7:46 PM in response to ChiroVette

Are you / were you using a VPN? I received the same error "incorrect password" from the native iOS mail app even though the password was correct.

When I switched off my VPN, it worked fine. If I had to guess, the mail server is refusing the connection from the VPN site, and iOS reports it as incorrect password.

May 6, 2018 5:25 AM in response to dctm

I went to Apple yesterday, the guy removed my AOL Mail and got all the info off of AOL tech support online to add it back on .. still nothing! he tried it a few times .. even tried on a different phone with no avail.

sooo frustrated .. I use this for business and am so frustrated that I cant send/receive anything on my phone or iPad

dctm

Level 1

4 points

May 6, 2018 8:40 AM in response to Annieclar

I had the same problem. After 2 days of self diagnosis I realized Aol has different passwords for your email account on your mobile phone. You have to get that from your aol mail under accounts on a pc or laptop. You need a mobile app aol password to enter in your phone when you set it up. Then you should go to Apple log into your icloud account and look up your server info. Should be smtp.aol.com. But what I discovered was under that server the Port listed in my iphone was not the same as the one listed on my icloud. So I changed it

May 9, 2018 7:48 AM in response to M.lu2008

When I go through this process, I don’t have an option for adding app in my aol account security!

Argh! This is so frustrating. Was working fine yesterday and not today. Same problem as everyone else...

jillny

Level 1

4 points

May 11, 2018 4:59 PM in response to ChiroVette

i had the exact same problem this week- i went to the apple store and they said there was a problem with aol and iPhones since new software update. they installed the Aol app onto my phone which seems to be the solution for the moment.

sldjohns

Level 1

4 points

May 11, 2018 5:52 PM in response to jillny

I actually logged into my AOL account on a computer and under security once you choose two factor authentication then you can choose to enable apps and I believe I selected mail on my iPhone to enable. Once I selected that it gave me the steps with a special code that would be used for the password to set up aol mail on my phone. Then I removed AOL mail from my phone turned it off and turned it back on again. Then when I set AOL Mail back up on my phone I used that special code as the password instead of the normal password.

AOL mail not working on iPhone