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

Top-ranking reply

Mrs_A_Jack

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Jan 3, 2019 7:17 PM

I just fixed this problem by deleting my aol account from apple devices. Logging into AOL and under account security settings turning on the setting to "allow apps that use less secure sign in", I was able to then add my aol account on my iPhone and MacBook. I am not sure if deleting the account or changing the password was necessary.

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248 replies

ChiroVette Author

Level 1

53 points

Mar 7, 2018 8:46 AM in response to Demo

Can't seem to get that far. I just retried it again, and when I enter all the email information, including the correct password (verified on my PC, on Safari's browser on my phone, as well as the actual AOL app available in the app store) I get the following message:

Cannot Get Mail

The user name or password for "imap.aol.com" is incorrect

What is odd is I can sort of force my iPhone to accept it anyway by hitting "next" again. I get the warning, "This account may not be able to send or receive emails. Are you sure you want to save?" But I can still click on "Save."

This gives me the AOL icon back into my "Accounts & Passwords" section of the settings.

But when I click on Account it shows my email address, name, and password. I tried going into Account > Outgoing Server Mail > smto.aol.com > "Primary Server" there. But it just shows the same information, and my password is greyed out, and cannot be edited. But I counted the characters and it is right. Under that, and also greyed out, is "Use SSL" which is set to on (green) and cannot be changed. And then under that, it says "Authentication" and to the right it says "Password" but that is greyed out so I cannot go into there.

Under that, it says "Server Port 465" and there is an option to "Delete Server," which I tried, but then I have to start all over again with the same results.

Dec 19, 2018 2:20 PM in response to ChiroVette

I had the same problem. New AOL email was not showing up on either my iPhone or iPad. I solved it like this:

Went to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201320#automatic , and followed the instructions to "Add an email account to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch". I did it on my iPhone, and as soon as I did that, it started working on both my iPhone and my iPad. That left 2 duplicate AOL accounts on my iPhone. I deleted one of them, and everything was back to normal.

Palmguy2

Level 1

4 points

Jan 2, 2019 11:30 AM in response to ChiroVette

I’m having the exact same problem, AOL email accounts stopped syncing to both my iPhone X and my iPad at the same time last night. I’ve been 6 hours. Ow doing all the same things and nothing works.

Jan 23, 2019 6:49 AM in response to Demo

I can’t reinstall my aol mail on to my iPhone 6 plus

manka05

Level 1

4 points

Feb 9, 2019 4:36 AM in response to Spoyledbrat923

How do I get to this security setting under my account? This was driving me crazy last night!

rdywenur

Level 1

8 points

Feb 28, 2019 10:03 AM in response to ChiroVette

I have same issues

Mar 14, 2019 6:52 PM in response to Msmmprice67

Thank you SO MUCH! I spent hours trying to figure out why my password was not working! This did the trick! You are terrific!

Mar 25, 2019 7:58 AM in response to ChiroVette

I have not received the message since I changed my aol password.

rdywenur

Level 1

8 points

Mar 26, 2019 7:14 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Since when. I have had an iPod Touch at least 10 yrs and iPad mini and recently new iPad and only recently started getting this issue about a month ago.

Apr 8, 2019 9:04 AM in response to ChiroVette

my mail server "imap.aol.com" is not responding. It says to verify that you have entered the correct account info in Mail settings.

What does that mean?

ausmride

Level 1

8 points

Jun 1, 2019 11:45 AM in response to ChiroVette

my imap setting for aol is not working

Jun 16, 2019 10:11 AM in response to ChiroVette

It worked for me just now

thanks

Jun 16, 2019 10:14 AM in response to Spoyledbrat923

It worked for me

Jul 25, 2018 12:39 PM in response to Caffsmum

Not all wrong, but remember this is a user-to-user technical support forum, not a way to contact Apple.

Let me try to summarize the ways to fix AOL problems (and they are AOL problems, not iPhone):

If you have 2 factor authentication (2FA) enabled on your AOL account you must generate an application-specific password to use your AOL email with the built-in Mail app. You do this in the security settings on your account on the AOL web site.
If you don't have 2FA enabled you must go to your AOL security settings on their web site and loosen restrictions temporarily on security to set up the account, or log in to AOL using the Safari web browser, then set up the email account while logged in.
Probably the easiest way, however, is to download the AOL mail app from the app store and use it instead of the built in mail app.

All of these have been described in more detail by other users in this thread.

Aug 7, 2018 1:40 PM in response to iphone35

Except you no longer have the security protection of 2 step verification. If you plan to continue this way you should have a very secure password, preferably 20 random characters that will be unguessable by anyone who knows you and unhackable when some website where you use it gets compromised.

There are 2 solutions where you can have your cake and eat it too.

Enable 2 step verification, then generate an application specific password to use with the Apple mail app for AOL
Download and use the AOL email app instead of Apple's mail app.

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AOL mail not working on iPhone