This topic

email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 18:36:41 GMT

Why can't I get a BT premium email address (perfectly accessible over the web) to set up on a new MacBook pro? There is no option to manually set the settings once I have been quoted "unable to verify account name or password" my Gmail account set up easily.

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

stevebrass — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 18:47:32 GMT

So you have gone mail-preferences-add account-other provider?

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 11:19:49 GMT

Thanks for responding Steve - YES I Have.

What has happened is that I moved to a house with another broadband provider in situ, so didn't need BT broadband, but wanted to retain my BT email address, so I signed up for Premium.

Before that change-over I had some of the (not unknown) issues with sporadic inability to access BT mail via Macmail, which were usually solved by resetting the password for my account and even by deleting and re-adding the account in Macmail.

On this occasion, none of the above helps. In fact, I can't get any further in the add account set up than "unable to verify account name or password", and there doesn't seem to be a way to manually set the SMTP settings etc.

Is this an unpublished disadvantage of not having BT broadband any more?

Obviously I can access my account via the web but now lack the convenience (?) of the Macmail application..

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

stevebrass — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 11:26:23 GMT

I’m not aware of any specific premium mail issues.

Is it possible if you have changed the Mail password that the Mac is remembering an out of date one?

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 11:29:23 GMT

Thanks, I don't think so but will check once again.

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

gg30340 — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 11:47:08 GMT

Log onto your MyBT and go to "Your Products" then "Mail manage" and check that your email account has been changed to "Premium"

If it has not been changed, it could be that your email account has been downgraded to the "Basic" email service when you let BT.

The "Basic" email account can only be accessed using webmail and not with an email client/app.

See link

BT Email products | Types of BT Emails | BT Help

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 11:52:25 GMT

Thanks for the advice - I have just checked and it does state "Premium"

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

licquorice — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 12:14:45 GMT

In which case it is exactly the same as normal BT email except you are paying for it. There are no technical differences at all.

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

gg30340 — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 12:23:54 GMT

You can check and change the email server settings as per these links.

Change preferences in Mail on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Change Server Settings in Mail on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

The correct settings are as per this link

What are the settings for outgoing and incoming BT Email servers? | BT Help

If that does not work, while I would not normally suggest this because I think it's a useless app, but have you tried setting up the BTMail app or another email app rather than using the one supplied on your Mac to see if it is the Mail app that is causing the problem.

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:08:17 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I am no further forward so I will think about another app. The really annoying thing is that the Gmail accounts I use were no problem to set up in Macmail. Maybe the answer is to just give up and change them all to gmail!

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:11:43 GMT

Thanks, but this only works for setting up the gmail accounts not the BT ones It did once upon a time but not now.

Is it possible that my BT email accounts are actually basics, not the Premium as stated in manage my accounts in My BT?

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

gg30340 — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:47:05 GMT

Occasionally there appears to be problems with the BT severs synchronising correctly.

I don't use a Mac so some of the following as regards where to find various settings may not be 100% accurate but they should give you a clue to where to look.

Change your email password on webmail and check that you can still access your email via webmail (on a browser).

If possible do that on a different device and turn off the Mac while you are doing it or delete the BTMail account from the email app so that it is not polling your email account for new email.

If changing the password on webmail works you should wait at least 30 minutes and then add the new password to your Mac and check it works.

If the above does not resolve the problem, when you change your BT password on an iPhone/iPad/Apple device it may only change for INCOMING mail.

To change the outgoing mail password you have to go into Settings; then scroll down to Passwords & Accounts or on older devices Mail, Contacts, Calendars. From there select the BT email account and select the account where it is listed under IMAP.

You will find the details for the account and can change the password for the Incoming server there, the outgoing mail server only shows SMTP and mail.btinternet.com You have to tap on that Primary Server in order to find where the Outgoing password is hidden so you can update it.

If did not already delete the email account and you are still unable to set it up you should consider deleting the email account from the Mac then turn off the Mac and then restart it and set up the email account again.

When re- setting up the email account on the Mac you are best to set it up manually, using "other Mail Account" option and ensure that you are using the correct settings which are in this link.

What are the settings for outgoing and incoming BT Email servers? | BT Help

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:00:00 GMT

Thank you, I have already done most of that, but will try deleting BT mail from all devices and then waiting overnight.

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 10:40:43 GMT

I haven’t solved this problem, which is a bit of a mystery.

There is an easy work-round in order not to be cut off from my BT mail account, and that is to ignore the Macmail app & log in to my BT mail via the web browser just as if it was any other website. I have a bookmark for it on my Macbook so it is just one click to get to the log-in page.

I’m also having difficulties with some email features when I use the work-round. I have had 3 conversations with escalating levels of BT email tech support and in each one I told them that my Premium email is behaving like basic e.g. I could not set up auto-forwarding of incoming mail to another email account. I was assured that my account is Premium and that it should function no differently from when it was part of a BT Broadband package.

In the third conversation the agent linked into my mobile phone camera so he could see what happened on my MacBook screen when he talked me through a failed attempt to set up the auto-forwarding. This issue, plus the fact that I can’t insert hyperlinks into the text of an email is currently with the next level of tech support.I haven’t got a work round for these and await BT’s response.

The fact that my Gmail, which I’m using for this email, seems to work perfectly is making me think seriously about ditching BTmail. All the emails I want to retain are on my Mac anyway. I’d have to log into quite a few building society and other accounts to change my log-in and contact info and there would be a nuisance period during which I’d have to advise correspondents of the new address (that is why I wanted auto-forwarding of incoming BTmail to my Gmail account).

I have the same problem with adding my BTmail account to my iPhone (and I guess it would apply to a Mac tablet or iPad) but have found out how put an icon on the phone’s screen to connect with the BTmail log-in.

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

Dode — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 11:44:03 GMT

@allanS

Years back there was a workaround to pull up a few more setting when setting up an email account on Mac Mail. It was simply to enter your login details and leave out say, the dot in .com or something else. Not sure it would work in your case but might be worth a go if nothing else works.

Re: email setup on Mac Mail

allanS — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 14:04:31 GMT

Quite a surprising outcome - BTmail Tech Support phoned me today to say my problem with non-functional features when logged into BTmail via the web browser rather than the Macmail client (which i was doing because I could not add my BTmail account to Macmail) had been solved. The problems' cause was described to me as being due to restrictions applied to "other network providers" which restricted their users' ability to e.g change server settings, having been set wrong for my broadband provider (B4RN). BT Undoing the restrictions solved the non-functioning email features problem,, and by a big coincidence my ability to add BTmail accounts to Macmail was restored as well.

Maybe other people have benefitted as well.