This topic

Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

Bextonian — Mon, 09 May 2022 09:50:58 GMT

I've used Thunderbird with BT Email for a long time without any problems but for the past 2 days it refuses to send (though receiving is OK). After a long time trying to send it comes up with the following message :-

Sending of the message failed.
Unable to authenticate to Outgoing server (SMTP) mail.btinternet.com. Please check the password and verify the 'Authentication method' in 'Account Settings | Outgoing server (SMTP)'.

I had recently changed the BT email address and gave that to Thunderbird at the first receive attempt. Nothing else has changed for several years and the Outgoing Server (SMTP) settings are :-

Description : BT Mail
Server Name : mail.btinternet.com
Port : 465
User Name : .................@btinternet.com
Authentication Method : Normal password
Connection Security : SSL/TLS

I've tried the trick of switching off the Homehub for half an hour in the hope of getting a different server but the problem is still there. Any ideas?

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

TimCurtis — Mon, 09 May 2022 10:02:00 GMT

@Bextonian

I've just tried with Thunderbird sending a message and no problems BUT my SMTP settings are somewhat different to yours.

See my details:-

My username for the above is the first part of my BT email.

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

imjolly — Mon, 09 May 2022 10:12:15 GMT

@Bextonian

just tried sending to my BT email imap and working without a problem with same settings as you

SMTP settings

Outgoing Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com

Port: 465 (this may not be automatically populated on selecting SSL, so you'll need to check)

SSL Encryption: Enabled (but not STARTTLS)

Authentication: PLAIN

Username: your email address including the @btinternet or @btopenworld.com part

Password: your btinternet or btopenworld password

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

gg30340 — Mon, 09 May 2022 11:53:20 GMT

@TimCurtis

The settings that you are using are not secure and are not recommended. Using port 25 has not been the ideal port to use since the early 1980s. Most ISP and email providers no longer use that port. I am surprised your email is still working when you use that port because I thought BT had also stopped its use on its systems.

The correct settings for BTMail are as per this think.

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

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

gg30340 — Mon, 09 May 2022 11:54:32 GMT

Bextonian

Are you a BT Broadband customer or paying for your email account via a BT Premium email account?

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

Bextonian — Mon, 09 May 2022 13:01:39 GMT

Thanks for your reply. I am a BT Broadband customer. Just days before my problems started I was persuaded to start a new 24 month contract at slightly reduced cost. When I received the details of this I noticed that I was now on Halo 3 with a guaranteed download of 10 Mbps whereas my old contract was on Halo 1 with a guaranteed download of 17 Mbps! When I queried this I was told that Halo 1 is no longer available and my new maximum speed was the best they could guarantee in my area. Could this switch have anything to do with my Thunderbird problem?

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

Bextonian — Mon, 09 May 2022 13:04:37 GMT

Thanks for your reply. It's odd that your settings are not what BT currently recommend (eg. port 25) and yet you have no problems.

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

gg30340 — Mon, 09 May 2022 13:49:28 GMT

@Bextonian wrote:

Could this switch have anything to do with my Thunderbird problem?

No.

Can you clarify what you mean when you said "I had recently changed the BT email address and gave that to Thunderbird at the first receive attempt".

I would suggest that if you have not changed any settings in T'bird or changed your password that you check that you can still access and send/receive using your email account on webmail using this link. BTMail .

If you can it would indicate that there is nothing wrong with your email account in which case I would suggest that the best course if action is to do nothing. It is probably a BT server issue and when that happens it usually resolves its self in a few days.

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

TimCurtis — Mon, 09 May 2022 16:08:57 GMT

I'll just say that I don't actually use my BT email to send , just did a quick test this morning and it worked with the settings I showed.

Think I'll try the more secure ones as pointed out.

EDIT: Just tried with the new settings and sent OK.

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

Bextonian — Tue, 10 May 2022 08:32:22 GMT

@gg30340

Can you clarify what you mean when you said "I had recently changed the BT email address and gave that to Thunderbird at the first receive attempt".

The first thing that Thunderbird does on start-up is to check if there are any emails to download from BT. At the same time it checks the BT password and if this is incorrect it prompts you for the new BT password. If you save that password then subsequent emails are downloaded without further prompting.

EDIT : I originally said "email address" rather than "email password". Sorry for the confusion.

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

gg30340 — Tue, 10 May 2022 09:45:09 GMT

As I have said, it is probably a BT server problem. The best advice when it happens is to do nothing, especially do not change passwords or delete the account from your device as that can cause more problems than it solves.

The first thing to do when it happens is check to see if you can log on to your email account via a web browser. If you can there is obviously nothing wrong with your password or account hence the advice to do nothing.

If the problem did not resolve its self after a day or two or in your instance where you have changed your password you should stop all your devices that you use to check for emails from checking for email. The easiest way of doing that is to turn them off.

Once you have done that, change your email password again by logging onto your email account on a browser and going to "account info" found by clicking on your username then "Change Password". After doing that check that you can access your email via webmail (on a browser).

If that works you should wait at least an hour to allow the servers to sync and then add the new password to T'bird and check it works. If it does then move onto any other devices that you use to access your email.

When entering the settings, make sure that in the Outgoing server you do not use the "use same as incoming" for the email address and password. Enter them manually and ensure that you are using the correct settings as per this link.

https://www.bt.com/help/email/manage-email-account/manual-settings/what-are-the-settings-for-outgoing-and-incoming-bt-email-servers

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

Bextonian — Fri, 13 May 2022 09:00:22 GMT

@gg30340

Many thanks for your advice which proved to be right. I am once again able to send emails from Thunderbird. Thank you.

Re: Thunderbird fails to send to BT Email

sewing1623 — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:21:10 GMT

We had this same problem with BT mail.

Could received via Thunderbird, but could not send. Erroring out with that same message.

Checked with BT, made sure server settings were correct. Could access emails, both receive and send via BT Webmail, all ok.. so checked the settings in Thunderbird again, this time for Privacy and security specifically the saved passwords section.. selected that, asked for it to display the passwords. and sure enough the IMAP settings were correct for incoming, but the password shown for the SMTP server was incorrect, infact displaying a really old one. ? go figure? So amended this to the correct password. Came out of Thunderbird, went back in and emails now send without any problem.

Should that same problem arise again in the future, that will now be the first place I look .

Hope this might help others