This topic

BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 17:40:47 GMT

Today BT Mail suddenly stopped syncing my mail to my MacBook Air and my iPhone at the same time.

BT say it's an apple issue. Is it? Do I need to go to apple or can anyone here help, please.

Thanks in anticipation

Julia

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

gg30340 — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 18:14:48 GMT

It is most likely a server issue and it will probably resolve it self after a short time.

Check if you can log on to your email account using a web browser and if you can just use that until it resolves itself.

Meanwhile leave things alone and do not change your passwords.

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:35:28 GMT

Thank you, that is sort of comforting... A BT IT advisor got me to change my password earlier today when I was seeking help only to then tell me that they don't deal with other platforms and he had no knowledge of apple! Safari won't recognise either the previous or the new password at the moment... I've been using my web browser as you suggest and that's ok as an interim measure. I'll give it a couple of days.

Best wishes

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

gg30340 — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 21:26:25 GMT

As I 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. As you have found you could log on there is obviously nothing wrong with your password or account hence the advice to do nothing.

If the problem does not resolve its self after a day or two or in your instance where you have changed your password on your device you should stop your devices from checking for email. The easiest way of doing that is to turn them off or add a couple of characters to the email address so that it is not checking your account.

Once you have done that, change your email password again and 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 BT servers to sync and then add the new password to your devices, remembering to remove any characters you may have added and again check it works. If it does then move onto the next device if you have one.

When entering the new password in 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.

When you change your BT password on an iPhone/iPad/Apple device it may only change for INCOMING mail.

To change/check 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 you have deleted the email account and you are setting it up again on your device you are best to set it up manually, using "other" 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: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 21:41:53 GMT

Thanks so much for this advice. I appreciate you taking the time.

As a not particularly techie person it fills me with dread 😂 but I should be able to follow the flow of your instructions.

In the meantime, I hope the problems solve themselves... 🤞

Best wishes

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:50:29 GMT

I am still unable to access my BT emails on my apple devices even after following the detailed advice given by Distinguished Sage.

Are there any other ideas.

Should I contact BT help people or apple support? I don't get where the problem is 😫

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

gg30340 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 18:07:48 GMT

Can you still access your email account using a web browser?

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

If neither of the above your email account will have been downgraded to a BTMail Basic account which means that you can not access your email account using an email client/app, you can only access it using a web browser.

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 20:14:38 GMT

Yes I'm a BT Broadband customer, however, I've been renegotiating my package with them (still on the same BT Halo 3) and wonder if it might have been downgraded in error???

I'll have to ask the question. Can you recommend how best to do that?

Many thanks

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

JWS — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 20:42:16 GMT

A trick that worked for me (I think I may have read it on here somewhere) was to log in to webmail with Safari, then manually log out - as opposed to letting the session expire. Sounds silly but this seemed to kick start everything back to normal. However, at that stage I hadn’t changed passwords and could still access webmail in the Safari browser. But it might be worth a try?

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

gg30340 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 21:07:13 GMT

@felly55 wrote:

Hi

Yes I'm a BT Broadband customer, however, I've been renegotiating my package with them (still on the same BT Halo 3) and wonder if it might have been downgraded in error???

I'll have to ask the question. Can you recommend how best to do that?

Many thanks

It should not have been down graded until you actually leave BT.

To check what email account type you have you need to log onto your MyBT and go to "Your Products" then "Email, manage" then you will find your email account type at the top of the page. It should be "Standard".

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 21:31:28 GMT

Thanks, yes, it is Standard...

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 21:33:05 GMT

Interesting, I'll have a go...

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 07:16:23 GMT

No, this hasn't worked. It's causing me a lot of inconvenience and missed messages. 😓

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

TimSmedley — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 09:42:24 GMT

I too have an iphone and whilst no comfort can confirm my BT Mail app is syncing OK. I suggest you call BT.

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

felly55 — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 15:15:23 GMT

Thanks Tim

I tried that, they say they don't provide support for apple devices... I feel a complaint coming on, if BT email won't work with apple devices that's a lot of customers...

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

licquorice — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 15:27:43 GMT

BT email does work with Apple devices. Not sure what your complaint will consist of, BT cannot possibly offer support for products they are not responsible for.

Despite your MyBT showing the account to be 'standard', did you ask if your account had inadvertently been downgraded to 'basic'?

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

Sandyr — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 17:07:12 GMT

Hi Felly55,

I have also had the same problem for over a week now. I have had two long chats with Apple who said it was a problem at BT’s end. I then spoke twice to BT. They haven’t sorted the problem either.

I receive emails okay on my Apple devices (iPhone & IPads), but if I delete or send emails it does not sync between devices. I deleted my email account and re-added it, but found that I lost some important emails I sent. I have not deleted them, so goodness knows how they disappeared. And the emails I just deleted on one device are still showing on the other device.

All the software is updated. It is very frustrating. I hope it rights itself soon.

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

gavsdavs — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:18:19 GMT

This problem still happens.

I spent 2 hours trying to solve this for my mother.

Using her email credentials

- ipad devices can send and receive

- outlook (on my pc) can send and receive

- mac mail (on her imac) can log into imap servers, but not into the SMTP servers.

- There's confusing advice/guidance out there about whether to use port 26, port 465 or port 587.

Port 26 doesn't respond, that's a blind alley.

Port 465 speaks proper TLS i.e

[root@cracker ~]# openssl s_client -connect mail.btinternet.com:465
CONNECTED(00000003)
depth=2 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, OU = www.digicert.com, CN = DigiCert Global Root G2
verify return:1
depth=1 C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, CN = DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1
verify return:1
depth=0 C = GB, L = LONDON, O = British Telecommunications plc, CN = mail.btinternet.com
verify return:1

Port 587 speaks unencrypted i.e

[root@cracker ~]# telnet mail.btinternet.com 587
Trying 65.20.50.93...
Connected to mail.btinternet.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 btprdrgo003.btinternet.com ESMTP Service ready
^]
telnet>

She's up and running using her imac, but BT need to debug what's happening with the mac mail client and provide comprehensive guidance on the issue. If they are capable of such a thing.

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

licquorice — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:37:50 GMT

There is no confusing advice, BT official advice is that port465 is the correct port. Not sure why you think it is a BT problem when all other devices work ok.

I'm sure there are countless users out there using Mac Mail satisfactorily. The forum would be inundated if not.

Make sure only plain password authentication is selected.

Re: BT Mail stopped syncing with apple devices

licquorice — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:40:09 GMT

Clearly mail clients can be used with BT mail and BT publish the required settings. However, they do not offer support for clients.