This topic

I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Ratkinson60 — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:14:44 GMT

I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone , fine if I log intoBt . I haven’t changed anything prior to this.

the error that comes up is

Cannot Send Mail

The username or password for

"………" is incorrect.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

gg30340 — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:16:31 GMT

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

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Ratkinson60 — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:31:48 GMT

We’re BT broadband

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

gg30340 — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 19:54:07 GMT

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 phone as that can cause more problems than it solves and it often resolves its self in a day or two.

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 can there is obviously nothing wrong with your password or account hence the advice to do nothing.

You should then try turning off your BT Hub for about half an hour and when you turn it back on you will most likely have been issued a new IP address and connected to a different BT email server which may resolve the problem.

If the problem did not resolve its self you could try changing your password to see if it will resynchronise with the BT Mail server.

You should stop your iPhone and iPad and any other devices from checking for email. The easiest way of doing that is to turn them off if you still have the account on your device or in the settings 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 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 servers to sync and then add the new password to your iPhone, remembering to remove any characters you may have added and again check it works. If it does then move onto the next device.

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.

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.

When setting up the email account on your device you are best to set it up manually, using "other" and ensure that you are using the correct settings as per the following link.

The default setting for the iPad account seems to be as a POP3 account. If you are wanting to set up as an IMAP account you may have to enter an incorrect password to cause the iPhone to reject the set up and it will then offer a choice of setting up as an IMAP or POP3 account.

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

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Ratkinson60 — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 20:00:50 GMT

Thanks

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Ratkinson60 — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 06:21:19 GMT

You were right it’s working fine this morning, thanks.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Andyb911 — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 12:43:16 GMT

I'm repeatedly getting this issue. Can always send emails using the bt.email.com but when sending from another device (that presumably uses pop3) eg ipad or outlook on a PC often get the error:

"Cannot Send Mail The username or password for "mail.btinternet.com" is incorrect". However wait a few hours and it magically fixes itself.

Same as this thread, except we get it every few days. Presumably there is a dodgy BT server somewhere, but how do we resolve the problem permanently?

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Leanne_T — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 08:57:33 GMT

Hi there @Andyb911

Thanks for coming to the community and letting us know.

Could you try the steps from @gg30340 if this happens again and see if this helps?

Leanne.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Andyb911 — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 12:00:37 GMT

Hub off for 30 mins didn't solve the issue.

Haven't tried updating the password. Given the password works for bt email app and the browser it implies its an smtp server config and if one of the servers in a cluster is out of sync now, I can sort of see the logic for doing a pw update but as its saved in multiple places its a pain to do.

Will update once done if there are still issues.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Leanne_T — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 12:36:37 GMT

Thanks for the quick reply @Andyb911

If you could try setting up the email account manually, without the password reset first, does this help?

Leanne.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Andyb911 — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 10:29:07 GMT

By setting up, you mean removing the account from the device (PC or iPad) and then re-adding? If so, then no... I tried that (and configuring a new device / PC client) and that didn't help.

Interestingly email still arrives when there is a problem - its just sending that is the issue, so I think that means its SMTP only that has the issue.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

gg30340 — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 11:17:00 GMT

@Andyb911

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

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Andyb911 — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 10:40:09 GMT

Hi - I'm a BT Broadband customer.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Andyb911 — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 10:21:00 GMT

Happened again yesterday. Changing password had no impact neither did turning off the router for 30 mins.

Emails send correctly via bt email app but not via smtp. However a few hours later and they got sent.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Leanne_T — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:52:47 GMT

Hi there @Andyb911

If this happens again and you're unable to send emails, please get in touch with our email support guides and they will get the email account looked into for you.

Thanks 🙂

Leanne.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Andyb911 — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 10:40:14 GMT

I've done that already and they told me to speak to Microsoft and Apple as its the client app at fault (really!) and to use the BT Email app.

The first bit is rubbish - the second bit 'works' but isn't a satisfactory answer.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

licquorice — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 13:58:55 GMT

So are you saying that the BT app works, if so the problem is definitely with your other client and not BT. Both clients will use exactly the same SMTP server.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Andyb911 — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:11:17 GMT

Helpdesk confirmed that BT email doesn’t use smtp. And smtp periodically doesn’t work across multiple client apps…. Then eventually sends the email a few hours later with no change.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

licquorice — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:14:39 GMT

The BT email app DOES use SMTP. When you say mail app, do you mean mail app or do you mean webmail. They are 2 entirely different things.

Re: I’m unable to send emails from my iPad or iPhone.

Andyb911 — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:23:12 GMT

Support say that the BT App does not use SMTP. No idea if they are right or wrong.

But to be 100% clear, using either the BT App or webmail works. Using *any* non BT email client (apple, PC etc) fails. However, use 4G (and hence not the router and a different IP address) with NO change in config works.

And send via wifi, gets the user/pw wrong warning. But leave the failed message in the outbox and eventually (ie after a few hours) and it will eventually send.

Either the external IP address is being blocked by BT's SMTP servers, or there is a problem with router or there are some SMTP servers that have a dodgy config.

Not sure how we narrow it down though.