This topic

BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:11:34 GMT

Purchased iPhone 17 pro. It won’t download BT emails to the Apple mail app or on Outlook. Contacted both Apple and BT and they blame each other. Apple Engineers carried out loads of tests remotely but say it’s a BT issue. BT deny this. Tried every fix on the help apps as well as AI. Nothing works. Emails still work fine to linked IPad. Settings etc. checked so many times but nothing seems to work. So, so frustrating. Any thoughts please? Thanks in advance.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

gg30340 — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:41:39 GMT

Are you presently a BT Broadband customer or are you paying for your email through a BT Premium email account or did you migrate to EE Broadband?

If none of the above your email account may have been downgraded to a BTMail Basic account which can not be used with an email client or email apps.

See link

https://www.bt.com/help/email/bt-email-products

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:51:44 GMT

Hello, Thanks, I am a BT Broadband customer and so far as I am aware other than purchasing a new iPhone nothing else has changed. Neither BT or Apple have shown any interest in solving the problem other than blaming each other.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

gg30340 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:49:08 GMT

What happens when you try to access your BTMail account?

Have you checked that in your MyBT > Your Products > Email, Manage that your email account is showing as "Standard"?

The correct settings are as per this link

BT Email server settings | BT Help

Make sure that the "Authentication" is plain and not encrypted.

As a test , if they are correct try downloading the BTMail app to see if that works.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

licquorice — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 07:41:13 GMT

@WillBell39

As you say, the only thing that has changed is the acquisition of a new phone, ergo there is more than a very high probability that is where the problem lies.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:48:50 GMT

Thanks, my thoughts too but Apple aren’t having any of that.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:56:39 GMT

Thanks but done all that and downloaded the BT Mail App to receive emails through as they won’t pull through on the Apple mail app. Even then the BT app is slow to sync and when you go to delete emails they randomly reappear in the inbox. No problems with old iPhone or IPad. Apple don’t accept though it could be a faulty phone even though that’s the only thing that has changed other than the network which is now Tesco mobile but they’re not interested either. So 3 way disinterest: BT, Apple and Tesco. Thanks for try to help👍

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

gg30340 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:32:08 GMT

Does it work when using your home network and not the mobile network?

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:01:49 GMT

Hello, It’s even worse without WiFi. The strange thing is when using WiFi the messages I have put into folders download eventually but those that are just in my inbox won’t download or when I send an email from my Apple email to my BT email as a test it download. Totally baffled by it all. I appreciate your help.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

gg30340 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:42:52 GMT

If there is nothing of importance on your phone I would try a reset of the phone so that you are starting with a clean sheet.

Just set up one email app. I would suggest at this stage not to use Outlook.

When setting up the email app enter the settings manually as per the previous link I posted.

Make sure you are using IMAP and not POP3.

If you have a lot of emails and folders on the BT servers it can take a long time for evrything to synch so just leave it to do that before concluding there is an issue.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:48:49 GMT

Thanks done a full reset already and made no difference. Did this with the Apple ‘Tech Team’ and they downloaded loads of data and sent it to their Engineers who came back and and said it was a BT issue and that I should ask the BT Engineers to contact their Engineers- as if that’s going to happen. BT said their Engineers don’t do this sort of thing so I am stuck with it. Meanwhile Tesco have just said nothing to do with them! Thanks for trying anyway, it’s appreciated.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

licquorice — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:00:58 GMT

I have no idea what 'data' the 'tech team' downloaded that indicated what the problem was but ask them for it and post it here.

If it was a general BT problem, there would be countless posts here.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:09:44 GMT

Yes I thought that too. They took a load of screen shots showing the messages downloading but not actually downloading if you know what I mean along with dates and times. I haven’t kept it. I did a whole host of ‘fixes’ most of which they helped me with remotely and still drew a blank. Just got the impression they couldn’t be bothered and tried to palm me off with the suggestion that the BT Engineers should call them- unbelievable. I asked my provider to intervene as it’s who they I have a contract with and advocate on my behalf between BT and Apple but just not interested. Thanks again.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

DoctorT — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 19:07:51 GMT

This is a 'me too' post:

Perhaps something is not quite right in the handshake between Microsoft's latest Outlook client for iPhone, and the BT email servers ?

Background: I have BT fibre broadband to my home, and have an x.y @ btinternet.com email address.

Have been happily using Outlook Client on my iPhone 13 mini for over a year. The client synchronises with my BT Email account using IMAP and SMTP. In early March, noticed that no new emails are arriving on the iPhone, and all emails SENT from the iPhone get stuck in the Outlook client Outbox. Outlook client on my Android phone is still working OK. So...

1) Tried to 'reset' my Outlook email acccount on the iPhone. Result = worked (very) briefly. Then same problem returned.

2) Tried to 'delete' my Outlook email account on the iPhone, then add it again. Result = worked (very) briefly. Then same problem.

3) Tried to de-install and re-install Outlook email client on iPhone. Result = worked for a bit longer (30 minutes or so). Then same problem.

4) Set up the same BT email account on a Gmail client on the iphone. Result = works OK. Therefore my iPhone is not broken, and the network links between my iPhone and BT's email services are not broken. So the problem must lie with the way that the Microsoft Outlook Client for iPhone makes its connection with BT's email servers.

My workaround for now is to use a Gmail client instead of an Outlook client to view emails via my iPhone.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 20:34:57 GMT

Thanks for the information sounds a similar issue, pleased you’ve found a work around to it👍

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

JonUK — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 21:50:48 GMT

Have you checked the port settings in the mail app accounts section. This happened to me once and they where somehow changed. All that needed to be done was to put the correct port settings back in and away it went again.

Incoming server port - 993

Outgoing server port SMTP Primary server - 465

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

WillBell39 — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 16:36:54 GMT

Hello, Yes done that and checked them with BT over the phone. Still not working. Even the BT app isn’t reliable. Try to delete emails which then self restore. It’s only when I log into the server account that I can delete them with certainty. So frustrating. Thanks for your help though.

Re: BT emails not synching to Apple Mail or Outlook

old_email — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 20:40:15 GMT

I'm coming in with a "me too".

Wed 18th was when my BT Broadband was closed and my phone number ported elsewhere. I have several @btinternet.com addresses built up over the 30yrs(?) from dial-up days. Some are sub-accounts.

I have, and over many years, accessed my emails via Thunderbird on Windows and K9, an Android app, generally without problem and also access a number of non-btinternet accounts. The latter are all working normally but the btinternet emails have stuttered to a standstill.

At first I thought that BT had moved me to Basic email already rather than after the 60 days in my leaving email. Then I've read about some problems with BT being hacked. And now this thread.

How best to methodically work through what might be the issue? Have the authentication servers for 3rd party apps been disrupted? Webmail seems ok.