This topic

Outgoing mail

TerryCanham — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 13:04:52 GMT

Cannot send email. Requires authentication. How?

Re: Outgoing mail

gg30340 — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 13:23:13 GMT

How are you using your email service. Is it with a web browser or are you using an email client or email app?

Re: Outgoing mail

TerryCanham — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 13:56:00 GMT

Mac email client on MacBook air

Re: Outgoing mail

gg30340 — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 16:55:09 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: Outgoing mail

MiniCooper — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 01:32:06 GMT

I'm so glad to have come across your message because the same is happening to me! I'm on a 2017 macbook pro and whilst I receive emails with no problem, I just can't send any! I have spent hours trying to fiddle with SMTP ports, edit the SMTP list and manually add the account, I have turned it off and on many times and nothing.

I also found that they weren't sending from my phone at the same time. I was able to toggle some settings which fixed it on my phone within minutes so emails send on both the webmail and the phone which points to the mac being the problem.

Today I deleted and re-added the account and reset my software too and it just does not work. After 3 hours on the phone with Apple they are stumped too. They believe there is an issue between the servers due to likely recent BT updates that make the email address incompatible with (older) macs. Due to the same issue with my phone (outgoing connection corrupted) this seems likely.

I'm so frustrated now I could just cry. How do we get BT to have a proper look at this? Please let me know if you find a fix@

Re: Outgoing mail

vivienne16 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 09:25:40 GMT

I am having this problem too. I cant send emails from my ipad or iphone. I keep getting an error 'the sender address was invalid'. I have tried deleting and reinstating emails and updating all the port settings. Any idea how to fix it?

Re: Outgoing mail

MiniCooper — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 09:32:25 GMT

Are BT aware of this? How do we flagged them

On my phone I went to accounts > pressed on the email > SMTP > and the bottom two were off. I toggled a few things and this worked. Do you use a mac too at all?

Re: Outgoing mail

TerryCanham — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:32:02 GMT

Thanks for all your replies.

I have now fixed it, thank goodness. I reset my password and switched off auto authentication in Settings for outgoing mail.

Re: Outgoing mail

TerryCanham — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:34:52 GMT

Yes. All fixed

Re: Outgoing mail

vivienne16 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:39:34 GMT

I will try this and get back to you. I do have a mac too - it doesdnt work on mac mail either - just via bt safari