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Email 'Action needed for your email account - two questions

Jellicle — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:58:21 GMT

Like many, I have received the email 'Action needed for your email account'. I understand that this is genuine.

"From December 2026, we’re upgrading BT Email to use enhanced secure connections..." We are about to go away and I really don't want to start changing settings in a hurry under time pressure. Could I confirm, please, that we have a window of time in which to make any necessary adjustments and can leave it until later in September?

I receive emails to Outlook in Office365 and I have them all carefully organised into folders in Outlook. (My Outlook folders are are more specific than the folders I have set up in BT webmail.) Will my folders in Outlook remain unaltered?

Thank you for any insights.

___________________________________________________________________________

Finally , a general point for BT -

As we are all urged to be careful about opening vaguely addressed emails and clicking on links, I think it would be very helpful if BT could include a way of identifying that its emails are genuine, such as addressing recipients by name, including part of a postcode or an account number. This is normal practice by most other commercial senders and would remove anxiety about whether an email is genuine or a scam.

I get loads of emails purporting to be from BT and they are invariably identified as spam ('Your McAfee / whatever / is about to expire. Your BT cloud / whatever is full..." etc etc) A means of identifying a genuine BT email would be really helpful.

Re: Email 'Action needed for your email account - two questions

licquorice — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 21:09:32 GMT

The clue is in " from December 2026......"

I am totally amazed that folks are still using insecure ports rather than secure ports that have been in use for many years.

Changing ports is simply how the servers are accessed (encrypted rather than unencrypted) and will have no impact on your folders.

If you are using POP3 rather than IMAP, the secure port is 995 rather than 110.

IMAP is 993 rather than 143

SMTP is 465 rather than 25

Re: Email 'Action needed for your email account - two questions

Jellicle — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 21:24:26 GMT

Thank you for your prompt reply. I do understand that the date given in the email is December 2026, but last year we had a dreadful experience with BT which has left both of us extremely distrustful of their intentions and communications. It was only solved by a wonderful person in their advanced (not sure of designation) customer services finding a workaround. Consequently I have severe anxiety about the account and was seeking reassurance.

I am happy with their actual service and we will obviously make any adjustments. I just need to be able to make checks and amendments at my own pace and not panic.