This topic

Blank email messages not sending

John_ — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 13:46:08 GMT

I have tried to send a blank email message to myself via BT webmail and this message popped up:

"Sorry your email could not be delivered due to content policy reasons. Please check your message content for URLs, content and subject matter that could be construed as Malware, Spam or Phishing before retrying. (6-1-1-1) ID (6A08C1FD01B1705C)"

There was no content in the message. It was blank. Only the subject line had text "Test from web email"

I've notice over the last few days when using a client (Outlook 2016 in my case) message show as sent on the application but not on webmail. This has caused me some grief, in thinking folk had received emails but they ahd disappeared.

Help and advice welcome. BT email regularly lets me down!!

Re: Blank email messages not sending

Michael_D — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 14:56:07 GMT

Hi @John_

Thanks for coming to the community.

If you are seeing that error, it will be that it is being picked up by our spam filters, perhaps with it being a blank email other than the title, and the title being in that way.

If you try to send yourself an email with more in the title and content in the body of the message does it send?

With regards to your Outlook 2016 client, if you send emails in webmail do they send?

Michael

Re: Blank email messages not sending

John_ — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 18:44:43 GMT

For over 5-years using Outlook 2016 as a client outgoing emails regularly fail to send and Outlook generates a dialogue box prompting for a password, with the correct password already entered. I go through the whole rigmarole of checking port numbers and protocols and they are all fine. Most recently - whilst trying to confirm insurance for an an event for an community amateur sports club I am a volunteer, a variation on the same theme was that the emails show in Outlook's sent folder but cannot be found on BT's server. I tried sending messages via BT webmail and got the message as shown in my original post. I then tried sending email message with no content save for subject line "test etc", same problem. I then tried sending with no content and nothing in the subject line, same problem. I then asked my wife to forwarded he latest BT bill from her BT web email to my BT email address, same problem. BT will do what they always do - and blame their customers.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

Peter_W — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 07:58:44 GMT

Thanks for the extra details here, @John_

Just to be sure, is it only emails with no content that are encountering this issue, or are you noticing it with ones that have a full body of text, too?

I'm curious to know if forwarded emails are affected as well - e.g. if you opt to forward an existing chain, but add nothing new yourself.

Peter

Re: Blank email messages not sending

John_ — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:16:37 GMT

I only started looking at the webmail performance when frustrated with the persistent failure of the the client I was using to stay connected to BT outgoing mail server. This has happened for years. I went into webmail and ran a few tests - which included sending email messages to myself. Ones with text in the subject line and no content. Ones with nothing in the subject line and no content. They all failed to send with the error message as in my original post. I asked my wife to forward the last BT bill to me via BT webmail with nothing added. That failed with same error message.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

gg30340 — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:38:58 GMT

Presumably you have Outlook set up as an IMAP account. Have you considered that Outlook could be the problem?

You could as a test to help diagnose the problem, stop Outlook from accessing your BTMail account.

Then download and install another email client such as Thunderbird and use that for a while to see if the problem is still there. If it is it rules out Outlook.

If you use another email client it should be set up as an IMAP account and if you need them the BT server settings are in the following link.

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

Re: Blank email messages not sending

Peter_W — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:21:42 GMT

Thanks @John_, I've flagged this with our team, and if I need any further details I'll be sure to let you know.

Please don't share it on this public thread, but is the affected email address the same as the one linked to your Forum account?

In the meantime it's definitely giving a different client a test like @gg30340 recommended here, and also testing to see if messages that aren't blank have the same issue, too.

Peter

Re: Blank email messages not sending

John_ — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:30:29 GMT

I have had to subscribed to back up email service (Ionos) as BT mail is so unreliable. That is linked to Outlook and has never faulted in 5 years. BT faults every couple of weeks, so frequently you expected it to fail. I have spent hours researching on both Microsoft, BT and other forums (I have posted previously on this issue) to see if there is a root cause without success. Obviously it is easy for BT to point at Microsoft's products and say they are at fault. Even when its patently a BT internal issue and the "it's Microsoft" is not available as a ready excuse, no explanation is given to customers.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

gg30340 — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:36:55 GMT

It is not BT that is blaming Outlook. It is me trying to diagnose the problem. If you don't want to do that, that is up to you so I'll now bow out of your thread.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

John_ — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:55:47 GMT

See my post of ‎27-02-2024 22h26.

I have been told by BT today they think they have solved the problem and the outgoing server for my sent emails should be working normally tomorrow. No explanation offered and no comfort that the same issue won't happen again. System maintained in USA, apparently.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

Leanne_T — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 07:49:48 GMT

Morning @John_

Our email team have come back to us and asked if you can try again throughout the day and let us know if this is happens again?

Thanks very much.

Leanne.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

Kimberlin — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:07:32 GMT

@John_ I've read through your thread and it isn't difficult to see from your content, that you are not happy with BT's email service. You mentioned it has given you grief, that you've had to resort to subscibing to a back up email address and yet, you persist with BT's email service. Can you explain why you maintain BT's email service if it angsts you so much? I'm genuinely curious.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

John_ — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:36:02 GMT

Good question.

Myself and my wife have been users of BT services for over 45 years and were early adopters of their broadband offering (and ADSL before that). We had family that worked for BT and would have uncomplaining customers if they had not continually degraded their services.

Today (09June26) we've been told that (i) sending emails to more than 10 addresses risks the account being blocked as considered as a spam risk; (ii) using bcc function to retain privacy of group email risks the account being blocked as spammer; (iii) forgetting to fill in the subject line of an email risks the account being blocked as a spammer.

So, the message I take from that is not safe nor practical to used BT mail if you are a volunteer involved in organising charitable or community activities involving groups of volunteers and sponsors and vulnerable communities with all the considerations for managing safeguarding and sensitivities around data protection.

The fact that a 45+ year history as a customer (and BT knowing were you live) you are treated the same as hot house West African scamming criminal gang does not exactly reinforce brand loyalty. I struggle understanding why BT do this? Do you know why? Just curious.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

gg30340 — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:44:24 GMT

@John_wrote:

Today (09June26) we've been told that (i) sending emails to more than 10 addresses risks the account being blocked as considered as a spam risk; Who told you that. The limit of recipients of a single email is 49 not 10. If you want to send the email to more than that you do another Group of recipients to a max of 49 (ii) using bcc function to retain privacy of group email risks the account being blocked as spammer; Who told you that. You can send BCC to the recipients of an email however for some unknown reason some people have found there can be a problem if you include your own email address in the BCC (iii) forgetting to fill in the subject line of an email risks the account being blocked as a spammer. Who told you that. You will get a reminder that there is no subject line but the email will still send.
So, the message I take from that is not safe nor practical to used BT mail if you are a volunteer involved in organising charitable or community activities involving groups of volunteers and sponsors and vulnerable communities with all the considerations for managing safeguarding and sensitivities around data protection. BTMail is a residential customer email service. If you want to send a large number of emails in excess of 49 recipients you would be better to use an email service that is designed for this such as Mailchimp which offers its Essentials plan for about £10 per month for up to 100 recipients.
The fact that a 45+ year history as a customer (and BT knowing were you live) you are treated the same as hot house West African scamming criminal gang does not exactly reinforce brand loyalty. There is no such thing as "Brand Loyalty" with any company. You are just a paying customer. Some companies may fool you into thinking they reward your loyalty but most only discount when they are asked for it and that discount was already added to your bill in the expectation that you would ask for it. The only companies that honour "loyalty" are the ones that charge the same price for it products to all its customer regardless of how long you have been a customer and make no exceptions to that. I struggle understanding why BT do this? Do you know why? Just curious.

Re: Blank email messages not sending

John_ — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 22:22:09 GMT

Who told me about the practical limitation on email recipients? That would be the BT representative managing the complaint I logged regarding the latest period of denial of service and not being able to send emails. I requested an explanation as to the reasons for my experiences of the frequent denial of the outgoing email service. The BT representative relayed what he was provided with from the “technical team” based in the USA. Notwithstanding the T&Cs in the BT contract and whether an email message can be sent to 49 emails addresses, the feedback conveyed was 10 was the safest number of email addresses in any one message to avoid tripping the spam protections and being denied service for a period (sometimes several days). I have experienced such denial multiple times over recent years. Previously, by the time I had summoned the will to complain to BT the service became restored. Then it falls over again after few further sessions later. The cycle continues. Similarly, the BT representative relayed from the technical team that the use of the BCC’ing recipients risks triggering “spam protections” and denying me service for outgoing emails.

The disappointing thing is that such feedback plays into the pattern of BT blaming its customers. If you have better insights as to the reasons why it has been problematic for me, I would welcome hearing them. I would be interest to know your view as to whether the 49 recipients limit is a contractual commitment from BT, or just an aspirational target.

As a private person it is not unreasonable to expect the BT email service should support the needs of individuals when they communicate on private matters. Tens of thousands of BT email customers will be – in a private capacity – be dealing with family bereavements, managing long-term illnesses, being involved in civic society in charities and various amateur interest groups, clubs etc. There are many occasions when you need to communicate with 10 or more people in a single message such as the extended family and members of organising committees. The thread of such email exchanges allows for the evolution of discussions be followed.

I would agree when needing the send a message to many recipients (e.g. the membership list of a sports club) services like Mail Chimp would be a better tool and I have used it for mass mailing. It is fine for dissemination of information, but not conducive to exchanges within a closed group.

I think you may be conflating two concepts, brand loyalty and customer loyalty. “Brand loyalty” is rooted in a customer’s perception and emotional attachment. “Customer loyalty” is mainly driven by incentives e.g. discounts or promotions. Brand loyalty is enduring and is a tangible strategic asset for businesses. I have family that worked for BT. I have watched BT make multiple mis-steps (e.g. sale of Cellnet mobile phone businesses) and have some triumphs (e.g. initial rollout of first generation of broadband). I want BT to succeed and be a UK champion in telecoms. Not be reduced to an ineffective shell. Solving customer problems should be a high priority for BT.