Auto-forwarding Randomly Not Working - should I try BT Premium email as a fix?

[PaulS111]

I know that this sort of issue has been discussed before, but please bear with me... 🙂

I have a "free" btinternet.com legacy email account, hung over from Yahoo days. I have always had it set to auto-forward all mail to a non-BT account, which I routinely access through a desktop client. That means I keep all my email in one place, and never have to additionally log on to BT webmail.

Recently, it is become totally random as to whether btinternet.com emails are forwarded or not - some are; some are not, even those of long-established well-known senders. I can't see any common issue. I can, however, manually forward messages from my btinternet.com webmail page, and they arrive in my other system without any problem.

My other system's ISP has investigated, and says that:

"The SPF for btinternet.com has too many DNS lookups and because of that it is like BT has no SPF record at all...This issue is only triggered by the auto forwarding system on their end, not when you sent the messages manually, most likely because they are using a different mail relay for their auto-forwarding system that is not a part of the SPF record....We are pretty sure that you are not the only client of BT that is suffering from this issue..."

Looking at past discussions on this forum, this is indeed a long-standing problem. I value the btinternet.com address, and have more correspondents contact me via it than any other address. However, it's clearly becoming unusable. So here is my question: what can be done about it?

I understand that BT offer a Premium email service, currently at GBP 7.50 / month. I would be content to pay that if doing so would fix the problem. The immediate problem, though, is that BT currently won't discuss any of this with me, because I don't have an account with them. 

Therefore, has anyone had a similar problem who has been able to resolve it by subscribing to BT's Premium email service, please ? Or is there any other solution?

Thank you!

[gg30340]

If you are not a BT Broadband customer or paying for your BT email account via a BT Premium email account, your email account will be "downgraded" to the BTMail basic offering if this has not already happened.

You can only access BTMail basic using a web browser and not through an email client/app.

It also does not support email forwarding.

See link

BT Email products | BT Help

[PaulS111]

Dear Distinguished sage

Thank you for your advice.

My @btinternet.com email account is a very old one from Yahoo days. Additionally, I have had, and not had, BT services (phone, broadband, email, TV) over the years. Currently, I don't have any BT services, although I am still able to log in to My BT and have a BT Account Number.

When I look at the My Products page, I do not have an email option, and am not therefore able to request to subscribe to Premium email.

Before I look further, it would be helpful to know whether the auto-forwarding issue will be fixed by subscribing to the Premium service.

Many thanks,  and best regards.

[gg30340 · Accepted solution]

If you do decide to subscribe to a BT Premium email account, this will allow forwarding of emails and the use of email client/apps.

Because you do not have the email option in your MyBT you will need to contact the BT Premium email team and upgrade it through them. They can be contacted on 0808 100 6778.

What is Premium email and how do I get it? | BT Help

[PaulS111]

Dear Distinguished Sage

Thank you very much for your further advice, which I appreciate, and will follow up.

Best regards