IMAP email password incorrect

[Rosi]

I use outlook for mac on an imac, iphone and ipad.  I've been having the "username and/or password is incorrect" error message for a week or so, although I have still been receiving mail (slowly) to my address which is a BT sub-account.

Today though, I was unable to get anything at all, so I deleted the account with the intent of adding it back in which I've done successfully in the past several times.  I haven't though on this occasion been able to add the account back in - I get the error message that the user and/or password is incorrect every time. As a result I changed my password (yet again) and tried again.  Still no success, even though I can access my mail with the same credentials on webmail.  This would suggest that there's a BT issue?

I've been on to microsoft chat support for 5 hours (am still on to them) and Apple telephone support for 2 hours at the same time and have tried absolutely everything - both have said that as the main account works ok, it must be a BT issue with my BT credentials.  BT, however, are having none of it and say they can't help with 3rd party apps.  

I am at a loss, have lost my emails from Outlook, and don't know what to do next.  Has anybody come across this issue before and possibly suggest something else to try?

Thanks

[gg30340]

It is a BT server problem which has been going on for some time and the best advice when it happens is to do nothing, especially do not change passwords or delete the account from your device as that can cause more problems than it solves.

The first thing to do when it happens is check to see if you can log on to your email account via a web browser. As you have found, if you can there is obviously nothing wrong with your password or account hence the advice to do nothing.

If the problem did not resolve its self after a day or two or in your instance where you have deleted the email account from your device you should stop your devices and email programs such as Outlook from checking for email.

Once you have done that, change your email password again and check that you can access your email via webmail (on a browser).

If that works you should wait at least 30 minutes to an hour and then add the new password to one of your devices and again check it works. If it does then move onto the next device checking that it works before going onto the next one.

If you are setting up the email account on your devices you are best to set it up manually, using "other" and ensure that you are using the correct settings as per this link.

https://www.bt.com/help/email/manage-email-account/manual-settings/what-are-the-settings-for-outgoin...

If your outlook email account was set up as an IMAP account and if the emails are still there when you check on webmail it means that you have not lost anything. Outlook will repopulate the account and folder when you finally get it working.

[Rosi]

Thank you for your reply.  I did manage to get it all working eventually however, after only a couple of days exactly the same thing has occurred again.  This time forewarned, I will follow your advice to the letter. BT support seem to be blissfully unaware and were not in the slightest bit interested in the problem when I telephoned - I was brushed off with “its not a BT issue, you need to call Apple and or Microsoft support”.  Anyway, my thanks again - I’ll keep you posted.