SMTP Error

[draddy]

Hello,

For some time now I have been unable to send from my Outlook email that is linked to my BT mail account.

The error is mail can't be sent SMTP authentication error. Then goes on to say contact BT.

I got tired of trying to get the help chat bot to understand my problem and eventually rang the BT tech support line.

Only to be told by a lady on the line that it is an Outlook problem and not BT's.

After trying to reason with her, she said there was nothing she could do. Please advise 

[gg30340]

Are you presently a BT Broadband customer or are you paying for your email through a BT Premium email account.

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

There have also been reports that Outlook is having issues. See this thread.

Solved: Outlook not showing emails to my primary BT email ... - Page 2 - BT Community

As far as BT are concerned if your email is working when you use webmail, accessing your email account on a web browser then your email account is working.

They do not offer support for email clients other than supplying the server settings so that you can use email clients/apps. 

[draddy]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

I used to be a BT customer but changed a few years ago.

I now pay for my broadband to another provider.

Outlook is receiving fine, its when I try to send an email it becomes hung up.

Reading through some of the responses I see that the SMTP is for outgoing mail. 

For years its been fine, with the occasional exception, whereby I've had to go into my BT email when it stopped sending and receiving.

All I did was alter the password and that solved the problem.

As i mentioned earlier, I'm totally lost on this one.

Thanks

M

[licquorice]

No idea why you are at a loss, as stated, your mail is now Basic Mail. You have been lucky up to now it has continued to work, BT have finally caught up with you.

[gg30340 · Accepted solution]

As I have posted, if you are not a BT Broadband customer or paying for your BTMail account it will have been downgraded to BTMail Basic. The best way to stop it being used with email clients/apps is to stop it being able to send by refusing it access to the BT servers.

The "downgrade" does not always happen as soon as you leave BT Broadband. If it is not done at the time it can be triggered when you change passwords or there is an update with your email client or BT just finally get around to downgrading it.

Your BTMail email account will still work when using a web browser.

If you want it to work with email clients/app you will need to pay for your email account to become a BT Premium email account or if you have a family member or friend that you trust and they are a BT Broadband account holder you could have your email account associated to their account if they are happy to do that.

See link

Can I move my BT Email address to another account? | BT Help