iPhone Email Problem
iPhone email problems have been around for a long time. It seems that with every new release/update for iOS, nothing seems to really improve the reliability of the iPhone mail program. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those anti Apple people; I only use Macs. But when it comes to mobile devices, like my phone and tablet, I only use Samsung devices and more importantly, Android.
As a hosting provider, I am constantly inundated with client issues with their iPhone email. On average, I would estimate that 85% of support requests we receive concerning phone emails is iPhone email problems. I’ve heard them all, from ‘everything was fine on my iPhone email then all of a sudden this morning I got an error” to “I am unable to set up my email account on my iPhone, I keep getting error messages”. While most of the time I’m able to guide people through editing iPhone email settings and correcting them, there is the odd occasion where no matter what I try, I can’t get the iPhone email configured correctly, and have it keep the correct settings.
Here are some of the the iPhone email problems I’ve encountered, and solutions that may help:
iPhone email problem #1: SMTP error, cannot send email
This is a common issue I’ve encountered with the iPhone email program. This error means that something in your outgoing email settings is not configured correctly, and the iPhone cannot connect to the outgoing mail server. Most email servers require authentication to send email. This is for your own security, as well as to stop spambots from sending emails pretending to be you, or anonymously. In your outgoing mail server settings, make sure authentication is selected, password is selected and you have entered your email address and password (correctly) into the fields. Another issue can be the outgoing mail server port number. If you’re using POP3, with no SSL (security) make sure your port is set to something other than 25 (most isps’ block 25 as it’s considered a spam port), in particular, try port 26, or 587.
iPhone email problem #2: All my emails have disappeared
I’ve heard this more often than I should, and it’s usually a simple issue. Most people without realizing, have set up their email accounts as IMAP instead of POP3. Many people prefer this, cause you just have to manage your emails on any one device, so when you delete something off one device, it deletes of all your devices. While this can be helpful and save a lot of time, it can also lead to disaster. If your phone and computer are set to IMAP, you may have accidentally deleted an email or two off your computer, which in turn, will automatically delete those emails off your phone. If this happened to you, check your email account settings on both your computer and iPhone, and make sure you have them both as POP3. This means if you delete emails off your computer, they’ll still be available on your phone.
iPhone email problem #3: I changed my hosting provider, now all my emails are gone
This is actually not an iPhone issue (and this is probably the first and last time you’ll see that sentence in this article). Your emails are stored on a mail server, which is associated with your hosting package for your website (if you’re using custom domain emails). If you change your hosting provider, and your emails are set as IMAP, the moment you switch servers, you’ll lose ALL your emails. It’s very important to first set up a computer with a POP3 email account to download all your emails safely to your computer before changing hosting companies.
iPhone email problem #4: I updated iOS, now my email program doesn’t work
This is a very common iPhone complaint. For some reason, when iOS updates it can cause a glitch with the mail program. Sometimes it does weird things like change the server port numbers for your incoming and outgoing mail server, sometimes it messes up the passwords. The fastest solution to this is to check your settings, make sure all your ports are correct and to be sure, re-enter your passwords. If it still doesn’t work, delete the email account and set it up again. I know.. people HATE having to delete their email accounts and setting them up again, but to be honest, it’s usually the only way to get your email configured correctly again; and working.
These are the 4 most common iPhone email problems I’ve encountered. Most of my hosting clients ask me what the best solution is to fix these issues once and for all.
After a lot of research, testing and speaking with other developers, server admins and iPhone users, I’ve come up with the best solution in the world:
- Find the tallest building in your neighbourhood,
- Go to the roof,
- Drop your iPhone off the roof,
- Take the elevator down,
- Walk over to the nearest electronics store and buy an Android device.
- Never have phone email problems again!
Simple, huh?