Cannot Send or Receive Email on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

MAIL ISSUES

The first thing you need to understand about mail on an iOS device is that The mail app is a mail client. It is similar to Microsoft Outlook or the Mail Application in Mac os x. -You cannot create a mail account by using the mail app, instead you need an existing mail account that you will then add into to the app. -Apple provides the settings for some commonly used mail accounts directly in iOS.

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If you use Gmail, Yahoo, MobileMe or AOL all you need is your email address and email password to start sending and receiving mail from your device. If you have any other mail provider you will need some information before you waste your time troubleshooting. It is impossible to fix most mail issues without the right settings.

Contact your email provider and get the following settings: Incoming mail server, Outgoing mail server, correct username and passowrd settings for mail clients is, some use the full email address and some just what is before the @ symbol. Verify your email password. You can test it by logging into your mail provider's webmail. Ask if the email uses SSL, that is a security measure and their answer will be a simple yes or no.

In general, your mail issues will be limited to not being able to send or to receive mail or both. The first thing you want to do is to verify that your device has access to the internet by opening safari and browsing to a couple websites as a test. If you don't have access that is your issue not mail. Since you have all of your mail settings at this point resolving mail issues is straight forward. If you can't receive mail check you incoming mail settings, if you cant send then its your outgoing settings. Go to Settings> Mail contacts and Calendars and tap on the account you are having issues with. Correct any setting that is wrong. The outgoing settings you can access by taping on the SMTP server field. The incoming are under Advanced.

Note that there is a username and password for both incoming and outgoing severs even though the user name and password in general are the same for both (not the server). Usually the fastest method of fixing mail issues is to delete and simply re add your account into the Mail app. If you have your settings this will take a couple minutes at most. A second very rare mail issue you might come across is what appears to be some odd messages in your inbox. They might indicate that they have no content, no sender and a very odd date on them. If you can't delete them manually from your inbox do a reset on the iOS device by holding the sleep/wake button and home button at the same time until you see an apple appear (ignore the slide to power off bar) and they should disappear.

Note that some internet service providers like Road Runner or Cox in what they claim is an effort to reduce spam will not allow you to send mail unless you are connected to their network. That means you can only send mail if your are connected to wifi at home or in a place that uses their service. The only way to get around this is to send mail using their webmail service. Currently only that AT@T version of the iPhone and iPad 3g actually have an alternate outgoing mail server that you might and I stress might be able to use successfully. If you cannot send mail on an AT@T iPhone or iPad 3G, you can go to Settings> Mail contacts and calendars, tap on your account and under the SMPT server simply turn on the AT&T server. It will only work on 3G not Wi-Fi.

Cannot Send or Receive Email on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

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