IMAP configuration issues on iPhone and iPad where you get mail server errors and emails won’t send.

Are you having problems with configuring your iPhone and iPad with an IMAP email account?

If you are, you are certainly not alone.  I was experiencing issues and tried many ways to resolve and did a lot of research on the Internet.

Fortunately, I have a business colleague in the USA who owns DivisionX Corporation, www.divisonx.com and between us we seem to have resolved most issues.

What do I use?

I am using an iPad Air 2 and an iPhone 6S running the latest IOS 9.3.4.

It seems that an iPad can cope with the use of SSL but the iPhone has to have it turned off.  This means that you have to use different port numbers when setting up the accounts.  In each case though you can leave the authentication as ‘password’.

Quick word of warning, if these don’t work then you may need to check with the company who provide your email and check what ‘port’ numbers they recommend.

I am sure for some, for whatever reason, this may not work, but having tried it across a few now it seems pretty reliable. Until of course, Apple upgrade its IOS!

So what do we do.

Go to the usual Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Then select and prepare to edit one you have setup.

In the Incoming mail section complete the three boxes.  You may have to put the full email in the ‘Username’ section and not just the prefix before the @ sign.

Now click on SMTP under the ‘outgoing server’ section.

Click on primary mail server

Under the Use SSL, dependent upon on iPhone [Non SSL]and iPad [SSL] I have used;

Authentication set to ‘password’.

iPhone

SSL OFF – SMTP port 25

iPad

SSL ON – SMTP port 465

If you click DONE, it should verify your account settings.

Click back to Account screen and at the bottom you should see ‘ADVANCED’, click on it.

Go down to the bottom section titled ‘Incoming Settings’

Authentication set to ‘password’

In this section there is a IMAP PATH PREFIX.  I discovered that I couldn’t DELETE emails to Trash from my inbox.  To clear this fault just type, in capitals type INBOX next to the word ‘Prefix’.

iPhone

SSL OFF – IMAP port 143

iPad

SSL ON –  IMAP port 993

You should now be able to back out of the screens using the DONE buttons etc, get verification and use your emails seamlessly.

I really hope this works for you, please let me know if you experience any other quirks og Apple IOS!

Many thanks

 

Andy Parkes

Director

Saxon Park Services Limited

www.saxonpark.co.uk