iPhone and iPod touch: Issues sending email

  • Last Modified: July 10, 2008
  • Article: TS1426
  • Old Article: 305634

Symptoms

Some customers may experiences issues when trying to send email from their iPhone or iPod touch. To troubleshoot these issues, follow the recommendations below.

Products Affected

iPhone, iPod touch, iPhone 3G

Resolution

Check Network Connectivity

Make sure that you see one of the following icons at the top of the iPhone or iPod touch1 screen to verify that you are connected to a data network. If you don't see one of the icons below, verify that airplane mode is off. If airplane mode is off, then you will need to connect to a Wi-Fi network with iPhone or iPod touch or move to an area that has a cellular data network signal with iPhone. If you do see an icon, verify that other Internet applications on your device work properly such as Safari or Weather.

  • 3G cellular data network2 -
  • EDGE cellular data network2 -
  • GPRS cellular data network -
  • Wi-Fi data network -

For Information on troubleshooting network connection issues, consult one of the troubleshooting assistants below.

Check settings

Verify that the settings that have been entered for your email account match the settings recommended by your email provider. To change email account settings, touch the Settings icon on the Home screen and then tap Email, Contacts, Calendars. Note that some Internet service provider's settings only work when connected to that provider's network. Check with your Internet service provider to see if there is an alternate method for sending mail when you are not on their network. If there's not an alternate method, consult the recommendations below for a ways to configure your email account to send mail from iPhone when connected to a cellular data network or consider creating a new email account.

Configure iPhone Mail for a cellular data network

In some cases, simply turning off Wi-Fi will allow you to send email using your existing settings when connected to a cellular data network. To turn Wi-Fi off, touch the Settings icon on the Home screen and select the Wi-Fi option. If you are still unable to send email you may be able to setup iPhone to send mail using your wireless carrier's outgoing mail server. In some cases, your wireless carrier's outgoing mail server will only work on their cellular data network and Wi-Fi should be turned off in these cases. iPhone 2.0 software or later, may already include your wireless carriers outgoing mail server setting. To enable it, follow these steps, otherwise contact your wireless carrier to obtain the correct setttings.

  1. Tap the Settings icon from the Home screen and select the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option.
  2. In the Accounts section, choose the email account you would like to edit.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select SMTP server listed in the Outgoing Mail Server section.
  4. In the Other SMTP Servers section, select the entry for your wireless carrier and toggle the setting from OFF to ON.

Create a New Free Email Account

If your current email provider restricts sending mail when using either Wi-Fi or cellular data networks and you need to use both types of networks , consider creating a free Yahoo!, Gmail, or AOL Mail account. You'll be able to setup these accounts easily on iPhone and in many cases, you can forward email from your existing account to your new email address3. To setup a free Yahoo!, Gmail, or AOL email account visit the sites below:

Additional Information

Notes

  1. Wi-Fi only
  2. 3G support requires iPhone 3G. EDGE support is available with iPhone 3G and the original iPhone.
  3. For information about forwarding email from your current email account, please consult your email provider's support documentation.

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