SOLVED Help with Outgoing Mail

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Here's a question that should be easy to solve, yet I'm suffering brain cramps figuring it out. I've been using a Mac since 1985, so I'm embarrassed by asking, but here goes.

I recently switched my ISP from AT&T to Comcast, and overall, I'm tickled to death, especially with the speed. I'm keeping AT&T until October or so in order to more smoothly make the transition.

I got my Comcast Mail account set up and running, at least at first. Now it won't let me send mail, only receive. Get the dreaded "select (another) server" window and it still doesn't work.

Then a couple of days ago, I can't send outgoing mail from my sbcglobal.net account, but incoming is fine.

Now today, I can't send or receive anything from my iCloud Mail account.

What's going on??? I thought I had the SMTP settings fine, and I haven't changed anything (other than switching to a different VPN, and I can't see how that would have any effect.

I had this happen once before about four years ago and it took me a week to figure it out. This time I'm drawing blanks, and considering how long I've used a Mac, this should be easy for me to fix.

I'd really appreciate some help. Oh, the Macs:

2013 iMac, macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
2012 MacBook Pro, 2.9GHz i7 CPU, Mojave 10.14.5
 

Cory Cooper

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Hello,

Mail can definitely be a pain. It tends to go awry for no reason.

-Do you have a lot of emails stored in mailboxes on your Mac?
-How many total email addresses - Comcast, AT&T (sbcglobal.net), iCloud...are there others?
-VPN could have an effect, but probably not.
-I assume you setup your accounts using the Internet Accounts preference pane, which then adds them to the Mail app?

C
 
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Hi Cory

— I have three e-mail accounts: sbcglobal.net (which I'll be dropping in October), comcast.net for the lion's share, and iCloud.com for professional stuff that I deem sensitive and might need anywhere/anytime.

Actually, I have two iCloud.com e-mail accounts on my Macs. One if for my mother, who doesn't use Mail, but I have it set up for convenience since she has an iPhone, but no computer. In the three months it's been active, she's only received a half-dozen e-mails, and those were from Apple when I was monkeying around and organizing her photos on the cloud.

— When AT&T was my only ISP, I had perhaps 25 folders, which I've pared down to 4 since I'm transitioning to Comcast. In the meantime, I've simply moved most everything onto my Mac, which includes 18 folders and 6 sub-folders. In one mailbox (on my Mac), I have nearly 1,000 messages which I keep marked as unread for a personal reason. Perhaps I should move those onto another drive, and I will if this is a factor.

— I only have about 12 folders and 12 sub-folders for Comcast, which I hope to keep to a minimum since I've moved all my other stored e-mails to my Mac.

— Being the security freak I've become in the last year or so, I have five different VPN lifetime subscriptions to VPN services (the "free" ones are just okay, and I wanted the full suites/unlimited data/etc. (Security is cheap. My info and my money are worth the expense.) I'm pretty certain my VPNs are not a factor, though.

— I did use the Internet Accounts pane (I wasn't aware there was any other way!).

I know a lot of people trash-talk Apple Mail and use other mail clients, and that's okay. Whatever floats your boat. It's a matter of features and preferences, but Mail has always suited my needs and I've become accustomed to it.

You're right about Mail seemingly going awry all on its own. I remember this happening once before when I had only AT&T, and I had to resort to using their website to simply send mail until I monkeyed around under the hood and inadvertently got things fixed. I just with I could remember exactly what it was I did!

Thanks a bunch!
 

Cory Cooper

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OK, thanks.

Here is a list of the "known" ports for SMTP mail for those providers:

AT&T/SBCGlobal
Comcast
iCloud

iCloud should set itself up automatically...not sure what is happening there. I guess you could try disabling the VPN temporarily, to see if that helps the issue. Check those settings above and let me know what you find.

C
 
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I'd wager my next paycheck that it's a Comcast problem. I fought with them for years and finally switched to Gmail and Yahoo. The trouble with all email programs is they can't leave them alone. Someone has always got to "improve" things with updates. If it ain't broke, don't fix it I say.
 
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OK, thanks.

Here is a list of the "known" ports for SMTP mail for those providers:

AT&T/SBCGlobal
Comcast
iCloud

iCloud should set itself up automatically...not sure what is happening there. I guess you could try disabling the VPN temporarily, to see if that helps the issue. Check those settings above and let me know what you find.

C
I've been up to my butt in alligators while trying to drain the swamp, so I'm only now getting around to another go at getting my outgoing e-mail problem solved.

My outgoing iCloud mail seems to have straightened itself out since I haven't done anything.

(In the meantime, I've been resorting to AT&T's website to send messages from that box, and have simply been auto-forwarding everything in my Comcast/Xfinity account to iCloud, but I'm afraid that will result in confusion on both ends and only get worse with time if I don't get this fixed soon.)

I want to thank you very much for the assist!
 
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Turns out that my AT&T and Comcast outbox settings were set for my iCloud mailbox. Weird, since I hadn't touched the settings since I set up the Comcast account, and it worked like it was supposed to until this problem cropped up out of nowhere a few days ago.

Reset everything the way it supposed to be and I'm rocking' and rollin' again.

Thanks so much for all the help.

To Dendad: You wouldn't believe how many people said the same thing. Personally, I don't know why Comcast has such a bad rep. I've had their cable service for 20 years, and it's 10x more reliable than even our electric service! The only serious outage we had was a few years ago when a service guy had to replace all our "hub" connectors because of corrosion.

I've had AT&T's Uverse "broadband" DSL service for more than ten years. All that time we were supposed to be getting 12 mbps, and only on a good day would I get 5-6 mbps. And often, speed was so slow I couldn't even watch a YouTube video and might as well have dusted off an old 56K modem and hooked that up! AT&T finally admitted they were powerless to get us up-to-speed because, while we have a lot of brand-spanking new fiber optic cable all over my small town, there's a ton of old copper connecting us to Indy. And much of that copper was installed as long ago as the 1960s! (And this was straight from the lips of a senior AT&T tech guy. And our small town isn't high on AT&T's priority list on bringing into the 21st century.) Since last October, they've been giving us our landline and DSL for 50% off. To avoid any contractual complications, we're keeping them active until this October, when we'll cut the cord on the DSL. My wife insists on keeping a landline (why, please don't ask; I don't know and she won't listen to me about this).

For $25 per month less than AT&T charges, I'm paying for a 120 mbps service, and I routinely get more than 180 mbps and sometimes it runs well over 240 mbps. An added benefit is that Comcast has a TON of WiFi hotspots all over the place (including the small town I live in), so my iPhone is almost always within "reach" of one of their hotspots, and their speed is quite respectable, even with 1.1.1.1 AND VPN Unlimited running simultaneously.

For now, I'm not going to complain one bit! But I'm still grateful that I have a network of such knowledgeable people like those here on MacHelp to whom I can turn when I have a problem I'm unable to fix myself (or perhaps too dumb!).
 

Cory Cooper

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Glad it was simple fix.

That has been known to happen at random...the SMTP servers get reassigned. Not sure why, but it does happen.

Be well,

C
 

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