Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Traveldog

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 9, 2024
11
3
HI, Im new to the group and have a old Imac late 2009. Im looking to upgrade to a newer mac soon but I just need to fix a problem on the old one Im using... to hold me over.

So the problem is that my outgoing mail has stopped working. I can receive mail from bell (canadian) the problem only exists on my Imac. I can still send from my ipad and my iphone using the same server. If I log into the bell.net platform on the internet I can send and receive and password works.

So it seem obvious that the old Imac is the issue.... I have tried removing the Bell/sympatico mail account and adding it again and still the outgoing does not work . The message I get is regarding the password "is wrong" but its not. I am at a loss now of what to try.

Any help would be great to hold me over till I have time to get new imac. Thx
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,233
13,303
Older Macs (with older versions of the OS) seem to be having problems dealing with some ISPs and email providers.

I've had some myself.
I'm no expert, but I believe it might be due to changes in authentication routines that the old OS's aren't able to fully support (I welcome correction from others in-the-know).

Something that worked for me previously (not a Bell/sympatico customer):
You need to go to their support pages to see if they offer some method to create an "application-specific password" for the mail app you're using (is it Apple's "Mail.app" ??).

Then you delete the old account, and create a new one using the application specific password.

If even that won't work, you might have to resort to using that email provider's web page access (if they have one). But again, on an old Mac (with an old OS), perhaps even the old Safari won't work correctly -- you may need an updated browser (such as Firefox "extended support").

Right now I have a notice from Frontier that email with them will stop working in about 4 more weeks unless I make changes to my email account with them. I'm just going to "wait until it breaks" to fix it...
 
Last edited:

pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,145
14,572
New Hampshire
It's possible that it's a certificate issue on the operating system. This is becoming a problem on older iMacs.

I have one of these but haven't turned it on in a year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fishrrman

Traveldog

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 9, 2024
11
3
Older Macs (with older versions of the OS) seem to be having problems dealing with some ISPs and email providers.

I've had some myself.
I'm no expert, but I believe it might be due to changes in authentication routines that the old OS's aren't able to fully support (I welcome correction from others in-the-know).

Something that worked for me previously (not a Bell/sympatico customer):
You need to go to their support pages to see if they offer some method to create an "application-specific password" for the mail app you're using (is it Apple's "Mail.app" ??).

Then you delete the old account, and create a new one using the application specific password.

If even that won't work, you might have to resort to using that email provider's web page access (if they have one). But again, on an old Mac (with an old OS), perhaps even the old Safari won't work correctly -- you may need an updated browser (such as Firefox "extended support").

Right now I have a notice from Frontier that email with them will stop working in about 4 more weeks unless I make changes to my email account with them. I'm just going to "wait until it breaks" to fix it...
Hi thank you for all the responses, I am still not able to get it to work. But I wondered if I was to switch my outgoing email to my gmail account even if its just to send emails. ? is this doable ? and how would I do it. thx.
 

pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,145
14,572
New Hampshire
Hi thank you for all the responses, I am still not able to get it to work. But I wondered if I was to switch my outgoing email to my gmail account even if its just to send emails. ? is this doable ? and how would I do it. thx.

I'll hook mine up tonight and play around with it to see if I can send email from it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.