Mail has gone stupid and I can’t fix it

[machenryr]

I was out of town. A few days before returning my email in Mail stopped working. Both on my iPhone and my MacBookPro. I got home yesterday and same on my 2019 Mac Pro. I’m using Comcast. I changed the password for the account. It seemed to work except for outgoing mail. So I deleted the account and started a fresh one. It’s still not sending mail. Any ideas? I was traveling and using insecure wifi sometimes. Any ideas?

The web Xfinity/Comcast email works perfectly fine. It’s the Mac Apple mail clients that don’t.

 

[machenryr]

I am not just trying to bump this. But nothing I’ve done so far has fixed my ability to send email and Comcast is hopeless in helping. I tried to test by send an email to myself and entered my name. But what came up under my name were two different email addresses. One was DEFINITELY NOT ME. I’ve never seen this before. Leads me to believe someone has hacked me. Am I jumping to conclusions? How do I fix this? I use malwarebytes. As I said I was out of town for a few weeks. Airports. Planes. WiFi. About 3-4 days ago my email stopped receiving mail. Ideas please??

 

[mpetrides]

Have you tried to contact AppleCare since you say you only have a problem with the Apple Mail client and not with Comcast email apps?

 

[Adora]

Did you try another 3rd-Party email app like Firefox, to get sure it's an Apple Mail problem and not a settings problem or something else?

I don't know Comcast and how much you are into setting up email accounts. In Apple Mail on Mac don't go to "Accounts" in the menu, the "real" account settings are in "Settings".

Maybe there is just something wrong with the SMTP setting for outgoing Mails. There are mostly two different secure settings with ports like 465 or 587 and in some setting you have to enter the password for SMTP and in another it's just working without a password or is using the same as what is set for IMAP. Sometimes it's even set to an SMTP server of a different provider. I don't know much about this, but those settings sometimes confuse themselves somehow. I always use port 465 for the outgoing server and enter email address and password manually for SMTP in the settings. This seems always to work with any provider.

Sometimes when I use VPN and my location changes some Email providers also ask for passwords again or even stop working completely.




Don't know if you already looked there, but you will find every setting on that website:

How To Set Up Your Xfinity Email Address With an Email Program

Learn how to set up email client programs for Xfinity Email.

www.xfinity.com

If you saw an address that wasn't your's it could be an alias or the main address from your Comcast account, that is preconfigured. In Apple Mail you see Aliases automatically only for icloud.com-addresses.

My Internet provider also offers email and there is a strange address preconfigured that contains numbers only.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Seems to me that Comcast not too long ago started using Yahoo's servers for their email.

I've had problems with Yahoo's servers myself, even though I don't use my comcast address much (I'm not even with comcast any more, but they let you keep their email).

Seems like "the pathways" I've seen to fix things are:
FIRST WAY.
1. DELETE, and then RE-create your comcast email account (on the Mac). Again, you're just deleting the Mail.app account on the Mac, NOT on comcast itself.

2. Then, using the "internet Accounts" pref/settings pane, RE-create it. When Mail.app is opened again, the emails on the server should "flow back into it" and will still be there.

SECOND WAY.
I think this involves going through the steps above, and then using a link (I believe it's on the comcast email help pages somewhere) that lets you create an "application specific password" for Mail.app to access comcast.

This second way may not be needed if the first way works for you.
I seem to recall that it's only for folks using older versions of the Mac OS that may be "behind" on authentication procedures.

Hope something here is of use to you...

 

[machenryr]

OP:

Seems to me that Comcast not too long ago started using Yahoo's servers for their email.

I've had problems with Yahoo's servers myself, even though I don't use my comcast address much (I'm not even with comcast any more, but they let you keep their email).

Seems like "the pathways" I've seen to fix things are:
FIRST WAY.
1. DELETE, and then RE-create your comcast email account (on the Mac). Again, you're just deleting the Mail.app account on the Mac, NOT on comcast itself.

2. Then, using the "internet Accounts" pref/settings pane, RE-create it. When Mail.app is opened again, the emails on the server should "flow back into it" and will still be there.

SECOND WAY.
I think this involves going through the steps above, and then using a link (I believe it's on the comcast email help pages somewhere) that lets you create an "application specific password" for Mail.app to access comcast.

This second way may not be needed if the first way works for you.
I seem to recall that it's only for folks using older versions of the Mac OS that may be "behind" on authentication procedures.

Hope something here is of use to you...

Well thanks. I deleted the account and made a new fresh one. Still can’t send email. I can receive but just cannot send.

 

[machenryr]

BTW I can get email from Firefox but that’s not how I get my mail. I mean I have to set it up. And remember. Buy Apple MAIL doesn’t work. I previously changed my password and set it up again. Nope. Then I just deleted the account and redid it. Normally in the past they fixed things. Not now.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Did you look into that "application-specific password" that I mentioned above?

Go to this page:

Ways to securely access Yahoo Mail | Mail for Desktop Help - SLN27791

Maintain security while you access your account. Find out the best ways to use Yahoo Mail to keep your email secure and private.

help.yahoo.com

... and look at "use an app password":

Generate and manage 3rd-party app passwords | Mail for Desktop Help - SLN15241

If you use a 3rd-party email app to access your Yahoo Mail account, you may need a special code to give that app permission to access your Yahoo account. Learn how to create and delete app passwords.

help.yahoo.com

There is a link there to create an app password.

You MIGHT need to try this for Apple's Mail.app,
WRITE DOWN the password for safekeeping.
Then try to create a new comcast.net account using the "Internet accounts" pref pane/settings.

Again, I'm thinking that Comcast is now using Yahoo's email servers and logon routines.
That's why this is necessary.

I can't promise this will work.
Just a suggestion...

 

[machenryr]

OMG. I finally got it fixed. And just so everyone doesn’t it was me being a complete idiot, on the phone with Apple Support for about an hour and a half. We tried several things, several times, back and forth until finally it seem to magically work. The source of the problem may have been iCloud, but we really don’t know. It was just a weird bug. Just some weird glitch. It impaled the leading accounts, creating new passwords, more accounts, creating more passwords. All this between Phone and my Mac pro.
So anyway that’s my report. Thanks for the help.

 

[machenryr]

OP:

Did you look into that "application-specific password" that I mentioned above?

Go to this page:

Ways to securely access Yahoo Mail | Mail for Desktop Help - SLN27791

Maintain security while you access your account. Find out the best ways to use Yahoo Mail to keep your email secure and private.

help.yahoo.com

... and look at "use an app password":

Generate and manage 3rd-party app passwords | Mail for Desktop Help - SLN15241

If you use a 3rd-party email app to access your Yahoo Mail account, you may need a special code to give that app permission to access your Yahoo account. Learn how to create and delete app passwords.

help.yahoo.com

There is a link there to create an app password.

You MIGHT need to try this for Apple's Mail.app,
WRITE DOWN the password for safekeeping.
Then try to create a new comcast.net account using the "Internet accounts" pref pane/settings.

Again, I'm thinking that Comcast is now using Yahoo's email servers and logon routines.
That's why this is necessary.

I can't promise this will work.
Just a suggestion...

I did. For some reason it took many attempts and passwords for it to click. Thank you very much for your help!