This page will assist you to troubleshoot the problem where you are unable to send email from iphone. There are several factors that can cause this issue to happen.
Phone Internet Connectivity
Ensure that your phone has internet connectivity. Open up the browser on your iphone and attempt to visit any website, such as apple.com or google.com If the page doesnt loads, move on to next step.
Swap the internet connection type
What i mean by the above will be to switch the internet connection. If you are on wifi connection, turn it off and temporary use the celluar data connection. And vice versa. If apple.com or google.com still doesnt load, attempt to restart your iphone to check if the problem is resolved.
Check if the Email Login Credential is correct
An incorrect email credential will prevent you from signing in to receive or to send email. Try to recall if you have did any password reset recently. Or if you could have upgrade your email security by enabling 2 step verification. Performing such changes will affect the email connection. You might need to request for an Application specific password if 2SV is enabled.
Attempt to sign in using the web browser to check if the credential is correct. Eg, if you are using gmail or gsuite, try to sign in via gmail.com to check your email credentials.
Depending on the initial email setup in the iphone, you might need to update the outgoing email credential as well in order to send email. (Steps below)
Check SMTP Email settings to troubleshoot unable to send email from iphone
If you are able to receive email but unable to send email from iphone, it should be the outgoing server credential problem. To update the SMTP server settings in iphone, perform the following.
- Click on the “Settings” Gear Icon
- Settings Page should appear. Scroll down until you reach “Passwords & Accounts“
- Once in “Passwords & Accounts“, you should be able to see the list of accounts in your mobile phone. Select the email account having this issue, in this scenario, i will select “Problematic email” for troubleshooting.
- You should see the above image once the email account which cannot send outgoing email is selected. Click on the account again and you will be brought to the “Account Settings” Page (image below).
- Since you are able to receive email, we will ignore the “Incoming Mail Server” settings. We do not wish to mess up the entire email account. At this page (image above), select Outgoing Mail Server > “SMTP“
- Select “Primary Server“
- Ensure that all the outgoing mail server settings are correct. You might need to check with your email administrator for the settings. If you are using a “free” email account, such as gmail.com or hotmail.com, refer to this page for more information on their respective email server settings. (in progress)
- Once you have re-enter the details, click “Done” at the top right. If all goes well, you will have a green tick on all the settings. And return to the Mail app to try to resend your email again. Else retry or verify the settings again. If it still doesnt work, try again in around 2 hours time or contact your email administrator.
Check with Email Service Provider
Some email providers have a limit on the amount of outgoing emails to prevent spam sending. If you have been sending emails fast and furious during the past hour, check with them if you might have hit this limit.
Another method will be to wait for another 2 hours and attempt to send the email again.
If it is still not sending email out, contact them and inform that you have an problem sending email out from your iphone.
Removal of Existing Email account which has problem sending email from iphone
If you have done the above troubleshooting and you are still not able to send emails out from your iphone, last attempt will be to remove the existing email account and to re-add the email after the removal.
(If you need image guide for this, refer to the “Check SMTP Email settings” above)
- Click on the “Settings” Gear Icon
- Settings Page should appear. Scroll down until you reach “Passwords & Accounts“
- Once in “Passwords & Accounts“, you should be able to see the list of account type in your iphone. Select the correct account to be deleted and click on it. In this example, i will select “Problematic Account“
- Another page will appear and click on “Delete Account“
- A final warning will appear. Once “Delete Account” is selected,data related to this email account in the phone will be removed.
- Once the email account is removed, proceed to this link, how to add email to iphone to add the problematic email address again (in progress)
** Removal of existing email account might wipe the email data off the iphone. You will need to login to your email service provider’s webmail and ensure that data is intact before performing this step. When in doubt, look for a someone knowledgeable such as tech savvy friend or local IT service provider near you to ensure that your email data remains after you remove the email account from your iphone **
There is a guide by apple as well on this particular issue as well.
Link: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201419