Outgoing Mail Server gone

[ClemsonDV]

My outgoing mail server has been gone for a while, and its not just bugging the crap out of me since I use my personal mail more. I've been using my phone to send emails instead of my Mac Mini, but I can't stand it anymore.
Can someone help me figure out how to send my emails through my Mac? What do I add and my server information?

 

[Fishrrman]

No one here can help with that, because we don't know who your email provider is, nor do we know your personal info (and you don't want to disclose that, anyway).

You had best call your ISP for email support or see if they have help pages to get email setup and running.

You will need at least your email address and password.
If you normally use IMAP, Mail.app may get you setup automatically.
If you use POP, things get more complicated.

 

[NoBoMac]

If you normally use IMAP, Mail.app may get you setup automatically.

This. If you are using IMAP, can delete the account and re-add it. With IMAP, you will not lose your emails as they are kept on the provider's servers. This day and age, most people are on IMAP, so this method might be the easiest.

Or, go to your provider's help pages and look for SMTP settings information. You then can hit the "+" to add the outgoing server information. Will need to do this if the account is POP and don't want to lose your emails on the Mac.

 

[ClemsonDV]

This. If you are using IMAP, can delete the account and re-add it. With IMAP, you will not lose your emails as they are kept on the provider's servers. This day and age, most people are on IMAP, so this method might be the easiest.

Or, go to your provider's help pages and look for SMTP settings information. You then can hit the "+" to add the outgoing server information. Will need to do this if the account is POP and don't want to lose your emails on the Mac.

I have IMAP setup for iCloud, but when i delete and reactivate, i still have the same issue with outgoing server.

I update my outgoing server and it holds for 5 secs and switches back to None on the list.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Would you mind disclosing who your ISP is?
I'd like to see their email support pages...

 

[komatsu]

Or OP, if your email is connected to your own website domain, let us know who it is hosted with e.g. GoDaddy, Siteground etc. Because the IMAP settings will be dependent on that.

 

[NoBoMac]

Believe OP is using iCloud/Me. Per their reply to my post and only the iCloud icon peeking out from behind the SMTP config box.

Not at home to look at preferences and permissions, but, might be a corrupt plist file and or messed up permissions: might need to wipe those and start fresh. Or at minimum, correct permissions.

 

[HenryAZ]

You can forget about the Server program and configure Postfix, which is in /usr/local/etc/postfix. It's all command line configuration, but the Postfix site has excellent help files, and Postfix makes a fine smtp server.

 

[komatsu]

You can forget about the Server program and configure Postfix, which is in /usr/local/etc/postfix. It's all command line configuration, but the Postfix site has excellent help files, and Postfix makes a fine smtp server.

What is Postfix Henry? A universal SMTP server?

 

[chrfr]

You can forget about the Server program and configure Postfix, which is in /usr/local/etc/postfix. It's all command line configuration, but the Postfix site has excellent help files, and Postfix makes a fine smtp server.

This has nothing to do with running a mail server on a Mac. The OP's Mail app has lost its settings to send mail.

 

[HenryAZ]

What is Postfix Henry? A universal SMTP server?

Yes, a highly respected and well-supported by the author program. It runs on Unix variants and has been included with OS X/macOS for a number of years. It is minimally configured as it comes, but by editing a few files (at the Terminal prompt) you can turn it into your own smtp server. I use it on a FreeBSD box for sending out all of my emails. But I always configure the one that comes with macOS to make it a personal smtp server (just because, and I occasionally use it, but all my email clients point to the FreeBSD copy). Once you do it once, you can pretty much copy your config files from one macOS version to the next. Within /private/etc/postfix, there are two files to configure, main.cf and master.cf. Knowledge of using the vi editor is very useful, but there are other command line text editors available as well. You will also need to make a couple of changes to /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.postfix.master.plist. This requires editing as root (better to edit all the files that way so the permissions remain the same), so you will need to disable SIP temporarily to edit anything in /System/Library. Then you will have it running, and listening for connections, all the time. A fixed IP is necessary if you plan to use it as a regular server sending to the outside world, but if you've been running the masOS server program for the same purpose, you likely have the static IP anyway.

Before doing any editing, I suggest making copies of each config file by copying it to something like master.cf.dist or master.cf.saved.