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Sending emails using gmail in "Mail" app, wtf

Arkanok

Arkanok

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 13, 2007
552
115
More times than not, when I try and send an email using my gmail account through the "Mail" app on my iPhone 3G (with 3.0) I keep getting the following error:

"Cannot Send Mail
The connection to the outgoing server "smtp.gmail.com" failed. Additional Outgoing Mail Servers can be configured in settings > mail, contacts and calendars"

As far as receiving emails (with or without images) it works just fine, I get no problems at all.

Is this something strange with the gmail servers or do I have some setting that's off? I can't figure out what the problem could be though because sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, and I never actually change anything in the settings.
 
Arkanok said:
More times than not, when I try and send an email with an image attachment using my gmail account through the "Mail" app on my iPhone 3G (with 3.0) I keep getting the following error:

"Cannot Send Mail
The connection to the outgoing server "smtp.gmail.com" failed. Additional Outgoing Mail Servers can be configured in settings > mail, contacts and calendars"

As far as receiving emails (with or without images) it works just fine, I get no problems at all.

Is this something strange with the gmail servers or do I have some setting that's off? I can't figure out what the problem could be though because sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, and I never actually change anything in the settings.
Click to expand...

My iPhone is using a GMail account and I sent a video last night I took on the iPhone and it sent just fine. I was connected via WiFi. You sure you are not just getting a timeout or something?
 
cobalt135 said:
My iPhone is using a GMail account and I sent a video last night I took on the iPhone and it sent just fine. I was connected via WiFi. You sure you are not just getting a timeout or something?
Click to expand...

Not sure, but I've tried multiple times just now and all emails are basically hanging during the send process. The progress bar at the bottom isn't moving at all, then after a few moments, I get that error.

It's really weird. But it has happened in the past, and after an attempt or two it works, but I'm getting sick of it happening cos it causes me to go nuts trying to figure out why it's going wonky.
 
did you set it up as a 'gmail' account or 'other' and use gmail settings
 
This has happened to my girlfriend before. Your account may have been captcha locked by Google. If an account has been locked, imap and pop capabilities are crippled. Not sure why they do it, but it may be because they feel the account has been comprised and spammers are using your credentials to spam via their smtp servers.

Try this link and see if it fixes it. It did for my girlfriend.

https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

After unlocking your account, I would change the password to be safe.
 
mrtune said:
This has happened to my girlfriend before. Your account may have been captcha locked by Google. If an account has been locked, imap and pop capabilities are crippled. Not sure why they do it, but it may be because they feel the account has been comprised and spammers are using your credentials to spam via their smtp servers.

Try this link and see if it fixes it. It did for my girlfriend.

https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

After unlocking your account, I would change the password to be safe.
Click to expand...

I've tried everything that has been suggested here (including deleting the account from my phone and readding it, doing the captcha change and changing my password) but nothing is working. It still refuses to send emails as it should.

I really don't get it and it's really irritating me because I use emails to send photos rather than MMS (since mms costs) and it's always failing!
 
Mine did that to me a couple of times a few days ago, but the issue seems to have fixed itself. I didn't change any settings, it just stopped happening. Sorry, I don't have much more to offer as help :(
 
Coraline said:
Mine did that to me a couple of times a few days ago, but the issue seems to have fixed itself. I didn't change any settings, it just stopped happening. Sorry, I don't have much more to offer as help :(
Click to expand...

That's ok, at least it lets me know I'm not the only one having this problem from time to time.
 
This is a consistent problem I have also had on and off again for over a year now, but I haven't encountered too many people with the same problem. It just happens randomly and then usually disappears.
 
Its a setup issue

Go to settings-> Mail-> (your gmail account)-> SMTP-> click on "primary server"

make sure your password for outgoing SMTP is there. I bet its not.
 
glide said:
Its a setup issue

Go to settings-> Mail-> (your gmail account)-> SMTP-> click on "primary server"

make sure your password for outgoing SMTP is there. I bet its not.
Click to expand...

Well when I do that, the information in the server isn't editable because it's the primary server for the account. However, I can see the information that's in it and I can tell you that there are dots (the ones that hide the password) so I can't verify that it's the correct password, nor can I change it, but there's one there.
 
Here's a quick update to anybody who cares to follow.

Sometimes if I let it be for about 5 - 10 minutes, it'll send. Unfortunately though, it takes that long to actually send, providing it does send.

I don't get this, are the gmail servers slow? I have another email address assigned by my ISP but I prefer using my gmail by a long shot since that's the address everybody that I know uses for me.

This is just a thought, but do you think it's possible that there's some sort of conflict between my iPhone's cell provider and gmail?
 
if you see a password is there what are the server and port settings?

If you can receive new messages, but just not send them this is where your problem is...
 
glide said:
Its a setup issue

Go to settings-> Mail-> (your gmail account)-> SMTP-> click on "primary server"

make sure your password for outgoing SMTP is there. I bet its not.
Click to expand...

Did it for me... new 3GS, never had this problem on my old 2G (even with OS 3.0). I think the restore missed this setting?
 
Arkanok said:
Here's a quick update to anybody who cares to follow.

Sometimes if I let it be for about 5 - 10 minutes, it'll send. Unfortunately though, it takes that long to actually send, providing it does send.

I don't get this, are the gmail servers slow? I have another email address assigned by my ISP but I prefer using my gmail by a long shot since that's the address everybody that I know uses for me.

This is just a thought, but do you think it's possible that there's some sort of conflict between my iPhone's cell provider and gmail?
Click to expand...

In the past I've had problems with google that were solved by switching to one of their alternative SMTP ports. Futhermore every time I tracked down any issues they were definitely caused by my ISP (including the phone provider as an ISP)
 
Are you using WiFi? Who supplies your internet? I have the same problem, but the issue is that my provider blocks certain ports for security reasons, and thus when sending gmail, I have the same problem, yet when sending official university mail (using the university SMTP), there is no problem at all.

Are you able to send gmail from a mail client on your computer? Try to set it up, and if you cannot, then you know that's the issue, not the setup on the iPhone.
 
dauerhippo said:
Are you using WiFi? Who supplies your internet? I have the same problem, but the issue is that my provider blocks certain ports for security reasons, and thus when sending gmail, I have the same problem, yet when sending official university mail (using the university SMTP), there is no problem at all.

Are you able to send gmail from a mail client on your computer? Try to set it up, and if you cannot, then you know that's the issue, not the setup on the iPhone.
Click to expand...

Hm this is a good point and gave me a thought. He says it works after waiting 5-10 minutes. Perhaps then he is on a wifi network blocking access, but after 5-10 minutes the wifi has disconnected and an immediate attempt to send goes over the already connected 3G/whatever connection...

I'd disable wifi to check this.
 
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