Cannot send mail the message was rejected by the server iPhone

If you can’t send emails from the Mail app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, there are a few things you can try.

Before you begin

There are a few things to keep in mind and check:

• When you complete an iOS or iPadOS backup in iCloud or iTunes, it backs up your mail settings, but not your emails. If you delete or change your email account settings, previously downloaded emails might be removed from your device.
• Make sure that your device is connected to the internet.
• Check with your email service provider to find out if there's a service outage.
• If you can't access your emails, or you can't send and receive messages with your @icloud.com email address, learn what to do.

Check the Outbox for unsent emails

If you get a message that says your email wasn’t sent, then that email goes to your Outbox. Check your Outbox and try to send the email again with these steps:

1. In Mail, go to your list of mailboxes.
2. Tap Outbox. If you don’t see an Outbox, then your email was sent.
   
   
3. Tap an email in the Outbox. Make sure that the recipient’s email address is correct.
4. Tap Send.    

Check your email address and password

If Mail asks you to enter a password for your email account, make sure that your password is correct. To check your email address and password, sign in to your email provider's website.

If you still get a user name or password error, contact your email provider or system administrator.

Contact your email provider or system administrator

1. Contact your email provider or check their status web page to see if there's a service outage. 
2. Ask your email provider or system administrator if you turned on any security features or restrictions, like two-step verification, for your email account. You may need a special password or have to request authorisation from your email provider to send and receive email on your device.
3. Check your email account settings with your email provider or system administrator to make sure that they're correct.

Remove your email account and set it up again

1. On your computer, sign in to your email provider’s website. Make sure that all your emails are there or make sure that your emails are saved somewhere other than on your iOS or iPadOS device.
2. On your device, go to Settings > Mail, then tap Accounts.
3. Tap the email account that you want to remove.
4. Tap Delete Account.
5. Add your account again.

If the steps in this article don't help, contact your email service provider for more information.

Published Date: October 01, 2021

Convenience at your finger tips – That’s why mobile devices are now widely used for sending and receiving emails.

But when email errors pop up, it can be a nuisance for users. At Bobcares, we resolve many email errors as a part of our Technical Support Services for web hosting companies.

One such email error is “email address rejected by server” that is seen when iPhone or iPad customers try to send mails from their Apple devices.

Today, we’ll see the main reasons why users get “email address rejected by server” error and how we help to resolve it.

“Email address rejected by server” – when do you see this error?

Apple devices come with their custom iCloud backup. Most users backup their phone settings to this backup, and restore it when needed.

These backups are useful in cases where users migrate to a new Apple device or when they restore their lost data in existing device.

While the backups work fine in most cases, in certain scenarios, customers report that they get this error when trying to send mails after a backup restore.

“Cannot Send Mail. A copy has been placed in your Outbox. The recipient email address rejected by server because it does not allow relaying.”

The same error is reported by iPad and iPhone users who configure their emails for the first time in their devices. In certain cases, an already working mail stops functioning all of a sudden.

Customers who report this errors are usually able to download or fetch mails into their mobile devices, and get this error only when trying to send mails.

What causes ’email address rejected by server’ error in iPhone devices

In our experience handling the error ’email address rejected by server’ in iPhone devices, we’ve noticed these as the major causes.

1. Incorrect mail settings

The major cause for the error ’email address rejected by server’, is the incorrect mail server settings in iPhone. These includes aspects such as:

• Wrong mail server name
• SMTP server not ON
• SSL authentication not turned on
• Incorrect SMTP ports

When the iPhone is not able to connect to the mail server at the specified port, it will give out the error “Cannot Send Mail. A copy has been placed in your Outbox. The recipient email address rejected by server because it does not allow relaying.”

When you configure mails in your iPhone, you need to specify both the incoming and outgoing mail servers associated with that account, along with the username and password.

The iPhone settings show outgoing mail server details as optional, and so many users tend to ignore those fields.

2. Wrong password

Periodic password resets are required for email account security. But sometimes users forget to update this changed password in their mobile mail settings.

In cases where accounts are migrated or deleted or re-configured, the password may not be updated in the mobile device, and that can lead to email errors.

3. Mail server errors

It may happen that in some cases, the mail server is facing errors accepting connections to its SMTP port. This can be due to any firewall settings or other email server configuration errors.

4. Software bugs

iOS releases periodic software updates for their devices. Some of these versions such as iOS 11 have some bugs that cause email delivery errors.

5. Incomplete copy of info

When we restore a backup onto a different device some info is not copied over. For example, email password. So, we need to configure the account again.

We can do it by opening “Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > select the account > account name”. Then tap on SMTP (under the ‘Outgoing Mail Server’ heading) and then tap on Primary Server. Then we can try entering email account and password.

How to fix ’email address rejected by server’ error in iPhone devices

The primary thing to fix is the email settings in the mobile. The parameters to be checked are:

• Email account username
• Email account password
• Incoming and Outgoing server details
• SMTP port
• SSL support

iPhone mail settings

To update the mail settings in iPhone,

1. Go to Settings -> Mail Account settings. In the Account settings, choose “Outgoing Mail Server” section and tap on “SMTP.”

2. Enable your Primary Server by tapping on ‘On’. Fill in the username and password under Outgoing Mail Server.

3. For SSL settings, ‘Use SSL’ must be turned on and Authentication set to Password. For SSL, the port is 465. Otherwise, it is port 25.

4. Update the settings by clicking on “Done” and the mails should work fine without errors.

Email account settings in iPhone

If the device mail settings are fine, but still the error persists, the issue can be related to mail server or due to connectivity issues with the iPhone and the mail server.

We then check the mail server to see if there are any configuration errors, DNS issues, routing mistakes or firewall blocks that could be causing the error, and fix them.

Conclusion

“Email address rejected by server” error happens in iPhone devices mainly due to wrong mail settings. Today we have discussed the top 5 causes for the error and how our Support Engineers fix them.

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