Email not working when on mobile network

[MartyBC]

I am on an iPhone 12 Pro Max using iOS 15.6.

My email settings have worked fine, allowing me to send and receive email using the Apple Mail app.  A few months ago, things changed.  Email still works fine when I am on WiFi but is significantly delayed, or not working at all, when on the EE mobile network.  This appears to be an issue when on 3G, 4G and 5G.

I have checked my email settings with my provider (Fasthosts) and they are correct.

The iPhone settings are correct (for using mobile data for email etc).

If I refresh the mail app screen to force a download, the 'checking for mail' message shows for some minutes, then it fails to connect with the server.

I also have an Apple iCloud email account.  That works on WifI and the mobile network.  I can also access my  email using webmail.

Any suggestions greatfully received. 

[Mothy_Tim]

Hi,

I have this exact problem with all 4 of my Fasthosts accounts! It's been driving me mad for months and just found this thread! What are EE doing about it?

Cheers,

Tim

[Leanne_T]

Hi @Mothy_Tim

I have sent you a private message for some details.

Leanne.

[paulwhalley]

I have managed a work around for my email and the problem connecting to Fasthosts. My iPhone and iPad won’t connect to the Hostname “ mail.livemail.co.uk”. However I have two MX records on my domain with Fasthosts. They are “mail.pwhalley.com” and “ mailserver.pwhalley.com”. Pwhalley.com is my domain. If I use the “mail.pwhalley.com” as the Hostname on the iPad and iPhone, the email works 100% when using iOS mail. The other MX records works for my windows 10 PC. Maybe that will give someone a clue to what’s going on.

[ProfBranestawm]

Don’t mean to be funny here, James, but it’s replies like yours that gets customer service a bad name. If you read through this thread you’ll see that significant numbers (maybe all) of Fasthosts email customers are having this exact issue, which only began a few months ago. Previous postings explain the issue, when it occurs, and that Fasthosts say they have changed nothing. Your colleague Leanne has requested screenshots which we are to provide next time it happens. So your catch all ‘have you checked your settings’ is a real fob-off, of the kind poor service is famous for.

We know that Voda had similar issues and eventually fixed them by changing some secure settings at their end. 

We are hoping that either an EE engineer who changed settings earlier this year, or resulting from the screenshots will recognise the problem. For reference, Fasthosts is a major domain, webserver and email company in the UK, so this is not a small issue.

[James_B]

Hi @ProfBranestawm,

The other forum member you mentioned, has not specifically mentioned being a Fasthosts user, just that they've experienced a similar problem with an email account they have provided for their client. I've moved the conversation to it's own thread to avoid confusion.

I'm aware of the screenshots requested by our support team, who are actively investigating the issue.

Thanks for all the information we've received so far.

James

[ianpiper]

Hi James

I am having exactly the same problem and so are all of my Fasthosts customers, I am getting complaints every day - this really needs fixing ASAP.

Ian

[Jury22]

I have exactly the same issue fasthosts and EE network delayed or not working email switch to 3 network emails straight in.  Called both fasthost and EE all settings are correct its clearly an EE issue so can they please sort this out and advise the solution.

[mbdrake76]

As I may have mentioned on another thread - the problem could be that EE is blocking outgoing SMTP mail on non-TLS/SSL ports to protect their network against abuse (namely from malware).  This is not uncommon for ISPs like EE to do this.  You're essentially forced to use TLS/SSL to send mail.

One thing to check within your email client is that you're using TLS (or SSL) and that you're using port 465, 587 or possibly even 2525 (check with Fasthosts).  It is very important that you're using TLS (or SSL) and that you're not using port 25.  I would also suggest that you retrieve mail over TLS/SSL too (IMAP over TLS/SSL is port 993).

[mbdrake76]

Another thing to check (if there are issues when connected to a Wi-Fi network) is within the iPhone settings (Settings -> Wi-Fi, then select the Wi-Fi profile by clicking the small i next to it) is to untick:

• Private Wi-Fi Address
• Limit IP Address Tracking

For 4G/5G, go to Settings -> Mobile Data -> Mobile Data Options and untick Limit IP Address Tracking there too.  Also ensure that you do not use iCloud+'s Private Relay function (which would apply to either Wi-Fi or 4G/5G connections).

[mbdrake76]

And another thing that's occurred to me is for those that use Apple Mail on iOS is to go to Settings on the iPhone -> Mail -> Privacy Protection and make sure that Protect Mail Activity is turned off.