E-Mail and Xfinity Connect Help

[Mike20878]

This just happened to my wife today.  Apple said that due to the new two step verification process that Comcast has implemented it's screwing with the iPhone's ability to access email.  She was on the phone with them for 2 hrs 45 mins today.  She's now on the phone with Comcast.  At first I thought Beth's post was the solution then I realized it's from last October.  This is a new issue.  Apple says it's possible there are new ports to use but they don't know them.

[cbudny]

Bear in mind that today Comcast had a serious email outage that lasted several hours... You may have simply encountered that.  I was unable to get emails on my iPhone Mail (which was working fine this morning) and on my PC---only worked at the m.comcast site.  Then later this evening, after 8pm, all went back to normal without me doing a single thing---PC and iPhone---email restored.  Ah, Comcast.  

[Mike20878]

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cbudny wrote:

Bear in mind that today Comcast had a serious email outage that lasted several hours... You may have simply encountered that.  I was unable to get emails on my iPhone Mail (which was working fine this morning) and on my PC---only worked at the m.comcast site.  Then later this evening, after 8pm, all went back to normal without me doing a single thing---PC and iPhone---email restored.  Ah, Comcast.  

---

Oh, so the outage wouldn't have affected the site?

[cbudny]

Dunno---for several hours, I could not access email on my iPhone (using the phone's Mail feature, not an app) nor could I log into Comcast.net to check email.  Then just as mysteriously, several hours later (and after many failed attempts every 15 minutes or so) it all began working again.  During that outage of 3-4 hours, the iPhone gave a message about username and password (which is what it was doing back in March for a few days, during the other big unannounced outage.)

[Mike20878]

Apparently Comcast support was useless.  My wife could only get the port numbers from them and I guess they had no clue about an outage.  All of a sudden her phone started downloading 200 messages about a half hour ago.  But she's having trouble sending still.

[BethKatz]

My pictures of the settings work now despite my posting them a while ago. I updated iOS this week to the latest version. 

The outage on May 9 (for at least two hours) affected all devices. But it seems to be working fine now.

Carefully check that your settings match mine. You need to set the password in two places - incoming and outgoing. Incoming and outgoing ports are different. Make sure you tap Done and back out of the settings.

[Mike20878]

My wife said that Comcast support gave her two different port numbers, saying those were incorrect.  I'll get them from her and post here.

[BethKatz]

They are other ports that work. Some need authentication, some don't. I know that the ones I show work.

For outgoing, hostname smtp.comcast.net, use SSL, password authentication, port 465

For incoming, hostname mail.comcast.net, use SSL, password authentication, port 995

The username should not have the @comcast.net on the end.

[lmcro3pete]

Please let us know if she finds a solution!  It seems that comcast doesn't have an answer and either does Apple.  So, we wait in limbo!

[BethKatz]

Your iOS device should be able to send and receive mail through Comcast. Make sure your password meets Comcast's current password guidelines. Then follow the pictures I've posted earlier in this thread. Be sure to set both the incoming and outgoing passwords. Be sure you are using mail.comcast.net and smtp.comcast.net Some of the ports you read about use SSL while others do not. Don't mix and match.

Pictures are at this post in this thread.

I wonder if some people have multiple SMTP servers enabled. What is your primary server? Is it the only one that is on? 

Have you tried moving your messages from your inbox in Xfinity Connect into a temporary folder and then sending yourself email?

[ASDL]

I have the iPhone 4s. I have 3 Comcast emails addresses on my phone. 2 are working fine but one of them has stopped receiving email. I have turned the phone off and on several times as well as deleted the account from the phone and added the account back on. Nothing works! I have followed the images posted earlier. I have set and reset the settings a million times. Now it is giving me a message that it can't receive mail due to settings where before there was no message, just very old emails. My most recent email showing is march 22. So utterly frustrating. Thoughts?? Thanks

[lmcro3pete]

I keep getting a message that reads your user name or password is incorrect though I have not changed my password or user id.

[kalandau]

thank you soo much

[BethKatz]

ASDL, it sounds to me like there is a message in your mailbox on the server from about March 22 that is causing a problem.

Please log in to the web-based Xfinity Connect for the account having the problem.

Create a new folder.

Move the messages from March 21 and the next few days into the new folder. Then send yourself an email and try to fetch mail on your iPhone.

I'm guessing that will work and you will get a flood of messages. When it settles down, move the messages that you put in the folder back into your Inbox. If you do that slowly, you'll find which message is being a problem. Put it someplace else.

[BethKatz]

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lmcro3pete wrote:

I keep getting a message that reads your user name or password is incorrect though I have not changed my password or user id.

---

Can you sign in to the web-based Xfinity Connect? 

[bjnsteve]

Hi Beth

Your post helped cure my outgoing mail problem but now I can't receive email.  I tried sending to myself and the email came up on my computer but not on the Iphone...I have an Iphone 4 and some of the info on the pages didn't totally match the ones you put on your post but I got to the incoming and outgoing pages and changed the port numbers to those you suggested.  Now my phone does the "checking for mail" thing for quite a while and then says...the mail server "mail.comcast.net" is not responding.  Verify that you have entered the correct account info in Mail settings.   Did I miss something?

BJ

[BethKatz]

Make sure you update the password in both incoming and outgoing. Here are new pictures I took today. The first two are the first screen. The third is from tapping SMTP on the outgoing. The fourth is from tapping Advanced. They work. I used them to email the pictures to my desktop.

[EJPeck]

These settings work fine when connected thru the cellular system, but do NOT work when attached wirelessly -  any ideas?

[BethKatz]

---

EJPeck wrote:

These settings work fine when connected thru the cellular system, but do NOT work when attached wirelessly -  any ideas?

---

That suggests that there is a problem with your connection to the wireless. Any wireless? I don't change my phone's mail settings when I am connecting through cel or any of the few WiFi connections I use. It switches seamlessly between my home WiFi (which is locked down by MAC device numbers as well as passwords) and cel.

Can you web browse over wireless?

[jlklby]

I just got an iphone 4s.  I can receive comcast emails but not send out.  I've spent time w/ apple and comcast without resolution.  The settings for incoming and outgoing ports are as pictured.  I've tried with and without wi-fi and it doesn't matter.  I can send/receive through the xfinity app but that's not convenient or efficient to use given that I have 3 other email addresses (non-comcast)  Any insight would be much appreciated.

[BethKatz]

Make sure your password is strong enough for Comcast's guidelines. 

Be sure you have saved the settings I show above. 

Send yourself a message.

There's another page called SMTP that shows the "Primary Server." Make sure it is On and that it is smtp.comcast.net (check spelling and .net).

[Miaminative]

I had a problem forwarding email which was fixed after I re-entered the password in the smtp server section.

[janelynch]

I am having the same exact problem.  READY TO SCREAM.  I have did everything to a t in this thread.  I can send emails but cannot receieve last email is from May 1.

grrrr HELP

[kyle903]

i currently have the iphone 4S and have IOS 5 installed. I have one account already working on the phone( its a gmail one, so its pretty simple to set up) however I am having trouble with my comcast email. I am able to reviece messages however it wont let me send messages at all. It says that the "username or password for SMTP.username@smtp.comcast.net is incorrect. I know that the username and password that I have submitted is correct, BC I was able to login online with it. I have tried every step mentioned above and have followed the provided pictures to the T. Does anyone have any other suggestions that I could try? And it wont work with the WI-if on either.

I have sprint if that helps at all.

Any suggestions would be great.  thx 

[BethKatz]

---

kyle903 wrote:

i currently have the iphone 4S and have IOS 5 installed. I have one account already working on the phone( its a gmail one, so its pretty simple to set up) however I am having trouble with my comcast email. I am able to reviece messages however it wont let me send messages at all. It says that the "username or password for SMTP.username@smtp.comcast.net is incorrect. I know that the username and password that I have submitted is correct, BC I was able to login online with it ...

---

If you look at my picture above (in post 67 in this thread), on the SMTP page, have only your username. Do not have @ anything. Be sure to tap Done or Back as needed to save. Try sending yourself a message.

[hotstuff87]

Mine worked just fine up until 12:35pm Central time, yesterday.  That's the last e-mail I was able to get on my iPhone.  Since then, plenty of e-mails have come in, but they won't pull up on my iPhone, just in my web browser.  I can send e-mail from my iPhone, but I cannot recieve any.  I've triple-checked against the pictures above, and I have it set up correctly.  As I said, I have sent several test e-mails to multiple e-mail addresses and confirmed that they arrived.  I replied to one of them, and my web browser mailbox at XFINITY -> Email site received it just fine, but my iPhone shows that same account as having nothing new since yesterday. 

I've received about a dozen or so e-mails since yesterday, all of which are visible in the web browser, but none of which will download to my iPhone.

Since I didn't change anything on my iPhone since then, I have to assume that something changed elsewhere...

[BethKatz]

Go into the web-based system and move the first few messages that you didn't receive into a temporary folder. Then send yourself a message. My guess is that for whatever reason, your iPhone didn't want to grab one of those messages and now thinks that there aren't more to grab.

After that works, you can move the individual messages back into your inbox. 

[kyle903]

i followed the pictures that you directed me towards, and yet it still wont send an email. My college email( which is done thru Gmail) works fine, and i keep getting the same message that i described in my first post, saying that my username or passowrd is incorrect when in fact it is correct.  i do have Icloud set up, could that be the reason as to why it wont send my mail thru comcast? take it to the apple store maybe? local sprint store? any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

ps. ill take screen shots of what my account set up is and the warnings that pop up, however i wont be able to do so for another week or so... 

[hotstuff87]

Beth,

I went to the web-based system and moved everything after the last message the iPhone received into a temp folder, including the e-mails that alerted me to your post, and the one after it.

I then checked my iPhone, and lo and behold, the two e-mails alerting me to posts on this thread (from "Community Mailer" mailer@lithium.com)  had arrived on my iPhone, apparently before I mass-moved them out of my inbox with the others.  The others still never showed, but those two did.

I then logged into my work e-mail and sent an e-mail to my home e-mail, and when it arrived on the web-based browser, I checked my iPhone to see if it was there too.  It was not.

I moved it out of the inbox to the temp folder, and moved the two e-mail alerts from this board back.  I refreshed the iPhone and it pulled the alert e-mails again!  Bizarre.

I experimented with various other e-mails from the temp folder, one by one, just in case it was my work e-mail that the iPhone didn't like, and none of the others worked. 

Then I put the two alert e-mails BACK into the inbox, and marked them unread, refreshed my iPhone, and they were pulled by the iPhone a THIRD time.  So it really likes the e-mails that this message board sends as alerts, but apparently nothing else.  :-) 

I'm expecting that this post will trigger an update e-mail eventually that will get pulled too.  But all other e-mails, even new ones from other people, just aren't pulling to the iPhone.  I'll send another test from my work e-mail before I post this, to test that theory.

[BethKatz]

Aside to others who have posted in this thread, if you are getting these alerts and want to discontinue them, come to the help forum and go to My Settings (near where you Sign Out). Choose Subscriptions & Bookmarks. Below the line, there is Email Subscriptions. If you click that, you should be able to turn off this thread.

-------------

hotstuff87, I don't know. The messages are getting to the web-based email where you can see them. So they aren't going in the spam folder. The iPhone doesn't have an additional spam filter or other filter.

I'm not having good problem solving success on this one.

-------------

kyle903, in Settings and your Comcast account, under Outgoing Mail Server, there is an SMTP line that should say "SMTP      smtp.comcast.net  >". Tap the arrow and you'll see a pane like the one below. Check whether the primary one is good and turned on. Check whether one of the others is bad. My others are my kids' accounts. They are turned off for my account. 

[hotstuff87]

Beth,

I do appreciate your efforts, thank you!

As I expected, the notification that you had responded to my post came through to my iPhone just fine, although several e-mails before and several after, did not. 

Also, to my shock, just a short while ago, two e-mails (from two seperate friends) came through to my iPhone as well, even though I did not move any more e-mails out of my inbox.  So, the notifications from these boards, plus e-mails from those two friends, made it to my iPhone, although several e-mails from various sources (which had been working fine before two days ago) did not.  More perplexing, the two friends' e-mails that came through, were from friends whose e-mails from yesterday did NOT work.  So again, no consistent pattern that I can see, other than "alerts from these boards always make it through".  I agree, this has to be a tough nut to crack.

Again, I do appreciate your  efforts, and if there is anything else I can provide that might help solve the issue, please let me know.

Thanks again!

[kyle903]

beth,

i double checked my settings based upon your pictures in post 67( or what ever it was haha) and i followed ur idea about changing the out going mail servers and to nothing has worked so far... i can receive emails but i cant send, and my gmail works fine( but since its a school account they monitor it, so its not the best way to communicate with people). does anyone else have suggestions, im thinking of taking my phone to the local sprint/apple store because this is getting ridiculous! haha any help would be great thx again

[BethKatz]

Kyle, are you using outgoing port 465 with SSL turned on? Port 25 is sometimes silently blocked. Is the username just the username (correct) or have the @comcast.net on it (incorrect)? Is the authentication set to password? 

You might also try changing your password for your Comcast account to a strong one (even if it's already strong) and then change it in both places on your phone.

I trust you have restarted the mail app and are tapping Done whenever you change things on this screen.

Do you have a signature set? Does the signature have a URL or phone number in it? Sometimes signatures trigger the spam filter.

[kyle903]

i am using 465 with SSL turned on and the username is with out the @comcast.net part. I hit done whenever i can, ill try turning off my signature( its only my name) ill try changing my password for the email and try again

[BethKatz]

I'd love to have someone else jump in here and give you an idea that works. I don't see what else to try.

[Thomas-day]

Spent 2 hours in ATT store no help.  deleted and reloaded all comcast emails, no change.  I have about 12 smtp servers listed on outgoing.  Previously had 3 comcasts accounts all would recieve only 2 would send.  just tried to reestablish and all 3 not working.  ATT no help, comcast no help.  Tried all settings but not even able to cahnge some, it just kicks back to main screen.  THis is rediculous.  Comcast stinks

[cc_xc]

Hello Thomas_day

Please send me a private message with the email address(s) that are having the issue and I can take a look.

To send a private message, click on "cc_xc" then "send this user a private message".

Also, please post the iphone email client settings you are using as well.

Regards,

CC_XC

[kyle903]

got it fixed all i had to do was make it a much stronger password! thx for the help

[BethKatz]

Thank you for letting us know what worked. I note that I suggested that a few days ago.

[rnstudenthelp]

I had the same challenges that everyone had, then I changed my password as suggested and made it real strong and it immediately worked.

Thanks! Im Mobile! Sweeeeet.

[janelynch]

It is the craziest thing.  My email worked just fine for years on my iphone 3g.  Upgraded to the Iphone 4 email worked fine than all of a sudden I could not receive.  It had my email loaded only up until May 2012.  I tried everything listed here.  I would check it every day and once in a while it would load a few more emails again dated way back.  I could send emails from it but not receive.  

I used the comcast app.  SUPER slow and of coarse as anything took a while to get used to.  I kept checking the iphone mail app every morning and low and behold it started to receive on Sunday and seems to be fine.  I half trust it now but it appears to be fine.  I send myself an email to check it as as well...

Apple and Comcast had no resolution for me.  

My daughters phone has the opposite issue, she can't send but can receive.  Have not talked to her in a few days to see if hers works yet.

[tdemott]

HI, I am a newbie....

I have been using an ipod for comcast email as well as email for a umich.edu account.  The Umich.edu account uses exchange and works fine.  My ipod seemed to skip loading some emails unless there were 2 with the same subject.  I just got an IPAD and have been using the WI-FI as well, and this problem has gotten much worse.  I turned off the sort by thread option and it didn't help.  My email would go out from my comcast account, but wouldn't receive hardly any emails, even if the responses were to my original email.  Like others, I would see prompts about incoming mail that was not visible.

I followed the threads with the pictures, and everything looked okay, so I retyped the password for my home account that seemed to be the most non-functional, but that didn't work.  I saw one note that said that Comcast gets overwhelmed by multiple devices, so I wondered if that were the case since I had just added an additional one  (my daughter has and ipod and my husband has a blackberry). 

Would the blackberry device keep them from getting to my IPOD/IPAD devices?  I didn't understand the POP and IMAP comments.

Your comments about making a stronger password also made me wonder if my worsening problems stemmed from the fact that I had recently added my business account  to my IPAD (which has the same password as my home account). It seemed then that most of my home emails stopped coming in (put were still on the PC).  The other curious part was that my business emails still came in.  I just deleted the business account from my IPAD and got a slew of missing emails.  I am not sure if the problem was too many accounts, or a duplicate password was blocking things, but things got better even though the problem existed at a much smaller level before the IPAD.

I have also heard that perhaps the age of the router matters?

Any other input about the multiple devices?

Thanks!

[tdemott]

Newbie again,

Even with deleting the business account, there were at least 3 messages from today, including one from Xfinity, that were present on my PC that never loaded onto my IPAD, either through WI-FI, or when I turned the cellular option on.  The Xfinitiy one did go to my daughter's account, but not mine.

Does this change the direction I should take?

Tdemott

[1greengirl]

Too frustrating and time-consuming to find this answer. Strongly suggest putting this solution at the top of the page and in an FAQ section. It is buried here and took a looong time to find.

BTW, I have @comcast.net as part of my username and email is working.

[Strugglinalong]

Thanks Beth.  Posting the photos of the screen sure made it easy.  I've been fighting this problem since I got the iPhone 5 last week.  I went to Sprint, Apple & spent time with Comcast Tech support to no avail.  The fellow at Apple suggested I Google how to set up with Comcast.  I was ssoooo frustrated!!!  I followed your instructions and viola!!  I can send AND receive email for the first time since I've had the new phone.

Thanks again.

[Thomas-day]

Still cant send from my iphone from one email.  all settings are equal to other emails that i use.  is there any fix?

[BethKatz]

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Thomas-day wrote:

Still cant send from my iphone from one email.  all settings are equal to other emails that i use.  is there any fix?

---

Are you sure the name field is something approrpaite and not "Comcast"?

I posted iPhone 5 screenshots in this thread:

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/E-Mail-and-Xfinity-Connect-Help/Screenshots-of-iPhone-5-mail-settings/m...

[Sgreen615]

I've had the same problem recently. My comcast setup was fine and all of a sudden my emails from my iPhone weren't going through the comcast smtp server. All my other accounts work fine sending and receiving and comcast will still receive. Sending is the only issue. I did notice that some of my emails were making it to comcast but for some reason were in my spam folder at comcast. I tried a stronger password and it still didn't work. I have a secondary account with comcast and it sends and receives just fine through the iPhone. It's just one account that I can't seem to fix. Comcast wasn't much help. Basically told me what ports to try and referred me to apple.

[BethKatz]

Have you tried changing the name field? Are you using a signature on that account?

[Sgreen615]

No signature, but I got it to work. I deleted my comcast account off my iPhone for the third time. Added it a fourth time but changed the name and description in the POP information. I also turned on both smtp servers for comcast using ports 587 & 465 with SSL on and now it works.