At SDM we help people with email issues all the time. Lately we have seen an increase in two important email issues.
If your email suddenly stops arriving, here are a few things you can try.
The problem
Email may suddenly stop arriving in your inbox on one device or all of your devices.
Your mail app may say that you need to re-enter your password, but it won’t accept it when you do.
When this happens, we generally walk through the following steps to see if we can correct the problem.
Possible solutions
First, restart the device. Really turn it entirely off, wait 30 seconds and power it back up again. This fixes many problems!
Check to see if the device needs to be updated. Run any OS updates or app updates.
Often we will help a client delete their email account from their device and then add it back in again. Emails are stored on the provider’s server, so deleting an account and re-adding it will not affect your messages.
If your email provider has an app, like AOL or Google, try logging into your account using that app. Some issues are app related and this may provide a clue.
Recent solutions
Recently, we have found an uptick in the number of email providers who routinely require users to change their passwords.
While this is a great practice, from the user perspective it can be a little troublesome. Unless you are logging into the email provider’s website directly, you may never see this password reset request. A user may only see an error when using their password.
One action that we are taking with greater frequency, is to ask the user to log into their email account using a browser on a computer. They will then see if the password they are using is correct, and they will also see if the email provider is requiring the password be reset.
Sometimes this works best when the device is connected to the provider’s WiFi, in the case of Verizon or Comcast.
We have had trouble recently with some Comcast password resets. It helps if you have the four digit Voice Security Pin that Comcast assigned to you at some time in the past. If you don’t have this, they will send you a new one in the mail, which can take a week or more. it is worth checking on this ahead and requesting a replacement if needed.
App specific passwords
Email providers are also requiring different passwords to be used when people are not using their website or app directly.
People who have Verizon.net or AOL.com email addresses, and access email using an app like Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird may run into this.
This does not apply to people who use a browser like Chrome or Safari and go to AOL.com, or who use the AOL app, to read email.
In March we covered this topic in a blog post with regard to Google, but lately we are seeing this with other providers like AOL, Verizon, and Yahoo. The fix varies by email provider, so call us for an appointment and we will help you through it.
The tricky part is that the error message often doesn’t tell the user that this is the issue, or it is said in a way that is hard to understand. Our recent experiences help us identify this issue much more quickly.
If you would like help with this process, just call or email and we’ll be happy to assist you! If you have specific questions, or if our terminology isn’t clear, please use our contact form to send us a message. Thank you!