What To Do If Comcast Email Is Not Working On IPhone

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When you sign up for comcast (xfinity) services, one thing you always get for free: an email account.

I use my comcast account as my personal email, which I don’t give out to everyone, just my friends. however, from time to time my internet provider gives me a hard time. sometimes it stops getting emails and I’m not always sure if no one cares about me or it’s a software issue.

Below I’ve listed the top issues with my xfinity email on iphone and ways to fix them should you need to.

generally comcast email not working on iphone due to misconfiguration of mail app. use host imap.comcast.net and port 993 for incoming mail and smtp.comcast.net with port 587 for outgoing mail. Also, check that the third-party access security option is enabled in the xfinity portal.

let’s unpack this now.

8 reasons why comcast email doesn’t work on iphone

comcast server is down

Believe it or not, but sometimes even big companies like comcast can experience outages. there is a thread on their forums where users reported that comcast email was not working on iphones and other devices.

In the end, xfinity customer service confirmed that the service was unavailable.

how to know if the server is down?

Services provided by large companies are generally distributed, which means that if one service does not work, it may not affect the rest of the package. therefore, if the mail server is down, the television, internet, and telephone may work fine.

The easiest way to tell if the mail server is down is to try logging in using the web application.

go to xfinity.com.
sign in.
click the mail icon.

if you can access your emails through the browser application, then the server is working. if you see a 500 error on the screen, then the server is down.

In this case, there is nothing you can do except call comcast and notify them of the problem. but most likely they already know about the problem and their engineers are actively working on it.

all you can do now is keep checking if the mail server is up periodically. this can take hours, rarely days.

iphone has connectivity issues

Notice that you don’t get emails during the day, but when you get home, it suddenly starts working? You may not have allowed the Mail app (or the xfinity connect app) to use the cellular network.

To check the settings, go to the Settings app on the iPhone, tap Cellular, scroll to Mail and check if it’s enabled (the slider is green).

If it’s not, then you will only receive emails and will only be able to send emails when the phone is connected to the Wifi. Which maybe is what you want.

There is, however, also the opposite problem. sometimes, you may lose internet, but the wifi router still works.

In this case, the iphone will connect to the wifi router, it won’t find internet and you won’t be able to access anything including emails.

The correct thing would be for the device to use cellular connectivity if there is no internet, but apple computers do not do this.

How do you know if you are in this situation?

Start safari on the iphone and try to open any website, for example google.com. If your browser can’t access any websites, you can temporarily turn off Wi-Fi on your phone and use a cellular connection.

and don’t forget to turn wifi back on. internet returns. I remember the story of my friend who was forced to pay for an unlimited internet account with this mobile service provider.

his family used 20-30 gb of internet on their phones every month. when i told him that this is not normal, he investigated the problem and found that he was using less than 1gb, and the rest was his wife.

apparently his wife turned off wifi settings on her iphone, and even at home, she used cellular connectivity. when my friend connected his phone to the wifi router at home, his usage dropped below 5gb and he was finally able to cancel an expensive plan.

misconfiguration of mail app on iphone

By far the most common issue is misconfiguration of the mail app on the iphone. If you get an error message, such as “imap.comcast.net does not support password authentication”, check your mail settings.

To check the settings, open the Settings app on the iPhone and tap Passwords & accounts, find and tap the comcast account (it may have a different name on your iphone).

Under the incoming mail server, you will see the settings for receiving emails. If you’re having trouble receiving emails, this is the area to check.

Also, click on the Advanced tab to get more detailed Incoming Mail Server Settings. They should be the following:

incoming server hostname: imap.comcast.net
username: make sure the username is a correct comcast email account
password: re-enter email password here
incoming mail server port : 993
use ssl: on
map path prefix: empty
authentication: password

If you’re having trouble sending email from your comcast account, check your outgoing mail server settings. should be the following:

outgoing mail server hostname: smtp.comcast.net
username: make sure the name username is a correct comcast email account
password: re-enter email password here
server port outgoing mail: 587
authentication: password
use ssl: yes

Incorrect Fetch Settings on iPhone

If your settings are correct, but you are still having problems receiving/sending emails, the cause could be incorrect recovery settings.

open the settings app, tap passwords & accounts and get a new data line.

Find your comcast account and check your settings. fetch new data is a feature that allows the user to select how often the device checks for new emails. can have one of three values: push, fetch, or manual.

if the setting is set to push, then the mail server will send new emails directly to your phone.

if set to search, then your iphone will periodically ask the server for new emails. the frequency of periodic checks depends on your configuration.

If set to 30 minutes, you may receive your emails after 30 minutes of being sent.

and finally, there is a manual configuration. If you have set fetching to manual, you will not receive any email until you open the mail app and refresh.

why are there three settings and why not set it to always press? push uses more battery and can greatly affect battery life.

I have multiple mail apps on my iPhone, and I only set push for those where I need instant notifications, for example work.

deprecated mail application

It’s always a good idea to have the latest updates on your iPhone.

Check periodically to see if Apple has released an updated version of the Mail application. if yes, then it is a good idea to update the app. they often fix bugs (and unfortunately, sometimes introduce new ones).

Usually, if the app works, I don’t always update it, but if it fails, that’s something I do first.

3rd party security unchecked on xfinity portal

And final tip is to check the settings in Xfinity portal. There is a setting in Xfinity portal which will allow or disallow third-party apps, such as Outlook or Apple Mail to get access to Comcast email.

To check if the setting is enabled or disabled, do the following:

first sign in to your xfinity portal.
then click the mail icon to open the comcast email page.
on the upper right corner, click the gear icon to access the email settings.
click the security option on the left.
check if the option Third party access security is checked.

xfinity connect app suspended

There is no more Xfinity email app for iPhone. Unfortunately, the company discontinued Xfinity Connect app on April 20, 2021. If you try to open an email from Xfinity app, it will redirect to the web page, not the app. So, your only option is to use 3rd party apps with iPhone, such as Mail or Outlook.

turn off vpn

This last piece of advice came from one of our readers: doug b. from florida

he had vpn enabled on his iphone. I also use vpn, especially when using public wi-fi. by the way, my favorite provider is nordvpn (affiliate).

some sites do not allow vpn connections. apparently comcast has the same problem. so if you have a vpn, turn it off to connect to xfinity email.

how to set up comcast email on iphone

Sometimes the easiest way to fix the problem is to delete everything and install from scratch.

If all the troubleshooting steps above did not work, you can remove the comcast account from the passwords & accounts section in the settings app and set up the account again.

Surprisingly, the process is quite simple. To set up comcast email on your iphone, follow these steps:

open the settings app
search or scroll to “passwords & accounts” in settings
in the accounts section, tap add account
in a new window, tap another
tap add email account under mail</li
enter your name, comcast email and comcast password tap next .if you get an “invalid email address” error, please verify that the email address is correct.
after verification, tap save on the next screen.
now find mail app on iphone and open it.app will download all emails from comcast server.

If Nothing Works

sometimes more drastic measures are required. below are two possible things to try when nothing else works.

force restart your iphone

Depending on the iPhone model, instructions on which button to hold to restart the phone may vary.

if you don’t know how to force restart iphone, please google for instructions for a particular model.

Forcing a restart will clear all the junk your iphone may have accumulated since it was last booted, and some of the junk may have affected comcast email.

reset all settings

open the settings app on the iphone. go to general -> restart. There will be several options, and one of them is “reset all iphone settings”.

If you touch that option, you will reset your network settings and personal preferences, but keep your personal data and applications.

don’t tap “erase all content and settings”! this will erase everything and you’ll have to restore from your backup (if you have one).

what’s next?

While it’s nice to fix your comcast email problem, at some point you’ll need to switch providers. but you have to do it the right way.

To avoid potential mistakes when canceling an email service and switching from xfinity, check out my article:

all about comcast email cancellation

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What to do if Comcast Email Is Not Working On iPhone – MacMyths