

Go to your mail host’s website and check for their IMAP/POP and SMTP support page. You can check if a retired hostname is the culprit. Even if you created an account manually, you likely copied and pasted values from the mail host’s support page and didn’t memorize the addresses! If you set up your mail account using the streamlined process available in iOS, iPadOS, or macOS, Apple hides most or all of those technical details, or you see them just in passing.

You may have therefore ignored any email informing you of the change. However, you’ve probably never paid attention to a hostname. They usually provide a transition that lasts months or years and send updates via email warning of an upcoming deadline, after which the hostnames will stop working. Mail-hosting companies do sometimes change the hostnames of their incoming and outgoing mail servers. Create a new app-specific password and see if that solves the problem. These passwords should remain working forever, but sites may reset or expire them for security reasons or their own policies. These passwords, which you create on those companies’ account-management websites (like ), only allow syncing with those three kinds of services.

To resolve this, you will have to create a new password via the host’s website. (If you provided an alternate address for contact, they could send a message there.) Because you can’t know, it’s a good reason to check your mail host’s website or status page, as explained above. There’s no way for the company to reach you other than via email.
