my email goes to outbox but never sends

lvgodness Said:

"my email goes to outbox but never sends: my email goes from my Mac book to outbox but never sends.. all email accounts are online"

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Remove/Add the Account:

It is likely an issue with the mail protocol being misconfigured with the wrong port. Without getting too technical here, remove the eMail account, and then add it back.

Mail Protocols Include:

• IMAP4
• POP3
• SMTP

robertafromcameron park Said:

"It's not the neighborhood. After another 2hours with the Comcast tech advisor he had nothing more to offer. I gave up.

I sense it has something to do with the SMTP port, but who knows?"

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Troubleshooting Outgoing Mail:

A. Gone here yet?: If you can’t Send or Receive eMail on your Mac - Apple Support

If no success...

B. Reinstall the macOS:

The macOS my be corrupt somehow. So, reinstall it. Nothing would be deleted. It's just that items that have become corrupted or deleted, would be replaced or relocated, respectively. Go Here: How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support.

Important: Be certain to create a backup of your Mac prior to all of this. That way, you can have something to restore from the Mac from, should anything go wrong with the reinstall. Once reinstalled, try this once more, seeing if you still get this error.

It's not the neighborhood. After another 2hours with the Comcast tech advisor he had nothing more to offer. I gave up.

I sense it has something to do with the SMTP port, but who knows?

The Comcast tech support tried to get me to change from IMAP to POP. I refused. The Apple assistant agreed with me.

The detail below describes my issue and sentiments regarding Comcast. It was posted a year ago on xFinity's Forum:  Can't send outgoing mail on IMAC from Comcast

@ Comcast tech on passwords, IMAC Macmail 

I have been troubleshooting the same issue for 2 days, on two different MacBook Pros. I have gone to the detail logs, and it’s clear that Comcast has done something on the SMTP servers which broke the STARTTLS protocol. The error returned by the mail client is invalid username or password, but the actual error is the TLS handshake is rejected by the Comcast server. And because their answer to all e-mail questions is “use the browser it’s more secure” they have no interest in actually solving the problem. If they would use OAUTH tokens on the other clients like they do on the iPhone we would not have these issues. They refuse to comply with internet standards, which will drive more people to Gmail which supports any and all mail clients, and has plenty of actual humans with technical knowledge to help. Comcast support has never been great, and their back-end systems are terrible. I swapped personal owned equipment for their X1 modem, and my account still shows my NetGear router months later. Give up, they will not help you.

I would get rid of Comcast if there was a decent alternative. (I did drop all the TV and modem equipment years ago.) Anyway, Apple Support techs worked through the process... I was directed to update Big Sur (I'm not ready to replace it with Monterey) but in the end an apple senior tech concluded it was Comcast's issue. This happened in Dec. 2021 on MacBook Pro purchased Jan. 2021. Removing the account and adding it back worked, but now... after entering email address and p-word, a message returns in red letters: 

Unable to verify account name or password. 

On my older 2017 MacBook Pro, the account appears but the various port numbers tried (993, 995, 587, 465) with and without Use TLS/SSL responds with Unable to verify account name or password.

 Is STARTTLS protocol relevant to this problem? I don't know how to proceed.

Comcast as a communication company fails to communicate with customers. When finally connecting to a living support tech, it's often difficult to understand their English and by that time their flowery acknowledgements of frustration are a waste of time and patience.

robertafromcameron park Said:

"[...]Removing the account and adding it back worked, but now... after entering email address and p-word, a message returns in red letters: Unable to verify account name or password.[...]"

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Asked your Neighbors?:

What do your neighbors say? Ask them, seeing if they are having this issue. If so, then it might be an error with the utility box down the street where the ISP configures all of this.