Unable to send iCloud email from M1 MacBook Air

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Level 1

78 points

Unable to send iCloud email from M1 MacBook Air

Now and then I am unable to send iCloud email with my M1 MBA. It works fine with my old Intel iMac and with my iPad and iPhone. The error message is here:

The MBA is now running Monterey, but the same thing happened when it was on Ventura.

Connection Doctor says:

If I go into Mail > Settings > Accounts on the MBA, I see this:

iCloud is offline.

But on the Intel iMac, I see this:

iCloud is online. How can it be both?

I don't think that this can be a user name or password problem because this is iCloud mail which uses my iCloud credentials -- no password required.

What's going on here?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Oct 10, 2023 2:59 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MacMikeInOK

Level 4

3,666 points

Oct 10, 2023 6:44 AM in response to kaz-k

I don't think it's the @mac.com email address, as I've used it for many years, up to and including Sonoma.

If you've confirmed the mail settings between your Intel Mac and your M1 MBA are identical, I'd try going to your M1 MBA and deleting the @mac.com email account, reboot, then add it back in to see if that changes anything.

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Answer 2

Buadhai Author

Level 1

78 points

Oct 10, 2023 3:18 PM in response to MacMikeInOK

I agree that it's unlikely to be because of the mac.com email address. I've been using a mac.com address since Apple introduced Mail a couple of decades ago.

Unfortunately, this is an intermittent problem making it difficult to solve. About three hours after I made the OP all of the pending email went out. I was watching football at the time, so it was nothing I did that fixed it.

It's working now. Next time it fails in this way I'll try your suggestion of disabling iCloud Mail, restarting the machine and then re-enabling iCloud Mail.

Thanks for your reply,

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Answer 3

Buadhai Author

Level 1

78 points

Oct 11, 2023 5:00 PM in response to Buadhai

@MacMikeInOK

Your suggestion worked. I was unable to send iCloud email this morning. I disabled iCloud Mail and restarted the M1 MBA. The stuck email went out immediately upon startup and Connection Doctor shows iCloud mail servers as UP.

I wonder why this happens?

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Answer 4

Buadhai Author

Level 1

78 points

Oct 18, 2023 5:25 PM in response to kaz-k

@kaz-k

I wish you had been a bit more specific here.

I had a very long discussion with Apple support yesterday. The support person said that there is a known problem with the iCloud SMTP server when using a mac.com email address with Mail on some Mac computers. I have an M1 MBA.

A temporary fix is to turn iCloud mail OFF, restart the machine, turn iCloud mail back ON. The fix may last a day or a week. Totally unpredictable.

The are researching the issue. I will post here if I learn anything more.

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Answer 5

Buadhai Author

Level 1

78 points

Nov 25, 2023 8:26 PM in response to Buadhai

Apple really dropped the ball on this issue. I was assigned to a senior support specialist. We spoke on the phone a couple of times and then continued via email. And, then, he ghosted me. No further communication. I sent a couple of follow-up messages, but never received a reply. I find this to be both disrespectful and unprofessional.

So, I proceeded on my own.

First try was to install the OS on an external SSD and set up a minimal account including my AppleID and iCloud info. I was able to send iCloud email from that account.

Then I used Migration Assistant to migrate the original account on the MBA boot drive to replace the minimal account on the external drive. I was not able to send iCloud email from that account.

So, I did what I always resist doing and have done only a few times since becoming a Mac user in 1984: Wipe the internal boot drive and reinstall the OS. This time I migrated from an account I have on my wife's M1 iMac.

That worked. Of course, it was a huge and continuing hassle. The account on the iMac was little used and had almost none of the work I had done on the M1 MBA. Fortunately, I have a recent Time Machine backup of the MBA so I am able to recover things like shell scripts, launchd plist files, etc.

I hesitate to call this a success. Wiping and reinstalling is more a surrender than a solution. It's a lot of work from which you learn nothing.

Oh, wait, I did learn something: Apple can't be relied on to solve difficult problems, even if you still have AppleCare.

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