Can no longer send emails on K9

[Nisa51]

I have a Galaxy S3 and have used K9 for 3 of my accounts and now 2 fail completely to send I can receive with no problem but cannot send. I have not altered any settings for the outgoing servers and have checked the settings are they are fine.

The other is a gmail account and that works fine sending and receiving.

Incoming server
Pop3 and imap port 110

Outgoing server
smtp
Security None
Port 587
Require Sign In
authentication - Automatic

Now this does not work I get a message - Cannot connect to server. (No valid authentication mechanism found)

If I untick the Require Sign In box it works!!

[Richard]

Based on the "no valid authentication mechanism" message and that
you can send again when you turn off K-9's attempt to authenticate
means that your provider changed their configuration. That you can
now send through them without authentication means that anyone else
can too - including spammers, which could result in their outgoing
mail servers getting blocked at some point.

By the way, you might want to check to see if they support Pop3s/995
and Imaps/993 as straight Pop3/110 Imap/143 are not encrypted data
streams. [hint -- you might want to look for a more technically
astute provider.]

- Richard

[Nisa51]

Sorry do you mean that ports 993 and 995?

[hint -- you might want to look for a more technically

astute provider.]  Do you mean another app?

[Richard]

>> > Date: Sunday, September 21, 2014 08:00:53 -0700

>> > From: Nisa51 <nisama...@gmail.com <javascript:>>
>> > To: k-9-...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>

>> > Subject: [k-9-mail] Can no longer send emails on K9
>> >
>> > I have a Galaxy S3 and have used K9 for 3 of my accounts and
>> > now 2 fail completely to send I can receive with no problem
>> > but cannot send. I have not altered any settings for the
>> > outgoing servers and have checked the settings are they are
>> > fine.
>> >
>> > The other is a gmail account and that works fine sending and
>> > receiving.
>> >
>> > Incoming server
>> > Pop3 and imap port 110
>> >
>> > Outgoing server
>> > smtp
>> > Security None
>> > Port 587
>> > Require Sign In
>> > authentication - Automatic
>> >
>> > Now this does not work I get a message - Cannot connect to
>> > server. (No valid authentication mechanism found)
>> >
>> > If I untick the Require Sign In box it works!!
>>

> Date: Sunday, September 21, 2014 08:27:21 -0700

> From: Nisa51 <nisama...@gmail.com>
> To: k-9-...@googlegroups.com

> Subject: Re: [k-9-mail] Can no longer send emails on K9

>
> Sorry do you mean that ports 993 and 995?
>
> [hint -- you might want to look for a more technically
> astute provider.] Do you mean another app?
>

Ports 993 and 995 are imaps and pop3s respectively. They use an
encrypted data transport.

Ports 143 and 110 are (unencrypted) imap and pop respectively.

My "astute provider" comment is directed at whoever you are using as
your mail service provider (the operators of your sending and
receiving mail servers). K-9 supports pop3s/imaps very well, and I
believe in recent releases has dropped providers from the auto-setup
list who don't do secure transport. Gmail does imaps/pop3s, so if
you're using straight imap/143 pop/110 with them you should switch
to the secure transport protocols.

My initial concern was raised by your (new) seemingly
unauthenticated send ability with your (non-gmail) provider. If they
moved from authenticated to unauthenticated send abilities (which
your initial message seems to indicate) there would seem to be a bit
of a lack of understanding of things mail. If they support
imaps/pop3s, start using those protocols, but the unauthenticated
send ability means that it's probably just a matter of time before
spammers find this and the host gets blocked.


- Richard

[Voytek]

On 22 September 2014 1:18:52 am AEST, Richard <lists-...@listmail.innovate.net> wrote:
>

>
>By the way, you might want to check to see if they support Pop3s/995
>and Imaps/993 as straight Pop3/110 Imap/143 are not encrypted data
>streams. [hint -- you might want to look for a more technically
>astute provider.]

Doesn't STARTTLS on 143/110 (with appropriate server config) give encrypted data stream?





--
Sent from Kaiten Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[Richard]

------------ Original Message ------------
> Date: Monday, September 22, 2014 06:51:48 +1000
> From: Voytek <voytek...@gmail.com>
> To: k-9-...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [k-9-mail] Can no longer send emails on K9

>
>
> On 22 September 2014 1:18:52 am AEST, Richard wrote:
>>
>
>>
>> By the way, you might want to check to see if they support
>> Pop3s/995 and Imaps/993 as straight Pop3/110 Imap/143 are not
>> encrypted data streams. [hint -- you might want to look for a
>> more technically astute provider.]
>
> Doesn't STARTTLS on 143/110 (with appropriate server config) give
> encrypted data stream?
>

Technically yes -- but the key part is *with appropriate server
config*. Since you probably don't know the server configuration the
client needs to be set to "STARTTLS - always", rather than an "if
available" option, so that it won't connect if STARTTLS isn't
supported.

It looks like K-9 has recently removed the "starttls - if available"
setting option (from both imap and pop). It's still showing in
documentation from June, but isn't an option in the 5.000 RC1
client, which is good. [I wonder what it did on a client upgrade
where the setting had been "if available".]

So, K-9 has forced the issue, but many clients still have a
"STARTTLS - if available" option, which leaves your encryption at
the mercy of the server configuration. [and I don't think I'd trust
a site that doesn't seem to require authentication to send to have
STARTTLS configured correctly.]

- Richard

[Southern Dude]

TWO POSSIBLE FIXES USING GOOGLE AUTHENTICATION SERVICES

Hey, Nisa51,

I just had the same outgoing server SMTP errors happen on my Samsung Galaxy S4 using K9 Mail (imap access) which I use solely for accessing e-mail from an alternative/secondary google account (my main google account synced to the phone uses the phone's native gmail app and functioned fully without errors).

ERROR HISTORY/BACKGROUND
K9 Mail had always worked fine on my Samsung Galaxy S4 running 4.4.2 until recenty when I noticed failure notices after attempting to create and send an e-mail (error "Cannot connect to server. Negative SMTP Reply 534 ..."). While any incoming mail continued to arrive as always, any attempts to compose/send new e-mail messages from my phone using K9 ended in a connection error and became stuck in the Outbox. Full disclosure, I mostly compose and send e-mails for this secondary google account using my laptop and the chrome browser; I hardly ever use K9 on the phone for anything but reading incoming mail, so I suspect the error may have been in place for a while.

I have enabled 2-Step Verification for both my main and secondary google accounts which is where I should have started investigating rather than try every fix suggested across various forums (from changing port number to cycling through the four authentication types). After coming across a possible solution posted in repsonse to more generic gmail smtp failures, I went into my google account's security settings to double check whether I'd given K9 access (from google:  settings > security > select "settings" to the right of 2-Step Verification line in the password section). Strangely, I saw that I'd already created an app-specific password for K9 Mail and that it had been used successfully a few minutes earlier (spoiler alert: it was for incoming server access only).

Depending on whether you have 2-Step Verification enabled or not, here follows two possible fixes (the first one fixed my smtp failures immediately):

1.) ENABLED 2-Step Verification - Create Two Separate App-Specifc Passwords for BOTH the Incoming and the Outgoing Server

[see attached image 01]

When I'd originally granted K9 access to google, I'd only bothered entering the app-specific password into the incoming server section. So, if you have 2-Step Verification enabled on your google account and are having trouble sending mail through imap with applications like K9 Mail, check to make sure you have granted K9 Mail access for both INCOMING and OUTGOING authentication with an app-specific password created for each function. Create the second password and replace your regular account password with the new one in the Outgoing Server Settings within the K9 Mail app (mine was composed of four sets of four numbers with a space between each set. I entered the spaces as characters for a total of 19 character spaces in the app-specific password). Almost instantly after creating the second app-specific password and entering it, my outgoing e-mail started to function as normal. So, the only change you'd need to make in K9 is the outgoing server password.

2.) INACTIVE 2-Step Verification (e.g. You Don't Use It) - Google DisplayUnlockCaptcha Service to Allow Individual App Acccess

[see attached image 02]

If you have not enabled 2-Step Verification, here is a solution (with some rewording/clarification done by me) found posted on stackoverflow.com which still identified the google authentication process as the culprit for outgoing mail SMTP errors:

Apparently, google has to specifically grant/allow some applications access to your google account even if you've supplied the correct credentials (usually for a new application). K9 Mail and similar apps that access your google account may need to go through this secondary level of permissions. Even if you've been using the app succesfsfully for some time, it might be that the app was recently updated and it's being treated as "new," or you may have made some recent global changes to the phone itself (from OTA updates to rooting).  In order to do grant the offending app access, google set up an authentication procedure. After logging in to google in a computer browser, navigate to https://accounts.google.com/DisplayUnlockCaptcha. Click Continue when you're ready and, within the next 10 minute time limit, try again to compose and send an e-mail within K9 Mail (delete and do not attempt to "re-send" any mail that are stuck in the outbox or which failed earlier - instead, create a completely new outgoing e-mail message). Over the next 10 minutes, google will be sniffing for any apps attempting to access your account that it doesn't recognize. As long as the account information used by K9 or other apps is accurate (e.g. your gmail address, password, et al) it should then grant it permission to access your google account as well as remember the new application/service (until the next time you change that google account's password).

Hope one of these two solutions helps!

~Southern Dude

[Nisa51]

Hi Southern
My Google accounts via K9 are fine I have no problems with that at all.
But I have fixed the one I was having problems with which was an old Tiscale email address. The setting was using Port 587 and then for Authentication use PLAIN. It was set at Automatic before I just altered it to PLAIn and it's working brilliantly.

[Southern Dude]

Hey, Nisa!

Glad to hear you got your problem fixed! There always seems to be 50 different possible causes for any single computer function error!

With it being so difficult these days to get any type of straight answer out of the big service companies and manufacturers (from Google to Microsoft to Apple), I wanted to at least post the details for one working solution. Hopefully someone experiencing similar errors will be able to use this information and be up-and-running a lot sooner than I was (and suffer fewer headaches from the ordeal)!

Cheers,
~Southern

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[Denise Matthews]

Absolutely Southern, as you said I got no joy from Tiscali (TalkTalk) on this matter. It was only messing around with some settings that got it working.

[Nisa51]

This is got irritating now I had an update today from k9 and the email stopped working and there is no setting for the PLAIN its gone.
Think I will scrap K9 and look for something else.

[cketti]

On 21.09.2014 18:16, Richard wrote:
> Ports 993 and 995 are imaps and pop3s respectively. They use an
> encrypted data transport.
>
> Ports 143 and 110 are (unencrypted) imap and pop respectively.

Nowadays most providers support STARTTLS to upgrade initially
unencrypted IMAP/POP/SMTP sessions. So it's perfectly fine to use IMAP
with port 143, as long as STARTTLS is selected under 'Security' in K-9
Mail. The same goes for POP3 and SMTP. All relevant information will be
encrypted this way.

-cketti

[Jim Daloonik]

Hey Southern Dude,

I'm still unable to send a Gmail message with K9 mail.

My outgoing settings are:

SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
Use Authentication: Yes
Port for SSL:: 465

Normal password

I've tried the two step authentification  method and the Captcha method; both won't let me send e-mail with k9. what am I missing?

[Sean Greenslade]

On July 10, 2016 5:57:31 PM EDT, Jim Daloonik <dalo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Hey Southern Dude,
>
>I'm still unable to send a Gmail message with K9 mail.
>
>My outgoing settings are:

>*SMTP Server: *smtp.gmail.com
>*Use Authentication*: Yes
>*Port for SSL:*: 465

>Normal password
>
>I've tried the two step authentification method and the Captcha
>method;
>both won't let me send e-mail with k9. what am I missing?

If you have two factor auth enabled, you need to generate an application-specific password. Search "sign in using app password" for the Google support page that explains how to do it.

--Sean

[The Sys Eng]

I had a problem with K9 not authenticating to fetch or send email.  I logged into google mail from my laptop

Then I change the Allow less secure apps setting to ON.

Once you have logged into gmail from a laptop

Goto Settings

Accounts & Imports

Under Change Account Settings: choose Other Google Account Settings

Sign-In & Security

Apps with account access

Turn Allow less secure apps: ON