user_pa316's profile

Contributor

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31 Messages

Friday, November 22nd, 2024 5:36 PM

iOS unable to connect to Comcast mail

Xfinity prompted me to reset my password.  After doing so, I've been unable to access my Comcast email on my iOS device.  I typed the new password in the account settings in iOS, but when it tries to connect to Comcast I get an error message that says: "No password provided for 'Comcast'.  Please go to Mail Account Settings and enter a password."  That makes no sense because I absolutely have supplied a password.

I found a previous thread with numerous people who had the same exact issue. That thread was closed and erroneously marked "Official Solution".  There's no solution in it.  Some people simply said that after resetting their passwords dozens of times over a several day period it mysteriously started working again.  That's not a solution.  There was a suggestion in that thread that people ensure their Xfinity email security settings have the box checked to allow third-party apps access.  As most people reported, that box is checked, so that isn't the problem/solution. Has anyone discovered a real solution? Here's the old thread that should not have been closed:

https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/email/ios-problem-with-comcast-mail/65988c4df961c6163a356729



Contributor

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31 Messages

1 month ago

UPDATE:  After resetting my password numerous times, I finally got to work.

The only thing I did differently was limit the special characters to ones that are more commonly used.  Previously, I'd been relying on auto-suggested passwords from my Chrome browser which contained some exotic characters. 

If the avoidance of unusual special characters is indeed the solution, a mystery remains.  The Xfinity.com website allowed me to create passwords with weird characters and then subsequently allowed me to log-in with those characters.  If exotic characters are not allowed/recognized, neither of those facts should be true.  Xfinity's website should have rejected the exotic passwords at the start, or at the very least failed to log me in when I later came back.  The fact that Xfinity's server would recognize exotic special characters from a web submission but not from an iOS device makes zero sense. 

More succinctly, if certain special characters aren't allowed/recognized, the problem shouldn't have be limited to iOS devices.  Customers should have trouble logging in from any source.


Which means it may be a coincidence that the the password Xfinity finally accepted happened to be a vanilla one.  The true problem may still be unknown.

Official Employee

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2K Messages

1 month ago

Hello user_pa316, that's pretty odd, but thank you for also sharing that update along with your details. By chance, do you remember if you were able to sign in to the Xfinity website or Connect website with that initial password change? 

 

(edited)

Contributor

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31 Messages

@XfinityMarcos​ 

Yes, as noted in my follow up message, I was able to log into the Xfinity Connect website after my initial password change.  It was only from my iOS device that I was unable to log in.  

And yes, this issue is odd in that it's seemingly inexplicable.  However, please note that I'm not the only person who's experienced this problem.  In my first post I linked to an older thread on this issue where numerous people reported the same issue.


Official Employee

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1.7K Messages

 

user_pa316 Sounds like there could have been a glitch with our authentication system on the backend. Hopefully, the issue doesn't return and we appreciate you posting how you were able to resolve it. If you see this issue again, please let us know so that we can investigate it further.

 

(edited)

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

Contributor

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31 Messages

@XfinityBenjaminM 

As I explained in two of my previous posts, this wasn't a momentary glitch specific to my account.  Many customers have experienced the same exact problem.  It's absolutely a recurring bug affecting many customers.  Please see this thread (which was incorrectly marked "solved"):  https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/email/ios-problem-with-comcast-mail/65988c4df961c6163a356729

Speaking of which, I got an automated prompt to mark my own thread as "solved".  I'm not going to do that.  The problem is not solved.  Yes, I ultimately reconnected my iOS device to my Comcast email account, but that was by shear luck, not because of a genuine solution.  Based on other people's experiences, the problem is likely to come back.  And currently there is no way to fix it other than changing your password repeatedly and crossing your fingers.

Official Employee

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1.2K Messages

@user_pa316 The solution that has worked for most with iOS is going into the outbound and inbound settings to enter your password there. Most of these posts are being marked as solved because access is restored. There is not a lot of info for us to provide because this is an iOS-only issue.

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick
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