Contributor
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30 Messages
Unable to connect to IMAP server from iPhone after resetting Xfinity password
I reset my Xfinity password this morning w/o any issues. I updated my password successfully in macOS Mail, iPadOS Mail and then I tried to do so on my iPhone. There, I keep getting a message about:
Invalid Email Address
Please enter a valid email address for this account
when I try to save my changes.
Since I hadn't touched the email field I was surprised by this but I dutifully entered the correct email address. I keep getting the same error. If I cancel and attempt to download mail, I get an error as the password is no longer correct. My iPhone is running iOS 17.2 and I've also tried the same thing on an older iPod running iOS 15.8 and see the same issue.
The only difference between the mac, iPad and iPhone w.r.t. Mail is that the iPhone is using the imap.comcast.net server (the others are using POP). I'd like to confirm that the password for the imap.comcast.net server is the same password I would use to login at login.xfinity.com. What I've run into seems much more like an Apple problem than an Xfinity problem but wanted to see if I'd overlooked anything on the Xfinity side first before I start working the Apple side of the problem.
Lastly, having reset my password to new value, does Xfinity prevent users from resetting it back to the previous value? That might be the simplest resolution to my problem as I should be able to switch my other devices back w/o any problems.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Accepted Solution
abg
Contributor
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30 Messages
9 months ago
Woohoo!
I finally found the solution to my problem on an Apple discussion thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254091047?=undefined&previousThread=253138353021&sortBy=best
The original solution came from Stack Overflow:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/422178/invalid-email-address-error-when-attempting-to-change-account-password-on-ipho/441437#441437
In a nutshell, the problem occurs only when one has email aliases set up for the email account. These aliases are what cause the "Invalid Email Address" error to occur.
The solution is to remove the email aliases (leaving only the original Comcast.net email address) and then iOS Settings will finally accept the new password and Mail will then connect to the IMAP server and download email. The aliases can then be recreated and work as before.
@XfinityAdrienne you might want to inform Customer Support folks about this as Xfinity strongly encourages the use of IMAP servers nowadays and I'm betting that a significant number of users will have email aliases.
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abg
Contributor
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30 Messages
9 months ago
Since I see these questions on most email threads I'll answer them ahead of time:
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flatlander3
Problem Solver
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1.5K Messages
9 months ago
Perhaps try this: https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/email/still-not-able-to-access-emails-on-my-phone-and-ipad/657a5391cc3f661cfc868993?commentId=657d949ef961c6163a313064
The goal is to 1st shutoff everything checking your mail and failing (temporarily disable email accounts -- just switch them off on your phone). Wait time to get out of jail. Then try one account at a time.
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Yenrab-AZ-OV
Visitor
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3 Messages
9 months ago
I just want to thank Comcast for this early Christmas present. You have clearly forced all customers reset passwords, and now both of my parents can't get email on their iPhones. I walked them through both the password change (done in a desktop web browser) and then updating both the IMAP and SMTP mail profiles on the iPhone with the new password credentials. It works for outbound mail over SMTP, but the inbound is now complaining about an invalid email address. Now they are both coming to my house tomorrow afternoon with their phones so I can help them fix it. I don't recall receiving any data breach notification from Comcast, but usually this kind of sweeping change is a result of a security incident. Anything you want to confess to?
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XfinityAdrienne
Official Employee
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738 Messages
9 months ago
Hey there, @abg! We are sorry to hear you are having troubles with the email on the iPhone device. I know you mentioned troubleshooting steps, did you get the new password entered after disabling the mail on the iPhone?
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abg
Contributor
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30 Messages
9 months ago
No, even with Mail disabled when I enter the new password in iOS Settings and click on "Done" I inevitably get the error:
Invalid Email Address
Please enter a valid email address for this account
Entering both the username (email address) and password gets the same error, regardless of the order entered.
My plan is to take an older iPhone I have which I use as an iPod and is hooked up to the same email account and simply delete the account and re-add it to that device and see if that works.
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