Aquamail is denied to send email

[jiodjaly]

I have set up Aquamail on my wife's android phone and it has been working fine using a popmail account for a few years. She believes she may have changed something unintentionally but I cannot find anything wrong in any of the settings.

Receiving email works fine but when sending she gets 'Aquamail is denied to send email'. When I step through the account set up for outgoing mail I get 'Account check error. Outgoing mail server (SMTP): Error connecting. User denied by MoM. Please make sure data is correct'

Any suggestions how I can fix this I have exhausted all of the technical knowhow that I have and cannot find the cause.

Thanks to anyone who can give advice

Steve

[jiodjaly]

I forgot to add that I also use the same outgoing account and she also uses the same settings on her laptop in Outlook. all of those devices are working fine

[Kostya Vasilyev]

I'd try to find out who this MoM is in "User denied by MoM" and what exactly happened.

I don't think it's a setting. Could have to do with the mobile device (which AquaMail runs on) using a mobile data connection, and Outlook on Windows using a different type of connection / address.

[PeterS]

Since yesterday I'm getting the same (or similar) problem. I've a few Gmail accounts connected to AquaMail (1.7.1-88) for a few years long and now all complain "SMTP: connection failure, handshake failed". I've tried to check and modify the accounts' settings, but nothing helped. No matter whether using OAUTH2 or not, SSL/STARTTLS, which authentication - IMAP works flawlessly and SMTP does not go through. (I've yet to check Thunderbird on a computer.)

Sent from a touch display, which took care of perfectly scrambling my thoughts.

[PeterS]

No matter what networks over WiFi or mobile providers I've tried to use.

Suddenly, a few seconds ago, all pending emails from three accounts went through.

I'll keep an eye on it.

Sent from a touch display, which took care of perfectly scrambling my thoughts.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Re: SMTP: connection failure, handshake failed

Not the same or similar problem at all.

Yes, we've been seeing these handshake failures mostly with SMTP.

SSL / handshaking / networking are all deep inside Android code. We haven't changed anything there in quite some time.

The actual failure is in OpenSSL / LibreSSL low level code.

Google must be making changes to SSL on their side.

One thing I can recommend is to go into app settings -> networking -> toggle "SSL hardening" to the opposite of what it is, from on to off or from off to on.

Another is to change smtp.gmail.com to smtp.googlemail.com in the account's settings in Aqua Mail, this is likely to get you a different server on Google's side.

[PeterS]

Thanks, I'll try the next time. (In the meantime I've heard that it was indeed a widespread issue.)

Sent from a touch display, which took care of perfectly scrambling my thoughts.

[StR]

Google had a huge problem with their "account engine" on February 23. That affected lots of devices and functions that rely on Google account login: Mail, various Google services, Google Wi-Fi routers, etc.
See. e.g. https://support.google.com/wifi/answer/7335595
http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/02/24/google-issues-account-sign-resulting-errors-android-devices-onhub-wifi/

I've had to re-enter password in Thunderbird (OAuth authentication) for Gmail accounts. And there was something quirky with one of my Gmail accounts this past week (beyond the regular Gmail idiosyncrasies).
The problem with GMail SMTP could be a fallout from the same problem.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Google had a huge problem with their "account engine" on February 23. That affected lots of devices and functions that rely on Google account login: Mail, various Google services, Google Wi-Fi routers, etc.

This one was different -- it was a failure to log in and this one is a failure to connect. The failure to log in started on the morning of Feb 23, and was fixed very quickly. The failure to connect, to SMTP specifically, has been going on for about a month or maybe 2-3 weeks.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@PeterS

Could there be some sort of "security" software involved, that may be sitting between the app and Gmail?

And in case your phone runs Android 7, I just made an "interesting" change:

https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5451.0

+ Android 7, "SSL hardening" turned on -> enable "Chacha20 / Poly1305" cipher (supported by Gmail).

Wonder if this might help the handshake error. This is only for Android 7 and newer, and only if Aqua Mail settings -> network -> SSL hardening is enabled (by default it's not).

[PeterS]

Could there be some sort of "security" software involved, that may be sitting between the app and Gmail?

And in case your phone runs Android 7, I just made an "interesting" change:

+ Android 7, "SSL hardening" turned on -> enable "Chacha20 / Poly1305" cipher (supported by Gmail).

@Kostya, I do have SSL hardening switched on, but my phone is 6.0.1. The next time

And I do not have any "security" stuff running.

The failure to connect, to SMTP specifically, has been going on for about a month or maybe 2-3 weeks.

Thanks. This might explain, why I've been sometimes observing intermittent connection problems to Gmail on WiFi (possibly soon after sending an email?), but it usually immediately cleared out after taking a look and switching to another network. (I've just never digged deep enough to notice, what's exactly going on.) It took similar 2-3 weeks long.

Sent from a touch display, which took care of perfectly scrambling my thoughts.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@PeterS

A Google'er (I was able to reach someone on the Gmail team) suggested trying to switch from "SSL, port 465" to "STARTTLS, port 587" for the outgoing server.

This is just a different way to negotiate a secure network connection:

"SSL" connects "encrypted" right away

"STARTTLS" first connects "unencrypted" then issues a special command to "enable encryption" and then it's encrypted (all before logging in, naturally).

Gmail's SMTP supports both.

[PeterS]

I've tried STARTTLS for SMTP back then as well, but it did not work either. I've now set it for one account for a test. Interestingly, Google SMTP accepts STARTTLS, but IMAP does not - it works only with SSL.

Sent from a touch display, which took care of perfectly scrambling my thoughts.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

I've tried STARTTLS for SMTP back then as well, but it did not work either. I've now set it for one account for a test. Interestingly, Google SMTP accepts STARTTLS, but IMAP does not - it works only with SSL.

Yes it's true. The SMTP server also listens on port 25. It's required to be able to accept email from other providers (as opposed to mail apps).