topic Re: Unable to SEND emails since switch to EE in Email

Unable to SEND emails since switch to EE

andypearson — Tue, 12 May 2026 20:36:20 GMT

My PlusNet friend has been unable to SEND any emails from his PlusNet email account via his iPhone or MS Outlook since switching his broadband service from PlusNet to EE this week. He CAN send email directly from the Greenby webmail site (he was migrated many months ago) but not via his iPhone or Outlook (no configuration changes made).

Error message received on his phone (screenshots attached) is: "Cannot Connect to the Outgoing Mail Server for "SMTP:username@relay,plus,net" with a message under saying "Mail can try to repair these settings" and a choice of Cancel or Repair. If Repair is chosen, a new message appears: "Cannot Send Mail. The connection to the outgoing server "relay.plus.net" failed. Additional Outgoing Mail Servers can be configured for Mail accounts in Settings>Apps>Mail>Accounts. Operation timed out"

We have turned the router on and off, and tried adjusting port settings (incoming 110, 995 etc.; outgoing 587, 25 etc.) without any joy. Is there anything that needs tweaking post migration from Plusnet to EE for broadband service? Anything else which we could try?

We spoke to PlusNet support who (understandably) said that Greenby manage all email related issues, but Greenby support simply responds with an AI generated response indicating the device must have an issue. But nothing has changed on either the iPhone or laptop since last week when everything was fine and emails could be sent without issue.

Any help much appreciated! Thanks.

Re: Unable to SEND emails since switch to EE

abitpedantic — Tue, 12 May 2026 21:01:57 GMT

I think this is a standard problem i.e. you can't use relay.plus.net after you've left Plusnet broadband. Using Greenby webmail works because it uses a Greenby server. I'm sure @MisterW will be happy to explain and suggest an approved solution.

Re: Unable to SEND emails since switch to EE

MisterW — Wed, 13 May 2026 06:28:49 GMT

@andypearson

@abitpedantic is correct.

The concept of the migration of email to Greenby is that all connections are routed via a 'proxy'. This has knowledge of whether an account has migrated or not and routes the actual connection accordingly. That is , to the Plusnet servers for non-migrated accounts and the Greenby ones for migrated ones. Unfortunately due to some issues the outgoing server relay.plus.net is temporarily still routed to the Plusnet server for ALL accounts. This means that anyone using this servere must still have a Plusnet account with valid credentials. Since your Plusnet account has closed due to the transfer to EE , your credentials are no longer valid.

Effectively to continue to send mail at the moment, you need to connect directly to the Greenby smtp server where your credentials will still be valid. Change your outgoing server from relay.plus.net to mail.plusnet.enmail.co . You may get a certificate error warning, if you do , then accept the mismatch and you should be able to continue.

Post back if you still have problems.

Re: Unable to SEND emails since switch to EE

PhilipHeyes — Wed, 13 May 2026 06:35:45 GMT

I am assuming this is a Plusnet email in the format : <name>@<account>.plus.com

Try replacing Plusnet hosted SMTP relay.plus.net with Greenby SMTP : mail.enmail.co or relay.force9.net
the 2 SMTP above have valid Certificates.

@MisterW is quite right mail.plusnet.enmail.co does not have a valid Certificate & this can result in rejection for use of SSL/TLS or STARTTLS where the mail client / app does not allow Certificate errors to be ignored.

Re: Unable to SEND emails since switch to EE

PhilipHeyes — Wed, 13 May 2026 07:49:15 GMT

There might be an additional issue at hand here, Port blocking.

Historically we used SMTP relay.plus.net via Port 25. Now many ISPs block Port 25 to reduce SPAM/SCAM emails.

If Port 25 is blocked via EE and access to the SMTP server fails, ( as opposed to the user/password are rejected )
try changing SMTP Port 25 to 587