Email client login not working

[#1]

Okay bit of feedback from me:

1. Logging in with account seems to work
2. Logging in with mail.box@account doesn't work
3. Logging in with mailbox@account also doesn't work

Hope that helps troubleshoot the issue a bit more

[#2]

Just a thought but I wonder if it's anything to do with this which Plusnet have kindly omitted to actively advise us of:

https://www.plus.net/help/email-account-changes/

Yet another reason to be giving Plusnet the old heave-ho when the broadband contract finishes.

[#3]

I've just logged a fault.  There's a known problem with Force9 emails.

[#4]

Finally I can join the discussion. Yesterday I could not use email on any PC or my phone but webmail worked fine. My missus' email was working fine however, as others have reported.

This morning I switched on and it was all working again.

last night before posting, I tried to retrieve my login as it's been so long, but the emails (I have 2 logins for reasons I have forgotten) with the password reset took more than 1h to arrive and had expired when I tried to use them. This morning I did the same and the email arrived instantly.

Yesterday I called the helpline who could not help but suggested they reset my password for me which never actually happened. There was/is something generally wrong or admins have been tinkering with the system which caused problems. It would be nice if the a*** could keep the elbow informed.

One benefit of my call was that I needed to renew my contract and I got a lower price than last year and bumped to 500Mbps for no extras, although 145Mb was mostly good enough. There must be a price war going on, they would not do this otherwise. They also offered to reduce my missus' EE bill. 

While doing all this I discovered that free email and domain hosting is going or will be transferred out but I not received any notification of this. I have been with F9/PN since 2003 but nothing lasts forever. Recommendations for hosting, anyone?. Hostinger looks good and cheap so what's the catch?

[#5]

I can confirm that I am now able to log in to all of my mailboxes this morning. Thank you @Townman for your hard work and dilligence, much appreciated.

[#6]

I called to log the fault and within an hour it was working again.  Call them on 0330 123 9123, take option 1 then option 9 to speak to someone.  Ignore the txt that comes through. 

[#7]

While doing all this I discovered that free email and domain hosting is going or will be transferred out but I not received any notification of this.

@changi1 the transfer is being rolled out gradually on a brand e.g Madasafish basis with the smaller brands first. You'll get a timely notification well before your account is scheduled. You can preview some of the details here https://www.plus.net/help/email-account-changes/

[#8]

@dalegilbert

The “fix” was well in hand prior to your call. This was being worked on later yesterday evening.

[#9]

This appears to be happening again. It happened around a week ago, for around half a day, then appeared to be fixed, then - around Thursday or Friday I think* - recurred and the service is still out. As before, web mail on any device and Thunderbird on my laptop work ok, but the gmail app on my Android phone will not recognise my credentials.

Should I simply report as an issue? Is it in hand? Do we know why it is happening?

Edit: last message received on gmail appears to be on 10th, Thursday.

[#10]

but the gmail app on my Android phone will not recognise my credentials.

That suggests a problem with your Gmail app.

[#11]

That the gmail app has not been updated since June and that the issue has happened before and was a plusnet issue suggests otherwise. 

[#12]

@stumped 

You do not mention the email brand.  There were performance issues on Force9 recently.

[#13]

@Townman, it is Force9 - see my earlier posts in this thread. Today Thunderbird (on Windows 11) is not downloading new messages, no error message though, so that ties in with performance issues. (Also my mailbox is close to it's maximum size which might or might not exacerbate any issue). Edit: whilst typing this it did manage to download messages, so definitely a performance thing there!

I am less convinced about this being responsible for the credentials error on the Android gmail app. This still seems (and I only say seems, I'm applying Occam's razor here) like the previous error re-occuring, because it has exactly the same symptoms and no changes have happened at my end. But may be connected to whatever issues plusnet is having with force9.

Webmail is still fine, across both platforms.

[#14]

---

@stumped wrote:

I am less convinced about this being responsible for the credentials error on the Android gmail app.

---

Occam's razor might indeed be a good call here as is: the devil is always in the detail.

How is the Android connected to the internet - over wifi and a Plusnet ISP server or mobile / a third party ISP wifi?

How is the Android presenting its credentials...

1. email address as the user ID
2. useraccount
3. useraccount+mailbox
4. useraccount+mail.box

(1) Might have worked previously

(4) Does not work for SMTP off network - this looks like a new issue - I will get a new escalation raised

[#15]

@Townman thanks for following up.

How is the Android connected to the internet - over wifi and a Plusnet ISP server or mobile / a third party ISP wifi?

Over Plusnet wifi

How is the Android presenting its credentials...

1. email address as the user ID
2. useraccount
3. useraccount+mailbox
4. useraccount+mail.box

In the form xxx@yyy.f9.co.uk where yyy=the account name. I haven't tried it now using just the account name but as per my post of 23-04-2025 10:02 PM that did work last time, but doesn't help the wife who relies on a sub-address.