Guide · Email suddenly stopped working
Email suddenly stopped sending or receiving? Fix it in order.
Email that worked yesterday and will not today almost always breaks for one of a handful of reasons, and it pays to check them in order, because the first one fixes most cases. Work down the list below and stop the moment mail starts flowing again. No jargon, no guessing, and nothing you cannot check yourself in a few minutes.
Last reviewed: 21 July 2026 · by Alien IT Solutions
Start here: what changed?
Nine times out of ten, email breaks right after one of two things: you got a new phone, or someone changed the password.
Mail apps hold the old password and keep trying it, so every device quietly starts failing at once. Think back to what changed just before it stopped, a new handset, a forced password reset, a security prompt you tapped through. That is usually your answer, and it tells you where to start on the list below.
The fix-it order
Work down this list. Stop when it starts working again.
- Update the password on every device and app. If the password changed, every phone, tablet, laptop and mail app still holding the old one will fail, sending and receiving, and repeated wrong-password attempts can temporarily lock the account. Re-enter the new password in the mail settings on each device. Do not forget the easy-to-miss ones: an old tablet, a work laptop, and the scan-to-email photocopier or printer.
- Check whether you need an app password or MFA. If the account has two-factor or multi-factor authentication switched on, common now on the major providers, your normal password often will not work in a standalone mail app. You need an app-specific password generated in the account's security settings, or you sign in through the provider's own prompt. A "password rejected" error on a password you know is right is the tell.
- Is the mailbox full? A full mailbox stops receiving, new mail bounces back to the sender, and on some setups it stops sending too. Log into the provider's webmail and check your storage. Clearing big attachments and emptying the Deleted and Junk folders, which often still count toward the quota, usually frees it.
- Fix the outgoing (SMTP) settings. If mail arrives but will not send, the outgoing server is the usual culprit. Two things to get right: SMTP authentication must be on, using the same username and password as incoming, and the port must match, either 465 for SSL or TLS, or 587 for submission with STARTTLS. Port 25 is blocked on most home and mobile connections, so if you are set to 25, that is your problem.
- Is it just this device, or all of them? Quick test: sign into the provider's webmail from a browser. If webmail works, the account and password are fine and the fault is in one device's settings. If webmail also fails, the problem is the account or the provider, not your device.
- Check for a provider outage. Before you pull your settings apart, confirm the provider is not down. Check their status page or a public outage tracker. If it is an outage, there is nothing to fix, so wait it out.
- On your own domain? Check you are not blacklisted. If your email runs on your own domain and messages send but never arrive at the other end, your domain or mail-server address may be on a spam blacklist, often after a compromised password sent spam through it. This one usually needs your IT provider or host to check the blacklists and request delisting.
When to give up on an ISP email address
If your address ends in your internet provider's name, the classic being a bigpond.com address, you are renting it from a company whose real business is selling you internet. Two risks come with that. If you ever switch providers you can lose the address, and everything signed up to it. And these legacy addresses tend to attract less support and more breakage over time.
If you are constantly fighting one, move to an address you actually own, a paid mailbox on your own domain, or a mainstream independent provider, one you keep no matter who supplies your internet. Do it calmly, not mid-outage: set up the new address, forward the old one, and update your important logins over a few weeks. If the address you are wrestling with is specifically a Bigpond or Telstra one, we have a step-by-step guide to Bigpond and Telstra email problems, including how to move off without losing anything.
The short version
Email usually breaks straight after a new phone or a password change, so update the password on every device first. Then check for an app password or MFA, a full mailbox, and the outgoing SMTP port, 465 or 587 with authentication on. Test webmail to tell a device problem from an account problem, rule out a provider outage, and if you are on your own domain, check you are not blacklisted. If an ISP-tied address keeps failing, move to one you own.
General guidance. Exact settings vary by provider; your email host or IT support can confirm the right server names and ports for your account.
Fighting a telco-owned email address for the last time?
Moving off an ISP mailbox often means you can drop the plan that came with it. Send us your bill: the audit is free, and we will tell you straight what you are paying for the address you are stuck with.
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