My Bigpond emails won't send from my iPhone due to a 'relaying' error

A client at iTandCoffee today had a puzzling error on her iPhone that was preventing her from sending any emails from her Bigpond email account.

The error she started getting only a few days earlier was 'The recipient "recipient-email-address" was rejected by the server because it does not allow relaying'.

This client had tried visiting a Telstra store for help, but they could not work out what was wrong.

She also tried calling the Bigpond technical support team, but got no answer from that call - which focussed on looking for problems on her Mac instead of the iPhone and, by the end of the call had her convinced that her email or Mac had been hacked! (That's another story, as I think she actually called someone other that Telstra's support team.)

Here's what we did to diagnose and solve the problem.

Was it an error caused by POP email setup?

While it is not uncommon to get a 'relaying' error message if your Bigpond email is installed as a POP account and you are using a non-Telstra internet connection (here's an article we published on this issue way back in 2014), her email account was installed as IMAP - so shouldn't have been encountering this problem.

Does removing/re-adding the account help?

We tried a few standard things in an attempt to resolve the problem - removing the IMAP mail account and re-adding it, then adjusting settings. None of this helped. 

Does the mail send on other devices or a computer?

We then installed the mail account on a spare iTandCoffee iPhone. Everything worked fine on that phone - emails sent without an issue.

So this confirmed that the issue was definitely with the client's iPhone, not with the mail account, her Mac or any other device. And it certainly wasn't that she had been hacked.

Does your device have a Management Profile or VPN?

We had initially discussed whether her employer might have installed some security software on her iPhone - but she was confident this hadn't occurred for her current workplace and her current iPhone. Neither had she installed a VPN (virtual private network).

However, after verifying that the mail account worked fine on the other iPhone, further inspection of her iPhone's settings revealed that there was, in fact, a Device Management profile in the General area of Settings.

This profile must have been installed on an older iPhone several years ago by her previous employer - for whom she hadn't worked for at least 2 years. It would have been restored to her current iPhone from the previous iPhone's backup.

Deleting the profile required that we first identify the apps that were using that profile and delete them. So we deleted Outlook, and a security app called MobileIron, then deleted the Device Management profile from Settings.

After then re-starting the device, we tried sending an email. Alas, it still didn't work.

Does reset of Settings help?

So, we then did a 'reset' of the iPhone's Settings - from Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings.

This did the trick - and there were squeals of delight and a high-five!

The reset removed whatever 'stray' device management settings had been left behind and allowed her Mail app to again send emails from her Bigpond account.

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A 'flood' of Bigpond sending issues in one day!

Within the same 24 hours, iTandCoffee saw two other clients with Bigpond mail issues, all relating to sending of their emails.

I have written short articles about how each was resolved - just in case any reader suffers similar issues with their own emails.

• My Bigpond email won't send - the message says I am SPAM!
• Outlook is stuck on 'Send/Receive' - and crashes on re-start

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Need help with email issues (or other issues)?

iTandCoffee can help.
We are at 34 High Street Glen Iris (Melbourne), but also offer in-home support (to areas within about 15 km of Glen Iris).
For those further away, we offer a remote support service (using an app called Teamviewer).
We can help with Windows, Mac and all mobile devices and tablets.

​Call 1300 885 420 to make an appointment - or book online at itandcoffee.com.au/help-with-technology.