Samsung J5 2016 phone will not sign in to an iCloud mail address?

[Anonymous]

My phone suddenly will not allow me to sign in to my icloud email address. A message comes up that states that either the emal address or password are incorrect. I have checked everything out against the same settings I have for that address on my iMAC, which works perfectly well, but steadfastly refuses to allow me to sign in to that account. It is set as an "imap' account since Apple do not use PoP3 accounts.

I have spent over an hour with Apple this afternoon, and they suggest it is to do with the 'phone/O2. The thing is the problem only came to show when I updated my iMAC to satisfy a double security system. I know, but don't ask what the connection is! It is part of the take over of machines by Apple or Google!!

What do I have to do to get the thing back on track?

Thanks

altv

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

I seem to recall you had problems with your emails before......
If you have set up 2 step verification you will need to receive a code to your lead device to log into your accounts on other devices.
If this is proving difficult you can log in on your MAC and turn off 2 step verification but it might just be a case of deleting the email account and setting it up again.

[Anonymous]

Hi There MI5!

That was why I was bleating at Apple support this afternoon. In fact they had ne reall idea what the trouble is, and even had my screen showing on their machines. They are going to ring me again in the morning after "completing some research" in to the problem.

They did however, talk me through getting rid of the two step verification and to get rid of anything related to storage on the iCloud. This has had no effect on the email problem on the 'phone. Their only comment their was that it sounds like aSamsung/O2 problem!

I have also just noticed that the iMAC is not sending messages related to the .icloud.com account or receiving them. So, in fairness, it could be related to a problem within the Apple empire.

One of the messages that come up is "Unable to set up account. An incorrect username or password has ben entered, or POP3/IMAP access is not enabled for this account. Contact your service provider."

Not sure how one has to enable the account!

Cheers

aktv

[MI5]

If you connect to wifi and it still doesn't work, it's not an o2 problem, but if it does work on wifi, it's something for tech support to look into for you.

[Anonymous]

MI5

The iMAC is on Wi-Fi and it appears to have sent a test message but not received it. So it could be something silly going on at the Apple end. They are calling me in the morning and will ask them if there is a problem at their end regarding the servers.

I'll come back on here if there are any answers forthcoming.

Cheers

altv

[MI5]

Yeah, sounds like an Apple issue to me or something on your Apple account.

[Anonymous]

Yeah! we shall see tomorrow. Cheers

altv

[Anonymous]

Apple rang this morning, and asked how things were going! I told them I had managed to resolve the problem my self. Telling them that in thinking the two stage security had been removed the problem in fact, had not been moved. So I went through the exercise of removing the two stage security check and did manage to remove it. This then created further problems in that it was saying I had now to change my password for the iCloud account. I was loathe to do this, but did it anyway.

Then in trying to send and receive emails from the iCloud account it became a nightmare. In trying to sign in it kept refusing. I checked and double checked all the settings and still it would not work either on my iPad or the iMac. In desperation I tried the new iCloud password. This worked. I thought, obviously in error, that the email account was self-sustaining and would have it's own password. No. It is the same as the iCloud account. I only changed the password after Apple were burbling on about the removal of the two stage security, which caused the problem in the first place.

I think the moral of this little episode is to be very careful when Apple ask you to do something without giving what the real results could be.

One final point, Apple said this morning that the basic problem did in fact rest with them in that their server was down for a period of time, this meant that things were not operating as was expected. Strange they didn't know until they did some "research" in to my problem!!

It is now all working.

Cheers

altv.

[MI5]

Jolly good.
I thought turning off the verification would help in some way.

[Anonymous]

MI5

It took a lot of effort last night to realise where the problem really was, and in so doing gave me a clue as to what to do to clear the problem. Since my iMAC and iPad are basically only used as "need to know" units, I had  the Apple agent, yesterday, return all the files that were being stored in iCloud back on to the iMAC. I can now see all the files I need to without going through the internet to get hold of them. Saves an awful lot of effort of using the iCloud when I am now only using the devices for home use and no longer for business uses.

Thanks for your interest.

Cheers

altv