Randomly Can't Send Email, iPad thinks I'm sending to Gmail

[mwinnick]

Randomly, when I try to send an email, or reply to one, and NOT to a gmail address, iPad tells me the gmail account password is wrong. I also get an email from Google telling me they think someone in trying to hack into my account. Then a day or two later the problem disappears, and two days later it happened again. I happened to be in Europe for three weeks and this would happen every few days.

Any idea why?

 

[twerppoet]

Check Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and see what your Default account is set to. When you are viewing the All Inbox any new email will be sent using this account (unless you tap the FROM field and change it before sending).

Replying to an email should automatically send from the received account, so I'm not sure what might fix this. All I can suggest, if you're sure it's happening, is to delete and re-add all affected email accounts. Be sure to re-set your Default account again after.

Oh, one more thing you can try, though it really shouldn't do this. Dig into your settings for each account until you find the SMTP settings. If there are alternate SMTP servers listed, try turing them off. What this will do is make sure that an email goes out through that account's servers, or fail if those servers are not working.

 

[J. A.]

Randomly, when I try to send an email, or reply to one, and NOT to a gmail address, iPad tells me the gmail account password is wrong. I also get an email from Google telling me they think someone in trying to hack into my account. Then a day or two later the problem disappears, and two days later it happened again. I happened to be in Europe for three weeks and this would happen every few days. Any idea why?

Hi, welcome to iPF!

I think that Google somehow detected that you were not in your original country and only wanted to inform you that something is not as it usual was. When I was visiting another country this year, I received an email from Gmail, informing me that my iPad was not used in Austria, but somewhere else, and that somebody could have stolen my iPad or hacked into my account (I only sent one mail there, using my Gmail account, so only got one of these mails.) I deleted that email when I returned to my country, so can't tell you exactly what I did at first. What I remember is: when I came home again, this didn't happen any more.

One thing you could do: delete the Gmail account on your iPad and set it up again. Perhaps it will help solve this issue.

 

[mwinnick]

I appreciate all the answers, but here's the problem I see. Google knows NOTHING about my iPad. I have NO Google or GMAIL addresses or accounts anywhere on my iPad. None of my Contacts have any GMAIL addresses. None of the email eddresses I send to, nor any I responded to, were GMAILs.

Why on some days can I send mail without getting a message from Google, but on other days, sending to those same addresses, I get a message from Google and iPad refuses to send the mail? For example, while in Germany last week, at 5pm I tried to send email and had the problem. At 5:15 I got on the web instead, onto Gmail, and sent a friend a message about the problem. Then at 5:30 I got back on iPad email and was able to send email with no problem for the next two days. Then the problem started up again.

It just doesn't make sense.

 

[J. A.]

Sorry, forgot to mention that I was sending an email from my Gmail account to a recipient without Gmail account. It has nothing to do with the recipient, but the sender - in this case you. Does your iPad have 3 G, or is it Wi-Fi only?

 

[J. A.]

This is what I found in a Gmail blog:

To determine when to display this message, our automated system matches the relevant IP address, logged per the Gmail privacy policy, to a broad geographical location. While we don't have the capability to determine the specific location from which an account is accessed, a login appearing to come from one country and occurring a few hours after a login from another country may trigger an alert.

If you think your account has been compromised, you can change your password from the same window. Or, if you know it was legitimate access (e.g. you were traveling, your husband/wife who accesses the account was also traveling, etc.), you can click "Dismiss" to remove the message.

(Gmail Blogspot)

 

[twerppoet]

It sounds like Johanna has it figured out. Especially as you were moving around a lot when it was happening a lot.

 

[mwinnick]

Let me try again. Yes, my iPad has 3G and WiFi. But the 3G is NOT activated and I have NEVER used it.

I have NO gmail accounts on the ipad, I have no gmail addresses in my contacts list.

How does Google even know where I am in the world if I do not use gmail?

 

[J. A.]

Because of your IP address.
You told before that you have a Google account. Even if you don't use the Mail app or a Gmail app, Google in Safari is able to tell the country where you are now.

Wikipedia:
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device (e.g., computer, printer) participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.[1] An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing. Its role has been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there."[2]

 

[mwinnick]

OK, I think I understand. You are saying that the Safari browser has a Google feature built in such that whenever I do anything on my iPad Google looks at my IP and determines if that IP is different, maybe by many kilometers or latitude/longitude, than my last location. It also has the ability to determine if I have ANY gmail address, even if I am not using it. It further then plays policeman and if I try to send an email will prevent me from doing so if my iPad has moved a long distance until it, somehow, determines that I'm really OK. Though I have no idea how it makes that determination/ It also apparently has the ability to know that I have some gmail account, even though it has no idea what my name is, just by looking at my base IP that I may have used more times than others? And we're worried about Snowden and the NSA?

 

[J. A.]

I hope this will explain what you want/need to know:

From Google Support:

What is 'Last account activity'?

Last account activity shows you information about recent activity in your mail. Recent activity includes any time that your mail was accessed using a regular web browser, a POP client, a mobile device, a third-party application etc. We'll list the IP address that accessed your mail, the associated location, as well as the time and date.

 

[mwinnick]

Johanna,

Sounds like you are a Google employee. Are you saying that Google somehow is involved in how my iPad operates even when I do not do anything connected to Google? For example, when I use Safari? I have an alternate browser that I also use and I'm pretty sure Google knows nothing about it. Or am I wrong. And, while it says "accessed your mail", does that mean even my non-Google GMail? For example my own ISP's email? Remember, not of my email activities, or web browsing, ever touched a Google related email account. No one I contacted has a GMail account.

Of course I still have the issue of why I could not send email for a day or more as I traveled. What do people do who travel all over the world? Do they put up with inability to send email for a few days everytime they cross some border?

 

[J. A.]

I'm certainly not a Google employee, what I posted before is something I found in the internet.

GMail is short for Google Mail, so if you have a GMail account, it's a Google Account, nothing else. When you login, you access your mail account. It doesn't matter which account your contacts have. It also doesn't matter if you use an app to access it, or a browser.

You only received this email from Google, so Gmail uses your IP address to identify your location. (No other email account)

Read the message when you receive it (information about possibility of being hacked), don't change your password. Perhaps there was a link you'd have had to use in order to confirm that everything is okay.

If you have another email account, use that one to send emails, if you don't like being "watched".

 

[mwinnick]

Johanna,

Appreciate all the comments and info. My general rule has been to not use GMail when I travel, the only exception being using it from a browser at some hotel I may be staying at, but even then only on an emergency basis. I use my home ISP always and only have a GM account for emergencies and because for some G related things I did not want them involved in the rest of my life. I've got the answers I need (other than why my iPad refused to send out emails on various days) so I'm done with the subject.

By the way, just got back from Austria a few days ago. Thoroughly enjoyed the trip, enough to plan a return next year. Mostly the Salzburg to Vienna route, lot's of stops and lots of mountains.

 

[J. A.]

Sorry, I don't know why you couldn't send emails. This didn't happen to me.

I'm glad you enjoyed the time in my country.