Introduction
In this article we will discuss the 'Server authentication failed' error message, which may sometimes appear on your screen whenever an authentication error has been encountered by Mailbird. Any problems with the authentication of one or more email addresses is generally very simple to resolve, and so we'll do our best to explain how you can successfully authenticate your email account in a few steps. This issue normally occurs whenever your email server loses the authentication for your email inbox.
How to resolve
First of all, you will need to remove and re-add your email address to Mailbird. If you use IMAP connection, all your emails will be downloaded back to Mailbird after you add the account back to Mailbird, so you will not lose any data. However, if you have a POP3 email, please contact support for further assistance, since removing a POP3 account without creating a backup of your emails will result in a total loss of email data.
In order to remove the account, simply follow the steps below:
- Go to Mailbird Menu in the top left corner of the page (i.e. the three horizontal lines)
- Then click on Settings
- Next, click on Accounts
- Finally, click on the account that you would like to remove - once you have done this, click on Remove down the righthand side.
If you need to find out what email protocol you are currently using before you begin (i.e. either POP3 or IMAP), you will find the necessary guidance below:
- Go to Mailbird Menu in the top left corner of the page (i.e. the three horizontal lines)
- Then click on Settings
- Next, click on Accounts
- Now double-click on the account which you're interested in, and check the port number.
- If the port number is 995 or 110, then it's a POP3 account
- All other port numbers are IMAP
Once you have readded your email account to Mailbird, the problem should disappear, but if you are still encountering difficulties with authenticating one of your email addresses, then please reach out to a member of our Customer Happiness Team by clicking here.