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5 Messages

Sunday, September 22nd, 2019 4:48 PM

outbound.att.net rejects outbound mail with 554 6.6.0 Error sending message for delivery.

Beginning yesterday, smtp mail delivery using outbound.att.net stopped working for us. This is on a business internet account.  We use outbound.att.net to send out mail from all our company devices:  Mac desktops, iPhones and iPads.  All have current software versions on the mail client.

 

This problem occurs a couple of times a year, and I have learned to log into att.net account and look for notices about changes in terms of service, etc.  Usually logging and accepting gets things going again.  This time, there was a notice about needing to upgrade all clients to use OAuth, otherwise there would be a disruption in service.  The "help page" said to upgrade all mail clients; not much help since all our software was current.

 

I checked the mail connection logging, and it shows the connection is accepted, as is the outgoing message, but the server returns "554 6.6.0 Error sending message for delivery."  

 

So, continuing down the "help page", it says as an alternative to set up a "secure mail key".  Of course, in true ATT fashion, the directions for finding where to do this do not match the reality of my login.  (ATT has the worst web site I have ever used.  Really, they should be ashamed...  Not sure if I'm looking for Yahoo, MyAtt, Att Business etc.  Half the links go to sales pitches... anyway I digress)  After nosing around for 90 minutes, I finally find the right page, and get a secure mail key for the account.  I plug that into the password location on the  Mac SMTP server account screen.  It appears to work, in that it authenticates properly with the server.  

 

However, the mail is still being rejected with the "554 6.6.0 Error sending message for delivery."  Totally useless diagnostics.  No indication as to exactly what is wrong with the message.  I have seen this thing before.  ATT's mail server is finicky.  It seems to have a bunch of rules regarding messages, recipients, rejected attempts etc.  After a while, the mail will finally start going out again.  However, as of this morning, mail is still not going out.  

 

I checked my ATT mail inbox on the Yahoo web client (which I don't use).  I was surprised to see all my outbound drafts (composed on my Mac Mail client) that were being rejected, sitting in the Drafts folder!  Strange...  Anyway, I sent out the message from the Yahoo web clients, and it told me the message couldn't be delivered, because "It looks like spam or contains only links.  Please modify your message and try again".  Seriously...

Any ideas?  Any other users out there having this problem?

 

Hopefully some ATT person is reading this and can get some help for us.  Its impossible to get anyone on the phone to get this resolved. Their customer support is geared to home users.

 

Our company outbound email is dead in the water now. Can't run a business like this --  we have to get our email out.  I have about had it with the lousy ATT service.  Seriously considering switching to Comcast.  Come on ATT, start treating business customers right, instead of like home users.  Our legitimate emails are spam-filtered out of existence, and all the while we receive quite a bit of spam from illegitimate ATT users. ATTs spam filtering is worthless and really just throws up roadblocks for us.

 

Sorry for the long rant, but I'm frustrated.  

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Expert

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15K Messages

5 years ago

I checked my ATT mail inbox on the Yahoo web client (which I don't use).  I was surprised to see all my outbound drafts (composed on my Mac Mail client) that were being rejected, sitting in the Drafts folder!  Strange...  Anyway, I sent out the message from the Yahoo web clients, and it told me the message couldn't be delivered, because "It looks like spam or contains only links.  Please modify your message and try again".  Seriously...

Any ideas?  Any other users out there having this problem?

If you are getting that specific error message then believe it or not changing your account password seems to fix it for most users who have gotten it although I can't say for sure if it works 100% of the time.

 

As for not using the webmail you should really check it's spam folder periodically (less than a month) to check for false positives, i.e., mail sent to you that was considered by the att/yahoo spam filters and placed that email in the spam folder.  With your client configured as POP (you did say you were using outbound.att.net so I assume inbound is inbound.att.net) it only sees the server inbox which is mirrored by the webmail.

 

Tutor

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5 Messages

5 years ago

Yes, changing the password worked for me.  Hard to believe, but I guess it resets their spam flag on the account.

 

Interesting that it seems I can now use either the secure mail key or the regular account password to authenticate on outbound.mail.com.

 

Thanks!

Tutor

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5 Messages

5 years ago

BTW nice to get help from an Adventure buff. I played that years ago at Bell Labs (in the early 80s).

Expert

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15K Messages

5 years ago

Interesting that it seems I can now use either the secure mail key or the regular account password to authenticate on outbound.mail.com.

Currently using OAuth(2) or the secure mail key is optional.  It is not clear at this time that the email I assume you saw that probably made you aware of OAuth and the secure mail key is legit.  So I started recommending the link should not be clicked.  The place it takes you to however, Use OAuth or secure mail key for email apps, is legit and has been around since early 2018.  So even if it was a phishing email I like to say their heart was in the right place. Man Happy

 

If the email turns out to be legit and att/yahoo actually do start making OAuth and the secure mail key alternative mandatory then it doesn't hurt to change now and then your all set when and if that happens.

Expert

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15K Messages

5 years ago

Forgot to comment on the second part of your last post...

 

Nice to know some are here old enough to know where my name came from! Man LOL

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