Why Is IMAP AOL Not Responding?

Do you have a problem syncing your AOL account on the mail app due to the IMAP error? Well, this is the most known issue. That pops up on your mail app when you need to properly set up your AOL account.

When IMAP doesn’t work on the mail app, it will keep asking you to enter the login details, regardless of whether you typed it correctly or not. When you press the sign-in button, you will reach the same window.

So why is my AOL mail account not working, and how should I make it work again? We will learn that in this tutorial.

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Why is imap.aol.com Not responding to the mail applications?

Generally, AOL IMAP servers are not responding due to the internet connectivity, IMAP server, or two-step verification issue. Apart from this, there can be several other reasons, which are listed below.

Airplane or DND is active on your device.
No internet or poor internet connectivity issue.
IMAP & SMTP server settings are invalid.
The username or password is invalid.
Inbound or outbound servers are blocking the connection.
Proxy or VPN Connections are active on your device.

How Do I Fix AOL IMAP? Is it not working?

Check the internet connection-

Please check the internet connection whenever your mail app can’t sync to the AOL mail servers.

Very often, a user needs to remember to connect their device to connect to the internet. Make sure you are not repeating the same mistake.

Update the Imap settings –

Once you test the internet connection on your device, it’s time to verify the IMAP settings. You need to open the mail application and go to the account settings to do that.

You need to click on the AOL mail account and check your account details. For example- Here I am showing you a method to check IMAP settings on the Windows Mail app.

Open Windows mail app. (start >> apps >> All apps).
Click on the settings button.
Now Press the manage accounts button.
Choose an AOL mail account from the list.
Now check the incoming server details.

Make sure that your incoming & outgoing server details are matching to the following settings.

In case if some settings are incorrect, you need to update them and press apply, save changes, or sign in.

Update AOL username and password-

Once you find that the imap settings are correct but you still can’t sync to the AOL servers. you need to check the username and password details. It is possible that you have accidentally typed the wrong username and password.

So you should try updating your username and password by going to account settings. Is your mail application connecting to the AOL server now or not?

Disable Two-Step Verification-

If you are using 2-step security in your AOL account, then it is possible that your mail application is unable to sync data with the AOL server.

This is because 2-step security is an extra security layer and when you configure your account in a mail application, you will only use the password there.

So, you should disable 2-step security in your account. To disable it, you will have to follow the below procedure.

Open the AOL mail account on a browser.
Click on the profile picture >> Account info.
Go to the Security section
Scroll down and click on the 2-step verification option.
Disable it, if it is active.

Generate App Password –

If you don’t want to deactivate the two-step security on your AOL mail account, you should generate the app password.

Now use this password to configure your AOl account on the mail application. Open AOL mail account on a browser.

Go to Account info
Click on the Security option.
Now choose the Account option.
Under the App password section, click on the Generate password.

Once you generate the app password, you need to open the mail app. Now go to the account settings >> AOL account. The old password and paste “App password”.

Turn off Airplane mode If active-

Let’s ensure that you have not activated the Airplane or DND mode on your device by mistake.

If Airplane mode is active on your device, you need to turn it off. Now press the send & receive emails on AOL mail account. Your mailbox should be syncing to the AOL servers now.

Fix Time & Date Settings-

Sometimes, Imap servers are not working because it can’t verify the SSL Connection. Generally, It happens when time and date settings are incorrect on your pc.

So you need to fix the time and date according to your region. after that, you should restart the mail app.

Disable Firewall & Antivirus for a while-

If you haven’t found anything wrong with the imap and mail settings yet. still, you can’t access your aol account on your mail app. this could be a problem with the security programs.

Probably, the firewall or antivirus are blocking the incoming servers. So you need to disable them for 15 minutes. now try to sync to the mail server again. let’s see if it is working now or not.

Check AOL mail server status –

It doesn’t happen very often but sometimes imap error appears because of the server issues. When Aol mail servers are down or it is loaded with heavy traffic, you may have problem in syncing.

So you should check the AOL mail service status at: down detector. If you find that many users reporting for the same bug. it means, the services are down, so you need to wait for a while.

Disable Proxy/ VPN servers-

Let’s ensure you are not running a Proxy or VPN connection on your device. Sometimes, AOL doesn’t consider them a secure connection. So, when you use the proxy apps, AOL might block the account’s accessibility to the third-party app.

So, if your computer uses the IMAP server, please turn it off.

Reset the Account –

If you have tried the above steps but IMAP is still malfunctioning on your device. Please delete your AOL account from the mail app. and set it up again.

Once you set it up again, it will work fine on your device.