Email synchronization issue - Error 0x800CCC0E / 0x800CCC0F

[DMac]

I am using Windows Live Mail to download email to my sympatico.ca email account.  Out of the blue, it stopped working last week.  None of the settings were changed.  Can't seem to receive email.  Get the following message:

Unable to send or receive messages for the *******@sympatico.ca account. The connection to the server has failed.

Server: 'pophm.sympatico.ca'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC0E
Protocol: POP3
Port: 995
Secure(SSL): Yes
Socket Error: 10060

Any ideas?

[Vanadiel]

It's likely the changes that were made as of April 30th, 2024 to the mail system. Windows Vista as an operating system is not supported by Bell anymore, or by Microsoft.

It's the e-mail client that also matters, so older clients that are not supported by Microsoft anymore will also need to be upgraded. 

• Microsoft Outlook 2013 and higher

You can read about the requirements here. 

I realize some want their old OS/mail clients going, but for security and other reasons I would personally recommend to look for upgrades. You don't want to keep running software that is not supported anymore by the manufacturer, it's really not a good idea...

[ESP]

Thanks for the info. In my case, my computer runs on Windows 7 SP1, which is still listed as a supported OS on the link provided by Bell. Do you know if there is an up to date list of which OS and email clients actually supported by the Bell email servers after the April 30th update. It's one thing for them to tell us we need to upgrade but it would be helpful to know what needs to be upgraded to which version.

[Vanadiel]

This is why I posted :

• Microsoft Outlook 2013 and higher

In your cause you are using Outlook 2007 on Windows 7 (SP1). You are good OS wise, but not good Outlook wise.

The full list of OS and mail clients that are supported is listed here. 

[YellowRose]

This is exactly what is happening to me right now ... I've been on the line with Bell support and they say both Windows 7 and Outlook 2016 should be fine ...

[YellowRose]

Hey ... are you out there?  I'm having EXACTLY the same trouble today Wednesday May 29th.  I've been on the line with Bell support.  Everything you are reporting has happened exactly to me this morning ... I'm using Windows 7 professional, Outlook 2016 (part of the MS office suite).  I'm also using Norton.  

My whole configuration has worked fine for 10 years until this morning

Bell chat support was no use.

I think I'm going to "restore" my settings to a recent good restore point.

[YellowRose]

This is all exactly what is happening to me right now, Wednesday May 29th. Suddenly outlook doesn't like my POP settings. In fact, the whole "POP" option is greyed-out; it won't allow updates ....

I'm using windows 7 professional, outlook 2016 (part of the whole MS office professional suite) and Norton 360

It's not you, it's them ... Bell says they should still be supporting windows  and MS office 2016

[YellowRose]

Hi - it's me YellowRose again. I am with you 100% - I'm going to try 

1) restoring my settings to earlier date

2) creating a new POP account with all of the same info

[ESP]

Hello YellowRose,

Thanks for the info. I was considering upgrading from Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2013 as it was listed as supported by Bell but considering you are using Outlook 2016 on a similar setup as mine and it doesn't work either, I will save the effort. They have probably enforced some security rule on their server and "forgot" to update the support info on their website. I wouldn't be the first time. 

[BringBackWindows95]

Thanks for your reply.  Even if I had a recovery disc or partition, wouldn't recovering the original operating system wipe out all programs and data on the computer?  

[dks]

I understand your concern.i have used Outlook as my mail client for 25 years on Bell, currently using the Office 2021 version. Last weekend I had a strange mail stoppage as well. I ran all the tests and troubleshooting things I could think of. Then I re-entered my mail password and it worked again. I am not saying this will solve your problem, but stranger things have happened. 

I see you got error 0x800CCC0F. That is a known Outlook error. There are some good tips here on how to resolve that. The last tip is to use a purchased software tool. Ignore that. Try the rest. And ditch Norton. Windows alone is generally sufficient for antivirus needs.

 https://www.stellarinfo.com/article/fix-outlook-error-0x800ccc0f

[Vanadiel]

In my opinion, there's no need on a Windows 10 or newer operating system to use any third party antivirus, firewall or other "security" software.

It often causes more issues than it's trying to solve and tends to affect your overall computer performance and internet experience.

That's just my opinion, and I am sure some will disagree. In the end it's up to you what you want to install on your computer(s).

[ESP]

Hello,

This is not a question par se but rather a summary of my findings of the "POP account will send but not receive mail" thread which got merged with other subjects. For clarity, I summarize my original problem which is shared by other users.

My email setup is POP3/SMTP with Outlook 2007 on Windows 7 SP1. On May 29th, Bell changed something on their POP3 server. It's now impossible for Outlook to log on the POP3 server to read emails but SMTP still works fine to send emails. The email requirements on the Bell support page mentions Windows 7 SP1 / Outlook 2013 as the minimum requirements. One would think that upgrading to Outlook 2013 would solve the problem but another user with Windows 7 and Outlook 2016 posted the same problem.So after a few days of testing different setups, here are my findings:

On my original WIndows 7 PC, Outlook 2007 does not work but Thunderbird 115 does work fine with POP3/SMTP to read and send emails.

On another Windows 11 PC, Outlook 2007 works fine with POP3/SMTP to read and send emails.

So as I suspected last week, the minimum requirements on the Bell email support page are inaccurate and support of Windows 7 seems to have been removed, at least in combination with Outlook. Bell should really put more effort on communicating what has changed and what are now the minimum requirements

So in conclusion, the only solution for people with older versions of Windows seems to change mail client to migrate to Thunderbird, which is not a simple tasks. I tried 3 different migration tools and none of them is perfect and lots of manual work is required. 

I don't want to start a thread on the importance or not to use the latest software version. I am a computer professional and I know the risks of using older versions. I just wanted to share my experience with those experimenting the same issue on older PCs.

[ESP]

Just a quick update on my last post. It seems the change that was made to Bell POP3 server seurity settings is that they now require a TLS connection over SSl. In Windows 7, I found the following 4 register keys will activate TLS over SSL.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client]
"DisabledByDefault"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server]
"DisabledByDefault"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client]
"DisabledByDefault"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server]
"DisabledByDefault"=dword:00000000

On my old Windows 7 / Outlook 2007 PC, POP3 and SMTP protocols now work fine and the problem is solved without any other modifications. Use it at your own risk but its much more simple than migrating to Thunderbird.

[Mary5]

I was away for 11 days from May 17-28 and when I came back, my three sympatico accounts on Windows Live Mail on my desktop were not working and I was getting the following error:

Server: 'pophm.sympatico.ca'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC0F
Protocol: POP3
Port: 995
Secure(SSL): Yes

I tried trouble shooting myself, including deleting one of the accounts and setting it up again, to no avail. I tried speaking to a Bell tech. by phone, but she did not have any answers. A couple of days later, I had an online chat with another Bell tech./rep. who finally gave me an answer to what is going on. Bell is pushing sympatico emails only to their webmail now for security purposes and so sympatico will no longer work with Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, etc. It's terribly inconvenient, but there appears to be no workaround.

[Mary5]

Thank you for this! I was away for 11 days and when I returned I could not access my Sympatico emails through Windows Live Mail any more. I kept getting this error message:
Server: 'pophm.sympatico.ca'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC0F
Protocol: POP3
Port: 995
Secure(SSL): Yes

When I spoke with a Bell tech. he told me that I could not use Windows Live Mail any more due to security changes to their server. I set up Thunderbird to try it out and was able to access my sympatico emails there, but I really don't like it (plus, like you, I have a lot of data I'd need to migrate to it).

I'm not sure if what you're suggesting will work for me (or how to do it) but I've printed out your information in the post above and will try to find a tech person who can help me. I really don't want to give up Windows Live Mail, because it is so much more user friendly than Bell webmail and Thunderbird.

Thanks, again.