How to deal with “cannot verify server identity”??

Now a days, we are configuring mails in our mobile phones like iPhone and iOS devices. A common error faced while configuring mail account in iPhones/iOS devices is “Cannot Verify Server Identity” . This error indicates that the certificate used by the mail server is fake which can be due to the mismatch of domain name in the certificate.

Reason behind the error “Cannot Verify Server Identity”
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In iPhones, while configuring mail accounts, it will strictly verify/validate the certificate of mail server. This is done to make sure that the transfer of data is done securely between the mail client and the mail server. If the mail server certificate is expired or if the domain name in the certificate does not match the provided mail server name or if the certificate is not signed by a well known company, the certificate will be marked as unreliable. This will cause the failure of secure connection and thereby iPhone/iOS device will pop-up the error “Cannot Verify Server Identity“.

Some of the major possibilities of receiving the error are :

* mail server certificate got expired.

* there is some mismatch in the newly created mail server certificate

* The email account is being migrated to another server

* A new account is being setup in iPhone

This error pops up while configuring some popular mail servers also like outlook, gmail etc.

Usually while configuring mail clients, the mail server name will be provided as mail.domain.com while in the server, the mail server certificate will be in the name of mail.hostname.com. This mismatch can cause error to be popped up while configuring the mail account as iPhone treats the certificate is not reliable.

To solve the issue, there are mainly three ways.

* Change mail server name – We can manually change the mail server name to match the certificate name.

* Modify mail configuration – We can change iPhone’s mail server settings to use “mail.hostname.com” instead of “mail.domain.com”.

* Setup a free dedicated certificate – We can install free ssl like Let’s Encrypt.

* Reinstall Outlook/Gmail mail server certificate – Steps to reinstall the mail server certificate are:

1. Users will receive Internet security warning with 3 options, Yes, No, View Certificate. Here, we click the View Certificate button.
   2. Then Click on Install Certificate.
   3. Next, we will see the import wizard. Leave Current user selected and click next.
   4. Choose “Automatically select the certificate store based on the type of certificate”.
   5. Click Finish.If you are facing the error even after setting up the above options, you can try any of the following to fix it.

   * Restart Your iPhone
   * Close The Mail App, Then Reopen It
   * Delete Your Email Account, Then Add The Email Account Again
   * Reset All Settings

   Disable SSL can also fix the error (Not Recommended)
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   – Open the Settings app and browse for Passwords & Accounts.
   – Tap the mail app that is causing problems.
   – Next, Select the registered Account.
   – Navigate to Advanced settings and disable the Use SSL feature.

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