Fix iPhone cannot verify server identity errors

When using the mail applications on your Apple iPhone, you may have come across the issue “cannot verify server identity” if you’ve had one for a time. You’ll be relieved to learn that this quick guide will provide you with a number of fixes that, hopefully, will allow you to send and receive emails once more without the dreaded error message appearing.

Be cautious before making numerous changes to your iPhone’s settings because they might make it seem like they’re safeguarding you from a phoney mail server certificate. When connecting to a mail server, your iPhone will request the server’s SSL certificate.

If it finds that the certificate has expired, does not match the domain name for the email address, or has not been signed correctly, it will be flagged as untrustworthy and your iPhone will display the cannot verify server identity error warning you of the issue.

Most iPhone users may see this error at some time given the amount of emails we send and receive nowadays. The issue typically surfaces when you try to set up a new email account. Your mail settings may be transferred from one iPhone to another when you upgrade your iPhone, or perhaps the mail server certificates for every iPhone you own have run out. If you often get it, you might like to to fix the error a number of solutions are below.

Fix iPhone server identity errors

Make sure your iPhone is displaying the correct time and date before forcing the Mail app to close in order to resolve the cannot verify server identity issue. The newest iPhone models only require a simple swipe up from the bottom of the screen to do this. This will display a list of all the programmes that are active on your computer right now. Enabling you to browse them from left to right. Locate the iPhone Mail app and swipe upward to close it. Before reopening Apple Mail after closing it, make sure the time and date on your iPhone are correct.

Simply go to the Home screen, swipe up to find the application, and then close it as described above on older iPhone models that still have a physical home button. To view the most recently used apps on an iPhone 8 or earlier, double-click the home button. Then, once more, go to the Mail app and swipe up. Usually, this is all that is required to resolve the problem, but if it still exists, there are a few other things you can try.

Force restart your iPhone

Before you fiddle with any mail settings on your phone, force restarting your iPhone, as described in our previous article, is a good idea to make sure everything is working as it should and the operating system isn’t causing any issues. Similar to when you restart a computer, everything on your iPhone will start over from scratch when you force it to restart.

Update your carrier Settings

Update your iPhone carrier settings to fix any problems you may experience with your iPhone, which we have also covered in this helpful guide. Another good maintenance advice is this. It’s crucial to download the most recent iOS update from Apple to keep your phone’s operating system up to date. To do this, simply go to Settings > General > Software Update. Your device will maintain automatic updates if you enable them going forward.

Reset your phone’s network settings

Another area that might be difficult is your iPhone’s network settings, but you can easily change them by following the instructions below. After finishing this procedure, all Wi-Fi networks and passwords, cellular settings, and previously used VPN and APN settings will be reset.

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. After that, choose “General.”
3. From the drop-down option at the bottom of the General screen, choose “Transfer or Reset iPhone.”
4. At the bottom of the screen, click “Reset.”
5. Choose “Reset Network Settings.”

If you are using iOS or iPadOS version 14 or earlier, select Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

Remove the email account

If, after following the above methods, you are still receiving the cannot verify server identification issue on your iPhone, it might be beneficial to delete and erase the mail account and set it up again from scratch. To achieve this, simply adhere to the instructions listed below for the most recent iOS version.

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. When you go to the “Mail” app settings by scrolling down to the bottom, tap them.
3. Tap the “Accounts” column under Mail. There will be a list of your iPhone 4’s active email accounts here.
4. After selecting the affected Mail account, tap to see the settings.
5. Select “Delete Account” from the bottom menu to remove the mail account. Be sure to backup all of your emails if you downloaded any emails locally to your iPhone before doing this. If the host supports IMAP, which many servers do, your emails will be safely kept on the server while you wait to connect.
6. To confirm that you wish to delete the email account from your iPhone, tap “Delete from My iPhone.”
7. Click “Add Account” after returning to Settings > Mail > Accounts.
8. After deciding on an email provider, enter the details for your email account according to Apple’s instructions.

Unfortunately, if you have several email accounts that all show the same cannot verify server identification error, you might have to wipe everything off and start again. Create each unique email account after doing so.