Hi, I have Samsung A50. Some weeks back I got a security update that I installed. After that I haven’t been able to send any emails from the K9 client. Sending an email results a notification: Failed to send some messages “Authentication method CRAM-MD5 is unavailable.” Has Samsung possibly dropped support for some older algorithms? Any idea how to get over the issue in K9? Thanks in advance.
Try setting Account settings > Sending mail > Outgoing server > Authentication to Normal password.
Hello @cketti cketti,
I’m curious about your response. I’m a web host. I have to maintain PCI standards as I host stores, and I’m at the point that I am being required to enforce secure mail and FTP.
I happen to use K-9 Mail and I’m a fan. In preparing to instruct clients how to configure their phones to enforce ONLY secure connections, I’m working on my own. When I selected either SSL/TLS or STARTTLS, and Encrypted password, I get the CRAM-MD5 response.
Note that I did install an app called OpenKeychain, configured a key, in hopes this would work. It did not.
How do I get around this?
Most of the things you’ve mentioned are not related to each other.
CRAM-MD5 is a method that can be used for authentication to the mail server(s). If you get the message “Authentication method CRAM-MD5 is unavailable.” it means the mail server you’re connecting to does not support that method.
SSL/TLS and STARTTLS are two slightly different ways to make sure the data connection between you and the server is encrypted. You definitely want to use this! And when you do, it doesn’t matter that you’re using a “Normal password” authentication method. Because the password will be transmitted to the server through the encrypted connection.
OpenKeychain is only needed if you plan to encrypt emails so only the sender and the recipient can read the message.
1 Like