# Email Reply Issues After Provider Change
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309
**Category:** Bug
**Tags:** email
**Created:** [November 3, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309 "2025-11-03T14:07:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@codev](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codev)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309/1 "2025-11-03T14:07:00Z")
> Mod note: this is a dupe of [Turning \*OFF\* POP3 polling requires a valid username/password for the POP3 service](https://meta.discourse.org/t/turning-off-pop3-polling-requires-a-valid-username-password-for-the-pop3-service/354294).
I used to use Reply by Email and it worked well but now the charity I run the board for have changed email provider and don’t have POP support any more so the Reply by Email has stopped working. I’ve turned that off but I can’t disable Poll via POP3 for email replies. When I try and turn it off and save changes I see this error:
But because the credentials don’t work any more I can’t fix them. I’ve also tried deleting the credentials but that hasn’t made any difference, I still can’t turn off POP3 polling enabled.
---
### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2025, 8:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309/2 "2025-11-12T20:04:56Z")
Hi Codev! I moved this reply of yours into a fresh #Support topic so we can help you look into the problem you are having which appears to be specific to your setup.
I think what you want to do is clear the POP3 polling username and POP3 polling password. Then you can disable the POP3 polling enabled setting. Can you try that?
Were you able to get it resolved in the meantime? Any new info you can provide?
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### Author:  [@codev](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codev)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2025, 11:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309/3 "2025-11-13T11:13:11Z")
Thanks @tobiaseigen
No I have removed/reset the username and password and those details change but I still can’t untick POP3 polling and, days after removing the POP details, I still see the dashboard message “Connection to the POP3 server is failing with an authentication error. Please check your POP3 settings.”
The same error message displays if I click the tick or click save changes:
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309/4 "2025-11-21T15:43:11Z")
Were you able to get this worked out?
I don’t know why you are getting these errors and are not able to untick POP3 polling. Sorry about that - that must be confusing!
I’d recommend you take a different tack. Look at the [Set up reply by email with POP3 polling](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-by-email-with-pop3-polling/14003) guide, which explains how you can get this working by creating a new gmail account dedicated to it.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309/5 "2025-11-22T23:29:03Z")
I think you can disable it using the rails console:
You can follow the steps provided in [Using Hidden Site Settings](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-hidden-site-settings/308773) and use
```plaintext
SiteSetting.pop3_polling_enabled = "f"
```
* * *
But I think it’s a bug that this doesn’t work in the interface
Theoretically, the validator checks whether the setting should be deactivated and then does not check the configuration any further. Obviously, this is not working in this case. But it works for the rails workaround 🙂
>
I think the problem is that the frontend doesn’t pass `"f"` but `"false"`. That’s why the check for passing the validation doesn’t work. After changing
```ruby
return true if val == "f"
```
to
```ruby
return true if val == "f" || val == "false"
```
I was able to disable `pop3_polling_enabled` in the interface
* * *
Edit: Actually there is already a bug report from February
> [@Turning \*OFF\* POP3 polling requires a valid username/password for the POP3 service](https://meta.discourse.org/t/turning-off-pop3-polling-requires-a-valid-username-password-for-the-pop3-service/354294):
>
> Severity: Minor annoyance. Platform: Any Description: I have had POP3 polling from [outlook.com](http://outlook.com), but that does not seem to work anymore without Oauth. It fails with unknown username and password. We don’t need POP3 polling anymore, so I want to turn if off. When I turn off the setting and saves, I get an error: Actual result: Err…
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### Author:  [@codev](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codev)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309/6 "2025-11-24T14:33:06Z")
> [@Moin](#):
>
> `SiteSetting.pop3_polling_enabled = "f"`
This fixed it, thank you. Would be be good to fix it with your change but changing the setting through the rails console is a good workaround.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-reply-issues-after-provider-change/388309/7 "2025-11-24T14:36:36Z")
Great that it worked to disable the setting with the console. I do not know if my change makes sense. It might be better to make sure that the front end returns the expected value. I’ll leave that to others.