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Reading mail here

Connecting a mail app

IMAP settings, and why the password is not your account password.

Settings ​

  • Server: shown on the Mail provider page, alongside your login username.
  • Port: 993.
  • Encryption: SSL/TLS. Not "none", not "STARTTLS on 143".
  • Username: the login username shown on that page, which is not always your account username.
  • Password: an app password, created on the same page.

Why an app password ​

A mail client stores the password it is given, in a way you do not control, on a device that may be lost. An app password is scoped to mail and can be revoked on its own, so a lost laptop costs you one credential rather than the account.

Each one is shown once. Create one per device, and name them after the device, because a list of app passwords is only useful if you can tell which one to revoke.

What an app password cannot do ​

Sign in to the web account, read your recovery key, change your password, create aliases, or see your list of recipients. It carries mail and nothing else.

Sending from a client ​

Submission uses the same credentials. Sending as an alias from a client works, provided the alias is yours and is switched on.

If it will not connect ​

  • Check the mailbox is actually enabled under Mail provider. A client cannot connect to a mailbox that does not exist.
  • Check you used the app password rather than the account password.
  • Check the client has not quietly fallen back to port 143 without encryption, which some clients do while showing a green tick.

Written for people using Skudo. If a page here is wrong or missing, tell us.