How To: Create IMAP Mail Account on iPhone

iPhone OS 2

It seems I’ve helped dozens of clients trying to set up IMAP mail on their iPhone. So I’ve finally decided to document this in a “How To” post. For those of you who’s ISPs do not support IMAP mail, at some point in the future I may do the same thing for POP setup. For those ready to tackle this … read on.

There are some quirks involved with setting up IMAP mail on the iPhone. Especially for those ISPs or mail providers who don’t support SSL (secure sockets layer). The default for iPhone is to create any account with SSL on. Some of the biggest confusion for first time users is how long it takes SSL to be negotiated the first time the IMAP account is set up, especially if your are doing it over Edge or 3G and not a Wi-Fi connection. But even with Wi-Fi the wait can seem like an eternity! And all the confusing error dialogs that are popped up for you to act upon. Hopefully I’ve documented all those situations.

Things you will need:
> Your iPhone
> A working eMail account set up with your hosting company.
> Your eMail account settings written down.
> Patience.

I would advise reading through the entire How-To before starting the process … just for your own sanity.

So here we go ….

1) Select “Settings”

2) Select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”

3) Select “Add Account…”

4) Select “Other”

5) Select “Add Mail Account”

6) Fill in account info & save.

TIP: With most eMail providers, your username will always be your FULL eMail address, unless otherwise noted.

7) Fill in all eMail account information.

Select the IMAP tab
Be certain to enter all information correctly.
Be sure the Host Name for both Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) and Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) do not contain the “@” symbol and instead use a period “.” as in: imap.yourdomain.com or smtp.yourdomain.com. It may also be that your SMTP and IMAP addresses are the same, as in: mail.yourhost.com , in which case you’d put mail.yourhost.com in both Host Name fields.
Once all information entry is complete select the Save button. Now wait for iPhone Mail to negotiate your IMAP and SMTP settings with the mail server, depending on the network connection speed … this may take a while.
If your mail provider does not do SLS you will get two error dialogs. One for IMAP and one for SMTP. PLEASE WAIT FOR EACH. No matter how long they take. See steps 8 and 9.
If your mail provider does do SLS, you will get no errors. Unless you’ve typing errors. Move to step 10.

8) Error 1: IMAP SSL Certificate error. Press Continue.

9) Error 2: SMTP SSL Certificate error. Press Continue.

10) Your completed IMAP account.

Now there is a new IMAP account on your iPhone. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Depending on your situation there are a few steps that you may or may not need to do. Those will be covered in the next few sections. We will need to also check that the IMAP folders are correctly associated with the iPhone folders for Drafts Mailbox, Sent Mailbox, and Deleted Mailbox.

If your mail provider does not support SSL follow from step 11.

If your mail provider (gMail) does support SSL jump to step 15.

11: Select your new account.

12: Scroll and select Advanced.

13: Set Use SSL to OFF. Go back one screen.

14: Scroll and select Drafts Mailbox.

15: Select your new SMTP server.

16: Set Use SLS to OFF. Go back one screen.

TIP: Some ISPs block SMTP Port 25 if you are not connected to their network. To remedy this, some mail hosting companies allow sending on alternate port numbers.

My host, Bluehost.com allows SMTP via Port 26, which is great! No matter where I am, or what network I’m connected to I can send mail without errors or complaint. If you need to change the SMTP Server Port number do it in Step 16 in the Server Port field at the bottom, before continuing on.

17: Select Drafts Mailbox.

18: Select your Drafts folder on the server. Go back one screen.

19: Select Sent Mailbox.

20: Select your Sent folder on the server. Go back one screen.

21: Select Deleted Mailbox.

22: Select your Trash or Deleted Items folder on the server. Go back one screen.

When matching up folders on the server, your folder names may not be the same as my folders … but I think you’ll know which are which. There are only a few other items you can set. But I won’t go into great detail. You can select how long to hold onto deleted items. On my Mac, I empty the Deleted Items when I quit Mail.app. On the iPhone I have mine set for 1 day. This way I don’t end up with thousands of eMails taking up space in the Trash on the server.One other issue you may face. If when you launch iPhone Mail and you don’t see your folder hierarchy you may need to go to the Advanced settings of your account (on your iPhone) and in the field for “IMAP Path Prefix” enter the word INBOX in caps. That should allow you to see all your folders.

Other than that … you’re done! Press the physical Home button on your iPhone and launch iPhone Mail. That’s it.

Finally. As of iOS 4 you can only have one signature for your iPhone Mail, even if you have several eMail accounts. Hopefully Apple will address this in a future release. But until then, there are some great utilities out there that can get you through. Two of my faves are Pastebot from Tapbots LLC & TextExpander Touch from Smile on My Mac. I may do posts on some of these at a later date.

For now …. go send some mail from your iPhone! Have fun!

iOS 8

I created a previous “How To” on the same subject many years ago and many versions of iOS ago. I decided it was time to “refresh” this “How To” with instructions for iOS 8. The only really important thing that has changed is the interface. Setting up an IMAP account is still pretty much the same as before. I hope this helps my clients as well as others looking to do this for the first time. Though the images are from an iPhone 6 they will be similar enough for any iOS device mail setup too.

There are some quirks involved with setting up IMAP mail on iOS. Especially for those ISPs or mail providers who don’t support SSL (secure sockets layer). The default for iOS is to create any account with SSL on. Some of the biggest confusion for first time users is how long it takes SSL to be negotiated the first time the IMAP account is set up, especially if your are doing it over a slower connection and not a Wi-Fi connection. Even with Wi-Fi the wait can seem like an eternity! Though I must say, in iOS 8 the wait has decreased from previous iOS releases. Your wait may vary, so please be patient.

Things you will need:
> Your iPhone
> A working eMail account set up with your hosting company.
> Your eMail account settings written down.
> Patience.

I would advise reading through the entire How-To before starting the process … just for your own sanity.

Here we go ….

Open the “Settings” app from your Home Screen.

1) Select: “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”.

2) Select: “Add Account”

3) Select: “Other”

4) Select: “Add Mail Account”

5) Fill in account info & click “Next”

6) Fill in account info & click “Next”

TIP: With most eMail providers, your username will always be your FULL eMail address, unless otherwise noted.

TIP: Once I’ve typed out the domain name in iOS, I will copy the YourDomian.com portion of the URL to the iOS clipboard. This way I can paste it in other fields as I’m filling out the IMAP info. It helps me to be much more accurate, especially on an iPhone.

Be certain to enter all information correctly.
Be sure the Host Name for both Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) and Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) do not contain the “@” symbol and instead use a period “.” as in: imap.yourdomain.com or smtp.yourdomain.com. It may also be that your SMTP and IMAP addresses are the same, as in: mail.yourdomain.com , in which case you’d put mail.yourdomain.com in both Host Name fields.
Once all information entry is complete select the Next button.
Now wait for iOS to negotiate your IMAP and SMTP settings with the mail server, depending on the network connection speed … this may take a (long) while. Please be patient.
If your provider does not use SSL you will get the “Cannot Connect” dialog (Step 7). Select “Yes” and carry on.

7) If no SSL select “Yes”

8) If you made mistakes, click OK & correct any mistakes. Go back to Step 6.

9) When things are correct you will see the “spinner” and “Verifying”.

10) When correct & complete, all items will have blue checks & the title will read “New Account”.

11) If you are done select Save

12) Or make changes and Select Save.

13) This is your new account.

You now have a new IMAP account on your iPhone. But the fun doesn’t stop there!

Depending on your situation there are a few steps that you may or may not need to do. Those will be covered in the next few sections.

Change Your SMTP Port | Change SSL Setting

SSL: Most hosting companies do not use Secure Socket Layer (SSL). If that’s the case of your hosting company, continue on with this section.

SMTP: Some ISPs block SMTP Port 25 if you are not connected to their network — for a multitude of reasons. To get around this restriction, some domain/mail hosting companies allow sending on alternate port numbers. Bluehost.com allows SMTP via Port 26, while my current hosting company A2 Hosting allows SMTP on port 2525. No matter where I am, or what network I’m connected to I can send mail without errors or complaint. If you need to change the SMTP Server Port number continue with Step 14 – Step 19.

14) Select “Your New Account”

15) Select “Your eMail Account”

16) Select your SMTP server.

17) Select the “Primary SMTP Sever Account”

18) If you need to change your SMTP Port do it in this section. The default port is 25. Change the port number to your host’s custom port number if needed.

19) The default for this setting is usuallly on (green). Most hosting companies don’t use SSL. Turn it off here.

20) When you are done with Step 18 & Step 19 select “Done”

21) Select “Account”

22) Select “Done”. You’ve now saved your changes too.

Mapping iOS Mailboxes To IMAP Server Folders

This section is very important for IMAP users & must be done.

After setting up a new eMail account you MUST “map” the internal iOS Mailboxes (which are only local and only available to the iOS device) to the IMAP folders on your hosting company’s servers. This allows any other device — mobile or desktop — to read, write or save eMail to the same place. If this is not done, any sent, saved, or archived mail will only be on your local iOS device and defeat the purpose of IMAP.

On a Mac using Apple Mail.app and on iOS devices, the default mailboxes (folders) are named differently than any other operating system. In Apple’s world the Mailboxes/Folders are named this way: Drafts = Drafts, Sent = Sent Messages, Trash = Deleted Messages, Archive = Archive.

23) Select your new eMail account.

24) Select “Advanced”

25) Select “Drafts Mailbox”

26) 1] Select “Drafts” on the server.
2] Select Advanced to go back to the previous screen and save selection.

27) Select “Sent Mailbox”

Step-28-Seelct-Sent-Messages-On-The-Server

28) 1] Select “Sent Messages” on the server.
2] Select Advanced to go back to the previous screen and save selection.

29) Select “Delete Items”

Step-30-Seelct-Deleted-Items-On-The-Server

30) 1] Select “Deleted Items” on the server.
2] Select Advanced to go back to the previous screen and save selection.

On my Mac and iOS devices I set the “Archive Mailbox” to map to “Deleted Messages”. If I want to Archive anything I file messages by hand on my computer in my own folder filing system. Sometimes iOS will allow you to map the Archived Mailbox to Deleted Messages, sometimes not.

There are only a few other items you can set. But I won’t go into great detail. You can select how long iOS will keep deleted items. On my Mac, I empty the Deleted Items when I quit Mail.app. On my iOS devices I have deletion set for 1 day, it’s the shortest time allowed. This way I don’t end up with thousands of eMails taking up space in the Trash on the server becuase I forget to “empty the trash”. This is also good for those who are allotted limited account server space. I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve seen with thousands of eMails in thier trash.

One other issue you may face. If you launch iOS Mail and you don’t see your folder hierarchy you may need to go to the Advanced settings of your account (on your iOS device) and in the field for “IMAP Path Prefix” enter the word INBOX in caps. That should allow you to see all your folders.

Other than that … you’re done! Press the physical Home button on your iPhone and launch iPhone Mail. Now you’re set to send and recieve mail from your iOS device.

tent-redletter

11 Comments On:

How To: Create IMAP Mail Account on iPhone

Mimi D says:
September 29, 2016 at 6:07 PM
Thanks for this- it worked great. May I respectfully suggest that on your home page, under things you need, I think you meant to say “patience” not “patients” (as in a doctor’s office) . I know i’d want to know.
1. Joe Streno says:
  September 29, 2016 at 6:24 PM
  Thanks Mimi! You’re (or should I say yore, or is it your) the first one to catch this. I’d say you won a prize, but I guess the info will need to be prize enough. As Homer Simpson might say: “D’oh!”
  Glad the post helped you. And thanks for being my editor. :)
ken says:
March 8, 2016 at 6:48 PM
how do you create contacts in a imap account
1. Joe Streno says:
  March 8, 2016 at 8:16 PM
  Hi Ken …
  You add contacts & their eMail addresses to you iPhone Phone app under the Contacts tab or the iOS Contacts app. On a Mac you add the eMail address to Apple’s Contacts.app. Make sure you are syncing contacts via iCloud on both your Mac & other iOS devices. This way if you add it in one place it will propagate to all your other Mac OS & iOS devices that are signed into that iCloud account.
  Hope that helps.
  Joe
Edyta says:
March 8, 2016 at 12:13 PM
Well, not so easy to delete IMAP bluehost account if installed by using their automated script. I did install using such script and now impossible to remove this account because there is no ‘delete account’ button showing and instead a note saying: ‘These settings are installed by the profile [email protected] Secure Email Setup’ This is it ! No delete account button.
I asked bluehost technical support how to remove this setup and they told me I must ask Apple – they don’t know. So I asked how come, the script belongs to bluehost so they should know how to remove it, but still they told me that I must ask Apple. This is ridiculous …
Any idea how to get rid of such automatically installed email setup ?
Thanks.
1. Joe Streno says:
  March 8, 2016 at 12:50 PM
  Hi Edyta …
  I no longer use Bluehost, their support has become abysmal!
  Can you give me a direct link to the page where this IMAP “script” resides? Whether setting up any account on your phone or computer, or deleting an account should be pretty straight forward. With a link to see this script, I can better advise you.
  Thanks … Joe
2. Joe Streno says:
  March 8, 2016 at 12:58 PM
  Round 2 …
  Just did some research. It could be that Bluehost installed a “configuration profile” check out this website: https://kb.iu.edu/d/basz . It will tell you how to uninstall a configuration profile on your iPhone or your Mac.
  Let me know if this worked for you.
  Joe
3. Edyta says:
  March 8, 2016 at 1:28 PM
  Hi Joe,
  Thanks for looking into this :)
  And totally agree on your view about bluehost support.
  Yes, this was a profile configuration and found the solution : Settings > General > Profiles > Remove
  All the best,
  Edyta
  1. Joe Streno says:
    March 8, 2016 at 1:30 PM
    Yup. That’s what I found. Very odd, non-standard way to configure a mail account … even for Bluehost!
    Glad it worked for you. :)
Tony says:
December 16, 2014 at 8:34 PM
How do you delete an imap account?
Thanks
1. Joe Streno says:
  December 16, 2014 at 11:30 PM
  To delete an IMAP account:
  Go to Mail, Contacts Calendars
  Choose the account
  On the bottom of the next screen should be a delete button
  Choose Delete Account
  That’s it.

iPhone OS 2

iOS 8

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