How To: Create IMAP Mail Account on iPhone

Posted on November 15, 2009April 5, 2017 Joe StrenoPosted in How-To

UPDATE: I have created an updated version of this post: How To: Create An iOS 8 IMAP Mail Account.

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!

11 thoughts 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.

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.

Reply
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. :)
  
  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. :)
  
  Reply
ken says:

March 8, 2016 at 6:48 PM

how do you create contacts in a imap account

how do you create contacts in a imap account

Reply
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
  
  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
  
  Reply
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 xyz@abcd.com 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.

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 xyz@abcd.com 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.

Reply
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
  
  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
  
  Reply
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
  
  Round 2 ... Just did some research. It could be that Bluehost installed a "configuration profile" check out this website: <a href="https://kb.iu.edu/d/basz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://kb.iu.edu/d/basz</a> . 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
  
  Reply
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
  
  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
  
  Reply
  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. :)
    
    Yup. That's what I found. Very odd, non-standard way to configure a mail account ... even for Bluehost! Glad it worked for you. :)
    
    Reply
Tony says:

December 16, 2014 at 8:34 PM

How do you delete an imap account?
Thanks

How do you delete an imap account? Thanks

Reply
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.
  
  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.
  
  Reply

How To: Create IMAP Mail Account on iPhone

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