Client settings

The settings, then the clients that need help.

The settings#

Hostname is whatever the operator set — MAIL_IMAP_HOST, MAIL_SMTP_HOST, and so on. On most installs they are all the same name. The panel's Client Configuration tab shows the exact values for your server.

Username is always the full email address, not the part before the @. A bare local part would be ambiguous across the domains on the server.

Password is the mailbox password, which is not your control-panel password. They are separate identities on purpose: a mailbox credential ends up in a phone that gets lost, and it must not also unlock the panel.

993 and 465 are encrypted from the first byte, which is both the stronger option and — on this server — the only one that works.

Automatic configuration#

If the operator published the autoconfig and autodiscover CNAMEs, Thunderbird and Outlook find all of this from the email address alone.

Try the address first. Fall back to manual only when it does not take.

Apple Mail and iOS#

Choose Other Mail Account, not any of the branded options.

Apple Mail sometimes offers to configure automatically and gets the outgoing port wrong. If receiving works but sending fails, set the outgoing server explicitly: port 465, SSL/TLS, and authentication on — Apple defaults it off often enough to be worth checking, and it will otherwise try 587, which cannot authenticate here.

On iOS: Settings → Mail → Accounts → Add Account → Other → Add Mail Account. Enter the address and password, then correct the hostnames on the next screen.

Thunderbird#

Works from the address alone if autoconfig is published.

Otherwise Configure manually and enter the table above. Thunderbird's "Re-test" button is honest — if it cannot find a working combination, the settings really are wrong.

Outlook#

Modern Outlook resists non-Microsoft IMAP accounts and will try to convert you to a Microsoft-hosted account.

File → Add Account → Advanced options → Let me set up my account manually → IMAP. If autodiscover does not take, enter the settings by hand.

Outlook on the web cannot connect to third-party IMAP at all. That is a Microsoft limitation.

Gmail app and Gmail on the web#

Under Add account → Other.

Gmail will fetch over IMAP happily, but it sends through Google's servers unless you configure the SMTP settings too — which it asks for separately, and which is easy to skip. Mail sent without doing so is not DKIM-signed by your domain and will fail your own DMARC policy.

Configure both halves or neither.

Mutt, aerc, and friends#

# ~/.muttrc
set imap_user  = "you@example.com"
set imap_pass  = "your-mailbox-password"
set folder     = "imaps://mail.example.com:993"
set spoolfile  = "+INBOX"
set record     = "+Sent"
set postponed  = "+Drafts"
set trash      = "+Trash"

set smtp_url  = "smtps://you@example.com@mail.example.com:465"
set smtp_pass = "your-mailbox-password"
set from      = "you@example.com"

Corsair advertises IDLE, so set imap_idle = yes works.

Any JMAP client#

Session resource at https://mail.example.com/.well-known/jmap, authenticated with HTTP Basic using the address and mailbox password. See JMAP.

Roundcube, SnappyMail, and other webmail#

The IMAP and SMTP servers are standard, so any of them work unchanged. Point them at 993 and 465 with the full address as the username.

Corsair also ships its own webmail at /webmail if you would rather not run another thing.

Alias and group addresses#

They have no password and cannot be signed into. They are routing entries: mail addressed to them is forwarded.

To send as an alias, sign in as a real mailbox on the same account and set the From address in your client. Most clients call this an "identity" or "send mail as".

When a client will not connect#

Verify from the command line, which removes the client from the equation:

openssl s_client -connect mail.example.com:993 -servername mail.example.com
a LOGIN you@example.com your-password
a LIST "" "*"
a LOGOUT

POP3, and why you probably do not want it#

POP3 downloads and, by default, deletes. It has no folders, no flags shared between devices, and no concept of a second client.

It exists for the clients that still want it, and for a device that genuinely should drain a mailbox to local storage. For anything else, use IMAP.

If you must: 995 with SSL/TLS (not 110, which cannot authenticate), full address as the username, and turn off "delete from server" unless removal is the point.