How To Set Up Apple Mail To Use IMAP (And Resolve E-Mail Sending Problems)

Recently, I ran into a major headache trying to set up Apple Mail to use IMAP rather than POP3. After creating the account receiving mail worked fine, however, Apple Mail would not send mail. Honestly, I use ThunderBird for all of my mail needs, however, there are a few applications, such as Quickbooks Pro for Mac, that allow for things like e-mailing invoices, but, the program will only let you do so via Apple Mail.

 

I hope the following procedures will save the reader a lot of frustration in getting Apple Mail up and running with an IMAP configuration.

 

NOTES: If you are already familiar with setting up IMAP you might want to skip these basic steps and go to the section below titled "Setup And Resolving Outgoing Mail Issues" Also, we are assuming that you are NOT using SSL (a connection to a secure server).

 

Setting Up The New Account And Incoming Mail Settings

 

1. Start Apple Mail and from the pull down menu select Mail->Preferences

2. In the bottom of the window that comes up click on the + symbol to create a new mail account.

3. When the create new account dialog box pops up fill out the name, email address and password fields and click continue.

4. On the next screen from the Account Type list choose IMAP.

 

In the description field enter IMAP Incoming. For the incoming mail server you should use mail.yourdomain.com, substituting yourdomain with the name of your mail servers domain name. For the User Name you will typically enter your full e-mail address. Lastly, enter your password. See the screen shot below for an example.

 

 

5. Next, click Continue. If a box pops up and states "Mail Cannot Verify The Identity of www.yourdomain.com" click on the Cancel button. If this occurs, you will see the above dialog box again, this time with an error message, go ahead and click on Continue again. We will deal with this error later in this tutorial.

6. In the next screen make sure you DO NOT have the SSL box checked and select Password as the authentication method.

 

Setting Up The Outgoing Mail Server Settings

 

After completing the steps above you will now see the Outgoing Mail Server settings as in the illustration below. Fill in the information using your e-mail account information.

 

 

1. For the description type in OUTGOING

2. For the outgoing mail server use mail.yourdomain.com, again, replacing yourdomain with your e-mail servers domain.

3. Check Use Authentication

4. Enter your user id, again typically your full email address, in the User Name box and again enter your email password.

5. Next, click Continue. If a box pops up and states "Mail Cannot Verify The Identity of www.yourdomain.com" click on the Cancel button. If this occurs, you will see the above dialog box again, this time with an error message, go ahead and click on Continue again. We will deal with this error later in this tutorial.

6. Next, you will see a dialog box below. Make sure to leave SSL unchecked and set authentication to Password.

 

 

7. Click the Continue button. And you should see a screen similar to the one below, of course the information the photo will differ from the account information that you used. Lastly, check the Take Account Online box and click the Create button.

 

 

Tweaking Your Mail Settings

 

The following instructions will guide you through configuring your outgoing mail settings for Apple Mail.

 

1. From the pull down menu select Mail->Preferences and choose "Edit Server List" from the Pull Down menu in the Account Information box as shown in the illustration below.

 

 

2. Next, in the screen make sure to set the Custom Port to 26. Review the other information such as your email, password, etc to ensure it is correct and again make sure SSL is not checked. When your done click the OK button to return to the Account Summary Screen.

 

 

3. Once back at the Account Summary Screen, click on the Advanced tab. You should see a screen like the illustration below.

4. For the Port use 143 and make sure SSL is NOT checked. For the IMAP Path Prefix, you may need to check with your e-mail provider. Most providers use "INBOX" for this and I would suggest trying it first as you can always come back later and change it. One way to tell if this is wrong is that you will not see any mail folders or e-mail.

 

5. Click the red button, at the top of the window, and choose Save Settings when prompted to do so. If your IMAP Path, Ports and other settings are correct you should be seeing your folders and e-mail in Apple Mail at this point.

 

Set Up And Resolving Outgoing Mail Issues

 

If you managed to get your imap account set up and are seeing folders and email, but, Apple mail refuses to send e-mail I found that the following steps will most likely resolve this issue.

 

1. Click on your Apple Icon at the top left of your computer screen and select system preferences.

2. In System Preferences click on the Network Icon and the Network dialog box will open as shown below.

 

 

3. In the Network Dialog Box, select Ethernet and then at the bottom right of the dialog box click on the Advanced.. button.

4. Next, another dialog box will pop up.

5. Select the Ethernet Tab and change the MTU setting to custom and enter 1492 for the value.

-- Another note, if Apple Mail is sending your e-mail out sloooowww click on the TCP/IP tab set Configure IPv6 to OFF.

6. Press the OK button. When the dialog box closes, and you are returned to the Network Dialog Box, click on Apply.

7. Finally, repeat steps 3-6 (above) but this time select AirPort rather than Ethernet.

8. Close the Network Dialog Box when you are done changing these settings.

9. At this point I would suggest disconnecting then reconnecting your network cable and if you have AirPort turn it off then back on.

 

Finally, go to Mail and send a test message. If you followed all of the above instructions, and your settings are correct, you should now be able to send mail using Apple Mail which has been configured for IMAP.

 

If Apple Mail is sending, but is really slow, go to Apple System Preferences->Network->Ethernet (or Airport) and click on the Advanced button, under TCP/IP turn off Configure IPv6. This sped things up quite a bit for me.

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In Conclusion, I hope this information helps those who have spent hours (or even days) trying to figure out why Apple Mail won't send e-mail. If you have any questions, please contact me.

 

John Warren

Intragenesis, LLC

 

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