Introduction
IMAP is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server. There are two important points to remember when connecting an IMAP email account to Mailbird for Mac:
- Mailbird for Mac will try to detect the server settings automatically for your email address (Mailbird for Mac supports all email providers which make use of IMAP).
- If Mailbird for Mac is unable to detect these settings automatically, you are able to input the server settings manually.
Most email providers will list their IMAP settings (incoming emails) and SMTP settings (outgoing email) on their website for anyone who would like to connect their email account(s) to an email client such as Mailbird for Mac.
Alternatively, a quick and easy way of finding this information is to visit our Mail Settings page to search for your email provider's settings. You can also find information for your SMTP settings on this same page.
How To Connect an IMAP email account
If you have an email account from the following email providers, then Mailbird for Mac will automatically detect these settings during the process of connecting your email account:
- iCloud
- Gmail
- Microsoft 365
- Yahoo
If your email provider is not listed in the list above, then simply choose the Other email provider option (as shown in the screenshot below).
In cases where the IMAP settings cannot be automatically detected by Mailbird for Mac, then you go through a manual process to input the necessary information, which doesn't take very long at all.
Below is a potential scenario:
- Let's imagine that you have an example.com email account.
- You will need the IMAP settings for Example.com in order to connect your account to Mailbird for Mac.
- Visit our Mail Settings page here to search for the IMAP settings for Example.com.
- Complete the details for the SMTP server and Port number in Mailbird for Mac (as shown below).
- Finally, click Continue and your account will then be connected Mailbird for Mac.
Please note that the Connections slider (which appears near the bottom of the previous screenshot) tells Mailbird for Mac the maximum number of IMAP connections to use simultaneously. Unless you're experiencing connection issues or delays in receiving your emails (see this article for additional information), we recommend that you do not change this.
Hopefully this article has provided you with the necessary insights you required, but if you would like to find out more, then please reach out to us via our Contact Form so that a member of our team can do their very best to help you.