Manual Gmail Imap Configuration For Mac Mail

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Configuring Mac Mail IMAP for MacOS X 10.5+ This document will help you to configure your Mac Mail (built-in MacOS X software) e-mail client to work with the mail.msu. Gmail is email that's intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.

We love using Gmail.com for its many features, but if you want offline access and a more 'desktop-like' experience, you can get your Gmail messages delivered to a desktop client, like Outlook or Apple Mail. Here's how.

Every mail client is a little bit different, so we can't show you every way to set up Gmail, but in general, it should be pretty similar. Some programs will set up Gmail automatically with just your username and your password, while others will require you to set them up manually. If you have a Google Apps account (that is, if you're using Gmail but your email is not an @gmail.com email address), you'll also have to do it manually. Here are a few examples using the most popular email clients.

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Initial Setup (for All Clients)

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Before you do anything, you'll need to enable IMAP in Gmail, which will let you access your accounts on the desktop. To do this, head into Gmail's Settings and go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. Scroll down to the IMAP section and enable IMAP. Then save your changes, and open up your desktop email client of choice to set it up using the following instructions.

Set Up Gmail in Microsoft Outlook

To set up Gmail in Microsoft Outlook (we'll be using Outlook 2010 for this demonstration), open up Outlook and run through the following steps:

  1. Head to File > Account Settings > Account Settings. Click the New button to create a new account.
  2. Click on the 'Manually configure server settings' radio button at the bottom of the new account window. Then, hit Next.
  3. Choose Internet Email at the next screen and hit Next.
  4. Type in your name and Gmail address under 'User Information. Change your Account Type from POP3 to IMAP, and add imap.gmail.com as your Incoming Mail Server. Type in smtp.gmail.com as your Outgoing Mail Server.
  5. Type in your full Gmail address (i.e. whitson@gmail.com) and password under Logon Information.
  6. Hit the More Settings button and go to the Advanced tab. Under Incoming Server, type 993 and set your encryption from 'None' to 'SSL'. Under Outgoing Server, type 587 and set your encryption to TLS.
  7. Head to the Outgoing Server tab of the same window and check the box that says 'My outgoing server requires authentication'. Hit OK, and hit Next to complete your account setup.

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If all goes well, Outlook should send a test message, and let you know that your account was successfully set up! Check out the video above to see this process in action.

Set Up Gmail in Apple Mail

To add a new account in Apple Mail:

  1. Head to Mail > Preferences in the menu bar and go to the Accounts tab. Hit the plus sign in the bottom left corner to add a new account.
  2. Type in your Name, full Gmail address, and password and hit Continue. If you're using an @gmail.com address, you're probably done—Mail should fill in the rest of the settings for you. If you're using a Google Apps account, you'll need to do a few more things.
  3. On the next window, choose IMAP as your Account Type, type in a description (something like 'Gmail'), and type imap.gmail.com. Change your username to your full Gmail address and type in your password. Click Continue.
  4. On the next screen, type a description, type smtp.gmail.com as your Outgoing Mail Server, and check the Use Authentication. Click Continue, and click Continue on the next screen as well. Hit Create to take the account online.

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When you're done, Mail should start downloading all your messages to your inbox, and you'll be ready to read all your email right from the desktop. Check out the video above to see this process in action. Note that Mail doesn't automatically use Gmail's Sent, Spam, or Trash folders—it'll create its own, which can be annoying. To fix this, just select Gmail's Sent Mail folder, then go to Mailbox > Use This Mailbox For > Sent in the menu bar. Repeat this process for Trash and Junk, too, to make sure all your folders sync up.

Set Up Gmail in Mozilla Thunderbird

Setup in Mozilla Thunderbird is pretty much the same as in Apple Mail. To add Gmail to Thunderbird:

  1. Head to Tools > Accounts, and at the bottom of the window that pops up, click the Account Actions drop-down. Hit 'Add Mail Account'.
  2. Type in your name, email address, and password and click Continue. Thunderbird will try to set up the account automatically. If it fails to do so, hit the 'Manual Setup' button.
  3. In the sidebar, find the account you just created and click on Server Settings. Type in imap.gmail.com for your Server Name, type 993 for your port, and make sure your username is your entire Gmail address. Under Connection Security, pick SSL/TLS and pick Normal Password as your Authentication Method.
  4. Hit OK to finish the account creation process.

Once Thunderbird imports your account, you'll be able to send and receive mail right from your desktop.

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If you're using a mail client different from one of the above, the setup shouldn't be too different—just make sure you're typing in your full Gmail address as your username, and that you're using the correct ports and encryption types as described above in the account settings.

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You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

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You can configure your Gmail account easily with the auto configure method of Microsoft Outlook. But you need to set up Gmail to allow you to download mail as POP or to map folders and emails using IMAP. Here are the steps to configure MS Outlook for Gmail.

Set up Gmail To Connect With Microsoft Outlook

Imap Configuration Yahoo

  1. Log into your Gmail Account.
  2. Click on the Gear icon and select Settings.
  3. Click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP on the links given above your Inbox
  4. Under POP Download, click to select Enable POP for all mail that arrives from now on.
  5. Select Archive Gmail’s Copy in the drop down box next to When Messages Are Accessed With POP
  6. Click on Save Changes

The above method sets up your Gmail account to let MS Outlook download messages through the POP3 protocol. In case you wish to map the folders and access your Gmail messages through IMAP, proceed with steps 1 to 3 above and instead of selecting Enable POP, go to the IMAP Access and select Enable IMAP. NOTE: You should either select POP or IMAP but not both. Auto Configure MS Outlook. Once you are done with the above, you can make Microsoft Outlook to auto-configure your account for you.

  1. From the File menu (Office button in Office 2007), select Add New Account
  2. Enter your email ID and password in the dialog box that appears
  3. Click on Next
  4. Microsoft Outlook will take few minutes to search for Gmail settings and will configure the account for you.

Note that if you selected POP in the Settings of Gmail above, you would get a POP3 account. Accordingly, if you have selected IMAP above, you get an IMAP account in Microsoft Outlook. If you wish to configure Microsoft Outlook manually for Gmail, here are the settings you will need to use. Settings To Configure MS Outlook Manually For Gmail

  1. From the File menu, select Add Account
  2. In the dialog box that appears, select Manually configure server settings or additional server types.
3. Click Next
5. In the dialog box that appears, enter your name, email address and password in the related fields.
6. Under Account Type, select POP if you wish to create a POP3 account. For IMAP, select IMAP
7. For the Incoming server, enter pop.gmail.com or imap.gmail.com depending upon the type of account you are creating.
9. Click on More Settings
10. Under the Outgoing Server tab, click to select My Outgoing Server (SMTP) requires Authentication
11. Click to select Use Same Settings As My Incoming Server

Manual Gmail Imap Configuration For Mac Mail Address

13. Enter 995 in Incoming Server Port if you are creating a POP3 account. If you are creating IMAP, enter 993.
Configuration
14, Click to select This Server Requires an Encrypted Connection. For IMAP account, set the type of encryption to SSL.
15. In the Outgoing Server Port, enter the value 587. Set the type of encryption to TLS
17. Click Test Account Settings… to test the account settings
18. You should see a message saying your account settings are correct. Click on Next to exit the dialog box.
NOTE: Please also see the comment by Jinu below.

See this post if Outlook cannot connect to Gmail, keeps asking for the password.

Manual Gmail Imap Configuration For Mac Mail Password

This explains how to configure Microsoft Outlook for Gmail. If you need further assistance feel free to drop a note in the comments section.

TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically

Manual Gmail Imap Configuration For Mac Mail Email

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