You may want to check your Gmail account in other email programs such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail. And although this may seem surprising, this is now possible with some easy settings thanks to IMAP. To create your account today, please read our guide to creating a Gmail account.
IMAP for Gmail
IMAP, or Internet Message Access Protocol, is used for viewing and manipulating emails without downloading them. Indeed, it allows you to access emails from different devices. Gmail supports the standard IMAP, meaning you can have access to your Gmail account in a large range of email programs.
How to activate IMAP in Gmail?
Before accessing your Gmail account in an email program with IMAP, you will need to activate IMAP in Gmail. To do so, please follow these simple steps.
1. Open your web browser, and go to Gmail
2. In the upper-right corner, click “Settings”.
3. Click “See all Settings”.
4. Click on the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab.
5. In “IMAP access”, select “Enable IMAP”
6. Save the new setting by clicking “Save changes”.
How to manually set up a Gmail account with IMAP?
Once IMAP is active for your Gmail account, you are now only three steps away from using your Gmail account in other email programs. And these steps consist in setting up the email program which you would like to use for your Gmail account. Please set the sections below in your program, following this configuration.
1. IMAP server for incoming mails: IMAP server : imap.gmail.com;
● Requires SSL: Yes;
● Port: 993.
2. SMTP server for outgoing mails:
● SMTP server : smtp.gmail.com;
● Requires SSL: Yes;
● Requires TLS: Yes;
● Requires Authentication: Yes;
● Port for SSL: 465;
● Port for TLS/STARTTLS: 587.
3. Account details:
● Display name: Your name (e.g., John Doe);
● Email address: Your Gmail email address (e.g., johndoe@gmail.com);
● Password: Your Gmail password.
In the following screenshot, the user wants to access his or her Gmail account in Apple Email. Notice the different settings.
What are the most common mistakes?
However, problems may arise unexpectedly when you try to set up your Gmail account with IMAP. If you have issues signing in, please check to make sure that the password you have typed is correct. If you are still unable to connect to the email client, please update your email program to its latest version.
Also, in case you use the Google two-factor authentication, consider using an app-specific password. Otherwise, allow less secure applications to access your account. This can be done by going to the less secure app section.
You may get the “Too many simultaneous connections” error, which appears as your account is used on more than 15 email programs at the same time. To solve this, you simply need to log out of your account in some of your devices. You may visit our article on how to connect to Gmail for further instructions. Cleanfox always tries its best to make your emailing experience safe and easy. And the good news is you can connect to Cleanfox with your Gmail address.
