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How to Set Up Apple Mail

Before you can use Apple Mailto send and receive e-mail, you need to set up an account. You can have more than one account—for business, online shopping, and so on—and each person who uses your computer may have their own, completely separate account. Apple Mail gracefully handles it all.

On This Page

Start Apple Mail

There are many ways to start Apple Mail, but here's a sure-fire way to find and start it.

Start Apple Mail

Click Apple Mail

If you are running some version of OS X, Apple Mail comes with your Mac. If you do not see an icon for Apple Mail, double click the hard drive icon on your desktop. Then click the Applications tab on the left. You should see the Apple Mail icon along with your other programs'.

Opening Outlook Express from the Start menu

(For easier access to your emails in the future, you might want to drag the Apple Mail icon to your desktop or the dock.)

Now, open Apple Mail.

Unless someone has previously setup an email account in Apple Mail, you should see this welcome screen the first time you run it.

This is the screen that we will fill out to tell Apple Mail how to connect to our email account.

Unlike most email clients, this will be in most cases the only information Apple Mail needs to connect to your email provider.

If someone else already created one or more email accounts in Apple Mail, the Welcome to Mail window will not appear. To add a new email account to Apple Mail, please skip to Adding Email Accounts

If you don't want to be asked this question again, click to check the Always perform this check... box.

POP3 Email Credentials.

We have pre-filled information from our server. It is standard, and your email provider is very likely to have the same requirements. See below for an explanation for each field.

If you don't see the list of folders and contacts on the left, click Layout on the View menu. Click Contacts and Folder List to check them, and then click OK.

• Full Name - This is how Apple Mail will display your name in emails you send out. Either a simple "Joe", or a more complete "Dr. Tle Noshell"

• Email Address - The email address is split in two by an "@" character: on its left comes the "user name", and on its right the "domain".

• Incoming Mail Server - Most of the time, the mail server will simply be mail.YourDomain.com. If unsure, please check your email provider's documentation.

• Account Type - The two most common email account types are POP3 and IMAP. Your email account is most probably POP3. As far as setting up Apple Mail, this difference is minor.

• User Name - The user name is what allows the mail server to know which mailbox your are trying to access. Most often, the user name is your complete email address; in some cases, it can be the before-the-@ part of your email address. In rare cases, your user name can be something completely different from your email address.

• Password - Use here the password you were assigned or chose; this allows the mail server to authenticate you, and ensure that you are authorized to access a given email account.

• Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) - The outgoing mail server is generally the same as the incoming mail server. In some cases, it is of the form smtp.yourDomain.com.

Once you have filled out all the information, click the Ok button, and apple mail try to establish a connection with your email server. If it generates any errors, check the spelling of the information you entered. If it is correct, call or email your email provider.

Apple Mail tests your email settings

Apple Mail import mailbox from other email client If Apple Mail was successful in establishing a connection with your mail server, it will ask you if you want to import

mailboxes from other email clients.

Don't worry, it seems like Apple Mail will ask even if no email clients were previously setup on your computer.

Apple Mail lets you import information from the following email applications: Entourage, Outlook Express, Claris Emailer, Netscape, or Eudora.

We click No. You are now ready to use Apple Mail as your email client.

Adding Email Accounts in Apple Mac

If there are no pre-existing email accounts in your copy of Apple Mail, please go instead to the Setup an Email Account Tutorial

Create a new email account in Apple Mail

You can add email accounts in Apple Mail from the Preferences window. Go to Mail > Preferences, then click on Accounts. You should see the list of pre-existing email accounts. At the lower left corner of the window, click the (+) sign button to create a new email account.

POP3 Email Credentials

We have pre-filled information from our server. It is standard, and your email provider is very likely to have the same requirements. See below for an explanation for each field.

Adding new email account information in Apple Mail

• Account Type - The two most common email account types are POP3 and IMAP. Your email account is most probably POP3. As far as setting up Apple Mail, this difference is minor.

• Description - This field lets you pick a friendly name for the email account you are adding.

• Email Address - The email address is split in two by an "@" character: on its left comes the "user name", and on its right the "domain".

• Full Name - This is how Apple Mail will display your name in emails you send out. Either a simple "Joe", or a more complete "Dr. Tle Noshell"

• Incoming Mail Server - Most of the time, the mail server will simply be mail.YourDomain.com. If unsure, please check your email provider's documentation.

• User Name - The user name is what allows the mail server to know which mailbox your are trying to access. Most often, the user name is your complete email address; in some cases, it can be the before-the-@ part of your email address. In rare cases, your user name can be something completely different from your email address.

• Password - Use here the password you were assigned or chose; this allows the mail server to authenticate you, and ensure that you are authorized to access a given email account.

• Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) - The outgoing mail server is generally the same as the incoming mail server. In some cases, it is of the form smtp.yourDomain.com.

Multiple Outgoing Mail Servers (SMTP)

Depending on how previous email accounts were setup, and what mail server they were using, you will need to enter a new mail server. Click the Server Settings button. The SMTP Server Options window should have opened:

You might need to double check your mail server's configuration with your email provider, but most likely, the options shown above will work. Most email providers do not require that you authenticate yourself more than once per session → Authentication set to None.