This article will explain how to setup an email client on your device, for example "Outlook, Apple Mail App, IOS Mail App, Android Mail App".
Warning: Email client configuration on windows is only supported on windows 10 and above. This is because we encrypt communication between your device and the mail server using the latest encryption ciphers, and older version of windows may no longer receive necessary encryption cipher updates. Without the latest encryption ciphers the connection will time out.
How to configure your email client?
Before we get started, you need to decide which email protocol to use. We support IMAP and POP3.
What is the difference between IMAP and POP3?
IMAP allows the server to maintain the master copy of your email account. This is necessary to have access to your email messages on webmail and to be able to keep them synchronize across your devices. When you open a message from a device it will be marked as read on all devices, when you delete it on one device, it is deleted on all devices. This method is very useful if you have many devices and want to give them all access to your email, while have the ability to use webmail anytime from anywhere. It also gives you the advantage to have backups of your email on the server.
POP3 informs the server to only keep email messages on the server until an authorized device connects to the server and downloads the messages. Downloaded messages are then deleted from the sever, and can no longer be accessed from webmail. This is because all messages have been downloaded on your device and erased from the server, as a result of that webmail will be empty with nothing to display. POP3 is not recommended because if data is lost on your device you will loose all your emails. You will also be responsible for taking backups and will not be able to access emails from all devices. It is best used when you are on a budget and need to empty storage on the server.
You must have the server configuration on hand
Incoming mail server: This is usually your domain name example yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com
Incoming mail server port: For IMAP use 993 and for POP3 use 995 and make sure you select SSL/TLS from the dropdown or check the box to activate SSL on this connection, this enables the mail client to open an encrypted channel with the server to receive email.
Outgoing mail server: This is usually your domain name example yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com
Outgoing mail server port: For SSL SMTP use 465 and for Start TLS use 587. SSL/TLS enables the mail client to open an encrypted channel with the server before sending your email.
Common email client configuration problems?
Request is taking too long our is timing out.
- Is SSL/TLS on? Check your email settings and make sure you are using the correct ports, and ensure SSL / TLS is enabled. Some mail clients will need the option to be set on TLS and others will work with SSL, others will give you auto or SSL/TLS and it will choose the most suitable one.
- Are you using a CDN like Cloudflare? It is most common that our clients forget to configure the mail sub domain properly on Cloudflare. If you are using Cloudflare you need to have the proxy activated on your domain, this means yourdomain.com and www.domain.com will have to be on proxy (orange cloud) to take advantage of CDN features. When proxy is activated on the domain your mail client will not be able to reach the mail server because it is not connecting to Cloudflare proxy server instead. To solve this make sure Cloudflare proxy is disabled on mail.yourdomain.com and use it as your incoming and outgoing server. Also make sure your MX records use mail.yourdomain.com as the mail server responsible for the domain.
- Is mail.yourdomain.com pointing to your cPanel IP? Many customers have CDN that enables proxy on the mail domain or they have migrated from another hosting provider to Greens247 and did not modify dns records correctly after migration. To ensure your dns is set correctly you can go to a website like dnschecker.org and ensure mail.yourdomain.com is pointing to the cPanel IP assigned to you. You can find that IP on the right menu of your cPanel.
- Can you send email but not able to receive email? Make sure that the host on your MX record has an A record pointing to the cPanel IP assigned on your account. You can find that IP on the right menu of your cPanel.
- Is your SSL certificate valid? if you are using host mail.yourdomain.com you need to make sure that AUTO SSL has generated an SSL certificate for you. You can do that by going to your cPanel and search for SSL Status. Make sure the host you are using in your email client configuration has a valid certificate. Without a valid SSL certificate SSL encryption will fail. The email client will not be able to open an encrypted channel with the server to send and receive email. This will cause your email client to time out because it is unable to connect to the server. If your SSL certificate is expired, simple click Run AUTO SSL. Please make sure the host you are requesting a certificate for is not marked as excluded. If it was excluded by mistake, make sure to include it so that AUTO SSL can request a certificate for it. Please be patient as certificate request can take from 5 minutes up to 72 hours. Make sure you read the bullet point "Are you using a CDN like Cloudflare?" first because the same issue can prevent the certificate provider from validating your domain and prevent the SSL certificate from being issued. If you waited for the SSL certificate to be issued and it was not issued for some reason, please contact the support team to investigate the issue.
