How to Setup Apple Mail Email Print

If your using a Max OS X desktop or laptop by Apple, your probably using Apple Mail, also called Mac Mail, which is the built-in email program that comes with your Mac OS X computer.

This walkthrough will show you how to configure Apple Mail to work with your Northwoods Web Designs, LLC Mail Servers or possbly others. 

Materials 

You need to set up your email address in cPanel first. See our How to Add/Delete email account guide.

Make a note of your email address and your email password so you can reference them when you go through the instructions.

Instructions 

1. Open Apple Mail (Mail in your Applications).
2. From the Mail menu, click on Preferences.
3. Choose Accounts from the top menu.
4. Click + at the bottom right to add a new account.
5. Fill in the requested information:
   • Full Name: The name you want to display with this email address.
   • Email Address: Your email address.
   • Password: The password you created for this email address.
6. It's possible that you will see an error at this step: Mail can't verify the identity of autodiscover.example.comThat's fine; you can go ahead and click Connect. If you see another error for the domain, click Connect again.
7. Now, we'll fill in your incoming mail settings.
   • Account Type: IMAP (keep messages synced to the server) or POP (download messages locally recommeded if you have just the laptop/desktop to sync mail on)
   • Description: This description is for your use when you view the account.
   • Incoming Mail Server: mail.EXAMPLE.COM (replace EXAMPLE.COM with your domain)
   • User Name: username@example.com (your full email address)
   • Password: The password you created for this email address.
8. Click Continue.
9. You may see another error here: Mail can't verify the identity of mail.example.com. Again, that's fine. ClickConnect.
10. Next we'll fill in your outgoing mail settings.
    • Description: This description is for the outgoing mail server. You might want to enter something like example.com Outgoing Server.
    • Outgoing Mail Server: mail.EXAMPLE.COM (replace EXAMPLE.COM with your domain). Check Use only this server.
    • Check Use Authentication.
    • User Name: username@example.com (your full email address)
    • Password: The password you created for this email address.
11. Click Continue.
12. You might get this error one more time: Mail can't verify the identity of mail.example.com. Click Connect.
13. Review your Account Summary. Make sure Take account online is selected, then click Create.
14. Congratulations! You've just created your email account. Try sending yourself a test message to make sure it's working.

Please continue to the advanced settings sections so you can make sure that all of your advanced settings are correct.

Advanced Outgoing SMTP Settings 

If you have trouble sending email, or you are plagued with popups saying that Mail can't verify the identity of mail.example.com, you may need to adjust your outgoing email settings.

1. Open Apple Mail.
2. From the Mail menu, choose Preferences.
3. Click on Accounts from the top menu.
4. Select your email account from the list on the left.
5. From the Account Information tab, find the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) dropdown menu.
6. Click Edit SMTP Server List... A new window will pop up.
7. Select your email server, mail.EXAMPLE.COM, from the menu.
8. Description can be whatever you want. Server Name should be mail.EXAMPLE.COM, with your own domain name.
9. Click on the Advanced tab.
10. Select Use default ports (25, 465, 587).
11. You have a choice for Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). If you select this option, your outgoing email will be encrypted, which will help (but not guarantee) your email security. However, if you did not purchase an SSL certificate for your domain mail.EXAMPLE.COM, Apple Mail will give you an error when you try to use the encryption. To solve this, you can uncheck the option to use SSL encryption. Or, if you want to keep the encryption but stop the popup, the next time the popup occurs, click Show Certificate, then choose the option to Always trust the certificate.
12. Authentication must be set to Password.
13. Your username is your full email address, username@example.com, and your password is your email password.
14. Click OK.
15. Close the window, and save your settings at the prompt.

Troubleshooting

 Constant Password Prompt

Symptom: Apple Mail prompts for your email password over and over again, even though you know the password is correct.

Solution: This is a known issue with Apple Mail. The problem is that the password stored in the keychain becomes corrupted. Try these solutions to resolve the issue:

1. Try resetting your email password. How to change email password.
2. Re-type your password in your account settings and for your outgoing mail server. The previous sections of this article will show you how to access those areas.
3. Delete the password keychain for Apple Mail. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201609 for instructions.
4. Consult Apple support if the problem persists.

 Sent Emails Not Saved

Symptom: Apple Mail doesn't save your sent messages on the server.

Solution: Apple Mail requires you to specify a folder in which to save your sent emails.

1. Open your email account.
2. Click the Sent folder so it's highlighted.
3. Click on the Mailbox menu in the top menu bar.
4. Choose Use This Mailbox For, then select Sent.

 Verify Certificate Popup Error

Symptom: You receive a popup with the error Mail can't verify the identity of mail.example.com.

Solution: This happens because Apple Mail is trying to use SSL encryption to send or receive your email, but your mail server doesn't have a matching SSL certificate. You can a) follow the steps in the advanced settings sections of this article to turn off SSL encryption - do this for both incoming and outgoing email - or b) follow these steps to disable the errors:

1. When the popup appears, click Show Certificate.
2. Choose the option to Always trust the certificate for this server.
3. Click Connect.

The popup should no longer trouble you.

Cannot send email

This may be due to your Internet Service Provider blocking the standard outgoing email port. Contact your ISP for assistance.