Configure your email client

This document will guide you through obtaining all the details you'll need to configure most email clients. We've also included some more detail on IMAP, POP and SMTP for those interested in knowing more!

This article assumes you using email accounts created within your cPanel hosting. We have a guide that walks you through Adding a new cPanel email account.

We support both POP and IMAP email accounts - these are the most common protocols for receiving email. We only support secure connections (SSL/STARTTLS).

We have other guides on setting up specific mail clients here and suggest you check to see whether we have a guide specific to your email client before following this guide.

Finding all the details you'll need

1. Your Email Address and Password

   First and foremost you'll need your email address and password. You'll have set the password when you created the email account in cPanel.
   If you can't remember it, your only option will be to change it. We have a separate guide that details how to reset your email account password.

2. Checking your Username and Password work

   You can check that your username (email address) and password work easily by trying to login to webmail for your domain. We have a separate guide that will walk you through this - How do I login to my webmail.
   If you can login to webmail then you can be sure your username and password are correct - if not it'll almost certainly mean you're using an incorrect password - you can reset this within cPanel and then re-test.

3. Incoming and Outgoing server details

   cPanel > EMAIL > Email Accounts > click Manage > click Connect Devices
   
   You'll need to log in to your accounts cPanel.
   From within the EMAIL section click the Email Accounts icon.

   

   Within the email account management screen, click the Connect Devices button next to the email account you'd like to setup.

   

   You'll then see the remaining details you'll need:

   

   Incoming server (usually mail.yourdomain.co.uk)
   Outgoing server (usually mail.yourdomain.co.uk)
   IMAP Port: 993
   POP3 Port: 995
   The final detail is the SMTP port. Our servers, and most modern email clients are capable of using a newer encryption (called STARTTLS) and this is served by Port 587. If your email client is older and only supports SSL then you can use Port 465.
   These are all the details you'll generally require to setup any email client.
4. Some email clients (often those on mobile devices) don't have a specific field to add the port numbers.
   Sometimes you'll need to access the Advanced settings during the email client setup to enter the port details.
   If that's not an option you may need to include it along with the server name e.g. mail.example.co.uk:587 or homeserver:587 - replacing example.co.uk with your domain and homeserver with your specific hosting server e.g. hera.krystal.co.uk:587
   If we don't have a specific guide for the email client you're trying to use you may need to consult their documentation or support to help you add your account. You can find all our client specific guides here.
   If you're still having difficulty getting your email client setup we have a further guide on Email Troubleshooting which walks through the most common issues.

More about IMAP, POP & SMTP

IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol) is better if you use multiple devices - each device syncs with the mail server, so you see the same emails on all devices. Email is stored on the server, with a copy synced to each device. This makes it much easier if you need to change your device - you simply connect the new email client up to the server and it'll automatically sync to the new client.

POP3 (Post Office Protocol) works by a client connecting to the server, retrieving email, and then (normally*) requesting the email be deleted from the server, there is no 'sync' as with IMAP. (* whether email gets deleted from the server or not is controlled by the email client requesting it - if the client doesn't request deletion the email will stay on the server, no matter what happens to the email on the client (read/unread/deleted). Should your client not request deletion, when a new client is connected all the previous email will be delivered and appear unread. That email will also be taking up disk space in your account.)

We use SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) for sending email - this is an internet standard (external link opens in a new window).