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Mac Mail Setup

  1. Open up Mail.app and press Command+Comma to invoke the Preferences window.
  2. Switch to the "Accounts" pane and press the + button in the lower-left corner.
  3. Under "Account Information", fill out the following information:
    • Account Type: POP or IMAP (what is the difference?)
    • Email Address: email-name@your-domain-name.com
    • Incoming Mail Server: mail.your-domain-name.com
    • Username: email-name@your-domain-name.com
    • Password: your email password
    • Note that POP uses port 110 and IMAP uses port 143
  4. Select "Add Server..." from the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) pop-up menu. Here are the details for it:
    • Outgoing Mail Server: mail.your-domain-name.com
    • Server port: 26
    • Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): NO
    • Authentication: password
    • User Name: email-name@your-domain-name.com
    • Password: your email password
    • Dismiss the window by pressing "OK."
  5. Back in the "Accounts" pane, switch to the "Advanced" tab and do not check the box marked "Use SSL" towards the bottom.

What is the imap path prefix?

The correct code is INBOX (all caps).

Removing an Email account

WARNING: Removing an account in MacMail will permanently delete its mailboxes, messages, notes, and to do items. If you want to keep those, be sure to copy them to an On My Mac mailbox before deleting the account.

Exchange, IMAP, and MobileMe accounts store their mailboxes and messages on the server; deleting these account types in Mail will not permanently delete messages from the server. However, if you are not completely certain that your account is one of those types, be sure to copy the mailboxes and messages you want to keep into an On My Mac mailbox, or save individual messages manually by selecting them and choosing Save As from the File menu.

Apple's Basic Troubleshooting Guide
Apple's Email Configuration Guide (see Removing an email account)

We recommend MacMail users perform a local backup before proceeding to remove entire email settings.


Troubleshooting

Too many connections, 500 errors? Here is a fix.

Thunderbird is normally the route I suggest, however the main problem with Mac Mail I've seen is with the IDLE setting, basically this leaves the connection to the server open to check for new messages as soon as they arrive rather than trying to connect every say 5 minutes or so.

NOTE: Before this fix will work, you may need to kill your hanging processes. You can simply ask HostGator to kill all of your current processes.

This link describes the setting and how to change it in Mac Mail: http://email.about.com/od/macosxmail..._imap_idle.htm

And I'll copy the relevant parts here:

To have emails appear instantly in IMAP accounts in Mac OS X Mail:

  1. Select Mail | Preferences... from the menu.
  2. Choose Accounts.
  3. Select the desired IMAP account.
  4. Go to the Advanced tab.
  5. Make sure Use IDLE command if the server supports it.
    • You can additionally uncheck Include when automatically checking for new mail. Keep in mind that Mac OS X Mail receives instant updates only for the open folder, though.

While this may be the desired affect, to get your emails instantly, Mac Mail leaves one connection open for each IMAP folder, that is, INBOX, OUTBOX, TRASH, and any custom folders you may have.

My simple suggestion: Turn off the IDLE function and set it to check every 5 minutes or longer, and monitor your connections.


Article Comments

Hattem
I have changed the website hosingt from godaddy to hostgator.
Two issues:
1- when i set up IMAP for my mac book, only emails recieved from that time onward show in my in-box - all the existing email messages did not migrate (i can access them through the godaddy email server) how can i perform the email migration to my website's hostgator hosted email server?
2- when i send email it still goes out through godaddy email out - despite selecting my website's email-out server from the pull down menu - how can this be fixed?

HostGator
1. The old emails cannot be viewed, because they are not on our server. We can only migrate emails when you come from a host using cPanel.

My suggestion is to archive your old host's emails by making a POP3 connection to godaddy. This will download all of the emails for viewing from your local computer.

2. After you download all of the old emails (with POP3), then you should completely remove the godaddy outgoing settings from MacMail. This will prevent MacMail from using the old host's mail server.

larkhaven
Why does my Mac Mail program always ask for a CERTIFICATE when I retrieve mail from my Hostgator server? How can I fix this?

HostGator
Perhaps you are trying to connect using SSL or https. Please unselect that option and try again.

If you need more help, please contact us via email, phone or live chat for assistance.

Smitty
How should I be setting my iPhone mail and iPad mail? I'm constantly using up processes

HostGator
Read the second part in this article, titled "Too many connections, 500 errors?"

Susan Shaner
This was helpful for a non-technical person like me. Terrific! Hassle-free set up of mail.
The only problem I am having is accepting calendar invitations. It says it cannot send the accept using my server. What do I do?
Thank you.

HostGator
To start getting help from HostGator, please contact us via email, phone or live chat.

If your problem is too abstract for chat and phone technicians, we will escalate your issue to a server administrator.

Mac head
I called mac about my iPad problem and not being able to send out emails from my iPad using my company email on cpanel and they looked at me like ???. They had no info to help me. I spent an hour or so with them and no luck. I came across this page and seen the info above tried it out and presto. It worked. Thanks man. Well needed.

Peppe
I configured some IMAP accounts on Mail App of my IPAD...I've verified that every IMAP connection is not closed by IPAD App even if I close it. So I deleted the zombie processes from hostgator cpanel, disabled Push setting on Mail App, put Manual setting for each IMAP account and nothing new happened. The processes are again pending there! It doesn't seem to exist an option to Use IDLE command on IPAD Mail App. It's clear that this is an Apple Mail App issue...
Some help anyway please?

Ed
Don't know why but from time I have problems. The suggestions worked well enough.

Sam
I agree with Peppe... I have changed all my settings in Mac OS Mail app and even set my email to only check manually on my iphone and ipad, and yet still my emails are taking up precesses and not freeing them up again.

Is there anything else that can be done?

HostGator
Thank you for your comments. Just a quick reminder that the comments on this page are not monitored by technical support staff, and that for support issues, it is best to contact us by live chat, phone or email so we can assist you right away.

Although comments are not monitored by technical support staff, they are moderated and read by technical writers. Comments will need to be approved by a moderator before appearing.

Our technical writers do read the comments periodically for the purposes of updating the articles, and do appreciate your feedback, suggestions and corrections to the articles themselves, as well as any suggestions or tips for readers of this article. However, support questions posted here are not guaranteed to be replied to in a timely manner or at all. For support issues, it is best to contact our support staff instead by live chat, email or phone.



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