Change Incoming and Outgoing servers in Apple Mail

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Follow these steps to point Apple Mail on your Mac at your new mail server. Both the incoming and outgoing servers live on one screen — the Server Settings tab of your account.

Settings you'll need

Use these with the mailbox address and password you were given. Wherever you see mail.example.com, use the exact server name we provided.

Purpose Protocol Port Encryption
Receiving (recommended) IMAP 993 SSL/TLS
Receiving (POP3) POP3 995 SSL/TLS
Sending (recommended) SMTP 465 SSL/TLS
Sending (alternate) SMTP 587 STARTTLS

 

Your username is your full email address. Sending (SMTP) must have authentication enabled, using the same username and password as receiving.

Incoming server — receiving mail

  1. In the menu bar, choose Mail › Settings. (On macOS Monterey and earlier this is Mail › Preferences.)
  2. Click Accounts, select your account on the left, then click the Server Settings tab.
  3. Under Incoming Mail Server, set Host Name to mail.example.com and confirm User Name.
    • Replace mail.example.com with your own domain — the exact server name we provided.
  4. To change the port or encryption, first untick Automatically manage connection settings.
  5. Set Port to 993 for IMAP (or 995 for POP3).
  6. Tick Use TLS/SSL.

Outgoing server (SMTP) — sending mail

  1. Still on the Server Settings tab, under Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) open the Account dropdown and choose Edit SMTP Server List…
  2. Select your server and set Host Name to mail.example.com.
    • Replace mail.example.com with your own domain — the exact server name we provided.
  3. Untick Automatically manage connection settings.
  4. Set Port to 465. (If sending is blocked, use port 587 with STARTTLS.)
  5. Tick Use TLS/SSL.
  6. Confirm User Name and Password, then click OK.
  7. Back on the account, click Save.

If it isn't working

  • Mail arrives but won't send: re-open Edit SMTP Server List, untick "Automatically manage connection settings", and confirm port 465 with TLS/SSL (or 587 with STARTTLS) and your username/password entered.
  • Password keeps prompting: confirm the username is your full email address and re-enter the mailbox password (the one you use for webmail).
  • Can't connect: make sure "Automatically manage connection settings" is unticked so your port and TLS choices actually stick.

Still stuck? Open a ticket with a screenshot of the error and we'll sort it out.

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