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IMAP Mail Settings in Mac OS X 10.5

This tutorial will show you the recommended IMAP settings for your mail account within OS X's built-in mail program, Mail. The version used to make this tutorial is version 3.2.

1. Once you've opened Mail, click on the menu labeled "Mail," and select "Preferences."

   
2. Next, you're presented with a window which contains three tabs, "Account Information, "Special Mailboxes," and "Advanced." First, let's look at the "Account Information" tab.
   • The "Account type" was determined when you set up the account. You cannot change it unless you delete this account and create a new one. The account type is "IMAP."
   • "Description" can be whatever you like, but it is recommended that you use something descriptive. This is just the description listed in Mail's list of email accounts.
   • "Email Address" should be your Sonic.net email address.
   • "Full Name" can be your name, or whatever text you'd like to be seen as your name when you send email.
   • "Incoming Mail Server" should be "imap.sonic.net"
   • "User Name" should be your Sonic.net login name
   • "Password" is the password for your Sonic.net login name.

   

   Note: to add additional mail accounts, click the "+" button on the lower-left.

   • You can edit the Outgoing Mail Server by opening the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) pull-down menu, selecting "Edit server list," then selecting the "Advanced" tab.
     1. The "Server Name" should be "mail.sonic.net
     2. The "Server port" should be "587," with "Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) checked.
     3. Authentication should be "password" and the "User Name" and "Password" should be your Sonic.net username and password.
     
3. Next, there are the "Special Mailboxes"
   • We keep a copy of every message we send from Mail.
   • We never erase messages in the junk mailbox, because we don't use Mail's built-in junk filtering. We just use SpamAssassin.
   • We keep our deleted messages in a separate folder, but we remove them from Mail each time we quit the program, so we save hard drive space on our computer.

   

4. Last, please take a look at the "Advanced" options.
   • "Enable this account" means that you will be able to send and receive mail from this group of mail settings.
   • "Include this account when automatically checking for new mail" means exactly what it says.
   • The "Keep copies of messages for offline viewing" pull-down menu is strictly optional. Storing copies locally on your Macintosh will use additional disk resources, but can allow you to read your mail when not connected to the Internet.
   • If you're using SSL, the default port will be 993. If you're not using SSL, the port should be 143.
   • Authentication should be set to "Password."
   • "Use IDLE command if the server supports it" should be checked.

   For more information about the behavior of each of these advanced options, click on the "?" button in the lower-right corner of this window.

   

That's it! Press "OK" and close the account window. You are ready to use Mail for OS X. If you'd like help with Mail's other features, take a look at the help menu, located at the top of the screen. Back to the Macintosh setup guides.