IMAP is the standard way to read a mailbox from another application. Trupeo uses it for every email provider that is neither Google nor Microsoft.
When to use IMAP
You do not have to choose. When you type the shared address on the “What address does your team share?” screen, Trupeo looks at the address’s domain and how it receives its mail. If that is neither Google nor Microsoft, the same screen asks for the mailbox’s password.
That is the case for addresses hosted by a domain registrar or a web host, and for most independent business email providers. If Trupeo got it wrong, “Not a Google mailbox?” (or Microsoft) offers “Another email provider (IMAP)”.
What you need
- The shared mailbox’s password. The username is the mailbox’s own address: Trupeo refuses a username other than the address you are connecting.
- If Trupeo does not know your email provider: the receiving server (IMAP) and the sending server (SMTP), with their ports.
The form
Under the address, Trupeo says what it recognized:
- “Hosted by OVH.” (or IONOS, Gandi, Infomaniak, o2switch, Hostinger, Orange, Free, SFR, La Poste, Yahoo, iCloud, Zoho), with “Its password is all it takes.”: the server settings are already found, and the “Server settings” line sums them up, for example “Found for OVH: ssl0.ovh.net”. “Change” opens them, if needed.
- “Email provider not recognized.”, with “Check the settings below.”: the settings are open, prefilled from your domain. Check them before connecting.
Then type the “Mailbox password”, the same as in your usual email software, and “Connect the mailbox”. Trupeo checks receiving and sending in one go; if both answer, the mailbox is connected, and Trupeo moves on to “Who reads this mailbox with you?”, where you can invite the other members or skip that step.
The open settings have two blocks, “Receiving emails (IMAP)” and “Sending emails (SMTP)”, each with “Server”, “Port” and “Encryption” (“SSL/TLS” or “STARTTLS”). The username is recalled; if your email provider requires a different username or password for sending, tick “A different username or password for sending” and fill in “Username for sending” and “Password for sending”. “Fold” closes them again.
A typo in the address itself? Correct it in the “Team address” field: you can as long as the mailbox is not connected. “Choose another method” goes back to the choice of email provider.
Where to find these settings
At your email provider, not with us. Look for IMAP configuration or email settings in its documentation or admin panel: the four values are always given together.
We do not publish a table of servers per email provider: those values change, and an outdated table wastes more time than it saves.
Application passwords
Some email providers refuse the account password when the request comes from an outside application, especially when two-factor authentication is on. They then ask for an application password: a dedicated password that you generate in the account’s security settings and that only serves that application. When Trupeo recognizes it, it says so under the password, for example “Yahoo asks for an app password for Trupeo.”.
Generate that password and type it in Trupeo instead of the usual password. The mailbox keeps its normal password for everything else, and you can revoke the application password at any time without changing the account’s.
If the connection is refused
Trupeo says what is wrong under the field at fault. The most common cases:
- The password is refused, for example “OVH refused this password.”: check it by signing in to your email provider’s webmail. If it changed recently, enter the new one. An expired password gives exactly the same error.
- The server does not answer, for example “imap.example.org does not answer on port 993.”: its exact name is in your email provider’s help.
- The encryption does not fit, for example “imap.example.org does not accept this encryption on port 143.”: try the other encryption, or the port your email provider gives. As a rule: “SSL/TLS” for ports 993 and 465, “STARTTLS” for ports 143 and 587.
- “The sending server refused the username or the password.”: if sending has its own username, tick “A different username or password for sending”.
- The username is not the mailbox’s address: put it back in “Username”.
Trupeo accepts IMAP ports 993 and 143, and SMTP ports 465 and 587.
IMAP access turned off on the mailbox. Several email providers ship mailboxes with IMAP closed, or close it on accounts that only use webmail. You turn it on in the account settings, on the email provider’s side.
If your server does not encrypt the connection
Trupeo may tell you that your receiving server (IMAP), your sending server (SMTP), or both, do not encrypt the connection, so your password and your emails travel to them in clear text.
It blocks nothing: Trupeo connects the mailbox either way. If you would rather have an encrypted connection, ask your email provider whether it offers port 993 for receiving and port 465 for sending, or whether it can turn on STARTTLS.
After connecting
Trupeo copies your emails in the background, newest first. The first ones appear quickly, a large mailbox takes longer, and you can use the mailbox during the copy.
If the mailbox’s password changes later, Trupeo pauses the mailbox until you enter the new one: see Reconnect a paused mailbox.
If this is your first mailbox, the remaining steps are in Connect your first mailbox.
What Trupeo will change in the mailbox, and what it will not, is detailed in How emails arrive in Trupeo.