Providers

The provider is where your mailbox is hosted, not the app you read it in. Gmail read in the Outlook app is still Gmail. For a company address, ask your IT team who hosts it.

Gmail and Google Workspace#

1. Turn on 2-Step Verification in your Google Account. App passwords don't appear without it.
2. Open App passwords, enter a name such as fob-email, and create it.
3. Copy the 16-character password. The spaces Google shows are optional.

fob-email config accounts add personal \
  --imap-host imap.gmail.com --imap-user [email protected] \
  --imap-pass "<app password>" --smtp-host smtp.gmail.com

• IMAP is always on for personal Gmail.
• Google Workspace: your administrator can turn off IMAP or app passwords for your domain. If the App passwords page isn't available or sign-in fails, ask them.
• App passwords are also unavailable on accounts in Advanced Protection, and on some accounts that use only security keys. See Google's app-password help.
• Changing your Google password revokes your app passwords. Create a new one and run config accounts add again.
• Gmail folders have paths like [Gmail]/Sent Mail and [Gmail]/All Mail. Quote them on the command line. fob-email folders list shows the exact names.

Yahoo Mail#

1. Open Yahoo Account Security.
2. Choose Generate app password (it may be labelled Create app password), name it fob-email, and copy the password.

fob-email config accounts add yahoo \
  --imap-host imap.mail.yahoo.com --imap-user [email protected] \
  --imap-pass "<app password>" --smtp-host smtp.mail.yahoo.com

Yahoo requires your full email address as the username. See Yahoo's IMAP settings.

iCloud Mail#

1. Sign in at account.apple.com. Your Apple Account needs two-factor authentication.
2. Under Sign-In and Security, choose App-Specific Passwords, create one named fob-email, and copy it.

iCloud uses two different usernames: the IMAP username is the part of your iCloud Mail address before the @, and the SMTP username is the full address. iCloud SMTP also uses port 587 with STARTTLS rather than 465.

fob-email config accounts add icloud \
  --imap-host imap.mail.me.com --imap-user you \
  --imap-pass "<app-specific password>" \
  --smtp-host smtp.mail.me.com --smtp-port 587 --no-smtp-secure \
  --smtp-user [email protected]

--no-smtp-secure means "don't start with TLS": the connection switches to TLS with STARTTLS instead. If the short IMAP username is rejected, Apple suggests trying the full address. Your Apple Account sign-in address can be different from your iCloud Mail address; use the mail address. See Apple's iCloud Mail settings and app-specific passwords.

Changing your Apple Account password revokes app-specific passwords.

Fastmail#

1. In Fastmail, open Settings → Privacy & Security. Under Connected apps & API tokens, choose Manage app passwords and access, then New app password.
2. Keep the default access, Mail, Contacts & Calendars, which includes IMAP and SMTP. Copy the password.

fob-email config accounts add fastmail \
  --imap-host imap.fastmail.com --imap-user [email protected] \
  --imap-pass "<app password>" --smtp-host smtp.fastmail.com

Fastmail's Basic plan doesn't include IMAP or SMTP, so it can't create app passwords. See Fastmail's app passwords and server names and ports.

Outlook and Microsoft 365#

fob-email cannot connect to Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live or Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online) mailboxes. Microsoft requires OAuth sign-in for IMAP on these services, and fob-email only supports passwords. An app password doesn't help.

• Outlook.com requires OAuth for IMAP. See Microsoft's Outlook.com settings.
• Microsoft 365 has turned off password (Basic) authentication for IMAP. See Microsoft's Exchange Online guidance.

A company-run Exchange server may still accept passwords: ask your administrator for its IMAP settings.

Other providers#

Any IMAP server that accepts a username and password should work. From your provider's help pages (search for "IMAP settings" or "set up another email client"), you need:

• The IMAP host and port, and whether it uses SSL/TLS (the usual is port 993 with SSL/TLS)
• The SMTP host and port, if you want to send. Port 465 means SSL/TLS (the default); port 587 means STARTTLS, so add --smtp-port 587 --no-smtp-secure
• The username, usually your full address
• Whether you need an app password, which is common when two-factor sign-in is on

If your server doesn't use TLS on IMAP, add --no-imap-tls and the plain-text port your provider gives you. Only do this on a network you trust.