Configure IMAP Accounts in Zoho Mail

Zoho Mail provides multiple ways such as IMAP and POP to access your external email accounts in one place. Using IMAP, you can manage multiple email accounts in the same mailbox, sync them across your devices, manage their unique signatures, vacation reply, filters, and more.  

For you to access your external email accounts in Zoho Mailbox using IMAP, your email service provider has to support the same. And if they support IMAP access, you can get the IMAP server details in your service provider's help documentation or support.

You might also require the approval of your administrators—both the Zoho Mail and the external provider, in case there were any restrictions placed with respect to IMAP usage and configuration.

Note:

​Add accounts using password authentication

Incoming Server Details for Receiving Email:

Make sure you update the 'Password' details in Zoho when you change in the actual account. If you fail to do so, the account will be disabled and you need to update the 'Password' to enable it.

Outgoing Server Details for Sending Email:

In the outgoing server,

Once both Incoming and Outgoing server details have been verified successfully, the account will be listed in the IMAP Accounts page. If the Outgoing server details could not be authenticated directly, you will receive a verification email to the address provided. Only after the verification, you will be able to send emails using that particular email address.

Add Outlook and Office 365 accounts using OAuth

OAuth (Open standard Authorization protocol) is a framework that provides secured designated access. That is, OAuth does not require a password rather provides authorization tokens to authenticate a user. You can authorize your Outlook and Office 365 email accounts using OAuth without providing any password.

Note: OAuth verification is only available for Outlook and Office 365 accounts. If you want to configure IMAP for any other service provider's email, refer here.

You will be taken to your email service provider's login page in the pop-up window.

After a few seconds, your account will get added successfully. It may take some time for the emails to sync completely. Once done, you can access the emails of your IMAP account in Zoho Mailbox.

You can update all info such as Account Name, Default from email address, Reply to email address, and the Sync emails from date. When you update any info, you will be taken to the authentication page for verification.

Configure a Google account using IMAP

Earlier you could configure your Google account in Zoho Mail as an IMAP account using a Less secure app or App-specific password. Now, the support for the Less secure apps has been deprecated by Google.

If you want to configure a Google account as an IMAP account, follow the steps given here. Provide the App-specific password generated from Google in the Password field under the Authentication section to authenticate Zoho Mail to add your Google account as an IMAP account.

Configuration of a Google account via POP can be done using only the App-specific password method as the support for Less secure apps has been deprecated. Learn more.

Reply To Email Address:

When you configure your IMAP account with a different Reply To address, you need to verify the Reply To address to start sending emails. A verification email will be sent to the Reply To address during configuration, with a confirmation code. 

Steps to verify the Reply-To email address:

Once verified, you will be able to send emails from the account without any verification. 

Switch between Accounts:

Once you add the POP/IMAP accounts, all the accounts will be added to the left pane. Select the particular POP/IMAP account to switch to the account and view the emails in the account.

You can switch to any of the IMAP accounts by clicking on the Switch accounts icon displayed on the account card in the Mail Accounts settings page.

Configuration Errors:

The following are the common configuration errors that occur during the IMAP account Setup: 

Connection Failure: 

The server you have added could not be connected to the given port number. You need to check with your Email service provider's help or support for the exact Incoming IMAP server and Outgoing SMTP server details and port numbers.

Authentication Failure:

The Server you have provided can be connected without any issues. However, the server does not accept the credentials which you have provided. Verify if the 'User name' or 'Password' is misspelled. Some providers expect you to enable IMAP access at their end. If you are confident about the credentials you provide, you may need to contact your Email service provider for further steps. Apart from that if you have two-factor authentication enabled in your IMAP account, you will be required to provide an app-specific password. 

Certificate Errors: 

If your server supports SSL but provides an invalid certificate, you may get an 'Invalid Certificate Error'. You may need to contact your Email service provider, to check if the server has a valid registered SSL certificate from a certified vendor. 

Generally, for any errors during configuration, check the following details.