How to Set Up Your Email on Android Print

Who this is for

This guide covers adding your Linuxweb email account to an Android phone or tablet using the Gmail app, which comes preinstalled on almost every Android device and handles ordinary IMAP mailboxes perfectly well despite the name. If you use a Samsung phone with the Samsung Email app instead, the screens differ slightly but the values are identical, the section at the end covers it.

The account is added as IMAP, which keeps your mail synchronised between your phone, your computer, and webmail. Every port and setting used here also lives in our email settings and ports quick reference.

What you'll need before you start

• Your email address, for example you@yourdomain.tld.
• Your mailbox password. This is the password set when the mailbox was created in cPanel, it is not your cPanel or client area password. If it is lost, reset it in cPanel under Email Accounts, or see our article on changing your mailbox password from webmail.
• Your mail server name: mail.yourdomain.tld, replacing yourdomain.tld with your own domain.

Step-by-step setup in the Gmail app

1. Open the Gmail app, tap your profile picture in the top right, and choose Add another account. On a brand-new phone with no accounts yet, the app offers Add an email address on opening instead.
2. Choose Other from the list of account types. Do not choose Google, that is for Gmail and Workspace mailboxes, and not Exchange.
3. Enter your full email address and tap Next.
4. Choose Personal (IMAP) when asked what type of account it is, not POP3.
5. Enter your mailbox password and tap Next.
6. Incoming server settings: the username and password carry over, set the Server to mail.yourdomain.tld and tap Next.
7. Outgoing server settings: make sure Require sign-in is on, username and password as before, Server mail.yourdomain.tld, tap Next.
8. Account options: the sync frequency and notification defaults are sensible, adjust if you like, tap Next.
9. Finish: give the account a display name recipients will see, tap Next, and your mailbox appears in Gmail alongside any other accounts. First sync of a large mailbox takes a while, let it run.

Checking the ports afterwards (recommended)

The Gmail app picks ports itself and normally gets them right. To verify: profile picture, Manage accounts on this device is not the place, instead open the Gmail app Settings via the menu, tap the account, and open the incoming and outgoing settings. Incoming should read port 993 with security SSL/TLS, outgoing port 587 with security STARTTLS (465 with SSL/TLS also works).

Common problems

• "Couldn't verify account" or a certificate warning during setup. The usual cause is a mistyped server name, confirm both servers read exactly mail.yourdomain.tld, and see our article on SSL certificate warnings when setting up email before accepting anything.
• "Authentication failed." Prove the password by logging in to webmail at yourdomain.tld/webmail in the phone's browser. If webmail accepts it, the password is right, re-enter it in the app carefully, watching for autocorrect and stray spaces, both notorious on phone keyboards.
• Receives but cannot send. Require sign-in was left off in step 7, or the outgoing port is wrong. Open the account's outgoing settings, switch authentication on with your full email address and password, and set port 587 with STARTTLS.
• New mail only appears when you open the app. Battery optimisation is throttling sync. In the phone's Settings under Battery, exempt the Gmail app from optimisation, and check the account's sync frequency in the Gmail app settings.
• The phone shows different folders or read states than your computer. See our article on webmail and your mail program showing different emails, the causes and fixes are the same on Android.

Using the Samsung Email app instead

Samsung phones ship with their own Email app alongside Gmail, and either works. In Samsung Email: add account, choose Other, enter your address and password, select IMAP when asked, and enter the same values as above, incoming mail.yourdomain.tld on port 993 with SSL, outgoing mail.yourdomain.tld on port 587 with STARTTLS and Require authentication on. The setting names match closely enough that the Gmail app steps translate directly.

Good to know

Because the account is IMAP, the phone holds a synchronised copy rather than the only copy: removing the account from the phone never deletes your mail, and replacing the phone means nothing more than adding the account again on the new one. The Gmail app happily shows this mailbox alongside an actual Gmail account, they stay completely separate, mail sent from your domain address goes through our servers, not Google's. And on any device you'd rather not configure at all, webmail at yourdomain.tld/webmail gives full access from the browser.