AOL Mail IMAP and SMTP Settings for Third-Party Apps

If you're setting up AOL Mail in Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, or any app that isn't AOL's own, you need four numbers and one address: the IMAP host and port, the SMTP host and port, and your full email address as the username. AOL also requires an app password, not your regular sign-in password, for every third-party connection.

Below are the exact settings, the order to enter them in, and the specific failure modes that come from getting one field wrong. This applies whether you're connecting a decades-old @aol.com address or one you registered last week — AOL Mail's server infrastructure is the same regardless of when the account was created.

The same four values also apply if you're setting up a replacement phone or a fresh laptop rather than a brand-new mail app — reinstalling a client from scratch asks for exactly the same host, port and username as the very first setup ever did.

The short answer: AOL Mail IMAP and SMTP settings#

These are the values to type into your mail client. Use IMAP unless you have a specific reason to use POP3 — IMAP keeps your mail in sync across every device, while POP3 downloads it to one.

Before you start: generate an app password#

AOL will reject a third-party app that tries to sign in with your normal AOL password — this has been the case since 2019, and it's non-negotiable whether or not you have two-step verification turned on. Skipping this step is the single most common reason a new setup fails on the first try.

This trips people up because nothing on AOL's login page tells you in advance. You add the account, type your usual password, and get a generic "incorrect password" error even though you know the password is right. The fix isn't a different password — it's a different kind of password, generated specifically for this purpose.

Generate the app password before you touch your mail client's settings screen, so you're not switching back and forth mid-setup.

The requirement is server-side, not a client setting you can work around: AOL's IMAP, POP and SMTP servers reject a normal account password outright, no matter which app is asking. An app password is a separate, revocable credential scoped to mail-protocol access only — it can't be used to sign in to the AOL website or change account settings, which is also why generating one doesn't require turning two-step verification on or off first.

1. 1

   Sign in to AOL Mail on the web

   Go to mail.aol.com and log in with your normal account credentials.

2. 2

   Open Account Info

   Click your account name or avatar, then Account Info, then Account Security.

3. 3

   Generate an app password

   Look for "Generate app password" or "Create and manage app password." Name it after the app you're connecting, such as "Outlook" or "Thunderbird."

4. 4

   Copy the 16-character code

   AOL shows it once. Copy it before closing the dialog — you'll paste it into your mail client's password field, spaces and all or without them, depending on what the client accepts.

Steps: adding AOL Mail to a third-party app#

Every desktop and mobile mail app asks for the same information, just in a different order. The sequence below covers the general case; see the platform table further down for where specific apps put each field.

1. 1

   Choose "Add account" and select IMAP or manual setup

   Some apps auto-detect AOL's servers from your email address. If yours doesn't, or gets it wrong, pick the manual/IMAP option.

2. 2

   Enter your full email address as the username

   Not "yourname" — the complete [email protected]. AOL's servers authenticate on the full address; a bare username is the second most common cause of a rejected login.

3. 3

   Enter the app password you generated

   Paste the 16-character code from the previous section, not your normal AOL password.

4. 4

   Set the incoming server to imap.aol.com, port 993, SSL/TLS

   If your app separates "security type" from "port," choose SSL/TLS (sometimes labeled "SSL") rather than STARTTLS for IMAP.

5. 5

   Set the outgoing server to smtp.aol.com, port 465, SSL/TLS

   Outgoing mail authenticates too, so re-enter the same full address and app password here even if the app copied them from the incoming setup — some clients don't carry that over automatically. If port 465 is blocked on your network, try port 587 with STARTTLS instead — AOL supports both for SMTP.

6. 6

   Save and let the client do its first sync

   An initial sync of years of AOL mail can take several minutes. Let it finish before assuming something's broken.

Platform differences: where each app asks for what#

The settings are identical everywhere; only the screen layout changes. This table maps the same four values onto the apps people ask about most.

A few of these are worth a closer look because their setup flow diverges from the generic sequence above. In Outlook, the modern "New Outlook" and the classic desktop app both offer manual IMAP setup, but the button that exposes it is labeled differently between the two — look for "Advanced options" on the account-type screen before Outlook tries, and often fails, to auto-configure AOL on its own.

On a Mac, Apple Mail's manual-setup screen is reached through Mail > Settings (or Preferences, on older macOS versions) > Accounts > the plus button, and it lists incoming and outgoing details as separate tabs rather than one combined screen.

Thunderbird's autodetect usually gets AOL's hostnames right on the first pass, but autodetected settings are still worth checking against the table below — a wizard that finishes without errors isn't the same guarantee as a port and security type you verified yourself.

What to do when AOL Mail won't sync#

Most sync failures trace back to one of five causes. Work through them in this order before contacting support — each one takes under a minute to rule out, and together they cover nearly every case that isn't an outright AOL outage.

• Wrong password type — you entered your normal AOL password instead of an app password. Generate a new app password and re-enter it.
• Partial username — the client has just "yourname" instead of "[email protected]." Re-enter the full address.
• Blocked port — some corporate or public networks block port 465 or 993 outright. Try the alternate SMTP port 587, and try the connection from a different network to isolate the issue.
• Stale app password — if you revoked or regenerated an app password after setup, the client is still using the old one. Generate a fresh one and update it in the client's account settings.
• Security software intercepting the connection — antivirus suites and some VPN clients scan or proxy outgoing mail traffic and can break the SSL/TLS handshake on ports 993 or 465. Temporarily disabling the mail-scanning feature (not the whole antivirus) is enough to test this.

A faster way than re-adding AOL Mail everywhere#

Manually configuring IMAP, generating an app password, and re-entering four server values is a one-time cost per device — but it's a cost you pay again for every new phone, laptop, or mail app you try. AI Emaily connects your AOL Mail account once over IMAP using the same settings above, then keeps triage, drafting and search working from a single inbox alongside any Gmail or Outlook accounts you also use.

It doesn't replace the app password step — AOL still requires one — but it means you do that step once per account rather than once per client. We build AI Emaily; see the AOL connection guide for the exact screens.