How to Add an Email Account to iPhone Manually (IMAP)

To add an email account to iPhone manually using IMAP, open Settings, navigate to Apps, tap Mail, then Accounts, and choose Add Account. iOS auto-configures Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo, and a few others from that screen — for everything else, choose Other, then Add Mail Account. That is the manual IMAP path this guide covers: hosted work domains, niche providers not on the auto-configure list, and any mailbox you want to connect on specific ports.

This page gives you the exact fields to fill in at each screen, the correct port and encryption combinations, where the setup path moved across iOS versions, and the four errors that stop most people at verification. All steps were verified against iOS 26.

The Short Answer#

The two server screens iOS shows during manual setup ask for the same kind of information on both sides. The exact values come from your email provider — check their help documentation, the welcome email your domain registrar sent, or your IT team's setup guide.

Before You Start#

iOS needs four things from you before it can verify the connection. If any are wrong or missing, the verification screen stalls with 'unable to verify account information' before a single packet reaches the mail server.

• Your IMAP and SMTP server hostnames: your email provider publishes these on their help site. Common formats are imap.yourdomain.com and smtp.yourdomain.com, but cPanel-hosted accounts often use mail.yourdomain.com for both, and some providers use shared hostnames that do not match the email domain at all. Do not guess — a wrong hostname fails immediately.
• Port numbers and encryption type: the standard IMAP port is 993 with SSL/TLS. Some providers still use port 143 with STARTTLS on older infrastructure. For SMTP, port 587 with STARTTLS is the current standard; port 465 with SSL/TLS is the older alternative. Your provider's documentation specifies which combination they require — using SSL on a STARTTLS-only port, or vice versa, produces the same 'unable to verify' error as a wrong hostname.
• Your username and password: most providers use the full email address as the IMAP username. A small number use the local part only — everything before the @ sign. If your mailbox has two-factor authentication enabled, your regular account password is refused by the IMAP server. In that case you need an app-specific password generated from the provider's account security settings before you start.
• A stable network connection: iOS tests both IMAP and SMTP at the moment you tap Next on the account screen. A dropped connection mid-verification returns the same error as a wrong server address. Confirm you have Wi-Fi or a good mobile data signal before starting.

How to Add an Email Account to iPhone Manually#

1. 1

   Open Settings and navigate to Accounts

   On iOS 18 and iOS 26, open the Settings app, scroll down to Apps, and tap Mail. Select Accounts near the top of the Mail settings screen. On iOS 17 and earlier, the path was Settings > Mail > Accounts directly — Mail was not nested under an Apps sub-section. If you do not see Apps in your Settings list, scroll down and look for Mail at the top level.

2. 2

   Tap Add Account

   At the bottom of the Accounts list, tap Add Account. iOS shows a list of providers it can auto-configure with a browser-based sign-in: iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Google, Yahoo, Aol, and Outlook.com. If your mailbox is with one of them and you want the standard setup, choose it here. For any other provider, continue to the next step.

3. 3

   Choose Other, then Add Mail Account

   Scroll past the auto-configure provider list and tap Other at the very bottom. On the next screen, tap Add Mail Account. This opens the account creation form where you enter your name, email address, password, and a description label for the account — the provider name or your email domain works well as the label.

4. 4

   Fill in the account details and tap Next

   On the New Account screen, enter your full name as you want it to appear in the From line, your complete email address, your password, and an optional description. Tap Next. iOS attempts a quick auto-detection using the email domain. For well-known providers it may pre-fill the server hostnames — but for custom and corporate domains it frequently gets the hostname wrong. Proceed to the next screen and verify the values regardless.

5. 5

   Select IMAP and enter the incoming server settings

   At the top of the server screen, two tabs appear: IMAP and POP. Tap IMAP. Below that, enter the incoming server hostname (for example, imap.yourdomain.com), your username, and your password. iOS uses port 993 with SSL by default and does not show a port field here. If your provider requires a different port or encryption type, you can change it after the account is saved under Settings > Apps > Mail > Accounts > [your account] > Account > Advanced.

6. 6

   Enter the outgoing SMTP server settings

   Scroll down to Outgoing Mail Server and enter the SMTP hostname (for example, smtp.yourdomain.com), your username, and your password. SMTP authentication is on by default — leave it enabled. Most authentication failures in the outgoing section come from leaving the username blank rather than from a wrong server address.

7. 7

   Wait for iOS to verify both connections

   After you tap Next, iOS tests the IMAP and SMTP servers in sequence. A spinner appears for a few seconds. If both succeed, Mail asks which data types to sync — Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Notes, or Reminders depending on what the server supports. Toggle on what you want and tap Save. The account appears in your Accounts list. Open Mail and allow a minute for the first sync to pull in your messages.

Where the Setup Path Lives by iOS Version and Device#

Apple moved the Mail settings location in iOS 18, placing it under an Apps sub-section instead of at the top level of Settings. The setup screens themselves did not change — only the path to reach them. iPadOS follows the same version-to-path mapping as iOS.

What to Do When iPhone Cannot Verify the Account#

The 'unable to verify account information' message covers several distinct failure modes. The on-screen error rarely indicates which one you have hit. Work through this table from the top — the first match is almost always the answer.

A Faster Way to Connect Your Inbox#

The manual IMAP path works reliably once you have the server details right. The remaining problem is that connecting a mailbox is the start of the work, not the end. Every message that arrives still needs reading, a priority decision, and often a reply.

We build AI Emaily, an AI-native email client with a native iOS app. It connects to any IMAP mailbox — the same protocol this guide covers — and handles the server configuration during onboarding. Beyond the connection it adds a triage layer: incoming threads are surfaced by priority, replies are drafted in a voice defined through a user-set Context brain and per-client profiles, and nothing sends without your approval in Copilot mode. Gmail, Outlook, and IMAP accounts land in one unified inbox. If manual inbox management is taking more time than it should, a 7-day free trial on the Pro and Autopilot plans shows you what the automated alternative looks like on a live mailbox.