Connect Gmail to Mailbind

Gmail IMAP and SMTP settings

The username is the whole address, including @gmail.com or your Workspace domain. Google documents 587 with TLS as the outgoing port and 465 if you prefer implicit SSL; Mailbind’s preset uses 465, and either works.

Two ways to sign in

Google would rather you did not type a password into a mail client at all, and Mailbind agrees. If “Continue with Google” is offered on the connect screen, use it: Mailbind receives a token scoped to mail, you never type a password, and revoking Mailbind’s access later is a click in your Google account.

The other way is an app password — a sixteen-letter string Google issues for one client — which is what you need when your account has 2-Step Verification on and you are connecting a client that does not use OAuth. Google notes that app passwords are only needed in that case; for an account without 2-Step Verification the account password still works, though turning 2-Step Verification on is the better answer.

• IMAP no longer has to be enabled: Google says IMAP access is always on for personal accounts.
• A Workspace administrator can still turn IMAP off for the whole organisation; if sign-in fails for everyone on your domain, that is the first thing to check.
• Google allows fifteen connected clients per account at a time.

Getting an app password

1. 1Turn on 2-Step Verification in your Google account if it is not on already — app passwords are only offered to accounts that have it.
2. 2Open the app passwords page in your Google account security settings.
3. 3Create one, name it Mailbind so you can recognise and revoke it later, and copy the sixteen characters.
4. 4Paste it into Mailbind as the password. The spaces Google shows are decoration; with or without them works.

An app password gives a client full mailbox access and bypasses the second step, so treat it like a password: one per client, revoked the moment you stop using it.

Connect Gmail to Mailbind

1. 1Sign in to Mailbind and choose “Connect a mailbox”.
2. 2Type the address. Mailbind looks up the domain and names Gmail itself when the records say so; otherwise pick Gmail from the list.
3. 3Enter your name as you want it to appear on outgoing mail, then paste the app password — or use “Continue with Google” and skip this step.
4. 4Check the server settings. They are filled in from the preset, and you can edit either side if your account is on a different host.
5. 5Press “Test and connect”. Mailbind opens IMAP and SMTP before it saves anything, so a wrong password or a blocked port is a message on the form rather than a mailbox that silently never syncs.
6. 6Name the mailbox for the sidebar, pick a colour, and the first sync begins immediately.

Mailbind only connects to the four ports email uses — 993 and 143 for IMAP, 465 and 587 for SMTP — and refuses private or loopback addresses. If your provider asks for a different port, it cannot be used here.

Gmail-specific things worth knowing

Gmail has labels, not folders, and IMAP presents each label as a folder. A message with two labels therefore appears in two folders, and the special All Mail folder holds everything. Mailbind reads the standard set — Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam, Bin and All Mail — and treats the rest as folders you can file into.

Because a Gmail message can carry several labels, deleting from a label is not the same as deleting the message. Mailbind follows Gmail’s own behaviour here rather than inventing its own.

• Sent mail: Gmail saves a copy of anything sent through its SMTP server, so turn off “save a copy in Sent” duplication if you ever see two.
• Aliases: a Gmail address with a plus suffix or a Workspace alias can be added to the mailbox in Mailbind and verified, so replies leave from the address that was written to.
• Groups: a Google Group is not a mailbox and cannot be connected over IMAP.

If it does not connect

• “Invalid credentials” with 2-Step Verification on: you used the account password. Create an app password instead.
• “Invalid credentials” without 2-Step Verification: turn it on and use an app password, which is the path Google supports.
• Nothing at all from a Workspace address: ask your administrator whether IMAP is enabled for the organisation.
• Works for a while and then stops: the app password was revoked, or the account’s password changed, which invalidates every app password at once.

Common questions

Keep reading

• All providers
• Connect Outlook.com
• Connect Microsoft 365
• Connect iCloud Mail
• Connect Yahoo Mail
• Send from the right address
• Help: use an app password with Gmail