Connect IONOS mail to Mailbind

IONOS IMAP and SMTP settings

IONOS documents one set of hosts for Mail Basic and Mail Business, with no region-specific names. The username is the full email address and each address has its own password, separate from your IONOS account login.

Each address has its own password

The commonest IONOS mistake is using the control-panel login. An IONOS mailbox has a password of its own, set when the address was created and changeable from the Email section of the control panel. That is what a mail client needs.

If nobody remembers it, reset it in the control panel rather than guessing: IONOS does not show an existing mailbox password, and a reset takes effect immediately for every client.

• Mail Basic and Mail Business differ in storage and features, not in server names.
• A catch-all address is a real mailbox and connects like any other.
• A forwarding-only address has no mailbox behind it and nothing to connect to.

Connect IONOS to Mailbind

1. 1Sign in to Mailbind and choose “Connect a mailbox”.
2. 2Type the address. Mailbind looks up the domain and names IONOS itself when the records say so; otherwise pick IONOS from the list.
3. 3Enter your name as you want it to appear on outgoing mail, then enter the password belonging to that email address, not your IONOS account password.
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.

Domains, regions and old 1&1 accounts

IONOS grew out of 1&1 and runs country sites with their own control panels, which is why older guides and older client setups point at regional hostnames. The current documentation gives a single pair of hosts; if an inherited setup uses a regional name and still works, there is no reason to change it, and if it does not, the hosts above are the ones IONOS publishes today.

Mailbind fills IONOS servers in from a preset, and you can edit either side on the connect form if your account was set up long enough ago to be somewhere else.

If your mail is hosted at IONOS but your domain's MX records point somewhere else, the mailbox you want may be at the other provider. Checking the MX record first saves a lot of guessing, and Mailbind's provider detection does exactly that when you type the address.

If it does not connect

• “Invalid credentials”: the IONOS account password was used instead of the mailbox password.
• Sending refused: try 587 with STARTTLS, which IONOS documents for networks that block 465.
• Everything refused for a brand new address: a freshly created IONOS mailbox can take a few minutes to become reachable.
• A mailbox that was moved between IONOS contracts may need its password reset before clients can sign in again.

Common questions

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