Gmail, Google Workspace and other IMAP mailboxes

Gmail, Google Workspace, Zoho, Yahoo, iCloud, Yandex and almost any hosted mailbox connect with an address and a password over IMAP (reading) and SMTP (sending). OmniBrand checks new mail every minute and sends your replies from the mailbox itself. There is no separate Gmail sign-in button; Gmail connects this way.

Before you start: get a password that works

Most providers refuse your normal login password from other apps. Create an app password (the wizard shows these steps too):

• Gmail / Google Workspace - Google Account → Security → 2-Step Verification → App passwords, create one named "OmniBrand". 2-Step Verification must be on. A Google Workspace admin may need to allow IMAP for the organisation.
• Zoho Mail - enable IMAP (Settings → Mail accounts → IMAP access) and, with two-factor authentication on, create an application-specific password.
• Yahoo - Account security → Generate app password.
• iCloud - appleid.apple.com → Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords.
• Yandex - enable IMAP in Yandex Mail settings and create an app password (Security → App passwords).
• Your own mail host (cPanel, Plesk and others) - use the mailbox password; the host's "email client settings" page lists the exact server names.

Step by step

1. Set up → Accounts → Email (or + Connect another, or Add my mailbox).
2. Type the address and click Continue.
3. Keep Password or app password (recommended) selected.
4. Fill in Password or app password and Sender name (the name customers see, for example "Support team"; the address is used if left empty).
5. Only if needed, open Advanced: server settings (see below).
6. Click Connect. The button reads Testing the connection… while OmniBrand signs in to both the incoming (IMAP) and outgoing (SMTP) server. The account is saved only if both work.

Fields and options

• Password or app password - required.
• Sender name - shown as the sender on your replies.
• Advanced: server settings - IMAP server and Port, SMTP server and Port. Prefilled for known providers (Gmail: imap.gmail.com 993 and smtp.gmail.com 465; Zoho uses your region's servers; Yahoo, iCloud and Yandex likewise; also when your own domain's mail is run by one of them). For other domains the server fields start empty: the first Connect sends your password nowhere, checks without it which of the usual names (imap., smtp. and mail. before your domain, and your domain itself) answer as a mail server, and offers them as "Use …" buttons; or type the exact names your mail host gives. Your password is sent only to the servers shown in these fields, never to another name, and the line above Connect names them: "Your password is sent only to … (incoming) and … (sending)." Ports 993 and 465 use an encrypted connection from the start; another port such as 143 or 587 starts plain and must switch to encryption (STARTTLS) before the password is sent. A server that does not offer that is refused, so your password never travels unencrypted.
• Login name (if different from the address) - only when your host's login is not the email address.
• Signature (optional) - added under every reply.

After connecting: Settings on the row

Mailbox settings shows the Address, Login name, Incoming mail and Outgoing mail servers (to use a different mail host, add the mailbox again). You can change Sender name and Signature and click Save. When you change the password at your provider, type the new one under New app password and click Check and save: OmniBrand tests it before keeping it, and says Password updated. This mailbox is working again.

Owners and admins can change any mailbox; an agent can change only a mailbox that is theirs (see Who receives this mailbox). On a team mailbox, or a colleague's, an agent sees Sender name and Signature read only with the note "Only an owner or admin, or the person this mailbox belongs to, can change the sender name, signature or password.", and no Reconnect on the row. If the settings cannot be loaded you see Mailbox settings did not load with Try again.

Reconnect on an IMAP mailbox's row opens these settings with the cursor already in New app password; the account keeps its place and history. After Disconnect (the row shows Disconnected) the server settings are gone, so Reconnect instead opens the Email window at this address to add it again.

If something goes wrong

• "… refused the password. Most providers need an app password (not the normal login password) and IMAP switched on." - create an app password and make sure IMAP is enabled at the provider.
• "We need the incoming mail (IMAP) server for your domain. Your password has not been sent to any server." (or "the sending mail (SMTP) server") - the server field is empty, as it starts for a domain whose mail host OmniBrand does not know. Pick a "Use …" button or type the name, as below. "We could not find the incoming mail (IMAP) server … Your password was not sent to any other server." (or "the sending mail (SMTP) server") - the server name in the form does not exist. Advanced: server settings opens by itself. If another name answered as a mail server for your domain (checked without your password), the message names it and shows a "Use …" button with that name: click it only if it is your mail host's server, check it under Advanced: server settings, then click Connect again. Otherwise type the server name your mail host gives on its email app settings page and click Connect, or click Use Forwarding instead to forward the mailbox. "Server … does not exist." means the same for one server name.
• "Could not reach … Check the server name and port." - wrong port, or the host blocks outside connections.
• "Mail server … is not a public host" - OmniBrand only connects to servers on the public internet. This is checked every time OmniBrand connects (reading mail, replies and email campaigns), not only when you add the mailbox.
• "… did not offer an encrypted connection (STARTTLS) on this port, so the password was not sent." - use port 993 for IMAP and 465 for SMTP under Advanced: server settings, or ask your mail host to switch encryption on. An email campaign sending from such a mailbox stops with the same reason until it is reconnected.
• The row shows Messages: Not arriving after working - usually the password was changed at the provider. Use New app password.
• "Too many failed sign-ins with these details. Connecting is paused for up to 15 minutes. Check the address and password, then try again." - the mail server refused 10 passwords for this mailbox within an hour, so OmniBrand stops trying it for 15 minutes (this protects the mailbox, and keeps your provider from blocking OmniBrand). Wait, check the app password, then try once more. The same wait applies to Connect account for Bluesky, Mastodon and Telegram, and to Check and save.

Good to know

• Replies are sent by your mailbox with your address as the sender, threaded under the customer's email. Whether a copy appears in the mailbox's Sent folder depends on the provider (Gmail and Google Workspace keep one automatically).
• A mailbox connected with someone's own password starts out as theirs; an owner or admin can hand it to the team under Who receives this mailbox.
• Every message that arrives in the mailbox's INBOX is read, in the order it arrived, up to 10 a minute; after a busy day the rest follow over the next minutes. Mail in other folders or labels is not read.
• An email larger than 15 MB is not downloaded whole: it arrives with its sender and subject and the text "[This email is too large to import (… MB). Open it in your mailbox to read it and its attachments.]". Open it in your mail program.
• The time shown on a message in the Inbox is when your mail server received it, not the date the sender's computer wrote on it (a wrong clock on their side cannot move a message out of order).