MobileMe: Setting up MobileMe email on your Mac

  • Last Modified: May 26, 2009
  • Article: HT2296

Summary

Learn how to use your MobileMe (@me.com or @mac.com) email addresses and aliases.

Products Affected

MobileMe

Mac OS X v10.5 instructions

To ensure all Mail functionality works as expected with MobileMe, be sure you have installed all the latest updates for your computer. See this article for more information.

Follow the steps below If you want to use your membername@me.com email address. (Skip to step 5 if you already had a .Mac account set up on your computer).

  1. From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
  2. Click MobileMe.
  3. Enter your member name and password.
  4. Click Sign In.
  5. Open Mail.

To automatically set up your MobileMe email account:

  • From Mail's File menu, choose Add Account.
  • In the Full Name field, type the name you'd like displayed in the emails you send.
  • Enter your MobileMe email address and password.
  • Select the option to "Automatically set up account."
  • Click Create.

To manually set up your MobileMe email account:

  • From the Mail menu, choose Preferences.
  • Click Accounts.
  • If you have an existing .Mac account, select it. Important: If the Account Type says "POP", do not delete it. Deleting a POP account may lead to data loss. Skip to step 6 if you have a POP account. If your .Mac account says ".Mac" or "IMAP", select it and click the minus button. This will not delete any of your messages from the .Mac email server.
  • Click the plus button to add a new IMAP account with the following settings:

    Note: If you were not previously a .Mac member, you will be unable to send email from membername@mac.com.
    • In the email address field, enter the primary email address you want to use to send email from, either membername@me.com or membername@mac.com.
    • Incoming Mail Server:  mail.me.com
    • Outgoing Mail Server:  smtp.me.com  (make sure to use authentication with your outgoing mail server)
  1. If you were an existing .Mac member, you can send email from both your membername@mac.com and membername@me.com addresses, as well as from any email aliases you may have created.  Within Mail Preferences, select your account, then add additional addresses in the Email Address field. Separate additional addresses with a comma. For example, membername@me.com, alias1@me.com, alias1@mac.com.



    When configured this way, you may notice that Mail will not automatically use aliases from MobileMe, and additional email addresses added in Mail will not show up in webmail. You will only see the Full Name entered for all the aliases.

Note: If you are a new MobileMe member, when you now compose a new message in Mail, in the "From" pop-up menu you should see your membername@me.com as well as any aliases you set up at me.com/mail. If you were not an active .Mac member at the time MobileMe became available, you will not see @mac.com email address. If you were a .Mac member, the alias@mac.com may appear but it is not a valid email address.

Mac OS X v10.4 instructions

Follow these steps to ensure all Mail functionality works as expected with MobileMe.
Note: All MobileMe features will appear as ".Mac" in Mac OS X Tiger, even if you are a new MobileMe member.
  1. Quit Mail if it's open.
  2. Download and install the Mac OS X 10.4.11 Update (if you have not).
If you were an existing .Mac member and simply want to keep sending and receiving using your membername@mac.com address, you don't have to do anything. Any aliases you previously created on webmail.mac.com will continue to show up in the From drop-down sheet, and successfully send and receive.
 
Follow the steps below If you want to use your membername@me.com email address. (Skip to step 4 if you already had a .Mac account set up on your computer).
  1. From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
  2. Click .Mac.
  3. Enter your member name and password. Click Sign In.
  4. Open Mail.
  5. In Mail, choose Preferences from the Mail menu.
  6. If you have an existing .Mac account, select it. Important: If the Account Type says "POP", do not delete it. Deleting a POP account may lead to data loss. Skip to step 8 if you have a POP account. If your .Mac account says ".Mac" or "IMAP", select it and click the minus button. This will not delete any of your messages from the .Mac email server.
  7. Add a new IMAP account with the following settings.  
    Note: If you were not previously a .Mac member, you will be unable to send email from membername@mac.com.
    • In the email address field, enter the primary email address you want to use to send email from, either membername@me.com or membername@mac.com.
    • Incoming Mail Server:  mail.me.com
    • Outgoing Mail Server:  smtp.me.com  (make sure to use authentication with your outgoing mail server)
  8. If you were an existing .Mac member, you can send email from both your membername@mac.com and membername@me.com addresses, as well as from any email aliases you may have created.  Within Mail Preferences, select your account, then add additional addresses in the Email Address field. Separate additional addresses with a comma. For example, membername@me.com, alias1@me.com, alias1@mac.com.



    When configured this way, you may notice that Mail will not automatically use aliases from MobileMe, and additional email addresses added in Mail will not show up in webmail. You will only see the Full Name entered for all the aliases.
Note: When creating a new alias on me.com/mail, the alias may show up in webmail as alias@me.com as well as alias@mac.com in the drop-down sheet. The alias@mac.com is not a valid email address.

 

Additional Information

For information about using MobileMe with third-party email applications, see this article.

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