Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, El Capitan Edition

Setting Up Mail

Mail can’t get your mail unless it knows the details of your email account. The first time you open Mail, then, it asks you for your account information. It’s kind of hoping you use a common email service like Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or Microsoft Exchange (Figure 11-1), or a common Internet provider like Verizon or Comcast. In those situations, all you have to do is type your email name and password. If Mail recognizes the suffix (for example, @gmail.com), then Mail does the heavy lifting for you. Mail is ready to go online.

Note

You can perform exactly the same account setup in the Internet Accounts pane in System Preferences. There’s no advantage of one method or the other, except that the System Preferences pane lets you enter your account information for online calendars and address books, too.

Now, if you use a service provider that Mail doesn’t recognize when you type in your email name and password—you weirdo—then you have to set up your mail account the long way. Mail prompts you along, and you confront dialog boxes, where you’re supposed to type in various settings to specify your email account. Some of this information may require a call to your Internet service provider (ISP).

If that happens to you, you’ll have to enter details like your name, password, mail-server addresses (incoming and outgoing), and security settings.

When you’ve made it through the setup screens, turn on Take Account Online to make your new account “live.” If you entered everything correctly, ...