At IU, in Mozilla Thunderbird for Mac OS X, how do I read my Cyrus or IU Exchange mail using IMAP?

Note: To configure a desktop client to read your Imail or Umail account, see Configuring an email client for Imail or Umail.

In Mac OS X, you can configure Thunderbird to read your Cyrus or IU Exchange mail at Indiana University using IMAP. However, UITS recommends that you do not use IMAP to connect to your IU Exchange account, as IMAP provides limited functionality. Instead, see At IU, in Mac OS X, how do I configure Outlook 2011 to access my Exchange account? or At IU, in Mac OS X, how do I configure Entourage 2008 to access my Exchange account?

On this page:

• Configuring Thunderbird 5 and later
• Configuring Thunderbird 3
• Subscribing to folders

Configuring Thunderbird 5 and later

Note: If this is the first time you are configuring an account in Thunderbird, a Mail Account Setup window might appear. If it does, skip to step 3 and continue with the instructions.

1. In Thunderbird, from the Tools menu, select Account Settings... .
   
   
2. In the sheet that appears, click Account Actions, and then select Add Mail Account... .
   
   
3. In the next sheet, next to "Your name:", enter your name as you want it to appear in the "From:" field of your outgoing messages.
   
   
4. Next to "Email address:", type your Indiana University email address.

   If you are unsure of your exact IU email address, see At IU, what is my email address?

5. Next to "Password:", enter your IU passphrase. Click Continue.
   
   
6. In the next sheet, Thunderbird will attempt to guess your mail settings, but will fail. It will then allow you to manually enter your settings.

   Note: Optionally, you can click Manual config to cancel the auto-configuration attempt and immediately enter your manual settings.

7. In the pop-up menu next to the "Incoming:" field, make sure that IMAP is selected. In the "Server hostname" field, type the name of your mail server:
   
   
   • To access your Cyrus mail account, enter imap.iu.edu .
   • To access your Exchange account, enter imap.exchange.iu.edu .

   In the next field under "Port", select 143. For "SSL", choose STARTTLS; under "Authentication", select Normal password.

8. Next to "Outgoing:", under "Server hostname", type mail-relay.iu.edu . In the field under "Port", select 587. For "SSL", choose STARTTLS; under "Authentication", select Normal password.
   
   
9. Click Create Account.

Once you've created your account, the Account Settings sheet will appear. From here, you can customize your settings.

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Configuring Thunderbird 3

Note: If this is the first time you are configuring an account in Thunderbird, a Mail Account Setup window might appear. If it does, skip to step 3 and continue with the instructions.

1. In Thunderbird, from the Tools menu, select Account Settings... .
   
   
2. In the sheet that appears, click Account Actions, and then select Add Mail Account... .
   
   
3. In the next sheet, next to "Your name:", enter your name as you want it to appear in the "From:" field of your outgoing messages.
   
   
4. Next to "Email address:", type your Indiana University email address.

   If you are unsure of your exact IU email address, see At IU, what is my email address?

5. Next to "Password:", enter your IU passphrase. Click Continue.
   
   
6. In the next sheet, Thunderbird will attempt to guess your mail settings, but will fail. Click Stop.
   
   
7. Next to "Incoming:", type the name of your mail server:
   
   
   • To access your Cyrus mail account, enter imap.iu.edu .
   • To access your Exchange account, enter imap.exchange.iu.edu .
   
   In the pop-up menu next to the "Incoming:" field, make sure that IMAP is selected. In the next field, type 993 , and in the pop-up menu to the right of that, select SSL/TLS.
   
   
8. Next to "Outgoing:", type mail-relay.iu.edu . In the field to the right of that, type 465 , and in the pop-up menu to the right of that, select SSL/TLS.
   
   
9. Click Re-test Configuration; assuming it succeeds, click Create Account.

Once you've created your account, the Account Settings sheet will appear. From here, you can customize your settings.

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Subscribing to folders

1. Make sure Thunderbird can download messages from your Inbox (see the "Configuring Thunderbird" section for your version above), and then Ctrl-click the account name in the folder list and choose Subscribe... .
   
   
2. Check each folder you'd like to access, and then click Subscribe. (If you have subfolders, you will have to click the arrow next to the parent folder to view them.)
   
   
3. When you're finished, click OK at the bottom.

Note: If you have a Cyrus account, the folders will be listed under the Inbox; to see them, you may have to click the arrow to expand the folder list.

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