Connect a mailbox (IMAP/SMTP)

The Email widget talks to your mailbox directly over IMAP and SMTP. Here is how to set one up.

Before you start: use an app password

Do not use your normal email password. Every major provider now issues app-specific passwords: a separate password created for one application, which you can revoke on its own without changing anything else.

Divergify validates the password once, then stores it encrypted on our server (AES-256-GCM) — never in your browser. It is needed on the server because that is where the connection to your mail provider is made.

Setting it up

1. Press Set up account on the Email tile.
2. Pick your provider under Quick setup if it is listed — that fills in the servers, ports and SSL for you.
3. Fill in Display name (what recipients see), Email address and the app password.
4. Check the Incoming (IMAP) and Outgoing (SMTP) sections: server name, port, and Use SSL/TLS.
5. Press Connect.

If it works, your inbox appears. If not, the error tells you which part failed — see below.

Gmail

Gmail needs an app password, and app passwords do not exist without two-step verification:

1. Turn on 2-Step Verification in your Google Account.
2. Create an app password and choose Mail as the app.
3. Paste it with no spaces. Google shows it in groups of four; it goes in as one block.

Gmail's servers are imap.gmail.com (port 993, SSL) and smtp.gmail.com (port 465, SSL). The quick setup fills these in.

Divergify never asks for Gmail API access. Mail is read over plain IMAP, exactly like any desktop mail client — no Google permission screen for your inbox, and nothing about your mail passes through a Google integration.

Your signature

In the account settings there is a Signature field. Whatever you put there is inserted above the quoted text every time you write, reply or forward. Leave it empty for none.

When it will not connect

The error message is specific on purpose — read which one you got:

• "Login failed. Check your email and app password." — the server was reached, the credentials were rejected. Almost always a normal password used instead of an app password, or spaces pasted along with it.
• "Couldn't reach that mail server." — your password is not the problem. Check the server name and the port.
• "Couldn't connect. Check the host, port and SSL settings." — usually SSL/TLS on when it should be off, or the wrong port for the security setting.
• "Your session expired." — sign in to Divergify again, then reconnect.
• "This tab is running an older version." — reload with Ctrl+Shift+R (Cmd+Shift+R). Your settings are fine.
• "Email isn't set up on our side yet." — a server-side configuration gap, not something you can fix. We are notified automatically.

Disconnecting

Disconnect in the account settings removes the stored credentials from our server. The tile goes back to "Not configured", and nothing of that mailbox is kept.

Removing the widget from the board is different — that keeps the account, so putting the tile back reconnects it. That is what makes the removal's Undo meaningful.