Connecting a Mailbox

This guide walks you through connecting your email inbox (your "mailbox") to Warmerly. Once connected, Warmerly can send warm-up emails and outreach on your behalf, and check your inbox for replies.

There are three ways to connect a mailbox:

1. One-click sign-in — for Outlook.com, Hotmail and Microsoft 365. No settings to type in. Just sign in.
2. Gmail app password — for Gmail and Google Workspace. The server settings fill in by themselves; you paste one generated password.
3. Manual setup — for everything else, like Zoho Mail, Namecheap Private Email, or any other email provider.

One-click sign-in (Outlook, Microsoft 365)

If your mailbox is an Outlook.com or Hotmail address, or a Microsoft 365 work address, you can connect it in a few clicks. You don't need to find any settings, passwords, or codes.

1. Go to Accounts in your Warmerly dashboard and click Add.
2. Choose Microsoft 365 (work or school) or Outlook.com or Hotmail (personal).
3. A sign-in window will pop up. Log in with the email address you want to connect.
4. Approve the permissions Warmerly asks for. This is normal — it's how Warmerly is allowed to send and read email for you.
5. That's it. Your mailbox is connected.

This method is called OAuth. In plain terms, it just means you're signing in directly with Microsoft, and they hand Warmerly a secure permission slip instead of your password. Warmerly never sees or stores your actual password.

If you don't see your mailbox as connected after signing in, try again and make sure you clicked "Allow" or "Accept" on every permission screen. If it still doesn't work, you can always fall back to manual setup below using an app password (explained further down).

Gmail and Google Workspace (app password)

Gmail and Google Workspace connect with a Google app password: a separate password Google generates just for this connection. It is not your normal Google password, and you can revoke it from your Google account at any time without changing anything else.

1. Turn on 2-Step Verification on your Google account if it isn't on already. Google only offers app passwords once it is.
2. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords, give the password a name (for example "Warmerly"), and copy the 16-character password Google shows you.
3. In Warmerly, go to Accounts → Add and choose Gmail or Google Workspace.
4. Enter your email address and paste the app password. The server settings are filled in for you.
5. Click Test connection, then save.

Google Workspace: "The setting you are looking for is not available for your account"

On a Google Workspace user (a mailbox on your company's own domain), the app passwords page often says "The setting you are looking for is not available for your account" or "Your account doesn't support the setting you're trying". Almost always, that account does not have 2-Step Verification on yet — and on Workspace, the admin has to allow it first. If you manage the Workspace yourself, you can fix it in a few minutes:

1. Sign in to admin.google.com with an admin account.
2. Go to Security → Authentication → 2-Step Verification.
3. Tick Allow users to turn on 2-Step Verification. Under Methods, choose Any — not "Only security key", which also blocks app passwords. Save. It usually applies within minutes, but Google says it can take up to 24 hours.
4. Sign in as the mailbox user, open myaccount.google.com/security and turn on 2-Step Verification (a phone or Google Authenticator is fine).
5. Open myaccount.google.com/apppasswords again — you can now create the app password.

Still not available after that? The account may be enrolled in Google's Advanced Protection Program (which disables app passwords), or it may be in an organizational unit where 2-Step Verification is restricted — check the setting on that user's org unit in the Admin console. If you don't run the Workspace, forward these steps to your admin.

Every mailbox user needs its own app password: Google has no bulk option for them, and Warmerly does not currently support Google's domain-wide delegation for connecting a whole Workspace in one step.

Warmerly stores the app password encrypted. To cut the connection from Google's side, delete the app password at the same address.

Manual setup (Zoho Mail, Namecheap Private Email, or any other provider)

If your email provider isn't Gmail or Outlook, you'll connect it by typing in your mail server settings yourself. This sounds technical, but it's really just filling in a form with a few values that are almost always the same for a given provider.

What SMTP and IMAP mean

Warmerly needs two pieces of information to work with your mailbox:

• SMTP is the setting that lets Warmerly send email from your address. Think of it as the "outgoing mail" setting.
• IMAP is the setting that lets Warmerly read your inbox, so it can see replies and track your warm-up activity. Think of it as the "incoming mail" setting.

Warmerly needs both. Sending without reading means Warmerly couldn't see replies. Reading without sending means Warmerly couldn't actually warm up or send outreach from your address. That's why the manual setup form asks for both an SMTP host/port and an IMAP host/port.

A "host" is just the address of your email provider's mail server (something like smtp.zoho.com), and a "port" is a number that tells the connection which door to use on that server (like 465 or 993). You don't need to understand why these numbers are what they are — just copy them in correctly.

Host and port settings for common providers

If your provider isn't listed here, don't worry. Almost every email provider publishes these settings on their support site. Search "[your provider name] SMTP IMAP settings" (for example, "Bluehost SMTP IMAP settings") and you'll usually find the exact host and port to use within the first result or two.

"My IMAP login is different from SMTP" checkbox

On the manual setup form, you'll see a checkbox labeled "My IMAP login is different from SMTP." For most people, you can leave this unchecked, because most providers let you use the same email address and password for both sending and reading mail.

Some providers — especially business or enterprise email systems — issue a separate username or a separate app-specific password just for reading mail (IMAP), different from the one used for sending (SMTP). If your provider does this, check the box. A second set of login fields will appear so you can enter the IMAP-specific username and password separately.

If you're not sure whether your provider does this, try leaving the box unchecked first. The Test connection button (see below) will tell you right away if the IMAP login needs to be separate.

App passwords for Outlook (if setting up manually)

Most people should use one-click sign-in for Outlook and Microsoft 365. If you have a reason to set one up manually instead, Microsoft usually blocks your normal account password from being used this way, and you'll need a special app password — a generated password just for this connection. (Gmail always works this way — see the Gmail section above.)

• Outlook / Microsoft 365: Go to account.microsoft.com/security and look for the option to create an app password. Use that generated password in the Warmerly form instead of your normal Microsoft password.

Keep this app password somewhere safe. You can always come back and generate a new one if you lose it.

Test your connection before saving

Before you save your mailbox settings, click the Test connection button on the setup form. Warmerly will try both the SMTP (sending) and IMAP (reading) settings right away.

• If both succeed, you'll see a confirmation and you're ready to save.
• If one fails, Warmerly will tell you exactly which one — SMTP or IMAP — so you know which host, port, or password to double-check, instead of guessing.

Always run Test connection before saving. It only takes a few seconds, and it saves you from finding out something's wrong later when your emails silently fail to send or Warmerly can't see your replies.

Microsoft 365: "authentication unsuccessful" after a successful reconnect

If Microsoft says the connection succeeded but Warmerly still reports a sending authentication error (SMTP 535 5.7.3), it is almost never a password problem — a mailbox connected with one-click has no password. There are three usual causes.

1. The sign-in address isn't the mailbox address

Warmerly sends over SMTP and IMAP (not Microsoft Graph), and Microsoft checks the username against the mailbox's primary SMTP address. That address is allowed to differ from the address you sign in to Microsoft with — for example signing in as jwilson@contoso.onmicrosoft.com for a mailbox that receives as jake.wilson@contoso.com. If the two differ, Microsoft rejects the login.

Reconnecting the mailbox reads the correct address straight from Microsoft and updates it. If you'd rather set it yourself, open the mailbox → Settings → Mailbox login (advanced) and put the mailbox's primary SMTP address in the SMTP and IMAP username fields.

2. Authenticated SMTP is switched off

Microsoft reports this as 535 5.7.139 ... SmtpClientAuthentication is disabled for the Tenant. It is not a credential problem — SMTP AUTH is off by default on tenants created since 2020, and it blocks sending for every app, not just Warmerly. Receiving replies over IMAP is governed separately and usually keeps working. An admin can An admin can re-enable it for the mailbox in the Microsoft 365 admin centre → Users → Active users → select the user → Mail → Manage email apps → Authenticated SMTP. If the organisation has disabled it tenant-wide, it also has to be turned on for the tenant (see Microsoft's guide at aka.ms/smtp_auth_disabled). A Conditional Access policy or security defaults blocking legacy authentication will do the same thing.

3. Sending from an alias or a shared mailbox

Supported — set the SMTP/IMAP username under Settings → Mailbox login (advanced) to that address. The account you connected needs Send As permission (for sending) or Full Access (for reading replies) on the mailbox in Exchange; without it Microsoft returns the same error.

Getting the exact error

Open the mailbox and click Test connection. Warmerly shows the plain-language reason and the raw response from the mail server, including the exact SMTP code — which is what support needs if none of the above fixes it.