How do I set up Apple Mail for Lion or Mountain Lion?

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This page is obsolete.

It contains instructions for an old version of the Mac OS X "Mail" program that is not included with new Mac computers. Unless you have a Mac running the older "Lion" or "Mountain Lion" operating system, you probably want to read the current Apple Mail page instead.

Follow the instructions below to set up the Apple Mail program to send and receive email for a mailbox that you’ve created.

Before you continue, you should enter your email address (the address you want to set up in Mail) in the yellow box at the top of this page. Entering your email address makes sure that the instructions below are correct.

These instructions are for the version of Mail included with Mac OS X 10.8 “Mountain Lion” and Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion”. We have separate instructions for the older “Snow Leopard” operating system if you’re still using that.

1. Start the “Mail” program.

If you haven’t previously added an account to Mail, the window below may automatically appear:

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If you don’t see this window, click File, then Add Account:

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2. Enter your name, address and password.

Enter the settings shown below:

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Full Name:The name that other people will see when you send them mail, such as George Washington or Joan of Arc.
Email Address:Enter your email address. This must be the email address of the mailbox you created in our account management control panel.
Password:The email password you chose when you created this email address. Remember that your email password is not necessarily the same as your master account password.

Click Continue when finished.

You might see a window that says “The identity of ‘example.com’ cannot be verified” with options of “Show Certificate”, “Cancel”, and “Connect”. If Mail displays this window, simply choose Connect.

3. Enter the “Incoming Mail Server” settings.

Enter the settings shown below on the “Incoming Mail Server” screen:

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  • “Account Type” should be POP. (Our servers also support IMAP if you prefer it, which adds extra features like access to Webmail folders, but these instructions explain the simpler POP setup.)
  • “Description” should be your email address.
  • Enter mail.tigertech.net as the “Incoming Mail Server”.
  • Type your email address again as your “User Name”. The user name must be all lowercase.
  • The password should be already filled in from the previous screen.

Click Continue when finished.

4. Enter the “Outgoing Mail Server” settings.

The outgoing mail server settings will be almost identical to the incoming settings. Enter the settings shown below:

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  • Again, “Description” should be your email address.
  • Enter mail.tigertech.net as the “Outgoing Mail Server”.
  • Make sure the Use only this server checkbox is checked.
  • Make sure the Use Authentication checkbox is checked.
  • Type your email address again as your “User Name”. The user name must be all lowercase.
  • The password should be already filled in from the previous screen.

Click Continue when finished.

5. Review the “Account Summary”.

The account summary screen should look like this (except with your name, of course!):

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Verify that everything is correct, then press Create.

Setup is complete

You’re finished with the Apple Mail setup. It should now work for sending and receiving mail.

Checking for new mail

Mail will automatically check for new messages at regular intervals. You can make it immediately check for new messages by choosing Get All New Mail from the Mailbox menu.

If Get All New Mail doesn’t seem to work, make sure the account is “online”. To do this, choose Take All Accounts Online from the Mailbox menu.

Troubleshooting

If you’re having trouble with Apple Mail, try restarting your computer as a first step. If that doesn’t work, the Mail Connection Doctor can provide useful information that will help you (or us) troubleshoot the problem.