Set up FranklyMail on iPhone or iPad
This adds a FranklyMail mailbox to the built-in Mail app on iOS or iPadOS. Unlike a Gmail or iCloud account, there’s no single button for it — you’re adding a generic mail account and telling iOS where the server is, which is a longer form but not a harder one.
Along the way you’ll set up two separate connections: IMAP for receiving, which keeps your phone, your laptop and the browser all showing the same folders instead of each downloading its own copy, and SMTP for sending. iOS asks for both in the same screen, which is where the one real trap in this guide is.
Before you start.
Two things, and both come from the FranklyMail panel rather than from iPhone or iPad itself.
- The mailbox's address, for example you@yourdomain.com.
- The mailbox password — or an app password from Settings in the FranklyMail panel. Not your FranklyMail account sign-in password.
Step by step.
Written against iPhone or iPad's current screens — the label on the button is the label you'll actually see.
- 1
Open Settings → Apps → Mail → Mail Accounts → Add Account. On iOS 17 and earlier, that’s Settings → Mail → Accounts → Add Account instead — same screen, different path to it.
- 2
Tap Other, then Add Mail Account.
- 3
Enter your name, the mailbox address, the password, and any description you’d like for the account (this is just a label you’ll see in Mail, not a setting the server cares about). Tap Next.
- 4
On the next screen, leave IMAP selected at the top — it’s the default, and it’s the right one.
- 5
Under Incoming Mail Server, fill in Host Name (mx1.franklymail.com), User Name (the full address), and Password.
- 6
Under Outgoing Mail Server, fill in the same three: Host Name (mx1.franklymail.com), User Name, and Password.
iOS labels the outgoing user name and password as optional. They’re not — a blank one is accepted here and only fails later, the first time you try to send, with no obvious link back to this screen.
- 7
Tap Next, then Save.
iOS verifies both servers itself and chooses ports 993 and 465 over SSL without asking — there’s no port field to fill in on this form.
The settings, if iPhone or iPad asks for them directly.
Everything above written out as a table, in case the steps skip ahead of what your screen is showing.
mx1.franklymail.com- Incoming
- IMAP, port 993, SSL/TLS
- Outgoing
- SMTP, port 465, SSL/TLS
- Username
- The full mailbox address — not just the part before the @.
- Password
- The mailbox's own password, or an app password from Settings. Never the password you sign in to the FranklyMail panel with — that's a different credential and every client in this guide will reject it.
The same host also serves POP3 on port 995, which some older clients ask for instead. POP3 removes mail from the server as it downloads, so only the first device to check ever sees a message — IMAP is the right choice unless you have a specific reason to want that.
If it doesn't work.
- Mail can’t verify the account and won’t let you save.
- Re-check the host name in both the Incoming and Outgoing blocks — it’s easy to fill in one and leave the other on a placeholder. Both need the same host.
- The account saved, but sending fails with "Cannot Send Mail" days or weeks later.
- This is almost always the optional-looking outgoing user name or password from step 6, left blank. Go to Settings → Mail → Accounts, open the account, tap SMTP under Outgoing Mail Server, and fill in the primary server’s user name and password.
- Mail arrives, but read on other devices, it doesn’t show as read here (or the reverse).
- That’s IMAP working as intended, not a fault — all your devices are looking at the same server-side folders, so a change on one shows up on the others once each has synced.
- Still stuck.
- Email hello@franklymail.com with the exact wording of whatever error iOS showed. A screenshot is fine — the precise message narrows this down fast.
Other clients
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