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Move your email from iCloud to FranklyMail

An app-specific password from account.apple.com, and one detail almost every guide gets wrong: iCloud wants just the name part of your address as the username, not the whole thing.

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Which password iCloud Mail wants

An app-specific password. Your Apple Account password will not work, and Apple will not let you create one until two-factor authentication is on the account.

Getting it, step by step.

Written against iCloud Mail's current screens — the words in quotes are the words on the buttons.

If you would rather skip the menus: https://account.apple.com opens the right screen directly, in whatever language your account is set to.

  1. 1

    Sign in to your Apple Account at account.apple.com.

  2. 2

    In the "Sign-In and Security" section, select "App-Specific Passwords".

  3. 3

    Select "Generate an app-specific password" and follow the steps on screen.

  4. 4

    Copy the password, then put imap.mail.me.com and port 993 into the import form.

    Now the part that catches people — see the username note below. It is not what you would expect.

What to put in the import form.

In the FranklyMail panel, open Mailboxes and find "Bring your old mail across".

imap.mail.me.com
IMAP server
imap.mail.me.com
Port
993 — TLS from the first byte.
Username
Your full address at iCloud Mail, not just the part before the @.
Password
An app-specific password, from the steps above.

For the technically curious: on 24 August 2026 this server answered AUTH=PLAIN, AUTH=ATOKEN, AUTH=ATOKEN2, AUTH=XOAUTH2 to a CAPABILITY command on port 993. That is what it accepts on the wire; which password it accepts from you is the separate question the section above answers.

What goes wrong with iCloud Mail.

  • The username is usually just the name part of your address. Apple’s own instruction is to enter johnappleseed rather than johnappleseed@icloud.com, and to try the full address only if that fails. This is the reverse of every other provider on this list, and it produces an authentication error that looks exactly like a wrong password.
  • Changing your Apple Account password revokes every app-specific password immediately. Do not change it during an import.
  • Mail sent to an iCloud+ custom domain lands in the same mailbox as your @icloud.com address, and there is no separate login for it. Sign in as the main account and the custom-domain mail comes across with everything else.
  • Aliases cannot sign in at all. Their mail is in the primary mailbox anyway, so there is nothing separate to import.
  • Apple allows 25 active app-specific passwords. If generation is refused, that is usually why — delete some old ones.

Then the part that is the same for everyone.

Getting the password is the only step that differs by provider. The order of the move, what does and does not come across, and the one decision that stops you ending up with two copies of every message are on the main migration page.

How the move works

Moving from somewhere else?

$9/yr, and your archive comes with you.

Unlimited mailboxes and aliases on your own domain, 10 GB pooled across the account, 30 days to change your mind.

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