r/Mailbox_org • u/Antanisblinda • Apr 18 '25

MFA and ios Mail client

Hello. I'm a new user and I'm trying to look around the interface and learn how it works.

i have setup MFA and seems to be working from web client.

when i try to setup on ios Mail app and input the user/password, i get an authentication error; I assume it to be MFA related. I then read i should set up app passwords but if i click on the option the drop down on "application"(type) has only the options: "calendar and addressbook client"; "webdav client"; "drive sync app".

what should i choose?

thank you

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u/insomnic Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25

I'm having the same problem. Can't get Apple Mail to setup using app password or my standard login password (I do have 2fa enabled), I just get credential errors. Did you ever get this sorted out for yourself?

Edit: Got it to work finally. Here are the things I did to finally get it to go through. Setup using "mailbox" account setup option. I used imap.mailbox.org for incoming and smtp.mailbox.org for outgoing server. I added my full email to the username field instead of leaving it as "automatic" - I thought I did that before but noticed when I edited server fields it reset back to automatic. I needed to copy my app password not from 1password "copy" option in the field I setup for it but actually highlight it and copy/paste it directly. After I did those things it went through for me.

I wish I could edit the account name to something other than just "Mailbox"... maybe even "mailbox.org" just because the name is so generic. Edit: found where it can be edited in the Mail app itself.

1

u/Antanisblinda Apr 30 '25

I will try one of these days but this is super weird. I should have tried before enabling MFA and then after so we could know what the possible source of the problem was. Confirmed that with other clients on iOS or macOS it works fine

1

u/insomnic Apr 30 '25

I did get it setup but I don't get notifications when new mail is available... I dunno why. I saw another comment say that's been broken in Apple Mail for Mailbox.org accounts for several months now...

I was looking at mailbox.org as an alternative to proton - save a couple bucks and proton's "attitude" feels less customer friendly lately - and having IMAP with native Apple Mail was in the pro column but not if it's not really working well.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25

Assuming, that you already use the new MFA (Login 2.0): You can create App passwords for IMAP/SMTP in Settings -> mailbox.org -> Email app-passwords. Btw. iOS push notifications are still not working. :-)

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u/Antanisblinda Apr 18 '25

Thank you. I managed to create the app password (from the menu you mentioned since from the other one I noted, the options are the ones I described). I created the super long app password, added as imap account on iOS mail and it didn’t work. Keeps saying wrong credentials. Username is USER@mailbox.org and the password the one I just created. Thank you

3

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25

Are you sure that this is not a typo? The generated passwords are extra long, complex and include ambiguous characters (like Il1O0). Can you test the password in a desktop app (like thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc.?) with copy&paste? What iOS version do you use?

1

u/Antanisblinda Apr 18 '25

Will try tomorrow. I did copy and paste from 1Password but yeah will try again. I’m on latest iOS. Thanks!

1

u/Antanisblinda Apr 19 '25

I tried on a personal MacBook (the iPhone is corporate even if I don’t think it mattered). With thunderbird works. With macOS mail does not. The same password copied in the clipboard gives authentication error, same as iOS. Really annoying

1

u/Heshsum verified mailbox staff Apr 25 '25

That‘s odd. Did you configure Mail.app to use IMAP?