How to Set Up Email on Android

This guide shows you how to add your domain email address, sometimes called a mailbox or email account, to the Gmail app on an Android phone or tablet. The Gmail app is the default mail app on most Android devices, so you do not need to install anything extra. By the end you will be able to send and receive mail for an address such as [email protected] directly from your phone, alongside any Gmail addresses you already use in the app. The setup uses IMAP, which keeps your mail synchronised between your phone, webmail, and any other devices.

Google's own documentation describes the Gmail app in general. What it cannot tell you is what the screens look like when the mailbox is hosted at Noiz, which values to type, which of the choices on those screens are effectively permanent, and how to prove afterwards that both halves of the connection actually work. That local detail is what this guide adds.

Note on which app to use. Many Android phones ship with a second mail app beside Gmail, usually called simply Email and supplied by the handset manufacturer. Its setup screens use different wording and it stores its settings separately, so following these steps in that app will not work. The steps below are for the Gmail app, because it is the one Google maintains on every Android device and the one Noiz support can talk you through reliably. If your phone shows two mail apps, use Gmail and ignore the other.

Last reviewed: 27 July 2026, against the current Gmail for Android release. This guide is written for Noiz hosting and is kept current against the Gmail app. It complements, and does not replace, the official Google documentation linked below. Google updates the Gmail app silently and often, so the wording of a button or the order of two screens can move between releases. The values you enter do not change when the layout does, so work from the settings in Step 1 rather than from the exact position of a field on screen.

Official Documentation Reference

• Add another email account in the Gmail app (Android): Google's reference for both the automatic and the manual IMAP setup used in this guide.
• Gmail on Google Play: install or update the Gmail app before you start.
• Fix sync errors with the Gmail app (Android): what to try when an account connects but stops fetching mail.
• Get the most life from your Android device's battery (Android Help): the battery restrictions that can silently stop background mail sync.

Prerequisites

• An existing mailbox on your Noiz hosting plan. A mail app can only connect to a mailbox that already exists on the server, so create it first if you have not: see How to Create an Email Address in Plesk, How to Create an Email Account in cPanel, How to Create an Email Account in DirectAdmin or How to Create an Email Mailbox in ISPConfig, depending on the control panel that came with your package.
• The full email address and its password.
• Your mail server name, which is included in your Noiz welcome email.
• An Android phone or tablet with the Gmail app installed, updated, and connected to the internet.

Before You Start: Two Choices That Are Hard to Undo

The Gmail setup screens present two decisions without explaining what either one costs you later. Both are worth thirty seconds of thought now, because changing your mind afterwards means deleting the account from the phone and starting again.

IMAP, Not POP3

When the app asks what type of account this is, it offers Personal (IMAP) and Personal (POP3). Choose Personal (IMAP).

• IMAP keeps the mail on the Noiz mail server and mirrors it to the phone. Folders, read and unread status, and deletions stay in step across your phone, your computer and webmail.
• POP3 downloads mail to the phone and, on the usual default, removes it from the server. Anything the phone collects while you are out is then missing from webmail and from your laptop, and it exists only in that one handset. If the handset is lost, so is the mail.

A POP3 account on a phone is a frequent explanation behind a report that mail has "disappeared from webmail", because the handset has quietly collected it and taken it off the server. There is no switch inside the Gmail app that converts a POP3 account to IMAP afterwards: you have to remove the account and add it again, which is covered under If You Need to Start Over below.

Which Mail Hostname to Use

The hostname mail.yourdomain.com only resolves once your domain's DNS is pointing at the Noiz nameservers, ns1.noiz.co.za and ns2.noiz.co.za. That matters in two situations:

• You have just moved the domain to Noiz. Until the change has propagated, mail.yourdomain.com may still be answering from your previous host, and the phone will happily connect to the old provider's empty mailbox. Use the server hostname given in your Noiz welcome email until the domain has fully moved, then switch to mail.yourdomain.com.
• Your website is behind a proxy or CDN. If mail.yourdomain.com has been pointed at a proxy along with the website, the mail ports will not answer. Use the hostname from your welcome email instead, and ask Noiz support to check the record.

If you cannot find your welcome email, the mail hostname for your package is also shown in the Noiz client area and in the control panel that came with your plan. Do not guess it, and do not copy it from an old device that has not connected in months.

Step 1: Gather Your Mail Settings

Have the following details ready before you start. Everywhere you see yourdomain.com below, replace it with your own domain name, because it is an example placeholder and not a real value.

• Username: your full email address, for example [email protected]
• Password: the mailbox password you chose when the mailbox was created
• Incoming (IMAP) server: mail.yourdomain.com, port 993, security SSL/TLS
• Outgoing (SMTP) server: mail.yourdomain.com, port 465, security SSL/TLS (port 587 with STARTTLS also works)

The Gmail app chooses secure ports automatically in most cases, so you may never be asked for them. If the app does prompt you for a port or security type, use the values above. If your welcome email lists a different server name, use that instead of mail.yourdomain.com.

Two points about these values are specific to Noiz and worth knowing before a setting looks broken to you:

• Encryption is not optional. Noiz mail servers accept IMAP and SMTP only over an encrypted connection negotiating TLS 1.2 or higher. There is no unencrypted fallback on port 143 or plain 25 to drop back to, so if a screen offers a security type of None, that setting will simply fail rather than working less securely. The background to this is in Why Some Email Apps Stop Working After a Mail Security Upgrade.
• Outgoing mail must authenticate. Port 25 is reserved for server-to-server delivery and will not relay mail from your phone. Sending always goes out on 465 or 587 with your full email address and password supplied, which is why the app asks for the credentials twice.

Step 2: Add the Account in the Gmail App

These steps follow the official Google procedure for a manual IMAP setup.

Open the Account Menu

1. Open the Gmail app on your Android device.
2. At the top right, in the search bar, tap your profile icon (your photo or initial).
3. Tap Add another account.

Choose the Account Type

1. On the Set up email screen, tap Other. Do not choose Google, Outlook, or Yahoo, because those options are only for accounts hosted with that provider.
2. Enter your full email address, for example [email protected], then tap Next.
3. When asked what kind of account this is, select Personal (IMAP).
4. Enter your mailbox password, then tap Next.

A Noiz-hosted mailbox at your own domain is always an Other account, even if you also use Gmail personally, and even if your domain's mail once passed through Google in the past. Tapping Google here starts a Google sign-in that your mailbox password will not satisfy, and the failure message it returns does not make the cause obvious.

Confirm the Server Settings

The app now tries to detect your server settings automatically. If it shows the server screens, check each one against the values from Step 1.

1. On the Incoming server settings screen, confirm the Username is your full email address, the Password is correct, and the Server is mail.yourdomain.com (using your own domain). Tap Next.
2. On the Outgoing server settings screen, leave Require sign-in switched on, confirm the same username and password, and set the SMTP server to mail.yourdomain.com. Tap Next.

Two things commonly go wrong on these two screens:

• The app skips them entirely. If detection succeeds, Gmail moves straight to the account options and you never see the server fields. That is fine, but it also means you have not seen what it chose. Check the values afterwards under Settings, your account, Incoming settings and Outgoing settings, and correct the hostname there if detection picked up a stale record from a previous host.
• The app pauses on "Checking incoming server settings" and then fails. Nine times out of ten the username has been shortened to the part before the @. Noiz mail servers authenticate on the whole address, so you will be rejected where [email protected] succeeds, with the same password.

Finish the Setup

1. On the Account options screen, choose how often the app checks for mail (Sync frequency) and whether to notify you when email arrives, then tap Next.
2. Give the account a name if you want one (this is only a label shown inside the app), and enter Your name as you want it to appear on outgoing messages. Tap Next to finish.

The name you type in Your name is the display name every recipient sees beside your address, so it is worth a moment's thought on a business mailbox. Use the person's full name for a personal address, or the business name for a shared address such as [email protected]. The Account name above it is private to the phone and only exists to help you tell accounts apart in the switcher, so something short like "Work" is ideal when you have several mailboxes on the same device.

Step 3: Check That It Works

An account that appears in the switcher is not proof of a working setup. Incoming and outgoing mail are two separate connections with separate credentials, and it is entirely normal for one to work while the other quietly fails. The round trip below tests both, and tells you which half is at fault if it does not complete.

Run a Round-Trip Test

1. Tap your profile icon at the top right and select your new address to switch to its inbox.
2. Tap Compose and, before typing anything, check the From field at the top of the message. If you have several accounts on the device, Gmail composes from whichever one you last used, not necessarily the one whose inbox you are looking at. Tap the From line and pick your domain address if it shows anything else.
3. Send the message to an address you control at a different provider, not to another mailbox on the same domain. Mail between two mailboxes on the same server never leaves it, so it proves far less than an external round trip.
4. Reply to that message from the other provider.
5. Confirm the reply arrives in the Gmail app within a few minutes.

Read the Result

What happens tells you exactly where to look:

• Both directions work. The setup is complete and correct. Move on to the folder check below.
• The test message never leaves the phone, or an error appears when sending. Outgoing is the problem. Check the SMTP hostname, the port, and that Require sign-in is switched on with the full address as the username.
• Sending works but the reply never arrives. Incoming is the problem, or sync has been suspended in the background. Swipe down in the inbox to force a check before assuming the worst.
• The reply arrives, but your original landed in the recipient's spam folder. Nothing is wrong with the phone. That is a domain reputation and DNS matter, and it is fixed on the domain rather than on the device: see How to Protect Your Domain from Spoofing and Improve Email Deliverability.

Confirm the Phone Is Writing to the Server

One last check catches a setup that looks healthy but is not properly synchronised. Open your mailbox in webmail on a computer, using Plesk webmail or the webmail that comes with your package, and look in the Sent folder for the test message you sent from the phone.

• It is there. The account is genuinely on IMAP and the phone is storing sent mail on the server, so every device sees the same history.
• It is missing. The phone is keeping sent mail to itself, which usually means the account was added as POP3 rather than IMAP. Remove it and add it again, choosing Personal (IMAP) this time.

Where Your Sent and Deleted Mail Goes

On an IMAP account the folders you see on the phone are the folders on the Noiz mail server, so an action on the handset is an action on the server. That has three practical consequences worth knowing at setup time rather than discovering later.

• Deleting on the phone deletes everywhere. A message you remove on the train is gone from webmail and from your laptop too. That is the correct behaviour for IMAP and it is why the mailbox stays consistent, but it does surprise people arriving from a POP3 setup where the phone had its own private copy.
• Deleted mail still uses your quota. Deleting moves the message to the server's Trash folder, where it continues to occupy space against the mailbox quota set in your control panel until the Trash is emptied. If you are close to your quota and deleting messages has not helped, the Trash is almost always where the space has gone. Empty it from webmail or from the phone.
• The Gmail app maps the server folders for you. Unlike desktop clients, the Gmail app does not expose controls for choosing which server folder holds sent mail, drafts and deleted mail. It picks them automatically. That works fine in normal use, but if you ever find sent mail appearing in two folders in webmail, or a folder named for a previous mail provider still hanging around, that is a leftover on the server rather than a phone fault, and Noiz support can tidy it up for you.

Reading, replying, composing, deleting and tidying mail day to day are covered in How to Read Email on Android, which picks up where this guide finishes.

If You Need to Start Over

If you chose POP3 by mistake, typed the wrong hostname into an account that then would not connect, or want to move a mailbox to a different phone, the cleanest fix is to remove the account and add it again. Removing an account added through Other takes the mailbox off the device only. It does not delete the mailbox, and nothing on the server is affected.

1. In the Gmail app, tap your profile icon, then Manage accounts on this device.
2. Select the address you want to remove, then choose Remove account. Android will ask you to confirm.
3. Any mail still waiting in the account's outbox on that phone goes with it, so send or copy out anything unsent first.
4. Work through Step 2 again from a clean start.

Troubleshooting

• "Username or password incorrect" or sign-in fails: the username must be the full email address, not just the part before the @. Retype the password carefully. If it still fails, reset the mailbox password in your hosting control panel and try again with the new one.
• A certificate or security warning appears: this usually means the server name does not match the certificate. Double-check the server name against your Noiz welcome email. Never set the security type to None to silence the warning, as that would send your password unencrypted.
• Mail arrives but sending fails: open the outgoing server settings and confirm Require sign-in is on with the same username and password as incoming mail. If the port is set to 25, change it to 465 with SSL/TLS, because many mobile networks block port 25.
• No notifications for new mail: in the Gmail app, tap your profile icon, then Manage accounts on this device, select the account, and check its sync and notification settings. Also make sure your phone's battery saver is not restricting the Gmail app in the background.
• The Other option is missing: update the Gmail app from Google Play, then reopen it and try again. Very old versions of the app use a different setup flow.
• Mail only arrives when you open the app: the handset is suspending Gmail in the background to save power, which many Android manufacturers do far more aggressively than stock Android. Open the phone's Settings, then Apps, then Gmail, then Battery, and set it to Unrestricted. Some devices also keep a separate power-saving or "sleeping apps" list that Gmail must be removed from.
• Gmail keeps asking for the password after you changed it: the app stores the password twice, once for incoming and once for outgoing, and updating one prompt does not update the other. Go to Settings, tap the account, and set the new password under both Incoming settings and Outgoing settings. If the panel password was reset, see How to Change Email Account Password in Plesk for where it is set.
• The account connects on Wi-Fi but not on mobile data, or the other way round: this is the network blocking mail ports rather than a settings fault. Test the same account on a different connection to confirm, then use port 587 with STARTTLS for outgoing mail, which is blocked less often than 465 on restrictive networks.
• Everything was working and has now stopped for every device, not just the phone: the fault is not in the Android setup. Work through Why Is My Email Not Working? An Email Troubleshooting Guide, which covers the domain-wide and server-side causes.

Next Steps

• How to Read Email on Android: reading and composing messages, switching accounts, combining inboxes, notifications, and deleting mail.
• How to Access Email from Plesk Webmail: the browser view of the same mailbox, useful for checking what the server actually holds.
• How to Set Up Email on iPhone or iPad: the same mailbox on an Apple device, using the same settings.

If you get stuck at any point, open a support ticket with the Noiz support team. Include the email address you are trying to add and a screenshot of any error message, and a technician will check the mailbox and server settings for you.