IMAP & POP mailboxes

Turn an address on your domain into a full mailbox you can open in Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or your phone over IMAP or POP.

The Inbox reads incoming mail inside the dashboard. If you want to read and send from a real mail client instead (Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, the Mail app on your phone), Taifa Mail can turn an address on your domain into a full mailbox you connect to over IMAP or POP, with outgoing mail sent over SMTP. Incoming mail still shows in the Taifa Mail inbox as an archive copy, so nothing is lost.

The one setting block you need

Every mailbox uses the exact same servers. Only the username and password change per mailbox.

Setting	Incoming (IMAP)	Incoming (POP)	Outgoing (SMTP)
Server	`mx.axene.io`	`mx.axene.io`	`mx.axene.io`
Port	`993`	`995`	`587` (or `465`)
Security	SSL / TLS	SSL / TLS	STARTTLS on 587, SSL on 465
Username	the full address, e.g. `hello@yourdomain.co.ke`	same	same
Password	the mailbox password (below)	same	same

Use IMAP (993) unless you have a specific reason not to: it keeps mail on the server and in sync across every device. POP (995) downloads and is single-device. Both work.

Step 1: Get the mailbox and its password

Mailboxes are provisioned per address. There are two ways to create one.

From the Taifa Mail team / your admin

If Taifa Mail set your domain up, ask for a mailbox on the address you want (for example hello@yourdomain.co.ke). You will be given the address and a password that is shown only once. Store it in your password manager immediately.

Provision it yourself

If you manage the domain, open it in the dashboard, find Mailbox & IMAP, and click Provision mailbox:

Pick the address (the part before @) and, if prompted, the organisation it belongs to.
Click Create mailbox.
The connection panel appears with the server settings above and a one-time password. Copy the password now: it cannot be shown again. If you lose it, generate a new one and the old one stops working.

The mailbox password is separate from your Taifa Mail login and from any SMTP credential. It is only for this mailbox, in a mail client.

Step 2: Add the account in your mail client

The wizard in every client asks for the same values from the table above. Pick IMAP (not Exchange or the app's own service) when asked for the account type.

Outlook (classic desktop)

File -> Add Account -> Advanced options -> Let me set up my account manually -> IMAP.
Incoming: mx.axene.io, port 993, SSL. Outgoing: mx.axene.io, port 587, STARTTLS.
Username is the full address; password is the mailbox password. Finish.

New Outlook (Windows) and Outlook on the web do not offer a manual IMAP setup and will not add an Taifa Mail mailbox. Use classic Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or your phone instead. Modern Outlook only accepts its own Microsoft accounts.

Apple Mail (Mac) and iPhone / iPad

Mail -> Settings -> Accounts -> Add Account -> Other -> Add Mail Account (on iPhone: Settings -> Mail -> Accounts -> Add Account -> Other).
Enter your name, the full address, and the mailbox password.
Choose IMAP. Incoming and outgoing host are both mx.axene.io; username is the full address; password is the mailbox password. Apple fills the ports automatically.

Thunderbird

Account Settings -> Account Actions -> Add Mail Account.
Enter name, address, password, then Configure manually.
Incoming IMAP mx.axene.io 993 SSL/TLS; Outgoing SMTP mx.axene.io 587 STARTTLS; authentication Normal password; username the full address. Re-test and Done.

Android (Gmail app or any mail app)

Add account -> Other / Personal (IMAP), enter the address and mailbox password, then set both servers to mx.axene.io (incoming 993 SSL, outgoing 587 STARTTLS).

Sending: which server to use

Your mailbox sends through mx.axene.io:587, signed correctly for your domain, so it works out of the box in the clients above. If you already send transactional or campaign mail through Taifa Mail Mailer, that continues to use mail.govconnect.ke with your SMTP credential or the API. Both paths sign with the DKIM key you already published, so either is safe.

What lands where

A message to your mailbox address arrives in up to three places, by design:

Your mail client, over IMAP or POP (the mailbox).
The Taifa Mail inbox in the dashboard, as a read-only archive copy.
A forwarding address (for example your Gmail), if you set up a forwarding rule for that address.

Read state does not sync between the Taifa Mail inbox archive and your mail client: treat the mail client as your primary mailbox and the dashboard inbox as a searchable archive.

Troubleshooting

"Cannot verify server identity" / certificate warning. The server must be mx.axene.io exactly: the certificate is issued for that host, so any other name fails the check. Do not use mail.govconnect.ke for the mailbox (that host is the sending relay, with a different certificate).

"Password incorrect" / login fails. Use the mailbox password (shown once at creation), not your Taifa Mail login and not an SMTP credential. If it was lost, generate a new mailbox password and update the client.

Outlook will not let me add the account. You are on new Outlook or Outlook web, which has no manual IMAP option. Switch to classic Outlook or another client (see the note above).

The account adds but no mail appears. New mail lands in the mailbox within a few seconds of delivery. Hit send/receive or pull to refresh. If a whole domain receives nothing, confirm its MX points at Taifa Mail (see Inbox overview).