Help / Single account user guide

Single account user guide

This guide is for people who have one mailbox and do not look after a domain. If you have not read it yet, start with the General introduction.

Logging in

Open Mail Admin in your web browser.
Enter your full email address and your mailbox password.
Click Log in. The Dashboard opens and shows your address and your account type (individual).

Changing your password

In the menu, under Account, click My Account.
A password is suggested in New password: keep it (click New suggestion for another) or type your own. It must be at least 8 characters.
Click Update password.
Confirm the change. We send a link to your recovery email, or to this mailbox if you haven't set one up. Open it within 15 minutes and click Confirm.

Your old password keeps working until you confirm. If you get a confirmation link you didn't ask for, click Cancel on the linked page and tell your domain administrator. You can also cancel a waiting change on My Account.

Once confirmed, the new password applies to your email too. Update it in every email program and phone that uses this mailbox. Until you do, they will show a password error.

Two-step login and password recovery

On My Account, you can add a recovery email (a different address from your mailbox). With one saved, you can reset a forgotten password yourself (see below). Codes can't be sent by text message yet, so the mobile number box reads Not yet activated.

Two-step login is off until you, or your administrator, turn it on. There are two ways to get its codes: an authenticator app on your phone (see below), or a code we email to your recovery email. Setting up an app turns two-step login on. To use emailed codes instead, tick Two-step login on My Account and click Save (you need a recovery email first). When it's on:

After your password, enter the 6-digit code. With an app, open it and type the code it shows for this account. Without one, we email a code to your recovery email; it expires after 15 minutes, and if none arrives, click Send a new code (at most one a minute).
After 5 wrong codes, logging in has to wait 15 minutes.
No code is needed from your last 3 login addresses. My Account lists the internet addresses (IP addresses) of your last 3 logins, and logging in from one of those skips the code. If you see an address you don't recognise, change your password and click Clear this list.

To turn two-step login off, untick the box and save. Clearing the recovery email also turns it off, unless you have an authenticator app.

Authenticator app

An authenticator app shows a new 6-digit code every 30 seconds, and works without phone signal. Any of them works: Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, 1Password, Authy and so on. To set one up:

On My Account, click Set up an authenticator app.
In the app, add an account and scan the QR code. On the phone itself, tap open it in the app instead, or type in the key shown (choose time-based).
Type the code the app now shows and click Finish setting up. Two-step login is now on.

If you are without your phone when logging in, click I don't have my app: send me a code to have a code emailed to your recovery email (if you have one). Moving to a new phone: on My Account, click Remove it (it asks for your password), then set it up again on the new phone. If you have lost the phone, ask your administrator to remove the app.

Passkeys

A passkey logs you in to Mail Admin with your fingerprint, face or device PIN instead of your password, and you don't need a two-step code. It can't be phished: it only works on this site. You don't need to install anything. Your phone or computer can keep passkeys (iPhone, iPad and Mac in iCloud Keychain; Android and Chrome in Google Password Manager; Windows in Windows Hello), and so can a password manager such as 1Password.

Passkeys are only for Mail Admin. Your email programs, phone and webmail still use your mailbox password, so keep it.

Add a passkey

On My Account, under Passkeys, give it a name you'll recognise (for example iPhone or 1Password) and type your password.
Click Add a passkey. Your browser, or your password manager, asks where to save it and for your fingerprint, face or PIN.

With 1Password, its browser extension offers to save the passkey; on a phone, turn 1Password on under the phone's passkey or autofill settings. Without a password manager, the passkey goes in your device's own store and syncs to your other devices signed in to the same Apple or Google account.

Log in with one

On the login page, click Log in with a passkey and choose your account; you don't type your email address. On a computer that doesn't have your passkey, the browser can show a QR code instead: scan it with the phone that has it, and approve there.

Remove one

Click Remove next to it on My Account, then also delete it from your password manager or device settings, or it will keep being offered. If you lose a device, log in with your password and remove its passkey, or ask your administrator to remove your passkeys.

Lost password

On the login page, click Lost password?
Enter your email address and click Send code. If your account has a recovery email, a code is sent there.
Enter the code, then a new password in both boxes (one is suggested), and click Set password.

This only works if you set up a recovery email beforehand. Otherwise, ask your domain administrator to reset your password. The new password also applies to your email, so update it in your email programs.

If your outgoing email is suspended

The mail server automatically suspends an account's sending for a while when it sends to more than a set number of recipients in an hour, or when too many of the messages it sends bounce (come back as undeliverable, usually because the address doesn't exist). This protects everyone on the server: if it kept sending, other mail providers would start treating all mail from this server as spam. There are two usual reasons:

Someone else is using your account. If a spammer gets your password, they send large amounts of mail, often to made-up or out-of-date addresses.
You sent to a large, old or bought list. For example, a newsletter or announcement sent to many people at once, or to a list with many addresses that no longer work.

What you'll notice

A red Your outgoing email is suspended warning on the Dashboard and on My Account, saying why and until when.
Email you send while suspended is refused: your email program shows an error and the message isn't sent. Send anything important again once the suspension ends.
Only sending stops. You still receive email, and your password and logins keep working.
The suspension ends on its own, usually after an hour. If it happens again within 30 days, each new suspension lasts twice as long, up to a week.

What to do

If you didn't send those messages, change your password now (see Changing your password), because someone else may know it. Change it on any other site where you used the same password too.
If you did, remove the addresses that bounced from your list, and send newsletters and other bulk mail through a mailing-list service, not from this mailbox.
Wait for the suspension to end, or ask your domain administrator to lift it sooner.

Mailbox size

My Account shows your mailbox's quota, the most mail it can hold, and how much you are using once the server reports it. If a quota is marked as not enforced yet, mail keeps arriving even above it. Once it is enforced, you get a warning email at 80%, 90% and 95%, and while your mailbox is full new mail is held back: the sending server keeps retrying for a few days, so nothing is lost if you make room in time. Delete old mail (and empty the Trash), or ask your domain administrator for more space.

Tracing an email

If an email you sent didn't arrive, or one you expect never came, click Mail trace in the menu. It shows what the mail server did with email sent from or to your address over the last 4 weeks.

Enter a word to look for in Search: the other person's address or domain, part of the subject, or leave it empty to see everything.
Pick the From and To dates, and whether you want sent mail, received mail, or both. Then click Search.
Each message shows its Status. Click Details to see each step with its time.

Delivered: The receiving mail server accepted it. If the person still can't find it, ask them to check their spam or junk folder.
Delayed, will retry / Deferred: The receiving server asked us to try later. The server keeps trying for several days. Messages waiting to be retried are listed under Mail waiting in the queue.
Failed: It could not be delivered, and a bounce message was sent back to the sender. Details shows the receiving server's reason, for example "user unknown".
Rejected and Refused before arrival: Our server refused incoming mail, usually because the sender is on a spam block list or the message looked like spam. The sender gets an error; ask them to send it again from another address, or ask your administrator.

You only see your own email. For a message sent to several people, you only see what happened to your copy.

Setting up your email program

Any email program works (Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, the Mail app on a phone). These are the settings:

	Server	Port	Security
Incoming (IMAP)	`mail.effectivebydesign.com`	993	SSL/TLS
Incoming (POP3, if you must)	`mail.effectivebydesign.com`	995	SSL/TLS
Outgoing (SMTP)	`mail.effectivebydesign.com`	587	STARTTLS (Apple calls it TLS/SSL)
Outgoing, alternative	`mail.effectivebydesign.com`	465	SSL/TLS

For both incoming and outgoing: the user name is your full email address, the password is your mailbox password, and authentication is password (also called normal password). The outgoing server needs your user name and password too. Without them, the server refuses every message with Authentication required, so that nobody else can send mail as you.

Automatic set-up

Thunderbird and Outlook fill these settings in by themselves when you type your email address, once your domain's DNS has the records for it (your administrator sees them on the domain's DNS page). Apple Mail and the iPhone and iPad Mail app don't use these records. Apple only knows the big providers' settings (iCloud, Gmail, Outlook.com and so on). For any other address it guesses, by trying common server names and ports. Its guess often finds the incoming server but leaves the outgoing server without a user name and password, so receiving works and sending doesn't. Use the set-up file below instead, or check the outgoing settings after adding the account.

Apple Mail: the set-up file (easiest)

On My Account, under Set up Apple Mail, click Download the set-up file. It's an Apple configuration profile that adds this mailbox to Mail with every setting right, the outgoing login included. Your password isn't in the file: you type it when you install it.

iPhone or iPad: log in to Mail Admin in Safari, go to My Account and tap the button, then Allow. Open Settings, tap Profile Downloaded near the top (or General → VPN & Device Management), tap Install, and type your mailbox password when asked.
Mac: download the file and open it. Open System Settings, search for Profiles, double-click the profile and click Install.

The profile shows as Unverified because it isn't signed; that's expected. If you already added the account by hand, delete it first, or Mail will have it twice. Installing the file again replaces the account it made. To remove the account, remove the profile (in the same place you installed it). When you change your password, Mail asks for the new one.

Apple Mail on a Mac, by hand

Open Mail → Settings (Preferences on older macOS), click Accounts, choose this account, then Server Settings.
Under Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP), fill in User Name (your full email address) and Password, and set Host Name to mail.effectivebydesign.com. Empty user name and password boxes are the usual cause of Authentication required.
If there is a box Automatically manage connection settings, untick it. Then set Port to 587, tick Use TLS/SSL, and set Authentication to Password. On some macOS versions these are instead under the outgoing server's menu → Edit SMTP Server List… → Advanced.
Click Save, then send yourself a test message. If it stays in the Outbox, Mail shows the server's error under Window → Connection Doctor.

iPhone and iPad, by hand

Open Settings, then Apps → Mail → Mail Accounts (on older iOS: Mail → Accounts), and tap this account.
Tap the account again, then SMTP under Outgoing Mail Server, then the primary server.
Set Host Name mail.effectivebydesign.com, your full email address as User Name, your Password, Use SSL on, Authentication Password, and Server Port 587. Tap Done.

Logging out

Click Log out at the bottom of the menu on the left (on a phone, tap Menu first). You are also logged out automatically after about two hours.

What you can't change here

A single account can only change its own password, recovery email and two-step login. To add, change or delete a forwarder, get a new mailbox, or have your mailbox deleted, ask your domain administrator.

Problems

"Invalid email or password.": Check that you entered your full email address and that Caps Lock is off. If it still fails, your domain administrator can reset your password.
"Login to Mail Admin has been disabled for your account. Your email is not affected.": Your domain administrator has turned off your access to this control panel. Your email still works as normal. Ask your administrator if you need access.
Your email program says "Authentication required", or messages stay in the Outbox: The outgoing server isn't logging in with your user name and password. See Setting up your email program; for Apple Mail, fill in the user name and password under the outgoing server.
"Invalid or expired form submission": The page was open too long. Go back, reload the page, and try again.