Mail Setup Vault

How to use this — step by step

What it's for Before you start 1 · The vault 2 · Add an account 3 · App password 4 · Your mail app 5 · Test it 6 · Back it up If it goes wrong Word list

What this application is for

The short version

It is a private, encrypted record of how each of your email accounts is set up — the servers, the ports, the app passwords, and which steps you've finished — so you never have to work any of it out twice.

The problem it solves

Setting up an email account in a mail app takes about ten minutes of hunting through settings pages, and you do it rarely enough that you've forgotten the whole procedure by the time you need it again. Then you get a new phone, or a laptop dies, or a provider changes its rules, and you start from nothing — googling server names, wondering why the password is refused, giving up halfway.

Worse, the app passwords these providers issue are shown once. Apple's genuinely cannot be looked up again. Most people paste them straight into one device and lose them, so setting up the second device means starting over.

What it actually does

Remembers the settings — type an address and the incoming and outgoing servers, ports and encryption appear, ready to copy. No searching.
Stores the app passwords safely — encrypted with your master password before anything touches the disk. Generate once, reuse on every device.
Tracks where you got to — a checklist per account, so an interrupted setup can be picked up later without guessing what's left.
Warns about the traps — that Outlook no longer accepts passwords, that changing a Yahoo password silently kills its app passwords, that Apple shows the code once. These cost hours if you don't know them.
Survives disaster — an encrypted backup file for a lost device, a recovery code for a forgotten password, and a printable sheet for everything else.

Who it suits

Anyone running several mailboxes across several devices — a family with accounts spread over Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud, or one person keeping personal and work mail apart. If you have exactly one email account on exactly one phone, you don't need this.

What it is not

Worth being clear about This is not a mail app — it doesn't send or receive anything, and never connects to your mailbox. It's a reference book that happens to be locked.

Nor is it a general password manager. It holds the throwaway app passwords for mail, not your bank logins. Keep your main account passwords in a proper manager like Bitwarden or 1Password, or your phone's built-in keychain.

Where your data goes

Nowhere. There is no server, no account, no sign-up, and no network request of any kind. Everything is encrypted and stored inside this browser on this device. That's why nobody can reset your password for you — and why the backup file matters.

Before you start

Setting up an email account in an app means telling that app three things: which mailbox to look at, where to find it, and proof that you're allowed in. This guide walks through all three, one account at a time.

You'll need

The email addresses you want to set up
The ability to sign in to each one on a website — you'll be asked to
Your phone nearby, for security codes
About 10 minutes for the first account, 3 or 4 for each one after

One rule worth remembering You will never type your everyday email password into the vault. You'll create a separate one-purpose password for each account, and that's what gets saved. This means that if anything ever went wrong with the vault, your actual email account stays safe.

Part 1 · Setting up the vault

The vault is the page that remembers your settings. The first time you open it, it asks you to invent a master password. This is the one password you'll need to remember.

STEP 1

Choose your master password

Open the vault page. You'll see a dark screen asking for a password. Because this is the first time, it asks you to type it twice.

The first screen. Type your chosen password in both boxes, then press Create vault.

What makes a good one: four or five ordinary words strung together beat a short jumble of symbols. rusty-kettle-monsoon-lamp is far stronger than Pa$$w0rd! and much easier to recall.

STEP 2

Write down the recovery code

The moment the vault is created, it shows a 25-character code. This is your spare key. If you ever forget the master password, this code is the only way back in.

Print it or save it. Keep it away from the device holding the vault.

Don't skip this Nobody can recover the vault for you — not me, not the page, not Anthropic. Nothing is sent anywhere. If both the password and this code are lost, the contents are gone for good. Print it and put it with your passport, or write it in the back of a notebook.

Part 2 · Adding an account

STEP 3

Type the address

You're now looking at the main page. At the top is a box marked Email address. Type the full address, including the part after the @.

As soon as you finish typing, the page works out who runs that mailbox and says so underneath — "Recognised as Yahoo" or similar. You don't need to choose anything. Press Add account.

Adding an account. The provider box can be left alone unless the address isn't recognised.

STEP 4

Understanding what appeared

A card now sits below with your address on it. Click it and it opens up. Inside are three things worth knowing about:

An opened account card. Tick items as you finish them — the bar at the top fills up.

The checklist — the jobs to do for this account, in order. Tick each one off as you go.
The app password box — where the special password goes once you've made it, in Part 3.
The settings — the addresses your mail app will ask for, each with a copy button.

The checklist changes depending on the provider. Outlook accounts get a shorter one, because Outlook does things differently.

Part 3 · Getting an app password

Here's the part that confuses most people, so it's worth one plain paragraph.

Why your normal password won't work Email companies stopped letting outside apps sign in with your ordinary password, because if that password leaked, the thief would get everything. Instead you generate a separate password that only works for mail. If it ever leaks, you cancel just that one and your account is untouched. That's what an "app password" is. Nothing more complicated than that.

Each device gets its own disposable password. Losing a phone means cancelling one, not changing everything.

STEP 5

Go to your provider's security page

The exact wording differs, but every provider hides this in the same general place: your account settings, under something called Security or Sign-in. Find your provider below.

Roughly what every provider's security page looks like. Names vary; the shape doesn't.

Gmail

Two-step verification must be on first, or the app-password option simply won't be there.

myaccount.google.com → Security → 2-Step Verification → App passwords

You get 16 letters in four groups. Type them without the spaces.

Easier alternative: if your mail app offers a "Sign in with Google" button, use it and skip this entirely.

Yahoo

Yahoo Account → Account Security → Generate app password

Your ordinary Yahoo password never works for mail apps, so this step isn't optional.

Yahoo catch Changing your main Yahoo password quietly cancels every app password you've made. If mail suddenly stops working months from now, this is almost certainly why — just generate a new one.

iCloud

appleid.apple.com → Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords

Apple catch Apple shows the password once and there is no way to look it up later. Paste it into the vault straight away. If you lose it, you delete that one and make another — no harm done, just a nuisance.

Outlook, Hotmail, Live

There is no app password for these. Microsoft removed the option. Your mail app must show a Microsoft sign-in window and you sign in there, in the normal way.

If your app only offers a plain password box with no sign-in button, that app is too old for Outlook and no amount of retyping will help. You need a newer one.

STEP 6

Save it in the vault

Go back to the vault, open the account card, and paste the code into the App password box. It saves by itself — there's no save button. Then tick Generate an app password on the checklist.

The box hides the characters. Show reveals them for 20 seconds, then hides them again on its own.

Part 4 · Telling your mail app

STEP 7

Copy the four values across

In your mail app, choose to add an account and pick the manual or "other" option if offered. It asks for a set of values that look intimidating and aren't. Every one of them is in your account card, with a copy button beside it.

The same four values, twice — once for receiving, once for sending.

It asks for	You give it
Username or account name	Your full email address
Password	The app password, not your usual one
Incoming / IMAP server	The `imap.` address from your card
Outgoing / SMTP server	The `smtp.` address from your card

The most common mistake Somewhere in the outgoing section is a tickbox about authentication — worded as "use authentication", "my server requires sign-in", or similar. If it's unticked, mail arrives fine but nothing ever sends, and the error message won't tell you why. Tick it.

Tick Enter the incoming server and Enter the outgoing server on your checklist.

Part 5 · Checking it worked

STEP 8

Two tests, in this order

Receiving. From a different address — or your phone — send a message to the account you just set up. It should turn up within a minute.
Sending. Reply to it. Then check the Outbox. An empty Outbox means it went. A message sitting there means it didn't.

Do them separately. Receiving and sending fail for completely different reasons, and testing both at once tells you nothing about which half is broken.

Tick Test receiving and Test sending. The bar at the top of the card should now be nearly full.

STEP 9

Decide how far back to sync

Most apps only fetch the last few weeks by default, which is why old messages seem to have vanished and searches come up empty. Find the setting called Mail to keep offline, Sync, or Days of mail to sync, and set it to All if you want your whole history searchable.

It'll be busy for a while as it downloads. That's expected. Tick the last item.

Part 6 · Backing up

STEP 10

Save a copy, today

The vault lives inside this browser on this device. Clearing browsing data, reinstalling, or a dead machine takes it with them. Press Back up in the top bar and keep the file somewhere else — a USB stick, cloud storage, another computer.

The backup file is still encrypted. Even if someone found it, it's unreadable without your master password or recovery code, so you can store it anywhere without worrying.

The bar at the top tells you when you last backed up and how many changes have happened since. When it starts nagging, it's right.

Two different disasters, two different protections

Lost or broken device → the backup file saves you
Forgotten master password → the recovery code saves you

Neither substitutes for the other. Have both.

If something goes wrong

"The password is wrong" — but I know it's right

You're almost certainly typing your normal email password. Mail apps need the app password from Part 3. For Outlook accounts there's no password at all — it must be the sign-in window.

Mail arrives but nothing sends

The outgoing authentication tickbox, nine times out of ten. Check Part 4. If that's already ticked, try the other port — 587 in place of 465, or the reverse. Some office and hotel networks block one of them.

It worked for years and just stopped

Two likely causes. If it's Outlook, Microsoft withdrew password sign-in and you now need the sign-in window. If it's Yahoo, you changed your main password recently, which silently cancelled the app password — make a new one.

My old emails are missing

They're on the provider's website, just not downloaded yet. Step 9 — set the sync window to All and wait.

Gmail is showing everything twice

It isn't. Gmail uses labels where other systems use folders, so one message legitimately appears in two places. Nothing to fix.

The vault forgot everything

Browsing data was probably cleared. Use Restore and pick Replace everything. To stop it recurring, open the vault from a proper web address rather than by double-clicking the file.

I've forgotten my master password

Choose Use your recovery code on the lock screen, enter the 25 characters from Part 1, and it'll ask you to set a new password. Dashes and capitals don't matter.

I've lost both

Then the contents can't be recovered — that's the cost of nobody else holding a key. If you printed the sheet, everything is on it. Otherwise, erase and start again; your actual mailboxes are untouched.

Word list

Word	What it means
IMAP	The incoming half. How your app reads mail that's sitting on the provider's computer.
SMTP	The outgoing half. How your app hands mail over to be delivered.
Port	A numbered door on the provider's computer. Wrong number, no answer. That's the whole idea.
SSL / TLS / STARTTLS	Scrambling, so nobody between you and the provider can read along. Always leave it on.
App password	A one-purpose password for a single app, cancellable on its own.
Two-factor / 2-step	Password plus a code from your phone. Most providers require it before allowing app passwords.
OAuth	The "Sign in with Google" style button. The app never sees your password at all.
Sync window	How far back your app bothers to download. Short window, missing old mail.
Master password	The single password that unlocks the vault.
Recovery code	The 25-character spare key for when the master password is forgotten.

Mail Setup VaultLocked

Add an account

Your accounts

Change master password