Connect your mailbox, step by step

This guide shows how to connect each kind of mailbox under Settings, Email, so invitations and reminders come from your own address. For an overview, see Send emails from your own mailbox or email service.

You need to be an owner of the workspace. Have the mailbox address and its password ready, or an app password where the steps below say so.

Use a real mailbox that people can reply to, such as research@youragency.com. Participants' replies go to it.

Google Workspace or Gmail

The quickest way is Sign in with Google:

1. Go to Settings, Email, and choose Our own mailbox or email service.
2. Click Sign in with Google.
3. Choose the Google account emails should come from, or sign in to it.
4. Google asks to let Zolensa send email for you. Click Continue or Allow.

Zolensa sends a test email to you and switches the mailbox on when it arrives.

If Sign in with Google is not shown, connect with an app password instead:

1. Turn on 2-step verification for the Google account, if it is not on yet. In Google, open Manage your Google Account, then Security.
2. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords. Enter a name, such as Zolensa, and click Create.
3. Copy the 16-letter password Google shows.
4. In Zolensa, under Connect your mailbox, click Google Workspace or Gmail (or or use an app password under Sign in with Google).
5. Fill in the From address, the Sender name, and paste the app password into Password.
6. Click Save and send a test.

If you do not see app passwords in your Google account, your Google Workspace administrator may have turned them off. Ask them, or use Sign in with Google.

Google Workspace sends up to about 2,000 emails a day from one mailbox, and a free Gmail account about 500. For bigger studies, use an email sending service.

Microsoft 365

The quickest way is Sign in with Microsoft:

1. Go to Settings, Email, and choose Our own mailbox or email service.
2. Click Sign in with Microsoft.
3. Sign in with the mailbox emails should come from.
4. Microsoft asks to let Zolensa send mail as you. Click Accept.

If Microsoft says Need admin approval, your company only allows apps that your IT administrator has approved. Ask them to approve Zolensa, then try again.

You can also connect with the mailbox password. Click Microsoft 365 (or or use an app password), fill in the From address, the Sender name and the Password, then Save and send a test. For this to work, your administrator must switch on Authenticated SMTP for the mailbox: in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, open Users, Active users, the user, Mail, Manage email apps. Microsoft is ending password sign-in for sending, so Sign in with Microsoft is the better choice.

Microsoft 365 sends up to 10,000 emails a day from one mailbox, and about 30 a minute. When you invite many people at once, some emails wait a minute or two. Zolensa tries them again by itself.

Zoho Mail

The quickest way is Sign in with Zoho:

1. Go to Settings, Email, and choose Our own mailbox or email service.
2. Click Sign in with Zoho.
3. Sign in with the mailbox emails should come from, and click Accept.

Zoho accounts in every region work, including India, Europe and the US.

To connect with an app password instead:

1. In Zoho, open My Account, then Security, then App passwords. Make a password, named Zolensa.
2. In Zolensa, click Zoho Mail (or or use an app password).
3. If your Zoho account is in India, open Server settings and change the Server to smtppro.zoho.in. In Europe, use smtppro.zoho.eu.
4. Fill in the From address, the Sender name and the app password, then Save and send a test.

Titan, Hostinger, GoDaddy and Rediffmail Pro

These mailboxes use the mailbox's own password:

1. Under Connect your mailbox, click your provider: Titan Email, Hostinger Email, GoDaddy Workspace Email or Rediffmail Pro.
2. Fill in the From address (the mailbox address) and the Sender name.
3. Fill in the mailbox password.
4. Click Save and send a test.

Titan Email is the email sold by many web hosts, such as Hostinger, BigRock and GoDaddy. If your login page says Titan, choose Titan Email.

If your GoDaddy email runs on Microsoft 365 (you sign in at outlook.office.com), choose Microsoft 365 instead. If it is Professional Email powered by Titan, choose Titan Email.

Yahoo, iCloud, AOL, Fastmail and Yandex

These need an app password, not your normal password:

• Yahoo Mail: in Yahoo, open Account info, Account security, Generate app password.
• iCloud Mail: at account.apple.com, open Sign-In and Security, App-Specific Passwords. Two-factor authentication must be on.
• AOL Mail: in AOL, open Account info, Account security, Generate app password.
• Fastmail: open Settings, Privacy and security, and make an app password with access to SMTP.
• Yandex 360: in Yandex ID, open Security, App passwords, and make one for mail.

Then click your provider under Connect your mailbox (Fastmail, Yandex 360 and AOL Mail are under More mailboxes), fill in the From address, the Sender name and the app password, and click Save and send a test.

Namecheap, Rackspace and Amazon WorkMail

1. Open More mailboxes, then click Namecheap Private Email, Rackspace Email or Amazon WorkMail.
2. For Amazon WorkMail, open Server settings and change us-east-1 in the Server to your WorkMail region, such as eu-west-1.
3. Fill in the From address, the Sender name and the mailbox password.
4. Click Save and send a test.

Another mail server

1. Open More mailboxes, then click Another mail server.
2. Under Server settings, fill in the Server, Port and Encryption your provider gives for sending (SMTP). Most use port 587 with STARTTLS (port 587), or port 465 with SSL/TLS (port 465).
3. Fill in the Username (usually the mailbox address), the Password, the From address and the Sender name.
4. Click Save and send a test.

Your provider lists these settings in its help pages, often under "set up mail on another app" or "SMTP settings". The server must be on the public internet and use port 587, 465, 2525 or 25.

Send from another address

The From address should be the mailbox you connect. To send from another address, such as an alias or a shared address, it must be allowed to send from that mailbox in your mail provider first. Then put the mailbox itself in Username and the other address in From address.

If the test email fails

The message after Save and send a test says what went wrong. Common messages:

• SMTP login failed. Check the username and password. The password is wrong, or the provider wants an app password. Make an app password as shown above. For Google and Yahoo, a normal password never works.
• The SMTP server ... could not be found, or is not on the public internet. The server name has a typo. Choose your provider again under Connect your mailbox to fill it in.
• Use one of the usual SMTP ports: 587, 465, 2525 or 25. Change the Port.
• A Microsoft message with SmtpClientAuthentication is disabled: Authenticated SMTP is off for the mailbox. Use Sign in with Microsoft, or ask your administrator to switch it on.
• A message about the sender or the from address: the mailbox may not send from that address. Use the mailbox address as the From address.
• The sign-in with Google was cancelled, or access was not allowed. You clicked Cancel, or did not allow sending. Try again and allow it.
• The sign-in could not be matched to this browser, or took too long. Start again from the Email page, in the same browser, within 30 minutes.

While the test fails, emails keep going out from Zolensa's sender, so participants still get their invitations.

If emails stop going out from your mailbox

If the mailbox password changes, or someone removes Zolensa's access in the Google, Microsoft or Zoho account, the connection ends. Zolensa then sends from its own sender again, and the Email page says the connection ended. Click Reconnect and sign in again.

For a mailbox connected with a password, type the new password in step 3, Enter the details, and click Save and send a test.

Still stuck?

Write to us from Support in the sidebar. Tell us which provider you use and copy the message you see after the test. Never send us your password.