How to receive POP email using Gmail

Gmail is a great option to check your POP email account on the go from your phone or tablet without using an email client that may look a little different to what you are used to with Gmail.

It does have some advanced limitations, but if you are just doing simple mail sending and receiving and organising mail into folders then Gmail is absolutely fine to use.

And the cool thing is if you outgrow it, then as long as you have selected tick the ‘Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.’ option, a copy of your mail is stored securely and backed up daily on our server!

Ready? OK, set it up

The following instructions require you to log into your Gmail account through your favourite web browser to set this up.

From your main Gmail view, click the Settings (Gear icon)  on the upper right hand side of the screen, just underneath your Google avatar/icon and choose ‘Settings’.

• Click on the ‘Accounts and Import’ tab
• In the option ‘Check email from other accounts:’, click on ‘Add an email account’
• A pop-up window will open and ask for the email address you wish to setup.
  Type your full email address in here. Example: info@yourdomain.com.au
• Click Next
• Choose the option ‘Import emails from my other account (POP3)’
• Click Next
• This screen will ask for your Username and Password.
  NOTE: Your username is your FULL email address.
• The POP server should be automatically detected, but if it does not pick it up and this field is blank use the following format: mail.yourdomain.com.au
• Tick the ‘Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.’ option if you wish to check your emails elsewhere (eg. on your  mail client on your PC)
• Leave the ‘Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail.’ option unticked.
• The option for ‘Label incoming messages:’ is up to you. This will just add a label so you can see these messages easier in the Gmail inbox.
• The last option ‘Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox)’ will do as advertised, again this one is up to you.
• Now click the ‘Add Account’ button.

If any of the details you have input are incorrect, you will get an error message pointing you to the incorrect detail.

Once successful, the pop-up window will close and return you to the Gmail Settings screen.

You are done! Just click the ‘Inbox’ link on the left hand menu to return to your main mail screen.

Good luck!