Last updated: March 29, 2026
Connect your email accounts to InflowMail, manage sync settings, and keep everything running smoothly.
InflowMail supports three types of email providers. The connection method depends on which provider you use.
Click "Add Account" in your account settings, choose Google, and sign in with your Google account. InflowMail requests read-only access to your email via OAuth — we never see your Google password. You can revoke access at any time from your Google Account security settings.
Choose Microsoft when adding an account, then sign in with your Microsoft account. InflowMail connects via Microsoft Graph API and requests Mail.Read and Mail.ReadWrite permissions. Works with personal Outlook.com accounts and organizational Microsoft 365 accounts.
For providers like Yahoo Mail, iCloud, Zoho, or any email service that supports IMAP, you enter your IMAP server address, port, and credentials (usually an app-specific password). Your credentials are encrypted with AES-256 before storage. See Supported Providers for setup guides.
Security note: All OAuth tokens and IMAP credentials are encrypted with AES-256 before being stored. InflowMail never stores your email provider password in plain text.
When you connect an account, InflowMail syncs your email in three phases to get you up and running as quickly as possible.
Quick Learn
Syncs the last 60 days of your Inbox and Sent folders. This gives InflowMail enough context to start classifying your email intelligently. Typically completes within a few minutes.
Deep Sync
Syncs all remaining folders and historical email. This runs in the background and may take longer depending on how much email you have. You can use InflowMail normally while this runs.
Maintenance
Once all historical email is synced, the account enters maintenance mode. New emails are picked up automatically using delta sync (only fetching what changed since the last sync).
InflowMail adjusts how often it checks for new email based on your activity:
| Your Activity | Sync Interval |
|---|---|
| Actively using InflowMail (last 5 min) | Every 30 seconds |
| Recently active (5–30 min ago) | Every 2 minutes |
| Idle (30–60 min ago) | Every 5 minutes |
| Inactive (60+ min ago) | Every 10 minutes |
| Night time (11 PM – 6 AM) | Every 15 minutes |
Each connected account has a sync status that tells you whether email is being synced normally. You can check the status in your account settings.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Everything is working normally. Email is being synced on schedule. |
| Syncing | A sync is currently in progress. This is normal and usually lasts a few seconds. |
| Paused | Sync has been paused, either manually or by the system. No new emails will be fetched until resumed. |
| Error | Sync has failed 5 or more times in a row. Check the error message for details. Common causes include expired OAuth tokens or changed passwords. |
| Revoked | Your email provider has revoked InflowMail's access. You need to reconnect the account by going through OAuth again. |
| Disconnected | You have disconnected this account. Your synced emails are kept, but no new emails will be fetched. You can reconnect at any time. |
When you have multiple accounts connected, the tab bar at the top of your inbox shows each account. Nicknames give you a short, recognizable label for each one.
By default, InflowMail generates a nickname from the local part of your email address. For
example, [email protected]
becomes Clint Pollock, and
[email protected]
becomes Stu.
You can change a nickname at any time from your account settings. Choose something short and meaningful — like "Work", "Personal", or "Side Project" — so you can quickly identify each account in the tab bar.
OAuth tokens can expire or be revoked for several reasons:
When this happens, the account status will change to Error or Revoked. To reconnect:
You can disconnect or fully remove a connected account at any time from your account settings.
Stops syncing and marks the account as disconnected. Your previously synced emails remain in InflowMail and are still searchable. You can reconnect later to resume syncing.
Permanently removes the account and all synced emails from InflowMail. OAuth tokens are revoked and encrypted credentials are deleted. This action cannot be undone. The deletion is processed gracefully — the account is first marked for deletion, then data is purged in the background.
Important: Removing an account from InflowMail does not delete any emails from your actual email provider (Gmail, Outlook, etc.). Your provider inbox is never modified.
InflowMail is built for people who manage multiple email accounts. You can connect as many accounts as your plan allows, mixing Gmail, Microsoft 365, and IMAP providers.
Unified inbox: The "All Inboxes" view shows email from every connected account in a single stream, sorted by date. Each email is color-coded by account.
Account tabs: Switch between individual account inboxes using the tab bar. Each tab shows the account's nickname and unread count.
Per-account settings: Each account can have its own color, nickname, and security settings (phishing detection, suspicious attachment warnings).
Hide from unified: You can exclude specific accounts from the "All Inboxes" view if you prefer to check them separately.
For email providers that do not support OAuth (or where you prefer direct credentials), InflowMail connects via IMAP. You will need to provide:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| IMAP server | Your provider's incoming mail server | imap.mail.yahoo.com |
| IMAP port | Usually 993 for SSL/TLS | 993 |
| Username | Usually your full email address | [email protected] |
| Password | An app-specific password (not your main password) | abcd efgh ijkl mnop |
App-specific passwords: Most providers require you to generate an app-specific password rather than using your main account password. This is a security feature — the app password only grants email access and can be revoked independently.
For provider-specific IMAP settings and app password instructions, see the Supported Providers page.
This means InflowMail could not refresh the OAuth token for your account. The most common cause is that the token has been revoked or expired.
Fix: Go to your account settings and click "Reconnect" on the affected account. This will start a fresh OAuth flow and get new tokens.
If your inbox is not showing new emails, check the sync status for the account.
If you cannot find certain emails, consider these possibilities:
No. InflowMail only reads your email. It never moves, deletes, or modifies messages on your Gmail, Outlook, or IMAP server. All organization (categories, labels, priority) happens within InflowMail only.
The number of accounts depends on your plan. You can mix and match providers — for example, one Gmail account, one Outlook account, and one IMAP account all on the same InflowMail user.
For OAuth accounts (Gmail, Microsoft 365), changing your password usually does not affect InflowMail since we use OAuth tokens, not your password. However, some providers may invalidate all tokens on password change, in which case you will need to reconnect. For IMAP accounts, you will need to update the credentials in InflowMail.
Yes. You can pause an account from your account settings. Pausing stops all sync activity for that account. Resume it whenever you are ready, and InflowMail will catch up on any missed emails.
Need help with your connected accounts?