IMAP settings · privateemail.com
Namecheap Private Email IMAP settings
Namecheap Private Email uses a single host for both directions — mail.privateemail.com — which trips people up when a client asks for two different servers and they invent an imap. prefix that does not exist. Only encrypted connections are served, and besides the mailbox password you can issue application passwords.
IMAP connection
- Server
- mail.privateemail.com
- Port
- 993
- Encryption
- SSL/TLS
- Username
- full address
- Password
- the mailbox password
Sending, SMTP
- Server
- mail.privateemail.com
- Port
- 465
- Encryption
- SSL/TLS
Checked against the service's own documentation on 2026-09-15: it publishes no autoconfiguration file. Source: www.namecheap.com
What breaks here.
- Incoming and outgoing use the same hostname: mail.privateemail.com. There is no separate imap. host to guess at.
- Unencrypted connections are not served at all. Use 993 with SSL or 143 with STARTTLS for IMAP; 465 with SSL or 587 with STARTTLS for SMTP.
- Secure Password Authentication must be off in Outlook, and SMTP authentication must be on — the default combination in some clients is exactly the wrong one.
- The username is the full mailbox address, not the Namecheap account name.
Questions
The short answers
What is the server address?
mail.privateemail.com for both IMAP and SMTP. IMAP on 993 with SSL, SMTP on 465 with SSL.
Why does Outlook keep rejecting the password?
Check that Secure Password Authentication is unticked and that outgoing server authentication is on. With SPA enabled the correct password is refused.
Master password or application password?
Either works. An application password is worth using for a migration — it is revoked afterwards without touching the mailbox password.
Can I migrate mail into or out of Private Email?
Both. Over IMAP the messages, folder tree, flags and dates transfer either way, and the source is never modified.
Find out how big your mailbox is. It costs nothing.
Connect two servers, look at the size and decide. Or take the client and keep everything on your side.
Code on GitHub · built on imapsync · no sign-up