<div class="note" id="gmail">

<p>It is impossible to connect to email providers that require the <span
class="application">[[!wikipedia OAuth]]</span> authentication mechanism
such as GMail or Mail.ru</p>

</div>

1. When starting <span class="application">Icedove</span> for the first
   time, an assistant appears to guide you through the process of
   configuring <span class="application">Icedove</span> to access your
   email account.

   [[!img icedove/assistant.png link="no"]]

   <div class="tip">
   <p>To start this assistant again in the future from the main window of
   <span class="application">Icedove</span>, choose
   <span class="menuchoice">
     <span class="guimenu">[[!img lib/open-menu.png alt="Menu" class=symbolic link=no]]</span>&nbsp;▸
     <span class="guisubmenu">Preferences</span>&nbsp;▸
     <span class="guimenuitem">Account Settings</span>
   </span> and then from the <span class="guilabel">Account Settings</span>
   dialog choose <span class="guilabel">Account Actions</span>&nbsp;▸
   <span class="guilabel">Add Mail Account&hellip;</span>.</p>
   </div>

1. Enter your name, email address, and password into the corresponding fields.

   <a id="protocol"></a>

1. Click <span class="guilabel">Continue</span>.

1. The assistant tries to configure automatically the correct parameters
   to connect to your email provider based on your email address.

   If the automatic configuration fails, consult your email provider
   about how to configure your email account manually.

1. If the automatic configuration succeeds, you might have to specify
   which protocol to use to connect to your email provider, either
   <span class="guilabel">IMAP</span> or <span class="guilabel">POP</span>.

      - With <span class="guilabel">IMAP</span>,
        <span class="application">Icedove</span> constantly synchronizes
        with the server and displays the emails and folders that are
	currently stored on the server. IMAP is better suited if you access
        your emails from different operating systems.

      - With <span class="guilabel">POP</span>,
        <span class="application">Icedove</span> downloads the emails that
        are in the inbox on the server and possibly deletes them from the
	server. POP is better suited if you access your emails from Tails only
        and store them in the persistent storage.

   To know more, see also this [comparison between POP and
   IMAP](https://help.riseup.net/en/email/clients/#choose-imap-or-pop) by
   Riseup.

