If you're moving to an Android device from an iPhone or iPad, there's every possibility you're already set up and using an iCloud email address. Android devices require you to have a Google account (Gmail), but you might want to keep using your iCloud account for email. And that's just fine.

The good news is it's perfectly possible to get your iCloud email address up and running on your Android device. It's pretty straight forward but does involve a little effort on your part. Here's how.

How to add your iCloud email address to your Android device

Besides the Gmail app on your Android phone or tablet, you should also have an app just called "Email." (There are also dozens of great alternatives on Google Play.) How it looks may vary from phone to phone, but the overall function should be the same since you need to set up your iCloud account using IMAP and SMTP.

However it looks, the key information remains the same. Here's how to add your iCloud email address to your Android device,

How to add an iCloud email address to Android

  1. Launch Settings by swiping down to reveal the notification shade and tapping the gear button.
  2. Tap Accounts. On some phones, it may be under something like "Cloud and accounts".
  3. Tap Add account.
  4. Tap Email if the option is there or tap Personal (IMAP) next to the Gmail symbol. If you choose the Gmail option, Gmail will automatically recognize your iCloud address and import the correct server settings.
  5. If you chose the Email option, you'll have to add the server settings manually:
    • Incoming mail server:
      • Server name: imap.mail.me.com
      • SSL required: Yes
      • Port: 993
      • Username: The name portion of your iCloud email address. So if it's johnsmith@icloud.com, just the "johnsmith" part.
      • Password: Your iCloud email address password. You can also choose to generate an app-specific password.
    • Outgoing mail server:
      • Server name: smtp.mail.me.com
      • SSL Required: Yes
      • Port: 587
      • SMTP Authentication Required: Yes
      • Username: Your full iCloud email address, including the @icloud.com part
      • Password: Use the password you used in the incoming mail server section, whether it was your original or the app-specific password you generated.
  6. Tap Next or Continue or whichever button finishes the process.

If there is an error message in the SSL required section of either the incoming or outgoing mail server sections, use TSL instead.

Hopefully, the details above should be enough to get you up and running. It's a little fiddly to get set up – especially if you've come from the iPhone which does it all for you – but it works, and it gets your existing email onto your new Android device.

Of course, there may be other apps out there that do this for you, or you might know of some tips and tricks to make things run a little smoother. If you've got anything that'll help, drop it into the comments below!

Questions?

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