You can access your BT email online at https://email.bt.com/mail or you can use an email client. This is an email program or application on your computer or device, like Apple Mail, Outlook or Windows Mail.
If you want to use an email program or device, there are some important things you’ll need to understand in order to set up and get started.
Firstly, you’ll need to know:
- your BT email address and password
- what device you’re using
- what application you’re using, such as Apple Mail or Outlook
- the BT Email incoming and outgoing server settings (IMAP/POP3, SMTP & SSL/TLS). You’ll find these at the end of this article.
For the best experience and your security we recommend you set email clients to use IMAP and SMTP with SSL or TLS enabled. Most client software will automatically set your account up with these settings. If you don’t enable SSL, there’s a risk that your email data could be intercepted, as an example, if you used an unsecured WiFi network.
We also recommend regularly checking your account to ensure it’s set up correctly and using secure SSL or TLS connections.
IMAP and POP3 are the protocols or technologies that enable you to download your email messages to your computer or device. We recommend using IMAP which will automatically keep a copy of your email messages on the server.
We do not recommend using POP3 as it does not automatically sync all of your email folders with the BT Email server. If you choose to use this option, it’s important you select the option to “keep email on server” otherwise changes you make in your email program will not be synchronised to your server Inbox and could be lost. Before deleting a POP client, log into your email at bt.com/mail and check everything is there.
SMTP is the protocol used to send emails. To protect our email server from abuse by spammers, we require all sent emails to have SMTP authentication. You can usually switch this on by ticking a box called "My server requires authentication" in your email program's settings; if you don’t do this, you’ll get a 530-error failure when trying to send emails.
SSL also referred to as TLS, ensures that messages and data sent between your email client and the BT Email server, is encrypted to protect your personal data. It’s really important that you enable this feature.
To find out if you're using IMAP or POP3, open up your email program, highlight the mail account you want to find out about, then open its settings or properties. Look to see whether the Mail Server type is set to IMAP or POP3.
- Remember, IMAP always syncs with the BT Email server, so any changes you make in your email program will also appear in your webmail inbox. We therefore strongly recommend you use IMAP.
If SSL or TLS is set up correctly you’ll see port 993, if you’re using a non-secure connection, this will be 143 and you should change this.
- Remember, POP3 doesn’t automatically sync all your email folders with the BT Email server so it’s important to make sure you select the option to “keep email on server” otherwise changes you make in your email program will not be transferred to your webmail inbox and could be lost. Before deleting a POP3 client, log into your email at bt.com/mail and check everything is there.
If SSL or TLS is set up correctly you’ll see port 995, if you’re using a non-secure connection, you’ll see 100 and you should change this.
For more help with setting up your BT Email using an email client
IMAP settings
Incoming Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com
Port: 993, this should be automatically populated by selecting the SSL encryption
SSL Encryption: Enabled but not STARTTLS
Username: your email address including the @btinternet or @btopenworld.com part
Password: your btinternet or btopenworld password
Root folder/path:
Folder separator: . (full stop)
Please do not enable secure password authentication (SPA). It's not needed when you use SSL encryption and will not work.
Most clients will automatically set up the following folders. If not you may wish to do so:
- Trash or Deleted
- Spam or Junk
- Sent Items
- Drafts
POP3 settings
Incoming Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com
Port: 995, this should be automatically populated by selecting the SSL encryption
SSL Encryption: Enabled but not STARTTLS
Username: your email address including the @btinternet.com or @btopenworld.com part
Password: your btinternet or btopenworld password
POP from folder: by default, POP will pull emails from your inbox
SMTP settings
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com
Port: 465 (this may not be automatically populated on selecting SSL, so you'll need to check)
SSL Encryption: Enabled (but not STARTTLS)
Authentication: PLAIN
Username: your email address including the @btinternet or @btopenworld.com part
Password: your btinternet or btopenworld password