Connect a mailbox

Last updated: 13 October 2026

Foxfind sends your emails from your own mailbox and reads its inbox, so a reply stops the sequence straight away. Connecting one takes about 10 minutes once the mailbox exists. This guide covers the three parts:

1. A domain for outreach (recommended, once).
2. Sign in with your provider's settings.
3. The domain records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) that keep your emails out of spam. Foxfind checks them for you.

1. Use a separate domain for outreach

Cold emails are judged more harshly than normal mail. If something goes wrong, you don't want it to affect the domain your customers and suppliers write to. So buy a second domain that looks like your brand, for example getacme.com or acme-mail.com next to acme.com, and create your outreach mailboxes on it (such as sam@getacme.com).

• Point the new domain's website to your real one (a redirect at your domain registrar), so anyone who looks it up lands on your site. Enter that site under “Website” when you connect the mailbox and Foxfind checks the redirect.
• One to three mailboxes per domain is plenty. Each one starts at a few emails a day and increases on its own as it proves healthy.
• Using your main domain still works; Foxfind just shows a warning so you can decide.

2. Sign in with your provider's settings

In Foxfind, open Mailboxes → Add mailbox and choose your provider: the server settings are filled in for you. Then enter the email address and the password described below for your provider (Google and Microsoft mailboxes can sign in with Google or Microsoft instead). Foxfind signs in to the outgoing (SMTP) and incoming (IMAP) servers to test them, without sending anything.

Google Workspace and Gmail

The easiest way is Sign in with Google: choose Google as the provider, click the button, sign in to the outreach mailbox and allow Foxfind to use its Gmail. No password is stored, and nothing breaks when the password changes.

Prefer not to sign in with Google? Use an app password instead (choose “Use an app password instead” in the form). Google doesn't accept your normal password from other apps:

Zoho Mail

1. Zoho's free plan doesn't include IMAP and SMTP access, so the mailbox needs a paid plan (Mail Lite or higher).
2. In Zoho Mail, open Settings → Mail Accounts → IMAP and tick IMAP Access.
3. If the account uses two-factor sign-in, create an application-specific password at accounts.zoho.com → Security → App Passwords and use it in Foxfind. Otherwise use the mailbox password.

Hostinger

The simplest: use the mailbox's own password, set when you created the mailbox in hPanel (Emails → your domain → Email accounts, where you can also reset it).

Microsoft 365 and Outlook

Microsoft mailboxes don't use a password in Foxfind. You sign in with Microsoft instead:

1. Choose Microsoft 365 or Outlook as the provider and click Sign in with Microsoft.
2. Sign in to the outreach mailbox (not your personal account) and click Accept. Microsoft asks you to let Foxfind send email as you, read your mail and keep access when you're away. Foxfind only reads the inbox to stop a sequence when someone replies, and never deletes your mail or marks it as read.
3. Back in Foxfind, check the from name and signature and save. Emails go out through Microsoft and appear in your Sent Items as usual.

To disconnect later, remove Foxfind under myapps.microsoft.com (work accounts) or account.live.com/consent/Manage (Outlook.com). If the test says IMAP is turned off: in Outlook.com open Settings → Mail → Forwarding and IMAP and turn on Let devices and apps use IMAP; in Microsoft 365 the administrator turns on IMAP for the mailbox in the Microsoft 365 admin center (Users → the user → Mail → Manage email apps). If you change the mailbox's password, Foxfind may ask you to sign in with Microsoft again.

Other providers (cPanel, GoDaddy, Namecheap, IONOS…)

Choose Other and enter the settings from your provider's help pages (search for “IMAP SMTP settings” with the provider's name). They usually look like this:

3. Domain records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

These are short text records in your domain's DNS, added where you bought the domain or where your provider manages it. They prove to Gmail, Outlook and others that your mailbox is allowed to send for the domain. Without them, most cold emails go to spam, so Foxfind checks them on every mailbox and won't send until the important ones pass. The mailbox's page in Foxfind shows exactly what's missing.

SPF: who may send for your domain

One TXT record on the domain itself (host @). Keep only one SPF record; if one exists, add your provider to it rather than creating a second.

DKIM: a signature on every email

Your provider creates the record and you copy it into your DNS. In Google Workspace: Admin console → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Authenticate email, generate the record, add it, then click Start authentication. In Zoho: Admin console → Domains → your domain → Email configuration → DKIM. Hostinger adds it for you when the domain's DNS is managed by Hostinger.

DMARC: what to do with failures

One TXT record with host _dmarc. Start with this, which only asks for reports and changes nothing about delivery:

MX: where replies arrive

Your provider gives you MX records when you set up mail on the domain; replies can't arrive without them. They're usually already there.

After connecting

• Warm-up: a new mailbox sends a handful of emails a day and adds more every few healthy days. Leave it on for new mailboxes and domains.
• Unsubscribe link (optional): the mailbox's page shows one more record (a CNAME such as u.getacme.com) that adds a one-click unsubscribe link on your own domain. Without it, people can still opt out by replying.
• Inbox placement test: on the mailbox's page, send your latest email to test inboxes at Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook and see whether it lands in the inbox or in spam.

If it doesn't connect

• “Invalid login” or “authentication failed”: the password is wrong, or your provider needs an app password (Google, and Zoho with two-factor sign-in). Check that the username is the full email address.
• The outgoing server works but the incoming one fails: IMAP is switched off for the mailbox. Turn it on in your provider's settings (see above).
• “Connection timed out”: the server name or port is wrong. Try 587 with STARTTLS instead of 465 with SSL.
• “Outbound sending is disabled” later on: your provider stopped the mailbox, usually after bounces. Foxfind pauses it and emails you; ask the provider to lift the block, then resume it.

Still stuck? Email info@foxfind.net with the provider's name and the error Foxfind shows, and we'll help. Never send us your password.

Add a mailbox in Foxfind