---
title: "Previewing Emails in Thunderbird and Apple Mail"
description: "Connect a real client over IMAP to see how multipart emails render outside the browser. Host, port, and login settings for any client."
canonical_url: "https://smtp.dev/docs/guides/email-clients/"
last_updated: "2026-07-16T01:19:47.894Z"
---

The [message view](/docs/features/message) shows what arrived. A real client shows what your users see - its own HTML rendering, image blocking, font substitution. Any IMAP client connects to the sandbox like a normal mail server.

## Settings

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Protocol
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Host
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Port
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Security
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      IMAP
    </td>
    
    <td>
      imap.smtp.dev
    </td>
    
    <td>
      993
    </td>
    
    <td>
      SSL
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      SMTP
    </td>
    
    <td>
      send.smtp.dev
    </td>
    
    <td>
      587
    </td>
    
    <td>
      TLS
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Username is the full address, password is the account password. [POP3 and the unencrypted fallback](/docs/setup/account) are there too.

## Thunderbird

<steps level="3">

### Open Account Settings → Account Actions → Add Mail Account

### Enter the account's address and password, then choose Configure manually

### Set incoming to IMAP, imap.smtp.dev, port 993, SSL/TLS

### Set outgoing to send.smtp.dev, port 587, STARTTLS, both usernames the full address

</steps>

## Apple Mail

<steps level="3">

### Open Mail → Add Account → Other Mail Account

### Enter the account's address and password

### When prompted for servers, enter imap.smtp.dev as incoming and send.smtp.dev as outgoing

</steps>

## What to Check

- **Both parts of a multipart message**: Thunderbird's View → Message Body As switches between HTML and plain text.
- **Images blocked**: clients block remote images by default - the email should still make sense without them.
- **Replies**: sending from the client works, but [only to addresses that exist as sandbox accounts](/docs/setup/account#limitations).

<note>

No client install: [webmail.smtp.dev](https://webmail.smtp.dev) gives the same IMAP view in the browser.

</note>