Cannot Set Up a Custom Email Address

When you add an account to Spark, you may not see your email provider on the list. You can add a custom email address manually. To make sure it connects successfully, please follow the steps below.

1. Check the settings of your email server

Make sure your email server meets the following requirements:

• It supports IMAP protocol — Spark works with IMAP accounts and doesn’t support POP3 protocol.
• It supports a secure connection — Spark allows only SSL or STARTTLS protection.
• It successfully performs SMTP authorization — Spark doesn’t set up an account when either the incoming or outgoing connection fails the authentication test.

You can check these settings on the web page of your email server or by contacting your network administrator.

When you add a custom email account, please make sure you submit the needed settings.

1. Open Spark Settings.
2. Select Accounts > Add Account.
3. Enter your email address and password.
4. Select Additional Settings. This menu allows you to choose ports, email server, and the type of protection for both inbox and outbox servers.
5. Fill out the fields and click Add.

If your custom account is the first one you add to Spark:

1. Launch the app and click Start Using Spark.
2. Enter your email address.
3. Tick the checkbox to agree with Spark Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.
4. Click Next.
5. Enter your password.
6. Select Additional Settings.
7. Fill out the fields, check advanced settings (ports, protection, etc.), and click Add.

2. Check the network connection

Some organizations enable a firewall to prevent access to certain websites from their networks. Ask the administrator if access to Spark (as the third-party email application) or Google (Spark uses its servers) is allowed.

Alternatively, you can try to connect your account using a different network.

If you use a VPN, we can’t guarantee Spark will work properly. The quality of the performance via VPN solely relies on the servers of the VPN network. For this reason, we recommend you turn the VPN off.

3. Contact our support team

If your account meets all the requirements, but it still fails to connect to Spark, we are happy to help you personally. Our developers need a test account on your server to help you as soon as possible.

Please set up a test email address (e.g., spark_test@XXX) on your email server or ask your IT administrator to do it. Our developers use this email address to investigate and fix your issue.

The test account mustn’t contain any personal information. We assure you this account will be used solely for testing purposes.

Follow the steps below to provide our support team with a test account. 

1. Open Spark Settings.
2. Select Support and click Send next to Diagnostics information.
3. A new email window will appear. In the Subject: line, write “Cannot add a custom IMAP account.” We need this email subject to provide you with a quick, personal reply.
4. In your email, please provide us with more details regarding your issue and let us know the email address of the test account (not your personal account), its password, and advanced settings.

Spark automatically attaches a .zip file with the application logs to your email. We need the logs for our investigation. This file may contain some sensitive personal data, and we assure you we’ll treat it as confidential information.