How do I authenticate an IMAP account with a non-email username?

While Hosted Authentication does not support non-email usernames for IMAP accounts, you can authenticate these accounts using the Custom Authentication API endpoint.

To authenticate an IMAP account with a non-email username:

1. Use the Custom Authentication endpoint
2. In the settings section of your API payload, include:
   - imap_username: Set this to the non-email username (e.g., 'xyz100a1')
   - email: Set this to the full email address of the mailbox
   - Other required IMAP and SMTP settings as required for Nylas to connect to the provider's IMAP server, like the following example:
   

   settings: {
     "email": "user@example.com",
     "imap_username": "xyz100a1",
     "imap_password": "your-imap-password",
     "imap_host": "imap.server.com",
     "imap_port": 993,
     "smtp_host": "smtp.server.com",
     "smtp_port": 465,
     "smtp_username": "web1003p1",
     "smtp_password": "your-smtp-password"
   }

This approach allows you to authenticate IMAP accounts that use usernames different from their email addresses while maintaining secure access to the mailbox.

Updated April 30, 2025 15:05