Guide

How to connect your email to mailipy by forwarding

With forwarding, your support mailbox sends a copy of every incoming email to an @mailipy.com address that is yours alone. You give us no password, you keep receiving everything in your mailbox, and it works with any provider that can forward email. Four steps, about five minutes.

Guide current as of 21 September 2026. If your provider has moved a menu, search for «Forwarding» in its settings: the process is the same.

The four steps

Whatever your provider, this is the path. The exact menus for each one are further down.

1

Copy your forwarding address

It's on the email connection screen inside mailipy. It looks like yourstore@mailipy.com. If you're past onboarding, find it under Settings → Account → Support email → «Change my email».

2

Add the forwarding rule at your provider

In your support mailbox's settings, look for «Forwarding» and add that address as the destination. Type your provider's name into mailipy and it shows you the exact steps.

3

Confirm and turn it on

Gmail and some other providers send a confirmation to the destination address. Since the destination is mailipy, the confirmation comes to us and shows up on your screen as a button. Confirm it, go back to your settings, choose «forward a copy» and save.

4

Check it

Click «Done — check it». mailipy sends a test email to your mailbox and waits for it to come back through the forwarding. It takes under a minute. If it doesn't come back, no problem: it verifies on its own with your first real email.

The exact steps for each provider

Open yours. If it isn't listed, use «email on your own domain» and search for «Forwarding» in your panel.

Gmail and Google Workspace

Same for @gmail.com and for a custom domain hosted on Google Workspace.

  1. Open Gmail on a computer. Gear icon → «See all settings».
  2. «Forwarding and POP/IMAP» tab → «Add a forwarding address».
  3. Paste your @mailipy.com address → Next → Proceed.
  4. Gmail sends a confirmation to that address. It doesn't reach you: it reaches us, and we confirm it for you as soon as it arrives. Within a few seconds your mailipy screen shows «Last step: turn forwarding on». If Google won't let us confirm it, a «Confirm forwarding» button appears: click it, then «I've confirmed».
  5. Go back to «Forwarding and POP/IMAP». The option «Forward a copy of incoming mail» is now there: select it, leave «keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox», and click «Save Changes» at the bottom of the page.
  6. In mailipy, click «Done — check it».

The most common mistake: confirming the link and not going back to select «Forward a copy». Confirming only authorises the address. Forwarding is switched on in step 5.

If Google shows «Temporary Error (400)» when confirming: it isn't mailipy, it's your Google account on a temporary hold (it happens after several failed password attempts, or on brand-new accounts). Wait an hour or two and click «Confirm forwarding» again, ideally from an incognito window with only that account signed in.

If you mistyped your @mailipy.com address in Gmail (your name instead of the address mailipy shows you, for example): no problem, we recognise it from your Gmail and register it as your address too. And forwarding our test email by hand with the «Forward» button doesn't count: forwarding is a setting.

Google Workspace: if you don't see «Add a forwarding address», your domain admin has disabled forwarding to external addresses. It's enabled in the Admin console: Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → End User Access → «Automatic forwarding».

Outlook.com and Hotmail

With a Microsoft email, forwarding is the only way: since September 2024 Outlook no longer accepts passwords from other apps, app passwords included. The good part: it doesn't ask you to confirm anything.

  1. Open Outlook in the browser. Gear icon → MailForwarding.
  2. Enable forwarding and paste your @mailipy.com address.
  3. Tick «Keep a copy of forwarded messages». Without it, the email leaves and disappears from your mailbox.
  4. Save. Outlook doesn't ask you to confirm the address.
  5. In mailipy, click «Done — check it». Do it after enabling forwarding: Outlook only forwards new email, so an earlier test email stays in your inbox even if the setting is right.

Forwarding our test email by hand with the «Forward» button, or replying to it, activates nothing: forwarding is the setting in step 2. And there's no admin or policy to touch here: that's only for business email on Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 (business email in Outlook)

Same steps as Outlook.com: gear icon → Mail → Forwarding → address → «Keep a copy» → Save.

If mailipy tells you the test email bounced with code 5.7.520, or it reaches you and the connection stays «pending»: Microsoft 365 blocks automatic external forwarding by default, and controls it with three separate settings (the outbound anti-spam policy, remote domains and mail flow rules). They have their own guide, with the exact path for each and how to tell which one blocks you: Enable forwarding to mailipy in Microsoft 365 →. With Microsoft there's no password route, so this is the way.

Zoho Mail
  1. Gear icon → MailForwarding and POP/IMAP.
  2. Under «Email forwarding», add your @mailipy.com address.
  3. Zoho sends a verification code to that address. It reaches us and shows up on your mailipy screen. Paste it into Zoho.
  4. Careful: Zoho has a similar-looking setting, «Mail Accounts → Reply-To», which also asks you to verify an address with a code. That one forwards nothing. The right one is under «Forwarding and POP/IMAP».
  5. Leave the option to keep a copy in your mailbox ticked, and save.
  6. In mailipy, click «Done — check it».
iCloud Mail
  1. Go to icloud.com → Mail. Gear icon → PreferencesGeneral.
  2. Tick «Forward my email to» and paste your @mailipy.com address.
  3. Leave «delete messages after forwarding» unticked, and save.
  4. In mailipy, click «Done — check it».
Yahoo Mail

Yahoo only offers automatic forwarding on its paid accounts (Yahoo Mail Plus). With a free account, connect with a password: mailipy walks you through creating an app password in Yahoo and pasting it.

With Mail Plus: Settings → More settings → Mailboxes → your account → Forwarding → add the address and verify it with the button that will appear on your mailipy screen.

Email on your own domain at a host (cPanel, Hostinger, IONOS, Namecheap, GoDaddy…)

Here forwarding is usually set up in the hosting panel, not inside the mailbox, and it almost never asks for confirmation.

  1. Log in to your hosting panel and go to the email section. Look for «Forwarders» (in cPanel: Email → Forwarders → «Add Forwarder»).
  2. Source: your support address. Destination: your @mailipy.com address.
  3. Save. If the panel gives you the choice, keep delivering to your mailbox as well. In cPanel, a forwarder on an existing mailbox delivers to both.
  4. In mailipy, click «Done — check it».

If your domain is on Shopify: Shopify has no mailboxes. Its «email forwarding» sends whatever arrives at info@yourstore.com to an external mailbox, for example your Gmail. So the forwarding to mailipy is set up in that mailbox, following the Gmail steps.

StartMail and other providers without forwarding

StartMail doesn't allow forwarding to external addresses. There the connection goes by password: in StartMail web, Settings → Security → Trusted devices → «Add device» generates a 16-character password, which is the one you paste into mailipy. Your login password won't work.

If your provider offers neither forwarding nor app passwords, there's no way to connect it. Use another mailbox for support, or write to us and we'll take a look.

Still not verified

It's almost always one of these three, in this order.

1

Forwarding isn't switched on

Confirming Gmail's link turns nothing on. Go back to «Forwarding and POP/IMAP», select «Forward a copy of incoming mail» and click «Save Changes». This is the cause in most cases.

2

The test landed in spam

Your mailbox doesn't forward what lands in spam. Look for «Checking your forwarding» in that folder and mark it «Not spam». It happens mostly with newly created accounts.

3

Your company blocks it

On Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, external forwarding can be disabled for the whole organization. On Microsoft 365 mailipy tells you with code 5.7.520 and there's a dedicated guide. On Workspace, if it isn't up to you, connect with a password.

And if it's none of those: some providers take a couple of minutes to activate forwarding. Click «Check again». If it still won't verify, don't get stuck: you can carry on with onboarding and create your agent. As soon as your first real email comes in, the connection verifies on its own.

What happens next

What changes and what doesn't once forwarding is working.

What doesn't change

  • Your customers write to the same address as always.
  • You keep receiving every email in your mailbox. mailipy works on a copy.
  • If you reply to someone from your mailbox, mailipy notices and leaves that thread in your hands.

What mailipy does

  • The email comes in the moment it arrives. The draft shows up in your queue within the next hour, with the Shopify order already looked up.
  • What you approve goes out in under a minute, with your store's name as the sender and an @mailipy.com address. The customer's replies come back to your queue on their own.
  • Want them to go out from your own address? Settings → Account → Support email → «Enable sending from your domain». That's where we do ask for that mailbox's password, and there's no DNS to touch.

Questions

Does mailipy need my password?

No. With forwarding you give no password at all. Only if you later enable sending from your domain will we ask for that mailbox's password, and you can revoke it whenever you want.

Is all email forwarded? What about newsletters and spam?

Your provider forwards everything that reaches the Inbox, minus spam. mailipy separates support from everything else: notifications, newsletters and commercial offers go to a separate tray, with no draft, and you can review it whenever you like.

Can I switch to the password connection later?

Yes. Settings → Account → Support email → «Change my email» opens the same path as onboarding. It works both ways. If you switch, you don't need to remove the old forwarding the same day: both paths land in the same place and nothing gets duplicated.

I set up forwarding before creating my agent. Is anything lost?

No. Emails that arrive before the agent exists are kept and processed on their own as soon as you create it. Home shows how many are waiting.

What does my customer see when I reply?

An email with your store's name as the sender. The technical address is @mailipy.com, and it's also the reply address: that way their answer comes back to your queue instead of getting lost. If you'd rather it went out from your real address, enable sending from your domain.

Stuck halfway?

Write to us with your provider's name and what you see on screen. We'll get it connected with you.

Email soporte@mailipy.com