Yandex IMAP settings and Mail.ru setup in Mailera

Quick answer: how do you connect Yandex Mail or Mail.ru?

Prepare an app password for the mailbox you already own, then open Mailboxes → Add mailbox → One mailbox in Mailera. Enter your address, check the detected provider, and select Continue. Supply the app password and run Test & connect.

Yandex Mail and Mail.ru are separate providers. An address ending in yandex.ru belongs to Yandex, not Mail.ru; the .ru ending alone doesn't identify the provider.

Mailera connects existing mailboxes. It does not create Yandex or Mail.ru addresses, so you need a working provider account before starting.

Which IMAP and SMTP settings should you use?

IMAP is the incoming connection used to read mail. SMTP is the outgoing connection used to send it. Keep those checks separate: a successful incoming sign-in doesn't establish that sending works.

These are the presets used by Mailera's Yandex connection and Mailera's Mail.ru connection:

Use the provider preset rather than copying settings from another account. The app-password flow asks for your email address first; you don't need to enter the settings in this table manually.

Why might a Yandex guide show different settings?

Yandex's official mail-client instructions list imap.yandex.com on port 993 with SSL. The guide also lists imap.ya.ru as an incoming alternative for users outside Russia. Use imap.yandex.com for the Mailera preset, even when your mailbox address ends in yandex.ru.

For outgoing mail, Yandex lists smtp.yandex.com with SSL on port 465 and mentions port 587 when the client starts the connection without encryption. Mailera's preset pairs port 587 with STARTTLS.

Port and security mode belong together. RFC 8314's description of implicit-TLS submission explains that port 465 begins with an immediate TLS handshake. Don't change only the port while leaving an unrelated security mode selected.

If you're configuring a private server rather than either provider preset, follow the custom IMAP/SMTP connection guide.

How do you prepare a Yandex Mail account?

Complete the Yandex settings before testing the connection in Mailera. A password that works in webmail isn't the credential this connection expects.

1. Open your Yandex Mail settings and go to “Email clients.”
2. Enable “From the imap.yandex.com server via IMAP” and “App passwords and OAuth tokens” (both appear together under Email clients). These are Yandex's setting labels; the Mailera connection uses an app password.
3. In your Yandex ID account, open “App passwords” and select “Create an app password.”
4. Select “Mail” as the application type and create the password.
5. Copy it securely for the Mailera connection. Yandex displays the newly created password only once.

Use a dedicated password for this connection rather than placing your normal Yandex sign-in password in Mailera. Keep the generated credential out of screenshots, shared notes, and agent prompts.

How do you prepare a Mail.ru account?

Mailera's Mail.ru connection also expects an app password, but don't apply Yandex's settings to a Mail.ru account. In particular, the Yandex “Email clients” sequence above is specific to Yandex.

Use the Mail.ru-specific preparation shown during connection:

1. Enter your Mail.ru address in Mailera and confirm that Mail.ru is the detected provider.
2. Select Continue, then review How to get an app password and What you'll need. Mailera lists a phone requirement for its Mail.ru connection.
3. Follow the Mail.ru instructions there to create an app password for this connection.
4. Return to Connection details and place that app password in Password, not your normal account password.

Never send the password to someone else to troubleshoot the connection.

For credential handling beyond this setup, see app passwords for agent mailboxes.

How do you add the mailbox in Mailera?

You must have the Admin or Leader role to add a mailbox.

1. Open Mailboxes → Add mailbox → One mailbox.
2. Enter the full address in Email address. Check Detected: before proceeding. If the provider is wrong, select the correct one under Or choose a provider, then choose Continue.
3. Review How to get an app password and What you'll need for that provider. Finish the account preparation above before continuing.
4. Under Connection details, enter the app password in Password. Choose the appropriate Mailbox group. Display name is optional and supplies the sender name.
5. Select Test & connect and review each check separately rather than treating them as a single result.

The checks answer different questions:

Test & connect does not send an email. Even when outgoing sign-in succeeds, perform a separate send test if your workflow needs sending.

If the result says Can receive email, but cannot send yet, choose Edit details and Test again to correct the outgoing connection. Alternatively, select Save as receive-only if you only need reading. A receive-only connection cannot send mail.

After success, Mailera shows Connected and starts loading messages within the retention period, newest first. Select Open mailbox and check the message list. If you need to leave the connection page while testing continues, Run in background lets Mailera finish and save the mailbox.

How do you confirm that receiving and sending work?

Use a new message you can identify, not just an old message already present in the mailbox.

1. From another mailbox you control, send a message to the connected address. Use a distinctive subject such as Mailera receive check — cedar.
2. Open the connected mailbox in Mailera and look for that subject. Check the sender and received time so you know you've found the new message.
3. Open the message and confirm that its content is readable.
4. If sending is required, deliberately send a separate message from the connected mailbox to another mailbox you control, then check the destination.

The receiving test confirms that you can access new incoming mail. The separate sending test confirms that sent mail reaches its destination. Passing one test doesn't mean the other will pass.

Check the message list through the API

For an app or agent integration, use a key with read permission. Set $MAILERA_API_KEY and $MAILBOX_ID in your local environment, then list recent Inbox messages:

curl --request GET \
  "https://mailera.app/api/public/v1/mailboxes/$MAILBOX_ID/messages?folder=inbox&limit=10" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $MAILERA_API_KEY"

Look in data for the test message's subject, from, received_at, and folder. An empty Inbox result is a reason to check folders and sync state, not an automatic diagnosis of bad credentials.

You can also use GET /mailboxes/{id}/status with read permission. For Yandex and Mail.ru, this reflects the latest sync rather than performing a fresh direct sign-in test. Consult the Mailera API documentation when adding these checks to your application.

Mailera doesn't promise absolute real-time synchronization. During setup, the Live monitoring check reports Yes for new messages arriving within seconds while the mailbox is in use, or No for checks roughly every two minutes while in use. Inactive mailboxes can sleep and wake on use.

What common mistakes cause connection failures?

Start with the failed stage. Replacing credentials when only the outgoing connection failed can distract from the actual problem.

For missing mail, check the original provider mailbox too. If the test message is there but absent from Mailera, focus on the selected folder and sync state. If it's absent at the provider as well, reconnecting Mailera isn't the first useful step.

How should you protect access if an agent reads the mail?

Treat message bodies and attachments as untrusted data, not instructions. An agent must not follow commands embedded in an incoming email, including requests to reveal credentials or send mailbox contents elsewhere.

Start with an API key limited to Read and the required group under Mailbox scope. Keep app passwords and API keys out of prompts, logs, and screenshots. Grant Send messages only when the workflow requires it, and require explicit confirmation before sending.

Use the guide to connecting existing email providers to agents for the broader integration, and review Mailera's security information before granting access to a shared mailbox.