Use Thunderbird's autoconfig algorithm

Feature Suggestions
,
#1

First of all, thanks for the best email client out there :slight_smile: Here’s an idea for your consideration:

When setting up an account in Thunderbird, a fairly simple autoconfig algorithm is used, tldr:

  1. Check https://autoconfig.<domain>/mail/config-v1.1.xml?emailaddress=<address>
  2. Check Mozilla’s own ISPDB at https://autoconfig.thunderbird.net/v1.1/<domain> (also look up domain’s MX records)
  3. Try some common names like imap.<domain> or mail.<domain>

This makes setting up IMAP/SMTP a lot easier – you just have to write your email and password and you’re done. Definitely not something you need every day but it still would be nice to have it implemented in Mailspring as well.

(Originally posted by notpushkin on GitHub.)

#2

Hey! This would be great - we actually pulled down Thunderbird’s database (which is also used by Mailcore) and put it into the app here: Mailspring/mailcore-provider-settings.json at 4b6c24fefa270d29ee5733d66f0885aae4e6e4e1 · Foundry376/Mailspring · GitHub. Right now the app makes a DNS request for MX records of your email accocunt’s domain, and then tries to match the MX record to one of those known providers. It works /most/ of the time, but I think we could definitely do better by implementing a realtime lookup to their ISPDB!

(Originally posted by bengotow on GitHub.)

#3

Some kind of autoconfigure would be really nice to see!

I’d love to be able to recommend Mailspring to my non-tech savvy users, but as it currently stands I have to recommend thunderbird for the ease of use (ensuring positive user experience)