How does mail autodiscover work?

Question

How does mail autodiscover work in Plesk?

Answer

Mail Autodiscover automatically configures mail clients, simplifying email setup for users on both desktop and mobile platforms.

Note: Mail Autodiscover doesn't work on forwarders or domains without web hosting. This will be implemented in future updates.

There are 4 main phases in the mail autodiscover process, where the client communicates back and forth with the server.

1. The mailbox is added to a mail client, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, or Apple Mail

2. The mail client sends an autodiscover request to the domain. These are the request details for common mail clients:

   Client	Type	Target
   Outlook	POST HTTP	https://<domain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
   Thunderbird	GET HTTP	https://<domain>/mail/config-v1.1.xml?emailaddress=<address> https://<domain>/.well-known/autoconfig/mail/config-v1.1.xml?emailaddress=<address>
   Apple Mail	GET HTTP	https://<domain>/email.mobileconfig?emailaddress=<address>

3. Plesk generates an XML response with connection details such as available protocols and authentication methods

4. The mail client configures the account using these details

For more information about this feature, see our mail autodiscover management guide and related documentation.