How-To Geek
How to Setup Gmail for Custom Domains on the Kindle Fire’s Email App
If you’ve just opened your shiny new Kindle Fire and tried to connect it to Gmail using your own custom (not @gmail.com) email address, you might be in for a surprise: the email account wizard has no idea how to handle this scenario, even if you pick Gmail at the beginning. Here’s how to fix it.
Note: we’re in the middle of doing a thorough test of the Kindle Fire, and we’ll post our in-depth review in the next few days. So far: it’s a great tablet for the price.
Setting Up Gmail Custom Domain Email in Kindle Fire
You’ll need to start, naturally, by opening up the Email application and selecting from the list—you can choose Gmail, even though we’ll have to tweak the settings. Once there, enter your email address and password.
Note: if you haven’t already enabled IMAP, you’ll want to head to your Gmail mail settings page and turn it on there.
Then you’ll probably want to choose IMAP.
And now you’ll come to the screen that makes no sense. The username is wrong, the IMAP server is wrong, and the security type is wrong.
Instead of using those values, you’ll want to use the following:
- Username: Your full email address
- IMAP server: imap.gmail.com
- Security type: SSL
Head to the next screen, which will ask you for the outgoing server settings. You’ll want to use the following:
- SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com
- Security type: TLS
Once you get past that screen, you’ll be able to access your email without issue.
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- By The Geek on 11/15/11
Comments (25)
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RichardGreat instructions… Made it easy to get it up and running.
Thanks for the help!
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andrea
That was very helpful! Thanks
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Farmer Bill
Thanks so much. God bless you.
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Simple mistake to overlook but make sure you have enabled imap in Gmail. I have connected with other Gmail apps before on Android but they never needed imap to be on. With the Fire’s app, it seems to need it enabled or else it will say wrong info regarding username or password.
Thanks, that’s a very good point.
According to the help on the device itself, for Incoming, you should choose the defaults for gmail, which are “SSL (Always)”, and “SSL (If available)” for outgoing. Those settings worked on my device. thanks for the quick how-to!
Wow, many thanks. You made an opaque process dead easy!
Just as an FYI…as of 11/17/11 they have fixed the gmail problem. I did not have to enter any settings, it just did it all on it’s own! Thank you though…I had this article saved and ready to use :)
Laurel
Okay – this is my first tablet – can you tell me where to find the email application on the Fire? I don’t see it coming up anywhere.
Still having trouble setting gmail on my Fire – HELP
Just received my Kindle fire and am very disappointed. I can’t remove any thing from the carousel. I watched a shoe on Prime and it’s on the carousel. I went to a web page and its on the carousel. I browed a book and returned it but it is still on the carousel.
Can you delete or group on the carousel? If not that is a real problem.
This gave me the answer I was looking for, simply and clearly explained (loved that you included photos). Thank you!
Thank you! Very easy to follow and it worked!
I have a Kindle coming and I appreciate this input. I’m new to this tablet business, can Outlook be used? No big deal if it can’t since I also have a Yahoo email account amd can do Gmail if necessary.
I need some further help with this. My domain email worked perfectly after following these instructions, BUT my contacts did not come into my Kindle Fire. I’ve searched around on the web and can’t find any answers. Anyone have any ideas on how to get my contact into the fire and to sync?
I setup several emails through the kindle fire mail app. I want to remove the account but I cant seem to find out how. Any help?
Cool works fine. Thanks a lot
I followed the steps but “failed to connect”…realized I had to set up for the outgoing server as well. TaDa.
Thank you so much for posting this, I thought I was losing my mind.
Having trouble setting up gmail
I cannot get my gmail account (custom domain) to send from the Kindle Fire. It will receive emails but not send. I have tried all the settings for the outgoing server but I keep getting “connection error.” Can anyone suggest help?
Thank you soo much for posting!!
@house 179, I also could not figure out how to remove email accounts.
I was able to edit my existing gmail account, using the excellent info in the article above, rather than deleting my original gmail account and adding the custom gmail account. In other words, you can edit an existing gmail account and turn it into a custom gmail account.
Thanks for the article!
If you are using the 2-step verification process in google, you will have to general a application specific password to use to log in. Its under Account setting>account overview>security. You will only have to do this once. Also…remember to select IMAP under gmail settings as well.
To import contacts, take a group of your contacts and “send” them as vcard files via attachments and save the e-mail rather than sending them to anyone. Then select all of the attachments (one per contact) and save them to your documents folder on the Kindle Fire by using the USB cable that attaches to the same connection you charger uses (a miniUSB connector).
I didn’t order a cable but had one that worked that came with a camera I bought last year. Then go to your contacts on the kindle (its is a separate app from e-mail) and let it search for the .vcf files. Once they are found, import and choose ALL and let the Kindle rip. It took about 2 minutes to import 200+ contacts.