App passwords on a custom domain

Work out who hosts the mailbox, then ask them for the right kind of password.

Nevermore signs in over plain IMAP with an app-specific password — a separate, revocable password that works for one app and nothing else. Almost every mail host that supports IMAP can issue one; what they call it and where they keep it varies, and we can only describe the ones we have checked.

First: who actually hosts your mail?

A custom domain does not tell you. The address you@yourcompany.com might be hosted by Google Workspace, iCloud, Fastmail, or your web host's own mail server, and the app password lives with whoever runs the mailbox — not with whoever sold you the domain.

If you read your mail at mail.google.com, it is Google Workspace — follow the Gmail page and choose Gmail as the provider in Nevermore.
If you read it at app.fastmail.com, follow the Fastmail page.
If the domain is added to iCloud Mail, follow the iCloud page.
Otherwise it is your own host's webmail, and the steps below are the general shape of it.

Finding it at another host

We have not verified any particular host's screens, so rather than describe a menu that may not exist: look in your webmail's account or security settings for a section about app passwords, application-specific passwords, device passwords, or third-party apps. If your host offers none of those, an IMAP client typically signs in with your normal mailbox password instead — that is common on smaller hosts and works fine with Nevermore.

You will also need the host's IMAP server name and port, which they publish under something like "mail client settings" or "IMAP settings". Nevermore uses IMAP over TLS, normally port 993.

If you can't find any of it, your host's support can tell you in one reply: ask whether the mailbox allows IMAP access, and whether it needs an app-specific password.

A note on the provider picker

When Nevermore doesn't recognise your domain it asks you to choose a provider. That choice sets which IMAP server it connects to, so pick whoever hosts the mailbox — Gmail for a Google Workspace domain, and so on. It is not a guess about your address.

Then, in Nevermore

Paste it into the App password field on Nevermore's sign-in screen. Spaces are fine — the app strips them. It goes straight into the macOS Keychain, is never written to disk in the clear, and never leaves your Mac.

An app password is a credential: it grants access to your mailbox. Put it in Nevermore's password field, and nowhere else — not into a note, an email to yourself, or a chat window. If you ever want to cut Nevermore off, delete the app password at your provider; nothing else about your account changes.

If sign-in still fails

Check you entered the app password, not your normal account password. Providers reject both with the same error, so the message looks identical.
Most providers show the password only once and cannot show it again. If you did not copy it, delete that one and create another — they are free and disposable.
If you deleted the password at your provider, or changed something about the account, create a new one and re-enter it.
Still stuck? Get in touch — include your provider and what the error said.

Checked against each provider's documentation on 22 August 2026. Providers move these settings without warning; if what you see does not match, their page is the authoritative one and we would be glad to hear about it.