Setting up iCloud Mail Accounts on Your Mac

One of the benefits of every iCloud account is a free @me.com email address (if you previously had a mac.com address, that serves as an alias to the me.com address). All iCloud email accounts use the IMAP email protocol, so messages are saved on the server, and you can read, reply to, and mark your email as read from any device. Because IMAP is a standard mail protocol, you can use many different email programs, on many different computing platforms, to work with your mail. You’re certainly not locked into just using Apple devices.

Because messages are saved on the server, the amount of space your email takes up counts against the free 5 GB of storage space you get with your iCloud account.

When email arrives in your iCloud email account, the email is also automatically pushed to your iOS devices, so your mail picture is the same whether you’re on a Mac or on a mobile device.