Receive mail from GMail into a Java application using IMAP

Question

I want to access GMail messages from a Java application using JavaMail and IMAP. Why am I getting a SocketTimeoutException?

Here is my code:

Properties props = System.getProperties(); props.setProperty("mail.imap.host", "imap.gmail.com"); props.setProperty("mail.imap.port", "993"); props.setProperty("mail.imap.connectiontimeout", "5000"); props.setProperty("mail.imap.timeout", "5000"); try { Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(props, new MyAuthenticator()); URLName urlName = new URLName("imap://[e-mail]:[e-mail]"); Store store = session.getStore(urlName); if (!store.isConnected()) { store.connect(); } } catch (NoSuchProviderException e) { e.printStackTrace(); System.exit(1); } catch (MessagingException e) { e.printStackTrace(); System.exit(2); } 

I set the timeout value so that it does not take "forever" until the timeout. In addition, MyAuthenticator also has a username and password, which seems superfluous with the URL. Is there any other way to specify a protocol? (I have not seen it in JavaDoc for IMAP.)

Answer 1

Using imaps was a great suggestion. None of the answers provided to me just worked for me, so I searched googled even more and found something that worked. This is what my code looks like.

 Properties props = System.getProperties(); props.setProperty("mail.store.protocol", "imaps"); try { Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(props, null); Store store = session.getStore("imaps"); store.connect("imap.gmail.com", "<username>@gmail.com", "<password>"); ... } catch (NoSuchProviderException e) { e.printStackTrace(); System.exit(1); } catch (MessagingException e) { e.printStackTrace(); System.exit(2); } 

This is good because it takes the redundant Authenticator from the image. I'm glad it worked because SSLNOTES.txt makes my head spin.

Answer 2

In JavaMail, you can use imaps as the URL scheme for using IMAP over SSL. (For more information, see SSLNOTES.txt in your JavaMail distribution.) For example, imaps://[e-mail]/INBOX .

Similarly, use smtps to send emails via Gmail. e.g. smtps://[e-mail]/ . Read SSLNOTES.txt for more details. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

For imaps, you must use the following properties:

 props.setProperty("mail.imaps.host", "imap.gmail.com"); props.setProperty("mail.imaps.port", "993"); props.setProperty("mail.imaps.connectiontimeout", "5000"); props.setProperty("mail.imaps.timeout", "5000"); 

Notes that these are "imaps" and not "imap", since the protocol you use is imaps (IMAP + SSL)

Answer 4

You need to connect to GMail only using SSL. Setting the following properties will force this for you.

 props.setProperty ("mail.imap.socketFactory.class", "javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory");
 props.setProperty ("mail.imap.socketFactory.fallback", "false");

Answer 5

If you want to use more sample code when using JavaMail with Gmail (for example, converting Gmail tags to IMAP folder names or using IMAP IDLE), check out my GmailAssistant program at SourceForge .

Answer 6

Check http://g4j.sourceforge.net/ . There is a minimal gmail client built using this API.

Answer 7

I used the following properties to get the repository and it works well.

"mail.imaps.host" : "imap.gmail.com"
"mail.store.protocol" : "imaps"
"mail.imaps.port" : "993"

Answer 8

Here is what worked for my team and I, given the classic [e-mail] account and the business account [e-mail]:

  final Properties properties = new Properties(); properties.put("mail.imap.ssl.enable", "true"); imapSession = Session.getInstance(properties, null); imapSession.setDebug(false); imapStore = imapSession.getStore("imap"); imapStore.connect("imap.gmail.com", USERNAME, "password"); 

with USERNAME = "nickname" in the classic case, and USERNAME = "[e-mail]" in the business case.

In the classic case, if you are using the old JavaMail dependency, be sure to omit account protection here: https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

In both cases, check the settings GMail => Forward POP / IMAP if IMAP is enabled for the account.

Hope this helps!

Further:

• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javamail/faq/index.html#gmail
• https://support.google.com/mail/accounts/answer/78754

Answer 9

 URLName server = new URLName("imaps://<gmail-user-name>:<gmail-pass>@imap.gmail.com/INBOX"); 

Answer 10

You need to install JSSE to use SSL with Java