Accessing your Mail at the Server (IMAP)

On the other hand, if you use IMAP, there's no need for your spool file since you won't be downloading. In that case, input something like the following into your muttrc. In the case of IMAP, you must also provide mutt with your user name and password, which will be required for most transactions.

mailboxes imap://myfirstisp.com
set imap_user="myusername" #your IMAP user name or login
set imap_pass="password" #your IMAP password

If you are uncomfortable about having your IMAP password stored in plain text, set the permissions for .muttrc using the ``chmod'' command so only you can read and write to the file, no one else. In this same section of your .muttrc, show mutt where to find your IMAP inbox. This is sometimes not apparent, even when you've specified where to find your mail.

set spoolfile="imap://myfirstisp.com"