Setting up autodiscover
How to publish the two DNS records that let a mail program find its own settings.
With autodiscover set up for your domain, a mail program finds the server settings by itself. Everyone then adds their account with only an email address and a password, rather than typing server names by hand.
Setting it up needs access to your domain's DNS control panel, so it is a one-off job for whoever manages that. Two records are required.
The SRV record
| Type | Name | Value | TTL |
|---|---|---|---|
| SRV | _autodiscover._tcp | 10 100 443 zimbra.protectedservice.net | 300 |
The CNAME record
| Type | Name | Value | TTL |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNAME | autodiscover | zimbra.protectedservice.net | 300 |
Checking the records
Once both are in, confirm they resolve. The quickest check is an online lookup such as DNS Checker. Enter _autodiscover._tcp.example.com to see the SRV record, and autodiscover.example.com to see the CNAME, replacing example.com with your own domain.
From a terminal on macOS or Linux, or a Command Prompt on Windows, dig does the same:
dig +short SRV _autodiscover._tcp.example.com
dig +short CNAME autodiscover.example.comA result means the record is in place. No result means it is not set correctly yet, so check the entry and allow for the TTL before testing again.