The purpose of this blog post is to act as a visual guide/tutorial on how to setup an iOS device (iPad or iPhone) using the native apps against a custom Linux Mail, Calendar & Contact server.

Disclaimer: I wrote this blog post after 36hours with an apple device. I have never had any previous encagement with an apple product. Huge culture change & learning curve. Be aware, that the below notes may not apply to your setup.

Original creation date: Friday 12 Oct 2018
Last Update: Sunday 18 Nov 2018

Linux Mail Server

Notes are based on the below setup:

• CentOS 6.10
• Dovecot IMAP server with STARTTLS (TCP Port: 143) with Encrypted Password Authentication.
• Postfix SMTP with STARTTLS (TCP Port: 587) with Encrypted Password Authentication.
• Baïkal as Calendar & Contact server.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird settings for imap / smtp over STARTTLS and encrypted authentication

Baikal

Dashboard

CardDAV

contact URI for user Username

https://baikal.baikal.example.org/html/card.php/addressbooks/Username/default

CalDAV

calendar URI for user Username

https://baikal.example.org/html/cal.php/calendars/Username/default

iOS

There is a lot of online documentation but none in one place. Random Stack Overflow articles & posts in the internet. It took me almost an entire day (and night) to figure things out. In the end, I enabled debug mode on my dovecot/postifx & apache web server. After that, throught trail and error, I managed to setup both iPhone & iPad using only native apps.

Mail

Open Password & Accounts & click on New Account

Choose Other

Now the tricky part, you have to click Next and fill the imap & smtp settings.

Now we have to go back and change the settings, to enable STARTTLS and encrypted password authentication.

STARTTLS with Encrypted Passwords for Authentication

In the home-page of the iPad/iPhone we will see the Mail-Notifications have already fetch some headers.

and finally, open the native mail app:

Contact Server

Now ready for setting up the contact account

https://baikal.baikal.example.org/html/card.php/addressbooks/Username/default

Opening Contact App:

Calendar Server

https://baikal.example.org/html/cal.php/calendars/Username/default