Guides

How to use Tuta Mail (step-by-step guide)

Setting up your quantum-secure end-to-end encrypted mailbox is easy in Tuta Mail. Discover the Tuta Team’s guide to set up, organize, and start sending quantum-secure emails today.

Learn how to set up and organize emails and your mailbox in Tuta Mail with this easy guide.

Tuta Mail stands out because unlike Big Tech email providers, in Tuta, you can send end-to-end encrypted emails by default, creating an account takes less than one minute, and there's no technical setup. In this guide, we walk you through each step of how to set up and use your secure mailbox. Whether you need help creating folders, would like some useful tips, or instructions to add your custom domain in Tuta Mail, we have you covered.

Quick steps to set up a Tuta Mail account

  • Step 1: Sign up for a mailbox with Tuta Mail

  • Step 2: Export important emails from your old mailbox

  • Step 3: Import your emails into Tuta Mail

  • Step 4: Create folders & subfolders

  • Step 5: Set up inbox rules & move emails automatically to folders

  • Step 6: Add your custom domain

  • Step 7: Create email alias addresses in Tuta for different purposes

Getting started in Tuta Mail step-by-step guide

Step 1: Sign up for Tuta Mail

The first step to setting up a Tuta Mail account is to choose your plan and signup. If you’ve already done this, skip ahead to step two.

Screenshot: Tuta Abos: Free, Revolutionary, Legend. Screenshot: Tuta Abos: Free, Revolutionary, Legend.

Screenshot: Tuta Abos: Essential, Advanced, Unlimited. Screenshot: Tuta Abos: Essential, Advanced, Unlimited.

Tuta Mail offers a range of personal and business plans to best suit your needs.

Tuta Mail offers a range of plans, but for the purpose of using your own custom domain and alias addresses, we’d recommend getting either Revolutionary for €3/month or Legend plan for €8/month.

If you’re looking for a business email account, check out Tuta’s Business Plans.

Step 2: Export important emails

Next up, you’ll need to follow the steps from your email provider to safely export your emails into either single email files (.eml) or entire mailboxes (.mbox). Once you’ve exported your emails, you can start importing them to Tuta Mail. We show you how in the next step,

Step 3: Import emails into Tuta Mail

Import your emails into Tuta Mail: go to settings, email import, and select an import into folder. Import your emails into Tuta Mail: go to settings, email import, and select an import into folder.

Import your emails into Tuta Mail: click import, select emails to import. Import your emails into Tuta Mail: click import, select emails to import.

Once you’ve exported your emails from your old mailbox, you can use Tuta’s Import feature to add your important email communications into your new encrypted mailbox.

How to import emails into Tuta Mail

  1. Go to Settings on the Tuta Mail desktop client
  2. Click Email Import
  3. Choose a folder to import the emails to, for example, “Imported”
  4. Click Import
  5. Select files of emails to import

Once the import has completed under Import history, you will see a list of the completed imports with the date of import, the number of emails imported and if any of them failed.

Note: For now, email import is limited to the Tuta plan Legend and Unlimited.

Step 4: Create folders & Subfolders

Create folders in Tuta Mail: Click on the + to add a new folder or subfolder. Create folders in Tuta Mail: Click on the + to add a new folder or subfolder.

Create folders in Tuta Mail: Enter the folder name and click ok. Create folders in Tuta Mail: Enter the folder name and click ok.

Create subfolder in Tuta Mail: Enter the folder name, choose a parent folder and click ok. Create subfolder in Tuta Mail: Enter the folder name, choose a parent folder and click ok.

Tuta Mail’s folders and subfolders are easy to create and manage, and can be done from within the same place. With Tuta’s inbox rules you can also direct incoming emails into their dedicated folders saving you the time and effort of manually organizing new emails.

Tuta Mail allows you to create unlimited folders, and you can create subfolders within these. Folders in Tuta Mail help keep your mailbox neat and organized.

How to create folders in Tuta Mail

  1. Click on + Add folder under your folders
  2. Enter the folder name
  3. Under Parent folder, choose None
  4. Click Ok

How to create subfolders within folders

  1. Click on the three-dot menu on the parent folder
  2. Click + Add folder to add a subfolder
  3. Enter the subfolder name
  4. Click Ok

You can set up inbox rules so that incoming emails are automatically sorted into the dedicated folder. This ensures important emails end up in their dedicated folders where you can quickly open, view, and manage them.

Step 5: Set up inbox rules & move emails to folders

Set up inbox rules in Tuta Mail: Go to settings, email settings, under Inbox rules click on the + symbol to add a new inbox rule. Set up inbox rules in Tuta Mail: Go to settings, email settings, under Inbox rules click on the + symbol to add a new inbox rule.

Set up inbox rules in Tuta Mail: Under Field select what the rule applies to. Set up inbox rules in Tuta Mail: Under Field select what the rule applies to.

Set up inbox rules in Tuta Mai: Under value enter he value for the rule, then choose the target folder of the rule. Set up inbox rules in Tuta Mai: Under value enter he value for the rule, then choose the target folder of the rule.

Set up inbox rules in Tuta Mai: Once you have the field, value and target folder selected then click ok to apply the inbox rule. Set up inbox rules in Tuta Mai: Once you have the field, value and target folder selected then click ok to apply the inbox rule.

Once you have set up your folders and imported all your old emails into Tuta Mail, you can set up inbox rules. Inbox rules allow all your imported emails to be filed into folders according to the set rules. Inbox rules also ensure that incoming emails are automatically sent to the specified folder.

Now that you’ve imported your emails and updated your email address for your accounts, you will need to set up inbox rules. These rules allow you to choose what happens with incoming emails.

For example, you can set up a rule so that emails from the sender address containing PayPal or Barclays are sent directly into your matching “Bank” folder or subfolders. Or, you can set up an inbox rule for emails from your child’s school to always send to a specific folder.

By making use of Tuta’s inbox rules, you can set up automatic rules once and improve your email organization by keeping your emails neatly ordered in folders, without the hassle of manually moving them each time.

How to create inbox rules in Tuta Mail

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Click Email
  3. Click Show inbox rules
  4. Click the + to add a new rule
  5. Under field, choose what the rule is based on. For example, the From/Sender or To recipient
  6. Under Value, enter the terms / address the rule is based on.
  7. Under Target Folder, choose which folder or subfolder the matching emails will be sent to

You can even use Regex (regular expressions) for creating inbox rules in Tuta Mail.

🎬 Watch how to create inbox rules in Tuta Mail on YouTube

How to move imported emails to folders in Tuta

If you’ve imported emails from an old email account you can also move these to their specific folders using the already set up inbox rules.

  1. Go to the folder containing the imported emails
  2. Select all by clicking the square box at the top
  3. Click on the folder icon
  4. Select Inbox
  5. Go to settings
  6. Under Email, scroll down to Inbox rules
  7. Click Reapply inbox rules

The setup inbox rules will then automatically apply to these emails imported emails.

🎬 Watch how to reapply inbox rules in Tuta Mail on YouTube

Step 6: Add your custom domain

Set up your custom domain in Tuta Mail: Go to settings, email settings, under Inbox rules click on the + symbol to add a new inbox rule. Set up your custom domain in Tuta Mail: Go to settings, email settings, under Inbox rules click on the + symbol to add a new inbox rule.

Set up your custom domain in Tuta Mail: Under Field select what the rule applies to. Set up your custom domain in Tuta Mail: Under Field select what the rule applies to.

To add your custom domain in Tuta Mail follow the steps provided in our custom domain setup wizard.

How to add your custom domain in Tuta Mail

  1. Under settings, go to Global Settings
  2. Under Custom email domains, click on the +
  3. Enter your custom email domain and click Next

Follow the next three steps of the setup wizard which walks you through adding your custom domain in Tuta Mail.

In order to send and receive emails with your custom domain in Tuta, you need to configure the following types of DNS records in the settings of your domain name provider. Prior to configuring those DNS records, the wizard will allow you to create new users or email aliases for your custom domain in order to have a smart switch to receiving emails in Tuta.

  • a TXT record to prove that you are the owner of the domain
  • an MX record with any priority
  • a TXT record for SPF
  • CNAME records (_domainkey) for DKIM
  • CNAME records for MTA-STS
  • a TXT record (_dmarc) for DMARC is recommended

The exact values that these DNS records should point to will be shown to you in the setup wizard.

The MX record is necessary to relay emails for your domain to the Tuta servers. The SPF TXT record marks the Tuta server as a valid sender of emails from your domain. The _domainkey and _dmarc records make sure your emails are signed with DKIM and sender spoofing of your domain’s email addresses can be detected automatically by the recipient mail servers. The MTA-STS records make sure that transport encryption and authentication are used between different mail servers.

Tuta will indicate if the DNS records are fine for all your domains or if there is something that has to be changed.

Note: With some domain name providers, it may take up to a few hours before changes to your DNS records become visible for other mail servers. You can check your DNS settings here.

Step 7: Create alias addresses

Create alias addresses in Tuta Mail: AGo to settings, email settings, under Email addresses click +. Create alias addresses in Tuta Mail: AGo to settings, email settings, under Email addresses click +.

Create alias addresses in Tuta Mail. Adding email addresses to remain anonymous, private and secure is easy in Tuta Mail. Create alias addresses in Tuta Mail. Adding email addresses to remain anonymous, private and secure is easy in Tuta Mail.

Creating alias email addresses is quick and easy in Tuta Mail. Alias addresses not only help boost security and privacy, but they are a game-changer for your mailbox organization.

Next, you will want to think about what your important online accounts are that you’d like to update with your new email address, and if you’d like to use your primary address or an alias.

To remain private and secure, we’d recommend only sharing your primary email address with people you know. To protect your identity, reduce spam, and stay more organized, you can create alias email addresses for different purposes. Remember that you do not need to update all your accounts with your new email address - only a few important ones. For example, you might not want to update the email of an online platform that you no longer use and that most likely still sends marketing emails.

How to add an alias address in Tuta Mail

  1. Under Settings, click Email
  2. Scroll to Email addresses and click Show
  3. Click on the +
  4. Enter your new alias address and choose the domain
  5. Enter your sender name
  6. Click Ok

You can also change your primary email address by clicking on the three-dot icon next to your newly created email alias, and then selecting Set as primary address.

🎬 Watch how to add email aliases in Tuta Mail on YouTube

Examples of alias email addresses you could create for different purposes

  • Primary address: Reserve this exclusively for people you know
  • An alias address for your social accounts
  • An alias email address for banking
  • An alias address for online shopping
  • An alias address for newsletters

To learn how alias email addresses protect your privacy and how to get aliases, check out our in-depth guide here.

Step 7: Update the registered email address on accounts

Before you delete your old mailbox you will need to make sure you:

  1. Let your important email contacts know about the change of your email address and ask them to update your contact.

  2. Go through important profiles and accounts online, and update your email address.

For example, you could email your close friends and family informing them of your new primary address. But when you update your email address on your social media platforms or online shopping accounts, you can use one of your alias addresses.

Extra organization features with Tuta Mail

Utilize Labels

In Tuta Mail, you have total freedom over how you organize and categorize your emails. With Tuta’s labels, you can create custom names for each label and choose custom colors too. Emails can have more than one label, and you can view emails according to their labels.

🎬 Watch how to create and use labels in Tuta Mail on YouTube

Use the Tuta Calendar

When you sign up for Tuta Mail, you will also get access to the Tuta Calendar which is built for easy organization and effortless planning. So when leaving your old mailbox, like Gmail, why not DeGoogle completely and make the switch to Tuta Calendar - the private calendar alternative to Google too.

Learn how to set up and use Tuta Calendar!

Tuta Drive - coming soon

Tuta has been developing the Tuta Drive - a quantum-secure encrypted storage solution. It’s currently in closed beta and will become available to the public in the next few months.

Easy control of spam

With Tuta Mail’s spam rules you’re in control of how your emails are handled with the rules you create. Spam rules allow you to set different rules for emails, saving you time and the effort of manually having to delete emails or move them to Trash or Spam. For example, you can choose where emails from specific senders, domains, or even emails containing specific words in the subject are sent to. With spam rules you can mark emails as “Not spam”, “Always spam”, or set the rule to “Discard” specific emails completely.

Tuta recently rolled out a new and improved spam filter. This client-side filter learns individually, specific to your mailbox, based on how you classify your emails. To ensure your mailbox classifies emails correctly, please sort your emails by moving spam to the spam folder and genuine emails into inbox if they are incorrectly placed in spam. As you classify your emails and report spam, the spam filter will improve.

🎬 Watch how Tuta’s new spam filters work on YouTube

Auto delete after 30 days

Tuta Mail’s auto delete feature ensures that your email storage doesn’t get wasted on trash mail either, thanks to automatic deletion of all emails contained in the Trash or Spam folder after 30 days of moving the emails to these folders. You can also manually empty these folders at any time.

Beyond organization, you get privacy

More than a user-friendly mailbox that gives you email organization, Tuta Mail gives you privacy. With the German email provider, Tuta Mail, you’re guaranteed the best privacy and security thanks to its post-quantum encryption, open source code, and zero-knowledge architecture.

Learn more about why Tuta Mail is considered the most secure and privacy-focused email provider!

Illustration of a phone with Tuta logo on its screen, next to the phone is an enlarged shield with a check mark in it symbolizing the high level of security due to Tuta's encryption.