🛡️ Using Mailbird with Surfshark VPN
Mailbird can now work with Surfshark VPN, but there is one important limitation for sending emails.
Surfshark does not support SMTP traffic on port 587 in its infrastructure for security reasons. If your email account is configured to send mail through SMTP port 587, sending emails from Mailbird may fail while Surfshark is enabled.
📤 Use SMTP port 465 for sending email
To use Mailbird with Surfshark, your outgoing SMTP settings should use port 465. Port 465 is encrypted and is supported by most email providers as an alternative SMTP port for sending emails.
In Mailbird, check your account's outgoing server settings and update the SMTP port if needed:
- Open Mailbird Settings.
- Go to Accounts and select the affected email account.
- Open the account's server or outgoing mail settings.
- Change the outgoing SMTP port to 465.
- Use SSL/TLS encryption if your provider offers this option.
- Save the changes and try sending an email again.
⚠️ If your email provider does not support port 465
Most email providers support SMTP port 465. However, if your provider only supports SMTP port 587, then Mailbird will not be able to send emails through Surfshark.
In that case, you will need to disable Surfshark while using Mailbird, or exclude Mailbird from Surfshark using Surfshark's Bypasser/split tunneling feature if that option is available in your Surfshark app.
📥 Receiving emails
This limitation applies specifically to SMTP, which is used for sending emails. Receiving emails uses IMAP or POP3, and may continue to work normally depending on your email provider's server settings and how Surfshark routes the connection.
🛠️ Still having trouble?
If you still cannot send emails after switching SMTP to port 465, temporarily disable Surfshark and test Mailbird again.
If Mailbird works correctly with Surfshark disabled, the issue is caused by Surfshark's handling of the mail connection rather than Mailbird itself.
If you require further assistance, please click here to contact us.