Setting up Evolution on Linux (GNOME)

Evolution is the mail suite that ships with GNOME — often preinstalled on Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, openSUSE. It does more than just mail: mail, calendar, contacts, tasks — integrated Outlook-style.

From our experience: solid with IMAP, good with CalDAV/CardDAV. Skip the Exchange plugin with us — why is explained below.

Prerequisites

• Evolution installed (sudo apt install evolution or on Fedora sudo dnf install evolution)
• Mailbox exists
• App password if 2FA is active

Setting up the account

1. Start Evolution.

2. On first start: setup assistant. Otherwise: File → New → Mail Account or Edit → Accounts → Add.

3. Step 1: Identity:

Field	Value
Full name	display name
Email address	full mail address

4. Next.

5. Step 2: Receiving options:

Field	Value
Server type	IMAP+
Server	mail.xaweho.de
Port	993
Username	full mail address
Secure connection	SSL/TLS on a dedicated port

6. Next.

7. Step 3: Receiving options details — usually keep the defaults.

8. Step 4: Sending options:

Field	Value
Server type	SMTP
Server	mail.xaweho.de
Port	587
Server requires authentication	enabled
Authentication type	Login (or Plain)
Username	full mail address
Secure connection	STARTTLS after connecting

9. Next → name the account → Apply.

10. On the first sync, the mailbox password is requested — enter the mailbox / app password.

Exchange plugin — doesn’t work here

Short and painless: the evolution-ews plugin speaks EWS (Exchange Web Services) — a protocol we don’t offer. Other Exchange protocols like ActiveSync don’t exist with us either. An Exchange account in Evolution is a dead end, no matter which plugin version.

Save yourself the installation. The way to go is IMAP (above) plus the CalDAV/CardDAV sections below — that keeps mail, calendar and contacts fully in sync. Evolution usually reports new mail immediately via IMAP IDLE — the connection stays open, no polling interval needed for that.

Calendar (CalDAV)

1. File → New → Calendar.
2. Type: CalDAV.
3. URL: https://mail.xaweho.de/SOGo/dav/<deine-mailadresse>/Calendar/
4. Username + password.
5. Save.

Evolution fetches the calendar list; you can subscribe to all SOGo calendars.

Contacts (CardDAV)

1. File → New → Address Book.
2. Type: WebDAV (that’s what CardDAV is called in Evolution).
3. URL: https://mail.xaweho.de/SOGo/dav/<deine-mailadresse>/AddressBook/
4. Log in.

Address books sync both ways — new contacts from Evolution land in SOGo, and vice versa.

Evolution quirks

Very GNOME-integrated: Evolution calendars appear directly in the GNOME activities view, contacts in the GNOME Contacts app, mail as notifications. If you use GNOME: Evolution fits right in.

Heavy on storage: Evolution caches IMAP mail locally. With large mailboxes the cache can reach ~10 GB. Cache directory: ~/.cache/evolution/mail/.

Backups: Evolution has a built-in export — File → Back up. Creates a .tar.gz with all accounts, cache, settings. Good for migrating to a new machine.

Plug-ins: Evolution has a number of plug-ins (mail notification tweaks, spam filtering via Bogofilter, etc.). Enable them under Edit → Plugins.

Known problems

The Exchange plugin can’t find the server: expected — evolution-ews needs an EWS endpoint, which doesn’t exist with us. Create the account as IMAP (see above), not as Exchange.

Very slow first sync: with mailboxes holding tens of thousands of mails, Evolution’s first sync can take very long. Just let it run — the second start is fast.

HTML mails look odd: Evolution’s HTML renderer is limited. With modern email newsletters, the layout can break. Fix: switch to “prefer plain text” in the mail display options, or open the mail in the browser.

Frequently asked questions

Evolution starts very slowly: often caused by many accounts or a large cache. Clear the cache: rm -rf ~/.cache/evolution/. On the next start, Evolution reloads the mail — that takes a while, but it’s faster afterwards.

Sending mail fails: check the SMTP auth method. Evolution sometimes tries CRAM-MD5 first, which not every Mailcow version supports. Manually switch to “Login” or “Plain”.

Do I get Sieve filters in Evolution? Evolution has local filters, but no direct Sieve editing. Sieve filters are best set directly in SOGo webmail (see Personal Sieve filters in webmail).

Encryption with S/MIME or PGP? Evolution supports both natively. Edit → Accounts → account → Security — that’s where you register PGP keys or S/MIME certificates.

Is Evolution still being developed? Yes, GNOME actively maintains Evolution. Updates ship with the GNOME releases (every 6 months). CalDAV/CardDAV improvements in particular land regularly.

Evolution or Thunderbird? Evolution: GNOME-integrated, closer to Outlook, good for GNOME users. Thunderbird: platform-independent (identical on Windows/Mac too), standalone app, open-source community.

Does Evolution work on KDE Plasma? Yes, it runs, but looks a bit foreign (GTK app on a Qt desktop). On KDE, KMail is usually the more natural choice — see Setting up KMail.

What’s next

• Setting up KMail on Linux (KDE)
• Setting up Thunderbird
• Server data reference