How to access Outlook.com email accounts using IMAP
Microsoft did enable IMAP support on Outlook.com a couple of days ago improving the connectivity of the company's email service significantly. Previously, Outlook.com users only had the option to enable POP3 connectivity or use Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) on devices and systems that support it.
Pop3 support ensured that you were able to connect your Outlook email account to clients such as Thunderbird or Mac Mail, and while that is a good thing, some may have preferred to use IMAP instead for that.
Microsoft did add IMAP support to Outlook.com to improve support for devices and applications that do not support EAS. This includes the two email clients mentioned in the last paragraph, other email programs and also the majority of feature phones.
It is interesting to note that IMAP does not have to be enabled first on the Outlook.com website before you can make use of it. This is different from Pop3 access which you have to enable under Options > Managing your account > Connect devices and apps with POP.
The following settings need to be used to configure an email client to use IMAP to connect to an Outlook.com email address:
Incoming IMAP
- Server: imap-mail.outlook.com
- Server port: 993
- Encryption: SSL
Outgoing SMTP
- Server: smtp-mail.outlook.com
- Server port: 587
- Encryption: TLS
Let me show you how you would configure the Outlook.com account in Mozilla Thunderbird, my default email client.
- Open the Thunderbird email client.
- Select File > New > Existing Mail Account.
- Enter your name, the Outlook.com email address and password on the page. Keep Remember password checked if you do not want to enter the password every time mail is synchronized. If you do not want the password to be stored, uncheck the box.
- Click on Continue, and select Manual Config on the next page. Thunderbird displays Pop3 account information by default, and since we want to use IMAP, we need to add these information manually.
- Select IMAP under incoming, change the server hostname to imap-mail.outlook.com and leave the port at 993 and SSL at SSL/TLS.
- Change the outgoing server hostname to smtp-mail.outlook.com, make sure STARTTLS and port 587 are selected.
- You can furthermore change the authentication method from autodetect to "normal password".
- Click on done. Thunderbird will test the connectivity and if everything turns out ok, add the email account to the list of accounts in the interface.
Closing Words
The IMAP configuration in different email programs or apps may differ from how this is done in Thunderbird. The values and parameters that you need to enter remain the same though, so that you only need to figure out how to add a new IMAP account in your email client of choice.
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You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!