Accessing Outlook.Com Email Accounts Using Imap

In Outlook, Microsoft has enabled the IMAP support in order to improve the connectivity of the email application. Earlier, users only had the option to enable POP3 connectivity or use the Exchange ActiveSync on those devices, which supported the feature. While getting connected to the POP3, the Outlook users could be connected to clients such as Thunderbird or Mac Mail. But then some users prefer using IMAP support instead of opting for the services of these clients. According to Outlook tech support, Microsoft included IMAP support to the Outlook email setup to improve support especially for those devices that do not support Exchange Active Sync.

As compared to POP3, IMAP does not need to be enabled on Outlook’s website before you can make use of it. In POP3, you’ll first will require enabling the feature under Options > Managing your account > Connect devices and apps with POP. For configuring the email client to use IMAP to connect to Outlook.com, you need to configure the following settings in the Outlook email setup:

Incoming IMAP

• This includes configuring Server as imap-mail.Outlook.com, Server port as 993, and Encryption as SSL.

Outgoing SMTP

• Here, Server needs to be configured as smtp-mail.outlook.com, Server port as 587 and Encryption as TLS.

For configuring Outlook.com in Mozilla Thunderbird, you need to follow these steps:

• In the first step, you need to launch the Thunderbird email client in your system. Now, click on the File option, followed by New, and then on Existing Mail Account. Now, you need to type in the required information such as your name, the Outlook.com email address and password on the page.
• Once you have filled in the information, you can click on Continue, and then select the Manual Config option on the next page. Here, you will see the POP3 option set as default, so you need to add the information manually to change it to IMAP.
• For this, go ahead and choose IMAP under incoming and change the server hostname to imap-mail.outlook.com, the port as 993 and SSL at SSL/TLS.
• Similarly, you need to change the outgoing server hostname to smtp-mail.outlook.com and select the STARTTLS and port 587 options.

These steps would help you to successfully access Outlook.com email accounts using IMAP. For more information regarding the features of Microsoft Outlook, feel free to dial our 24/7 Outlook tech support number.