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Set up your email in Outlook.
Desktop Outlook on Windows, using manual IMAP settings so it connects properly the first time. About ten minutes.
- Incoming & outgoing
- mail.yourdomain.co.za
- IMAP port
- 993 · SSL/TLS
- SMTP port
- 465 · SSL
- Username
- Your full email address
Swap yourdomain.co.za for your own domain. SMTP authentication is required. Your password is the one for the mailbox, not your website login.
Check which Outlook you have.
Microsoft ships two different programs both called Outlook. This guide is for classic desktop Outlook — the one in Office 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365, with File in the top left corner.
If your Outlook has a New Outlook toggle in the top right and it is switched on, turn it off before you start. New Outlook handles third-party mailboxes differently and the steps below will not match what you see.
Have your full email address and mailbox password ready. Do not let Outlook set the account up automatically — it either fails outright or quietly creates the wrong account type. Manual setup is the only reliable route.
Everywhere you see mail.yourdomain.co.za, put your own domain in its place. If your address is [email protected], your server is mail.acme.co.za. This one substitution is behind more failed setups than everything else combined.
Adding the account
1. Open account settings
Click File, then Add Account. If Outlook has never been set up, it opens this by itself when you start it.
2. Enter your address
Type your full email address. Click Advanced options, tick Let me set up my account manually, then Connect.
3. Choose IMAP
From the account types shown, click IMAP. Not POP, and not Office 365.
4. Incoming mail
Server mail.yourdomain.co.za, port 993, encryption method SSL/TLS.
5. Outgoing mail
Same server mail.yourdomain.co.za, port 465, encryption method SSL. Then click Next.
6. Password
Enter the mailbox password and click Connect. Outlook tests the connection and confirms when it is done.
If Outlook asks for the username during the test, give it your full email address rather than just the name in front of the @. That single detail is behind most failed setups.
The things that usually go wrong.
Usually the username rather than the password. Go to File → Account Settings → Account Settings, double-click the account, and check the User Name field holds your complete email address. While you are there, click More Settings → Outgoing Server and make sure My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication is ticked, set to use the same settings as the incoming server.
The outgoing server is not authenticating. In More Settings → Outgoing Server, tick My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication. Then under the Advanced tab, confirm the outgoing port is 465 and encryption is set to SSL. Some internet providers also block the standard sending port — if everything looks right and it still fails, tell us and we will give you an alternative.
You are in new Outlook. Switch the New Outlook toggle in the top right to off, let it restart, and the classic setup screens come back. If your machine only has new Outlook installed, tell us and we will talk you through it there instead.
If the mailbox is new, there is nothing on the server yet to download. If you are moving from an old computer where mail was set up as POP, the messages only exist on that machine — export them first and import them here. Our Outlook backup guide covers exactly that.
IMAP, which is what these settings use. It keeps every device in step with the server, so mail read on your phone shows as read on your computer. POP downloads messages to one machine and removes them from the server, which is how people lose years of mail when a laptop dies.
Send us a message and we will sort it.
Tell us which version of Outlook you have and the exact wording of the error. We answer within one business day, and setting up a mailbox we host is not something we charge for.