Self-Help Guide

Set up your email in Outlook

A walkthrough for Outlook 2016 and Office 365 on Windows. It takes about ten minutes. Have your email address and password ready.

Step by step

Outlook will try to set the account up automatically. Don't let it. Manual setup is the only reliable route for a standard mail account.

1. Open Outlook and go to File → Info → Add Account.
2. Choose "Manual setup or additional server types", then click Next. This is the important one. If you let Outlook configure itself automatically, it will usually fail or set up the wrong account type.
3. Select "POP or IMAP" and click Next.
4. Fill in your details. Enter your name, your full email address, and set Account Type to IMAP. IMAP keeps your mail synced across your desktop and phone. Recommended for most people.
5. Enter the server names from the cards below, then enter your full email address as the username, and your password.
6. Click "More Settings", then open the "Outgoing Server" tab. Tick "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication" and leave it set to "Use same settings as my incoming mail server". Skip this and your email will receive but never send. It is the most common Outlook mistake.
7. Open the "Advanced" tab and set the ports and encryption exactly as shown in the cards below. Click OK.
8. Click Next. Outlook runs a test and sends itself a message. When both tests show green ticks, click Close, then Finish. You're done.

Your mail server settings

Tap Copy on any value to grab it without typos.