Setting up your email in Outlook for Windows (new Outlook and classic)

Use IMAP with mail.yourdomain.com on port 993 for incoming and port 465 for outgoing, both with SSL/TLS, and enter your full email address as the username on both. That combination works in every version of Outlook for Windows. The only real difference between versions is how you reach the screen where you type those values in, since Outlook's auto-discovery usually can't find custom hosting settings and drops you into a manual setup flow.

If you'd rather see the complete settings reference first, check Email server settings (IMAP and SMTP). This article just walks through getting those values into Outlook specifically.

New Outlook for Windows

New Outlook is the redesigned client Microsoft now ships as the default on Windows. It tries auto-discovery first, and for a custom-hosted domain that usually fails or guesses wrong.

1. Go to File > Add Account, or click your account icon and choose Add Account.
2. Type your full email address and click Connect.
3. When auto-detect fails or offers the wrong provider, click Advanced options and select IMAP.
4. Enter incoming mail: server mail.yourdomain.com, port 993, encryption SSL/TLS.
5. Enter outgoing mail: server mail.yourdomain.com, port 465, encryption SSL/TLS (use port 587 with STARTTLS instead if your network blocks 465).
6. Use your full email address as the username on both incoming and outgoing, then enter your mailbox password when prompted.

Classic Outlook (Windows desktop)

Classic Outlook's manual setup path gives you more control, which helps since auto-discovery often guesses wrong for custom domains.

1. Go to File > Add Account.
2. Type your email address, click Advanced options, and check Let me set up my account manually before clicking Connect.
3. Choose IMAP from the account type list.
4. On the incoming mail screen: server mail.yourdomain.com, port 993, encryption SSL/TLS.
5. On the outgoing mail screen: server mail.yourdomain.com, port 465, encryption SSL/TLS (or port 587 with STARTTLS).
6. Confirm My outgoing server requires authentication is checked and set to use the same username and password as incoming. Classic Outlook sometimes buries this under a More Settings button on the Outgoing Server tab.
7. Enter your password and finish.

Domain not pointed at us yet

If you haven't switched your domain's nameservers yet, mail.yourdomain.com won't resolve to the right place. Check Email server settings (IMAP and SMTP) for the hostname to use in the meantime, or open a support ticket and we'll confirm it for your account. Switch back to mail.yourdomain.com once your domain resolves, so SSL certificates and authentication line up cleanly.

Common causes of a failed connection

• Username is only the part before the @. Outlook needs the full email address as the username on both incoming and outgoing, every time.
• Port and encryption don't match. Port 993 pairs with SSL/TLS for IMAP. Port 465 pairs with SSL/TLS for SMTP, or port 587 pairs with STARTTLS. Mixing these is the single most common reason setup fails partway through.
• Outgoing authentication left unchecked. If Outlook sends but never receives, or errors on send, go back into the account's advanced settings and confirm the outgoing server is set to require authentication using the same credentials as incoming.

If you've matched every setting above and Outlook still won't connect, open a ticket from Support in the portal. It's a real person, not a bot, and they can check whether the mailbox itself or the domain's mail routing is the actual problem.