Understanding Outlook Email Account Configuration
For those not familiar with email protocols, that’s the process by which an <email client> (like Outlook) connects to an <email account>. What happens in terms of what data gets download and/or synchronized along with the types of data files get created depends completely on the protocol used to connect to the <email account>. Email <protocols> are industry standards and not unique to any specific <email client>. Also, and very importantly, what protocol is and can be used depends completely on what the email service provider (ESP) supports. For many people the ESP is the same as their Internet Service Provider (ISP) but the two terms are not synonymous when it becomes to email services. For example, your ISP can be your cable provider but you have your own domain and website, in which case, your web-hosting provider is your ESP.
Additional background infomation regarding email protocols and Outlook .ost and .ost files can be found in these posts
Understanding Email Protocols (POP, Imap, MAPI, EAS)
Understanding Outlook PST and OST Data Files
There will be many references to an Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail, Live, MSN etc) that has been migrated to the Office 365 backend platform and an Outlook.com that is still pending migration. To determine if an Outlook.com account has been migrated, log into the Outlook.com account via your web browser. A migrated account will show either <Outlook Mail> (or (Outlook Email depending on the region) which is a migrated account. If it shows <Outlook.com>, the account has not been migrated.
Before going through the individual sequences for email account creation for the various versions of Outlook – some common items
Using <Auto-Discover> for email account configuration
If only entering your email address and password to create your account (otherwise referred to as using <auto-discover>, the default email protocol used to connect to the account will depend on the email account and email service provider.
1- For <Outlook.com> accounts
- the <Exchange> protocol will be used if the Outlook.com account has been migrated to the Office 365 backend platform otherwise for all versions of Outlook. If the Outlook.com account has not been migrated, OL’2013/’2016 will default to using <Exchange ActiveSync>.
- The Outlook Hotmail Connector will only be required for OL’2010 and earlier <IF> the Outlook.com account has NOT been migrated (it’s expected that by the end of 2016, non-migrated accounts will become a non-issue). Migrated Outlook.com accounts will no longer function in OL’2010 (and earlier) using the Outlook Hotmail Connector.
- Only one Exchange account can be used in OL’2007 with SP3 installed. In short, you can only add one migrated Outlook.com account to a single profile providing there is no other Exchange account configured already. If SP3 is not installed, the Outlook.com account can only be configured using IMAP or POP3.
- if 2-step authentication has been enabled, you will need to enter the <app> password when configuring the account. Information regarding Outlook and 2-step authentication can be found in
– Two-step verification: FAQ
– App passwords and two-step verification
2- For GMail accounts
- before configuring the account in Outlook, be sure to enable the correct protocol you want to use (IMAP or POP3) for your Gmail account
– Set up Gmail with Outlook, Apple Mail, or other mail clients
3- For email accounts from any other provider
- Outlook will always default to IMAP if the ESP supports it (which is generally the case for any major provider)
4- For local or hosted Exchange accounts
- Starting with OL’2016, Exchange accounts cannot be manually configured. <Auto Discover> records must be published otherwise the account can’t be configured.
- EX’2007 server is no longer support in OL’2016
Things to have when manually configuring a POP or IMAP email account
- email address & password
- incoming server address
- outgoing server address (generally the same for both POP and IMAP)
- port setting for both incoming and outgoing servers (will always be different for each)
- encryption used (if any) – i.e. TLS, SSL etc
The Process
The steps to follow in configuring an email account can be viewed in the applicable Microsoft KB articles
How to set up an Internet email account in Outlook 2013 or 2016
How to setup an Internet email account in Outlook 2010
How to setup Internet email accounts in Outlook 2007 or 2003
Information regarding the creation of an Outlook profile can be found in
How to create profile and set up an e-mail account in Outlook
*** at the time of this post, the articles weren’t updated to reflect migrated Outlook.com (also formerly known as Hotmail, Live, MSN accounts etc) and non-migrated accounts particularly in reference to OL’2007 & OL’2010 which no longer require (and cannot use) the Outlook Hotmail Connector for migrated accounts.
There are 3 areas that merit emphasis when manually configuring an email account
Outbound Server settings (POP and IMAP)
For the majority of people, the Outbound server should be set to authenticate using the same settings as the incoming mail server as shown below. If this isn’t done, then mail can be received but cannot be sent. ISP’s that also provide your email account generally do not allow you to authenticate using your incoming server settings when travelling outside your home area. In those cases, the outbound server settings need to be changed to reflect whatever SMTP server is being used.
Using an existing PST file when creating a POP account
Something that often gets overlooked when people configure a POP account is that in OL’2016/’2013/’2010, it is possible to configure the POP account so that it uses an existing PST file which would typically be the case when moving to a new machine. Paying attention when the option presents itself saves going through a lot of needless steps that are otherwise required when configuring the same account in OL’2007
In Outlook ‘2010 and up – it’s a matter of making the correct choice when the account is being configured
The same option is not available when using OL’2007. In this case, the account needs to be created, the existing PST file added and the delivery location for the email account changed to the <Inbox> of the newly created POP account.
Outlook Data Files
When looking at the Outlook <Navigation Pane>, it’s the data files configured in the Outlook profile that appear which now are generally given the same name as the email account with which the file is associated with. In short, if you have 10 different POP accounts configured and all use the same PST file for email delivery, only one folder tree will appear in the Navigation Pane for all 10 accounts
In Outlook ‘2013/’2016 the following Outlook data files get created for each account type.
- POP – PST file
– multiple POP accounts can utilize the same PST file
– contact/calendar folders will not be created in the PST file if another data file, regardless of type, has been selected as the default for the profile - Outlook.com/Exchange – OST file – one for every email account
– Contact/calendar folders will always be included in the folder tree for these accounts - IMAP – OST file – one for every IMAP email account
– contact/calendar folders will not be created in the PST file if another data file, regardless of type, has been selected as the default for the profile
– contact/calendar folders will have the added description of “This Computer Only” which means that if you delete the IMAP account, all data in these folders will be lost if these folders have not been exported to a PST or CSV file
In Outlook ‘2010 and earlier
- POP – PST file (same as Outlook ‘2013/’2016)
- Outlook.com/Exchange – OST file (same as Outlook ‘2013/’2016)
- IMAP – 2 PST files (if this is the first email account configured in the profile)
– one will be for the email folders
– the other will be a data file named <Outlook Data File> containing the default contact/calendar folders for the profile.
Category: Understanding Outlook
