Connect Outlook.com to Mailbind

Outlook.com IMAP and SMTP settings

Note the two different hosts: Microsoft documents outlook.office365.com for incoming mail and smtp-mail.outlook.com for outgoing mail on a personal account. A Microsoft 365 work mailbox uses smtp.office365.com instead, which is a separate page.

IMAP is off until you turn it on

Microsoft disables POP and IMAP access on Outlook.com accounts by default. Until it is switched on, a client gets no connection at all and the error says nothing useful about why.

1. 1Open Outlook.com in a browser and go to Settings.
2. 2Choose Mail, then “Forwarding and IMAP”.
3. 3Turn on the IMAP option and save.

Microsoft also notes that an address on a domain other than @outlook.com, @hotmail.com or @live.com may not sync over IMAP at all. If yours does not, it is almost certainly a Microsoft 365 mailbox: use the Microsoft 365 page.

Modern authentication, and when a password still works

Microsoft’s page states that Outlook.com requires modern authentication — OAuth2 — for client access. In practice that means “Continue with Microsoft” on the Mailbind connect screen is the route that keeps working: Mailbind holds a token scoped to mail, which you can revoke from your Microsoft account at any time.

Where a password is still accepted, Microsoft says to use the account password and notes that an app password may be needed if the account password is refused, or when adding the account to a device that cannot do OAuth. Because Microsoft keeps narrowing this path, treat it as the fallback rather than the plan.

Connect Outlook.com to Mailbind

1. 1Sign in to Mailbind and choose “Connect a mailbox”.
2. 2Type the address. Mailbind looks up the domain and names Outlook.com itself when the records say so; otherwise pick Outlook.com from the list.
3. 3Enter your name as you want it to appear on outgoing mail, then use “Continue with Microsoft” if it is offered, or enter the password Microsoft accepts for your account.
4. 4Check the server settings. They are filled in from the preset, and you can edit either side if your account is on a different host.
5. 5Press “Test and connect”. Mailbind opens IMAP and SMTP before it saves anything, so a wrong password or a blocked port is a message on the form rather than a mailbox that silently never syncs.
6. 6Name the mailbox for the sidebar, pick a colour, and the first sync begins immediately.

Mailbind only connects to the four ports email uses — 993 and 143 for IMAP, 465 and 587 for SMTP — and refuses private or loopback addresses. If your provider asks for a different port, it cannot be used here.

If it does not connect

• No connection and no detail: IMAP is still off in Outlook.com settings.
• “Invalid credentials” on an address that works in the browser: the account needs OAuth, or an app password.
• A work or school address that refuses IMAP: it is a Microsoft 365 mailbox, and your administrator may have disabled basic authentication.
• Sending fails while receiving works: the outgoing host is the other one — smtp-mail.outlook.com for Outlook.com, smtp.office365.com for Microsoft 365.

Folders, and what Outlook calls things

Outlook.com keeps real folders, so what you see in Mailbind is what you see in the web interface: Inbox, Sent Items, Drafts, Junk Email, Deleted Items and Archive, plus anything you made. Mailbind maps the special ones so that archiving and deleting land where Outlook expects them, and leaves your own folders alone.

Categories are an Outlook concept with no IMAP equivalent, so they do not appear. Rules you set in Outlook.com keep running on the server; rules you set in Mailbind run on top of them and never fight for the same message.

Common questions

Keep reading

• All providers
• Connect Microsoft 365
• Connect Gmail
• Connect iCloud Mail
• Connect Yahoo Mail
• Send from the right address
• Help: connect Outlook