Today I will show you how to set up Microsoft Outlook 2007-2010-2013 to access your Hotmail or Outlook.com account via IMAP so you can keep local copies of all your emails and access your email from any connected device. It’s a pretty straight-forward process too and all you’ll need is your Hotmail email address, password, a pen and paper.
You may also need to visit my guide about “550 5.3.4 Requested action not taken; We noticed some unusual activity in your Hotmail account. To help protect you, we’ve temporarily blocked your account” error message if you are having trouble setting up an email app like Outlook to access your Hotmail account.
Watch the video above or follow the text guide below.
Setup Outlook to access Hotmail via IMAP
- Open Outlook and…
- For a new, never before setup Outlook 2007/2010/2013:
- The Microsoft Outlook 20xx Startup screen should now be open
- Click Next > then select Yes to the Would you like to configure an E-mail account? option, then click Next > again
- For a previously setup Outlook 2007 (ie. you are adding an email account as well as an existing one):
- Click the Tools menu, then click Account Settings
- Now select the E-mail tab and click the New… button
- You should now see the Choose E-mail Service screen
- Select the Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP option and click Next >
- For a previously setup Outlook 2010 or 2013 (ie. you are adding an email account as well as an existing one):
- Click the File tab, then click the Info menu item (left pane) then click the + Add Account button
- For a new, never before setup Outlook 2007/2010/2013:
- The Auto Account Setup screen should now be in-view
- Select the Manually configure server settings or extra server types option and click Next >
- For Outlook 2013, select the POP or IMAP option on the Choose service screen, then click Next >
- For Outlook 2007 and 2010, leave the Internet E-mail option selected and click Next >
- Enter your details into the Internet E-mail Settings screen as follows:
- Your Name: [enter your name]
- Your E-mail: [enter your email address]
- For Account Type: option, choose IMAP
- For Incoming mail server: field, type imap-mail.outlook.com
- For Outgoing mail server: field, type smtp-mail.outlook.com
- User Name: [enter your full email address ie. yourname@hotmail.com]
- Password: [enter your email password] & leave the Remember password box checked
- Leave Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) box un-checked (important!)
- Leave Test account settings by clicking the Next button box checked (recommended)
- Click the More Settings… button, then select the Outgoing Server tab
- Check the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication box
- Select the Use same settings as my incoming mail server option
- Select the Advanced tab, then enter port details as follows:
- Incoming server (IMAP): 993
- Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL
- Outgoing server (SMTP): 587
- Use the following type of encrypted connection: TLS
- Server timeout: 5 minutes
- Leave other settings at defaults unless you require otherwise
- Click OK to close the More Settings… window, then click Next > on the Internet E-mail Settings screen
- Outlook will now attempt to logon to the incoming server, then send a test message to the outgoing server
- If Outlook is successful at both, you will see 2 green ticks, click the Close button on the Test Account Settings popup
- You should now see the Congratulations! screen, click Finish and you’re all done
- If Outlook was unsuccessful (1 or 2 red cross) double-check your settings and if needed, go through this guide again
Nice job. If you set up Outlook to connect to your Hotmail account using POP3 it leaves you unable to access any subfolders you may have, whereas using IMAP you can.
Hi Nicholas, yep IMAP is far better that POP3. Another good aspect is that you can sync folders/emails in your IMAP account with different devices like your phone and laptop. cheers, Richie
Can I do this with an existing account without losing the messages currently stored?
Hi Michelle, if you don’t delete the existing account your emails should stay there and will be available via the folder on the right-side pane (be sure to click on the little arrows). You can then move your emails into the new folders. Cheers! Richie
Thank you!
Thanks for your detailed guide. Thanks!
no probs, glad it helped. cheers! Richie
Richie,
Thank you very much for this guide. This was very helpful!
Ed
No worries Ed, glad it helped. cheers! Richie
Hie Thanks it helped, i was getting worried. easy steps to follow.
glad it helped. cheers mate, Richie
after HOURS trying to get my email to work…. You saved the day! Thanks….
No worries Sandy, glad it helped 🙂 cheers! Richie
Amazing work Richie Brereton , keep it up, after 2 hours of try as per Microsoft support page, I googled and came here and it worked in minutes. Great Job
Thanks mate, I appreciate you feedback. cheers, Richie
I got it working, but I cannot seem to get all my hotmail folders synced. I see them all, but no email are in any of them. They are empty. How do I get all my email in them?
Howdy Dan, have you tried the Hotmail Connector app? see this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2735989 and see if it works. Let me know how you go mate.
Cheers!
Richie
Hi there,
I am using outlook 2007. I am having issues with sent folder. Outlook 2007 is able to sync only up to year 2012, My emails go up to year 2007. I am not having issues with inbox and other folders.
Howdy, you can force Outlook to download all folders and messages, see this guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/microsoft-office/force-outlook-2007-to-download-complete-imap-items/ and let me know if that solves the issue mate. Cheers! Richie
Hi
I’ve got Mac Outlook 2011 and it looks very different to the ones you’ve got in your video. Setting hotmail up as POP doesn’t download any of my subfolders. So I try for the ‘Exchange’ option and the auto search for the server address doesn’t work. Manually I’ve tried different addresses (such as the ones in your vid) but had no luck. There’s no ingoing and outgoing addresses, just one server address.Any ideas please, this is driving me nuts!!
Hi Claudia, yes setting up Outlook on a MAC is a little different, see this guide: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Add-an-email-account-to-Outlook-for-Mac-2011-fdd33fab-b745-4762-a1c6-70ddba452983 and let me know how you go.
Cheers
Richie
Thank you best tutorial I have found, and its working finally
Thanks John, cheers! Richie
Genious. You just ended a 3 hour quest of mine searching the web to figure this out. This is the only thing that worked. Much appreciated
No problems Adam, glad I could help 🙂 cheers, Richie
Thank you for your “Setup Outlook to access Hotmail via IMAP” document. Perfectly accurate, and it brought an end to months of suffering with pop-ups for one of my clients.
thanks for the feedback Dan, cheers mate, Richie
Perfect, Thanks very much for posting 🙂
no worries Ernest, cheers, Richie
After lot of if and buts, finally this page gave me solution which I could applied in few minutes. Thanks
Glad it helped Shivkant 🙂
Your well-built guide helped me a lot! I tried several methods to setup Hotmail in outlook; however failed to do so,
Finally, coming across this page I managed to resolve it.
Many Thanks
Cheers Shafi, glad it helped 🙂
Excellent primer! Thank you!
Finally! A guide that actually works. Thank you very much for that!