Setting up an IMAP or POP Mailbox in Outlook for Mac (2011/2016)

These instructions apply to Outlook 2011 & Outlook 2016 for Mac.

Step 1 – Adding a new mail account

Open Outlook on your iMac or Macbook and select Accounts from the Tools menu.

Step 2 – Select the account type

At the bottom left of the Accounts window, click the + button to add a new mail account, and select E-mail or Other Email from the dropdown menu.

Step 3 – The basic details

In the next window, enter your email address (e.g. myself@mydomain.co.uk) in the E-mail address field.

Ignore the tick-box marked Configure Automatically.

Step 4 – Username and Password

Enter the password you have been given into the Password field.

Username – your full email address (e.g. myself@mydomain.co.uk)
Password – your password that has been given or texted to you.

Step 5 – IMAP or POP ?

Make sure you choose IMAP from the Type dropdown if you want to synchronise all your mail folders across your computers and mobile devices.
OR select POP if you just want to have a simple mail account where you have no folders other than your inbox AND you do not need to synchronise your emails for this account across your computers or mobile devices.
WARNING – Once you have saved your account as IMAP or POP, you cannot change this setting without first deleting the mail account (and possibly deleting all your email from your computer by accident), or setting up a duplicate mail account with a different IMAP or POP setting.

If in doubt about whether to use IMAP or POP, always use IMAP.

Step 6 – Incoming Server

In the Incoming Server field enter mail.livemail.co.uk as your incoming server (unless you are given another server address to use).
Make sure you tick Use SSL to connect (recommended).
Make sure the port specified shows 993
If the port does not show 993, then select Override default port and enter 993 in the additional box.
N.B. Your username is your full email address (e.g. myself@mydomain.co.uk)

Step 7 – Outgoing Server

In the Outgoing Server section ensure that smtp.livemail.co.uk is entered into the Outgoing server text box (unless you have been given a different smtp server address).

For the Outgoing Server, tick the box for Override default port, enter 465 in the port box to the right of the Outgoing server, and make sure Use SSL to connect (recommended) is selected.
Make sure you tick Use SSL to connect (recommended).
Make sure the port specified shows 465
If the port does not show 993, then select Override default port and enter 465 in the additional box.

Step 8 – Nearly finished!

To save the information entered so far, click the Add Account button at the bottom of the window.

Step 9 – Check your Outgoing Server Authentication

Outlook will have now saved the account information, but you need to enter a few more details for your Outgoing Server before you can send email.

On the list of accounts, you will now see a More Options button has appeared under the Outgoing Server area of your new account.

In the window that pops up, check to see if Authentication is set to None. If it is then:

Either select Use Incoming Server Info from the Authentication dropdown, and leave the Username and Password blank (which will tell it Outlook to use the username and password details you entered before for the incoming server).
Or select User Name and Password from the Authentication dropdown, and re-enter the same username and password that you entered for your incoming server.

To finish setting up More Options, make sure to leave Unqualified domain empty.
Click OK to save.
Then close the main Accounts Window (you can do this by clicking on the Red circle in the top left corner).

Step 10 – Send a Test Email to Yourself

You are now ready to test your email account by sending a test email to yourself. Doing this will check that you can send and receive an email using your new email account.

All you need to do is compose a new email and send the email to the same address you have just configured.
In a few moments you should see your test email appear in your Inbox.

Troubleshooting

If you have trouble receiving any emails to this new mail account, then double check the spelling of all the fields you have entered.
If you have trouble sending any emails from this new mail account, then try either of the options in the step Check your Outgoing Server Authentication to see which works for your version of Outlook, and double check the spelling of all the fields you have entered.
If you have further problems, please contact your Support Advisor.