Microsoft adds IMAP support to Outlook.com (formally Hotmail/Live Mail) email
Microsoft has finally added IMAP support to their Outlook.com (formally Hotmail/Live Mail) email accounts.
This now means that you can connect to your online Outlook.com email account using a proper email application like Mail on the Mac and all your email will remain in sync between all your devices. That includes your computer and your smartphone and/or tablet.
Why would you want this. Because web browsers make poor email applications whereas a proper email application like Mail on the Mac makes managing your email easier and more efficient. Plus, while you are using the computer, you can keep the email application running in the background and be alerted to incoming email as soon as it arrives rather than having to log-in using the web browser and hitting refresh to check for new email.
How to setup Mail on the Mac to access your Outlook.com email account.
Launch the Mail application buy clicking on its icon on the Dock.
Select ‘Preferences’ from the Mail menu
With the ‘Accounts’ tab selected click on the Add ‘+’ button in the bottom left corner of the window.
In the ‘Add Account’ pane fill-in the ‘Full Name:’ and ‘Email Address:’ fields but leave the ‘Password:’ field blank.
IMPORTANT! When fill in in the ‘Email Address:’ field only fill-in the part of the address before the ‘@’ symbol.
For example: If your email address is janedoe@hotmail.com just fill-in ‘janedoe’
Click the ‘Continue’ button.
In the ‘Incoming Mail Server’ pane select ‘IMAP’ in the ‘Account Type:’ pull-down menu.
In the ‘Description:’ field add Outlook Mail or something else descriptive so you know the account settings are for your Outlook.com email account.
In the ‘Incoming Mail Server:’ field add ‘imap-mail.outlook.com’
In the ‘User Name:’ field add your full email address.
In the “Password:’ field add you password.
Click the ‘Continue’ button.
In the ‘Outgoing Mail Server’ pane the ‘Description:’ field should already be filled-in base on the previous pane.
In the ‘Outgoing Mail Server:’ field add ‘smtp-mail.outlook.com’
Add a checkmark to ‘Use only this server’ if it is not already there.
Add a checkmark to ‘Use Authentication’ if it is not already there.
In the ‘User Name:’ field add your full email address.
In the “Password:’ field add you password.
Click the ‘Continue’ button to finish.
Test the account by sending email to and from the account.
If you don't have another email account to do this from ask a friend or family member to send you a test email and then reply to it to complete your testing.
