Setting Up Your Mail in Outlook for Mac

outlook-for-mac

This guide will show you how to add your email address to Outlook for Mac.

Please note: Outlook 2011 does not function with our servers. As far as we can tell, this occurs because Outlook 2011 does not support TLS1.2. If you are using Outlook 2011 successfully with our servers, please let us know and include screenshots of your config. If you have attempted to configure Outlook 2011 unsuccessfully, you will need to upgrade to Outlook 2016 or switch to Thunderbird or Apple Mail to successfully receive email from our servers.

Here’s what you’ll need

  • Your email address and password. If you haven’t already created the email account in Plesk, do that first and come back here when you’re done. Be sure to confirm your account is working by logging in to webmail before proceeding.
  • Your server (host)name. You can find this in your Websavers account by logging in to our Client Centre, then choosing “Manage” beside your hosting plan. It will look something like: nutmeg.websavers.ca, though the spice/herb will likely be different for your account.

1. Open Outlook

To start following along, launch Outlook. If this is the first account you will be adding to Outlook, then you will be presented with the new Account wizard. If you’re not presented with the account wizard, go ahead and choose the Tools menu, then Accounts.

2. Add a New Account

Click the + button at the bottom left of the window and you’ll be presented with the following:

Setting Up Your Mail in Outlook for Mac initial screen

Username

Enter your full email address. It’s very important that you do not enter just the first part of the address. Click Continue.

outlok configuration

Type

Click “Not Exchange” in the top corner and then select IMAP/POP:

Server Information:

Enter your password (your email password, not the password for your Websavers account).

Put your server hostname (e.g. basil.websavers.ca) for the incoming and outgoing servers. The port for Incoming should be 143, the port for Outgoing should be 587.

Do not check the box for “Use SSL to connect”. Outlook will automatically negotiate StartTLS for security when SSL is unchecked. If you see an options for “Always use secure password”, leave it unchecked, as this refers to a protocol called SPA which is unique to Microsoft servers.

Note: The ports may change after de-selecting the “Use SSL to connect” toggle. Please ensure they are correct after doing so.

Reconfigure

For unknown reasons, Outlook may then reconfigure the settings you so meticulously configured (thanks Microsoft!), so look through the settings again and make sure they are set as shown above.

  • Click the Advanced button and set the IMAP Root Folder to: INBOX
  • Restart Outlook to ensure the settings take effect. Please note that Outlook may take up to 30 minutes to reflect the changes, and oddly it doesn’t even indicate something is happening. Please be patient. If after 30 minutes you still don’t see your emails, reboot the computer and open Outlook to try again. If you’re still not able to access your email, please open a support ticket including screenshots of your configuration.

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Jordan Schelew

Jordan has been working with computers, security, and network systems since the 90s and is a managing partner at Websavers Inc. As a founder of the company, he's been in the web tech space for over 15 years.
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