Guide – How to Configure Office 365 SMTP/IMAP/POP3 Settings?

You can use Outlook to read and send mail from Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, and other email accounts. You need your email provider’s incoming server settings (POP or IMAP) and outgoing server settings (SMTP). Before starting to configure Office 365 SMTP settings, we will introduce information about SMTP, IMAP, and POP3.

SMTP, IMAP, POP3

SMTP

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used to send email from one server, such as the Office 365 SMTP server, to another server. Most email providers use outgoing mail servers with SMTP to send email over the Internet.

SMTP works with mail transfer agents (SMTP relays) to send your email to the correct mailbox and computer. SMTP relay ensures that the emails you send reach the recipients’ mailboxes.

POP3

POP3 (Post Office Protocol) is an email protocol widely used to receive email. In POP3, your emails are downloaded from a server and stored locally on your device. This way you can access your email even when you are offline.

IMAP

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is the most commonly used protocol for receiving e-mail. The IMAP protocol saves all emails to its servers instead of downloading them to local storage.

Whenever you want to check your email, your mail client contacts the server and loads the email, regardless of the device’s IP address. With IMAP, you can view your email from anywhere, on any device, on any IP address.

Office 365 SMTP settings

Now let’s see how to set up SMTP settings for Microsoft Office 365 mail server.

• Use Direct Send: This method involves setting up your MX endpoint as a server. You must find your MX records from the admin center.
• Submit using an SMTP client, i.e. SMTP AUTH or SMTP authentication.
• Send email through Office 365 SMTP relay using a dedicated relay (SMTP connector) configured with a public IP address.

Unlike direct send, the SMTP AUTH mail configuration allows you to send mail to people inside and outside your organization. Also, by using the SMTP authentication method, your IP address doesn’t need to be static like the relay server method.

Step 1: Log in to the Microsoft Outlook mail app. Then, go to File > Account Settings > Server Settings.

Step 2: Click Outgoing Mail to set up your SMTP Outgoing Server settings.

• SMTP server address: smtp.office365.com
• Port Number: 587
• Encryption method: STARTTLS
• Username: Your Office 365 email address
• Password: Your Office 365 app password

Note: Don’t use a custom IP address as the mail server as they aren’t supported by Office 365.

Office 365 IMAP/POP3 Settings

If you need to configure Office 365 IMAP or POP3 settings, you can follow the steps below:

1. IMAP Server Settings

Server name: outlook.office365.com

Port Number: 993

Encryption: SSL/TLS

2. POP Server Settings

Server name: outlook.office365.com

Port Number: 995

Encryption: SSL/TLS

outlook-out-of-office

Final Words

In summary, here is all information about Office 365 SMTP server settings. If you have any different ideas of Office 365 SMTP settings, you can share them in the comment zone.