Unable to connect IMAP account to Outlook for iOS8

Anonymous
2015-07-28T22:44:23+00:00

I have installed the Outlook app on an iPad and iPhone with the latest iOS8. I have an IMAP email account but the app is unable to connect to it. 

The native iOS email client on both devices will connect to this IMAP account OK.  But when I enter the same settings in the Outlook app's Advanced Settings entry screen (which are the server, etc. settings provided by my ISP), it comes back with a message that it cannot connect.

I note that the entry screens in the current Outlook app differ from those shown in the relevant Office365 knowledge base article here:

https://support.office.com/en-au/article/Set-up-email-on-iPhone-iPad-or-iPod-Touch-b2de2161-cc1d-49ef-9ef9-81acd1c8e234?ui=en-US&rs=en-AU&ad=AU&fromAR=1#BKMK\_IMAPorPOP

The article shows screenshots with options to select/deselect SSL and enter port numbers. These options don't appear when I use the IMAP setup option in Outlook for iOS. 

Note that when iOS makes the connection, it does not use SSL or ask for port numbers. These parameters can only be accessed via the advanced account settings for the account AFTER the device has added the account.

I should add that I also have an Exchange email account, which can be set up in both the iOS email client and the iOS Outlook app without difficulty. 

And also that the Outlook app exhibits the same behaviour on Android - i.e. the Android email client lets me set up the IMAP account but Outlook for Android is unable to connect.

Outlook | Outlook for mobile | Outlook for iOS | For business

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-01-21T00:38:05+00:00

    Hi guys,

    Same here.... I have tried few things but could not get it to work.

    So i have set up my IMAP account as per normal email set up within iphone setting using default email app.

    That worked, But looking forward to use outlook app again once its fixed.

    Cheers,

    Rizwan.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-21T18:10:44+00:00

    I was able to use the mail.server.com:993 and smtp.server.com:587 format for both my incoming mail server and outgoing server.  It worked perfectly for me on both ios and android.

    Thanks!

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  3. Brian Tillman [Outlook MVP 2007-2019] 25,925 Reputation points
    2016-01-21T20:09:25+00:00

    Why would you want to use IMAP on iOS with Office 365 as opposed to Exchange?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-01-21T21:36:07+00:00

    Why would you want to use IMAP on iOS with Office 365 as opposed to Exchange?

    Hi Brian,

    I personally would never use IMAP it's my work email 😫

    Cheers, Rizwan

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-18T17:53:03+00:00

    Hello, I have 3 screenshots for you from my device. I am the IT department for a small business. An employee wants to use Outlook for email on their ipad. I tried to set it up with our age old and very common imap settings, but they did not work. I found this thread after doing some research.

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_mobile-outlook/unable-to-connect-imap-account-to-outlook-for-ios8/4c8d43df-c459-4ac6-9ee6-98d0143bf46c?page=1&tab=question&status=AllReplies&rtAction=1455814713005#tabs

    I believe the issue is related to us not having IMAP port 993 open on our new managed firewall. Can you please review my screenshots and tell me what is happening here.

    PS: These settings work perfectly on every other mail client I've tried, including the default ios mail client for all devices, the mail client in android phones, Mozilla Thunderbird and even Outlook 2003(and probably every other version, but that's what I have access to besides the ipad at this very second). I just tried them and set them up in very one of these applications. The only application that these settings don't work in is Outlook! Attached are 3 screenshots.

    <img removed for editing>

    Please note that I have also tried adding and not adding the domain to the username. Unfortunately, this doesn't affect the issue.

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