Troubleshooting outlook email setup

If you're having problems setting up your email in Outlook, we want to help. Choose an option below for more information. 

Note: AOL has recently announced upcoming changes that affect customers who use Outlook or other third-party email clients to send and receive their AOL email. For steps to verify your email account settings, see Update AOL email settings below.

Select any heading below, and it will open to show more info:

If you are expecting Outlook to sync existing messages and custom mail folders and they are not appearing, double-check and make sure you are using the correct account type for your account; for example, a Hotmail.com or Outlook.com address should be using Outlook.com as the account type, not Exchange or Microsoft 365.

If you try to add an IMAP account to Outlook, for example a Gmail account, Apple account, Yahoo account, or an account from your local ISP, and you're not prompted to enter your password, use the following steps to work around the problem.

Ensure that, on the IMAP details page, Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) is Unchecked.

If this does not work

1. Open Control Panel by pressing the Windows key, typing Control Panel, and selecting Control Panel from the search results.

2. Select Mail.

3. Select Email Accounts...

4. On the Email tab, select New.

5. Enter your name, email address, and then enter your password in the Password and Retype Password boxes. Then select Next.

6. Follow the steps on screen to complete your account setup. You may be prompted to enter your password one additional time.

7. When account setup completes, select Finish.

If Outlook can't find settings for your email account, or you receive an error during setup, in many cases, you can set up your account manually.

Important: Manual setup isn't possible for Microsoft 365 or Exchange server accounts unless you want to use POP or IMAP to connect to those accounts. Contact your administrator to determine if POP or IMAP access are enabled for your account.

Set up your account manually

Choose File. Under Account Information, choose Add Account.

Choose Advanced options > Let me set up my account manually.

Choose POP or IMAP.

Enter your account password, then choose Connect.

If setup failed, choose Change Account Settings. Update the account information with the one you received from your email provider or from the POP and IMAP server name reference topic. Choose Connect.

Choose Done to start using Outlook.

If Outlook repeatedly prompts you for a password during setup, make sure that your caps lock isn't turned on. Passwords are case sensitive. This can also happen if you've entered your username incorrectly. Your user name is your full email address, for example tony@contoso.com.

If you've successfully sent and received email from Outlook before, and now Outlook repeatedly asks you to reenter your password, one of two things may have happened.

• You changed your password with your email provider, for example, Gmail, and haven't updated Outlook.

• Your password has expired. Many corporate email accounts have policies that require you to change your email password every few months.

To update your password in Outlook, see Change or update your email password.

Your email password is stored in Outlook. However, if you want to change your password with your email provider, you'll need to visit their website or help desk, or contact your email administrator. For example, if you have a Yahoo! account, you first have to change your password at Yahoo.com. Once you've changed your password with your email provider, you can update the password in Outlook. See Change or update your email password for more information.

If you can't receive new email messages, there are several troubleshooting steps you can take.

• Look for Working Offline at the bottom of your Outlook window. If you see this text, choose the Send/Receive tab at the top of the screen, then choose the Work Offline button to disable offline mode.

• If you're not working offline, open a web browser and see if you can browse the internet. If not, check your network connection.

• Check your account settings against the information in our POP and IMAP server name reference. See Change or update your email password for help on how to see your account settings.

If your messages are stuck in the Outbox or aren't reaching their intended recipients, see Fix messages that are stuck in the Outbox.

There are multiple ways for you to send and receive email, and multiple versions of Outlook available. If the images in these topics don't match what you see on your screen, you might be using a different version of Outlook. See What version of Outlook do I have? for more information.

On November 7, 2017, AOL is making changes to their email account settings to help provide a more secure email experience for customers. Use the following steps to verify your account settings to ensure you can still send and receive email using your AOL account after November 7, 2016.

If you are using Outlook for PC:

1. Select File > Account Settings > Account Settings.

2. Select your AOL account from the list on the email tab and then click Change.

3. On the POP and IMAP Account Settings box, select More Settings.

4. Select the Outgoing Server tab and make sure the box marked My outgoing server (SMTP requires authentication) is checked. If not, check the box.

5. Select the Advanced tab and make sure that you're using the following settings if you have an IMAP account:

   • Incoming server (IMAP): 993

   • Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL/TLS or SSL

   • Outgoing server (SMTP): 465 or 587

   • Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL/TLS, SSL, TLS, or Auto

If you have a POP account, your options will look a little different. Make sure you're using these settings:

• Incoming server (POP): 995

• Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL/TLS (or SSL)

• Outgoing server (SMTP): 465 or 587

• Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL/TLS, SSL, TLS, or Auto

If you are using Outlook 2007:

1. Select Tools > Account Settings.

2. Select your AOL account from the list on the email tab and then click Change.

3. On the POP and IMAP Account Settings box, select More Settings.

4. Select the Outgoing Server tab and check the box marked My outgoing server (SMTP requires authentication).

5. Select the Advanced tab and make sure that you're using the following settings if you have an IMAP account:

   • Incoming server (IMAP): 993

   • Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL

   • Outgoing server (SMTP): 465

   • Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL or TLS

If you have a POP account, your options will look a little different. Make sure you're using these settings:

• Incoming server (POP): 995

• Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL/TLS

• Outgoing server (SMTP): 465 or 587

• Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL or TLS

If you're having an issue that's not solved by one of the above options, we want to know. Please scroll down to the bottom of the page, select Yes or No on the Was this information helpful box, and leave us a note with the following information:

• Your version of Outlook

• The type of email account you're trying to set up (Outlook.com, Microsoft 365, Exchange, or other)

• The text of any error messages you're seeing

• A brief description of your problem

We update this page each month and we want to ensure that we're including all of the troubleshooting steps you need.