How to Set Up Your Email in Microsoft Outlook (2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365) Print

This guide covers adding your Hostking business email account to any modern version of Microsoft Outlook - including Outlook 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365). The steps are the same across all these versions.

We recommend setting up using IMAP rather than POP3. IMAP keeps your emails synced across all your devices - so an email you read on your phone will show as read in Outlook too, and nothing gets stuck on one device.

What You'll Need Before You Start

• Your email address - e.g. you@yourdomain.tld
• Your email password - this is the password you set when creating the account in DirectAdmin or cPanel. If you've forgotten it, reset it in DirectAdmin under Email Accounts
• Your mail server address - this is mail.yourdomain.tld (replace yourdomain.tld with your actual domain name)

Your Mail Server Settings

Keep these handy as you'll need them during setup:

Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1 - Open Outlook and go to Account Settings

Open Microsoft Outlook. Click File in the top left corner, then click Add Account.

If Outlook is opening for the first time, it will prompt you to add an account automatically - skip to Step 2.

Step 2 - Enter your email address

Type your full email address (e.g. you@yourdomain.tld) and click Advanced options.

Tick Let me set up my account manually, then click Connect.

Step 3 - Choose IMAP

On the next screen you'll see options for account type. Select IMAP.

Step 4 - Enter your incoming server settings

Fill in the incoming mail server details:

• Server: mail.yourdomain.tld
• Port: 993
• Encryption: SSL/TLS

Click Next.

Step 5 - Enter your password

Enter your email account password and click Connect.

Outlook will now attempt to connect to your incoming server. If it connects successfully it will move to the outgoing server setup automatically.

Step 6 - Enter your outgoing server settings

If Outlook prompts you for outgoing server details, enter:

• Server: mail.yourdomain.tld
• Port: 465
• Encryption: SSL/TLS

Click Next or Connect.

Step 7 - Confirm and finish

Outlook will test the connection and confirm your account has been added. Click Done.

Your inbox will begin syncing. If you have a lot of existing email this may take a few minutes.

If Outlook Tries to Set Up Automatically and Gets It Wrong

Newer versions of Outlook (especially Microsoft 365) sometimes try to auto-detect your settings and get them wrong, resulting in a connection error. If this happens:

1. Click Back or Change account settings
2. Make sure you selected IMAP not Exchange or Microsoft 365
3. Manually enter the server settings from the table above
4. Make sure the ports are exactly 993 (incoming) and 465 (outgoing)
5. Make sure SSL/TLS is selected for both - not STARTTLS

Common Problems

"Something went wrong - we couldn't set this up automatically"
This just means Outlook couldn't auto-detect your settings. Click Try again or go back and choose Let me set up my account manually to enter the settings yourself.

Outlook keeps asking for your password
First check the password is correct by logging into webmail at mail.yourdomain.tld or via DirectAdmin. If webmail works fine, the password is correct - delete the account from Outlook and re-add it manually. Also make sure your username is your full email address, not just the part before the @.

Emails arrive but you can't send
Your outgoing (SMTP) settings are likely wrong. Go to File → Account Settings → Account Settings, select your account, click Change, then More Settings → Outgoing Server. Make sure My outgoing server requires authentication is ticked and Use same settings as incoming is selected. Check the SMTP port is 465 with SSL/TLS.

Emails send fine but don't arrive
Check that the email account exists in DirectAdmin or cPanel and that your domain's nameservers are pointed to Hostking. You can also log into webmail to confirm whether emails are arriving there - if they are, the issue is with Outlook's sync settings.

Sent emails go to recipient's spam folder
This is not an Outlook issue - it's an SPF/DKIM configuration issue on your domain. See our article: Why Are My Emails Going to Spam? SPF, DKIM and DMARC Setup Guide.

"Your IMAP server wants to alert you to the following: Please log in via your web browser"
This error sometimes appears if you've entered the wrong password too many times and the account has been temporarily locked. Wait 15 minutes then try again with the correct password.