I’ve been using email since 1993. Rather than simplifying and adopting some minimalist perspective regarding my email usage, it seems that I add another email account to the mix about once per year on average. One for whatever my main gig is at the time, my personal Gmail accounts, oh, and can’t forget that Yahoo mail account I’ve had since the late ’90s. Well, and then there’s the one side biz that needs its own server for legitimacy’s sake, yeah, and then that other that I still do contract work from occasionally…
You get the drift.
I still need to manage them. And as much of a FOSS geek as I like to be, I find myself getting pulled back to Outlook whenever Windows is my main OS.
Luckily, the process to add a new email account to Outlook 2013 gets easier to remember after you’ve done it a dozen times! Here’s the process I use:
Outlook client setup for all types of email accounts:
1) Open your Outlook 2013 email client.
2) Click on File menu tab:
3) Select Add Account button:
4) Now at this point, the process can either stay extremely easy or become only moderately easy – all of which depends upon your email hosting service. Continue from here to step 5 to add a Gmail account that uses IMAP. Skip to step 10 to add a hosted/vanity server email account that uses IMAP or step 13 for a hoster/vanity server email account that uses POP3 incoming.
Outlook client setup for Gmail:
5) Enter your Gmail credentials on the Add Account windows:
6) NOTE: Gmail may very well reject your creds and give you an error message similar to the below (and Outlook isn’t even kind enough to provide a clickable link). Manually type in that URL in your browser and go to the referenced web page. Chances are, you have Less Secure Apps turned OFF and Gmail won’t allow Outlook to access your account.
7) Easy fix – follow this link and click on the Less Secure Apps link on step 1 of the Google instructions:
8) Return to Outlook – there will likely be a pop-up window (Internet E-mail) that will ask you to re-enter your creds. Do so and click OK:
9) Assuming your credentials are correct, you’ve allowed Less Secure Apps and the email account actually exists, you should receive notification that the process was successful. Click on Finish and get back to work while you wait for all of your emails to sync!
Outlook client setup for hosted/vanity server email (IMAP):
10) If you use a dedicated hosted email account or vanity server, the process is nearly as easy if you use a well-known hosting service such as Bluehost, Dreamhost, Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.
11) If the company provided you with instructions for setting up your mail client, follow those. If they did not, go back through steps 2-4 above and enter the information for your hosted server account in the fields shown below, then click Next:
12) Assuming your credentials are correct, the email account exists and the hosting service provides Outlook with the default IMAP/SMTP ports (such as IMAP 993 and SMTP 465), you should receive notification that the process was successful. Click on Finish and get back to work while you wait for all of your emails to sync!
Outlook client setup for hosted/vanity server email (POP3):
13) Usually, your hosting service will provide you the required port numbers (such as IMAP port 993, SMTP port 465). If they did not, you must first check with either hosting service’s new account documentation you received, their customer service department, or check the web to see if the company has posted them there.
14) Once you know the correct ports, the process is similar to those outlined above but just a bit more detailed. This time select the Manual setup or additional server types radio button:
15) Select the POP or IMAP radio button on the next screen:
16) Enter the information provided to you by your hosting service. Note that, typically, you no longer have to enter pop3.plumbingrocks.com and smtp.plumbingrocks.com as you may have had to do in years past, but you may still see something like mail.plumbingrocks.com. Similarly, in my experience your username in Outlook’s context won’t be only your email account username, but rather your full email address for the hosted account.
As you can see, there are other items in the screen that may be filled out, and indeed, other screens accessible through the other buttons, but in a majority of cases, this should be enough information to successfully finish setting up the email account. Click on Next:
17) Assuming no other information was required and you selected the checkbox to send a test message, Outlook will attempt to reach the account then send that test message. It will status you in that same window. If successful, click Close:
18) Outlook will notify you that your account was successfully setup. Click on Finish and get back to work while you wait for all of your emails to sync!
