How to add a new account in Outlook

The ability to automatically set up e-mail accounts has been available since Outlook 2010. If you are using an older version of the desktop client, this option will not be available. The necessary steps for automatic configuration differ only minimally in the individual versions, which we have taken into account in the following instructions:

For all versions, start the account setup by going to the “File” tab. On the “Account Information” menu page that then opens, click the “Add Account” button:

In the newer versions (Microsoft 365), the dialog box that appears has been slightly modified so that you only have to enter the accounts’ address to be linked and then click “Connect”. In earlier versions up to 2013 (but sometimes also in 2016 editions), you must also enter the password associated with the account and a freely selectable name before proceeding with the setup to “Next”.

For manual account setup, you need not only your login data, but also the data for the incoming and outgoing mail server of the respective mail service. The procedure is basically very similar for all versions – but there are some differences in the buttons and dialog boxes. As with the automatic account setup, however, first open the “File” tab and click the “Add Account” button under “Account Information”.

In newer versions, select “Advanced options” and check the box “Let me set up my account manually” before clicking “Connect”.

In the classic dialog box, however, simply change the selection to “Manual setup or additional server types” or “Manually configure server settings or additional server types” (Outlook 2010) and then click “Next”:

Since the connection to the mail servers is still unencrypted up to this point, click the “More Settings” button at the bottom right before completing the setup.

You can also integrate several e-mail accounts (up to 20) in the web version of Outlook. Like the desktop client, Outlook on the web offers you the choice between automatic and manual configuration. Both variants can be started via the “Sync email” menu, which you call up as follows:

1. Click the gear icon in the top right corner of the web application toolbar to open the quick settings.
2. In the quick settings, select the menu item “Show all Outlook settings”, which can be found at the bottom.
3. Switch to the “Mail” section and open the “Sync email” target menu.

Under “Add a connected account”, Outlook now offers you two buttons to start the setup: If you want to link the web client with a Gmail account, select the button of the same name – otherwise click “Other email accounts”:

Like with the Outlook desktop client, a dialog box now opens that allows you to choose between automatic and manual account setup. You start the former by typing in the address and password of the account to be linked – and optionally a freely selectable display name – and clicking “OK”.

Outlook then automatically creates a new folder on the web for the emails from this new account. You can also select the second option under “You can choose where the imported email will be stored”, so that imported and future e-mails will end up in a folder that already exists.

If you want to set up the account yourself, leave the fields for address and password blank for the time being and check the box “Manually configure account settings (POP, IMAP or send-only account)”. If you then click “OK”, the window will be reloaded and you can store the individual data for incoming and outgoing mail servers like we have already explained.

Gmail has not one but two security settings that prevent the account from being linked to Outlook: First and foremost is preventing “access by less secure apps”, which is configured centrally in the Google account. The first step is to open your Google account and remove the lock, which is done as follows:

1. Sign into your Google account and click the small profile picture (top right).
2. Click the “Google Account” button.
3. Switch to the “Security” section.
4. Scroll down until you see the entry “Less secure app access” and select “Turn on access (not recommended)”.
5. Slide the slider to the right to permit apps that Google considers less secure in the future.

As soon as you have permitted access by apps classified as less secure, you will receive a notification e-mail to your Gmail account. However, this is still not completely ready to be linked: To be able to add the account in Outlook, you must also activate mail transfer via POP or IMAP, both of which are switched off by default. To do this, log onto Gmail and open the settings by clicking on the small gear symbol and selecting the menu item of the same name:

In the settings, switch to the “Forwarding & POP/IMAP” tab, where you can activate the desired protocol under “POP download” or “IMAP access”. You also have some additional options – for example, to specify what to do with the message copies in the Gmail account. Finally, click “Save Changes”: