Later this year, Microsoft will sunset Hotmail in favor of Outlook.com, their new email service. The new Outlook.com service boasts a super clean interface and as with any new email service, there’s still an opportunity to grab that elusive email address void of extraneous numerals you’re forced to add in order to find one that’s available. If you’ve switched or considering a switch, here’s how to set up Outlook.com email on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
On your iOS device, navigate to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars >
- Tap on Add Account…
- Select ‘Hotmail’
- Select ‘Add Mail Account’
Type in your Outlook.com credentials including your email ending in @outlook.com, password and give it a title so that you can distinguish it from other email accounts on your iPhone.
You should see a short process of verifying your account and you’ll have options for what you’ll apps you’ll want to sync with your Outlook.com account. You can disable those if that’s your preference and leave mail set to ‘On’. Tap on ‘Save’ to complete the email set-up process.
When this process completes, you will see the Settings > Mail, Contacts and Calendars screen that shows a list of your accounts. If you follow the process outlined, your new IMAP account will be listed as Outlook.com.
- Press the Home button
- Tap on Mail
- From the list of accounts, select ‘Outlook.com’
Tip: If you are not seeing all of your messages, you have to adjust the ‘Mail Days To Sync’. By default, it is set to 3.
- Open Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars
- Tap on Outlook.com
- Change Mail Days To Sync to: No Limit, 1 Day, 3 Days, 1 Week, 2 Weeks or 1 Month
Microsoft has done a very good job with Outlook.com. It’s completely free to sign up for a new account it easy to setup Outlook.com email on your iPhone to co-exist with your other accounts. Microsoft also offers an option to send and receive email from other popular services including Yahoo and Gmail.
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Chris, what am I missing here? I think I am inputting everything correctly and I get to the point of verifying my Outlook credentials and get this message, ‘Hotmail Account’
Unable to verify account information. In your instructions you say to input your full name. There isn’t any place to do so. Help
That was incorrect and I’ve updated the post. Try username@outlook.com and your password.
Thanks
Great tip! At last, an email address without the numerals!! I have been using google, but privacy is an issue for me. Hope Microsoft does it better. Christopher, I know that you use many email accounts, which would you suggest? Most people I know use a corporate email or google / hotmail / yahoo. Is there any other with a good spam filter and IMAP syncing or am I asking too much?!
Thanx again!
An email service without IMAP support, I don’t see how this will work for mac users with multiple devices… Using POP on your mac?!
How do I set up outlook with a custom domain on ipad?
Can we also set up our company email account hosted on Outlook, this way?
Hi,
You state above ” If you follow the process outlined, your new IMAP account will be listed as Outlook.com.” but outlook.com does not support IMAP – what do you mean?
I have also read that you can also use the Exchange option, does this allow any other options?
You are correct Mike. I’ll update the article.