Knowledge Base - FAQ

Setting up an IMAP account with Microsoft Outlook

Summary:

Using IMAP email is especially useful if you wish to keep all of your mail organization on the mail server and have it accessible by a multitude of devices instead of on one primary device as POP3 does. In this way all of your email organization will be identical weather you are viewing it with your IMAP mail client on your computer, on your mobile device or through the Kattare Webmail interface.

However, using Microsoft Outlook with an IMAP mail account does have some limitations. See the notes at the end of this article to review the two most common ones and some work-around tips.

Here is a quick summary of the important settings to use:

Account Type: IMAP
Email Address: username@kattare.com (your full email address)
Incoming Mail Server: mail.kattare.com
Incoming Mail User Name: (your POP3 username as displayed in the Email Management here.)
Incoming Mail Password: (your POP3 password from the same page.)
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.kattare.com, USE AUTHENTICATION
Outgoing Mail User Name: (your POP3 username as displayed in the Email Management here.)
Outgoing Mail Password: (your POP3 password from the same page.)
Outgoing Mail Port: 25 (or 2525)
Incoming Mail Port: 993

And here are the step by step instructions. Please note if you are not running Outlook 2003, your screens may be slightly different those pictured below.

--- Initial Account Setup ---

Go to the Tools menu and select Email Accounts….

Select Add a new e-mail account and click Next.

Select IMAP and click Next.

In the Internet E-mail Settings (IMAP) window, enter Your Name and your E-mail Address (note: these are the name and e-mail address that will be displayed in the "From:" field when the recipient opens the e-mail). Enter mail.kattare.com for the Incoming mail server (IMAP) and the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) fields. Enter your POP3 User Name and Password as you have been told by your local Systems Administrator, IT Guru, or the Kattare Members Section Email Management Page. Be sure that the Remember password box is checked and the Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) is not checked. When done, click on the More Settings… button.

In the Internet E-mail settings window that pops up, select the Outgoing Server tab. Check the box titled My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication and Use same settings as my incoming mail server.

Some ISPs will block access to the standard outgoing mail port 25 if the connection is going to a mail server other than their own. To work around this, Kattare has configured an alternate outgoing mail server port on port 2525. If you find you have trouble sending mail through Kattare's outgoing mail server, you may try changing the Outgoing server (SMTP) to 2525 in the Advanced tab.

Click the OK button followed by the Next button then finally the Finish button.

--- Setting the IMAP Folder Subscriptions ---

At this point, you will only be 'subscribed' you to your Inbox and a few standard IMAP folders. If you have other folders that you want to manage with IMAP you can do so by continuing the setup with the following instructions.

From the Tools menu select IMAP folders…

Click on the Query button. This will display all the folders in your home directory. Your IMAP folders should be stored in the mail directory. Select the folder you want to subscribe to then click on Subscribe.

You can keep going through the list and subscribing to as many folders as you want. When finished, click OK.

--- Limitations ---

As stated at the beginning of this article, using Microsoft Outlook with an IMAP mail account does have some limitations. Most importantly, Outlook will not allow you to have a "unified" Inbox with your Personal Folders. To see your IMAP Inbox, you will need to browse to it.

You can diminish this inconvenience by adding the Inbox to the Favorite Folders section or by setting Outlook to open in the Kattare Inbox folder. Simply drag the Kattare Inbox folder to the Favorites section to add it there. To start Outlook in the Kattare Inbox, select the Options item in the Tools menu. Select the Other tab and click on the Advanced Options… button. Use the Browse button to select the folder you wish to be in when Outlook starts. In this case, we are starting in the Kattare Inbox

Another issue will arise when you delete a message from the IMAP account. After deletion a line will appear through the message. At this point the email has not actually been deleted and remains on the mail server. To permanently delete these messages from both Outlook AND the mail server, select Purge Deleted Messages from the Edit menu.

Microsoft also has a Knowledge Base article explaining how to change the default Sent items folder to the IMAP Folder on the server. This can be helpful when you want to be able to read your sent items from any device that is an IMAP client.