Set up Outlook: add your Microsoft 365 email account

Add your Microsoft 365 work email account to new Outlook or classic Outlook for Windows, then check that it works in Outlook on the web.

Who this is for: people setting up their Microsoft 365 work or school email on a Windows PC, and the administrators who help them.

You only need your email address and password. Outlook finds the rest of the settings for a Microsoft 365 account by itself, using a process called Autodiscover, so you do not type in any server names.

This guide covers new Outlook for Windows, classic Outlook for Windows (Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016) and Outlook on the web. It does not cover Outlook for Mac, the Outlook mobile apps, personal Outlook.com accounts, or POP, IMAP and Gmail accounts.

Before you start

You need a work or school account that your organisation's administrator has assigned to you: your email address, for example user@contoso.com, and its password.
Classic Outlook is a desktop app that must be installed. It is included with many Microsoft 365 subscriptions that include the desktop apps. New Outlook supports work or school accounts too.
Find out which Outlook you have: if you see a Settings button (a gear) at the top right, you have new Outlook. If there is no Settings button, you have classic Outlook.
New Outlook has only limited support for public folders. If you create, change or delete public folders in Outlook, keep using classic Outlook.

Add your account in new Outlook

Open new Outlook. On the View tab, select View settings, or on the File tab, select Account info.
Select Accounts > Your accounts.
Under Email accounts, select Add Account. Select your account from the suggested list, or type your work email address.
Select Continue.
If you are asked for your password, enter it and select Done.

If you have more than one account, choose the one Outlook uses by default: on the View tab select View settings > Accounts > Your accounts, select Manage next to the account, then select Set as primary account. Select Return to accounts page or close the Settings window.

Switch from classic Outlook to new Outlook

If your account is supported, classic Outlook shows a Try the new Outlook toggle in the upper right.

In classic Outlook, turn on Try the new Outlook. The new app downloads and opens.
New Outlook opens with the account that classic Outlook uses as its default send account. If it cannot sign you in by itself, type your email address and sign in.
The first time you switch, you are asked whether to bring over your settings from classic Outlook. Select Import Settings to bring them over, or select Skip.

To go back, turn the toggle off in new Outlook. Classic Outlook then opens by itself. If you do not see the toggle, your account is not yet supported in new Outlook or your administrator has blocked the toggle: keep using classic Outlook.

Add your account in classic Outlook

The steps are the same for your first account and for any account you add later.

Open classic Outlook. If you have never opened it before, you see a welcome screen: go to step 3.
Select File > Add Account. If there is no File tab, you are probably using new Outlook: follow the new Outlook steps above.
Enter your work email address and select Connect. If your screen looks different, enter your name, email address and password, and select Next.
If you are asked for your password, enter it and select OK.
Select Finish to start using your email account in classic Outlook.

Note The Advanced options > Let me set up my account manually choice is for POP and IMAP accounts that need server names and port numbers. You do not need it for the steps above.

Check that it worked in Outlook on the web

Outlook on the web shows the same mailbox in a browser. If the same email is in both places, your account is set up correctly.

Open a web browser and go to Microsoft365.com, or sign in directly at outlook.office365.com.
If you are not signed in automatically, enter your work email address and password. Follow any two-step verification prompts you set up for this account.
Select Sign in. If you signed in at Microsoft365.com, select Outlook from the app launcher.
Check that the web address contains outlook.office.com or outlook.office365.com. If it starts with outlook.live.com, you are signed in with a personal account: select Account manager, select Sign out and sign in again with your work account.
Compare your inbox with the inbox in Outlook for Windows. The same messages appear in both.

Settings you change in new Outlook also apply in Outlook on the web.

Remove an account you no longer use

Important Removing an account from Outlook deletes the copy of its email stored on this computer (the offline cached content). It does not delete the account or the email held in Microsoft 365. In classic Outlook, if it is your last or only account, Outlook first asks you to create a new location for your data (an Outlook Data File).

New Outlook: on the View tab select View settings > Accounts > Your accounts. Select Manage next to the account, then select Remove.
Classic Outlook: select File > Account Settings > Account Settings. Select the account, select Remove, then select Yes to confirm.

When it goes wrong

Important Only an administrator should change the Windows registry, and should back it up before adding the Autodiscover values below. The values are a workaround, not a fix. In the key, 16.0 is the version for Office 2016, Office 2019 and Office 365.

Problem	Likely cause	What to do
"Something went wrong and Outlook couldn't set up your account" when you add an account with your own domain.	The web server for your domain's website answers Outlook's Autodiscover request, so Outlook gets the wrong settings.	Ask the company that hosts your website to make sure its web server does not respond to Autodiscover requests. Then add the account again.
The hosting company cannot fix the Autodiscover problem.	The root domain still answers Autodiscover requests.	As a short-term workaround, an administrator adds three DWORD values set to 1 under `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Autodiscover`: `ExcludeLastKnownGoodUrl`, `ExcludeHttpsRootDomain` and `ExcludeSrvRecord`. Restart Outlook and add the account again. Microsoft does not recommend this as a long-term fix: remove the values as soon as the hosting company has fixed the problem.
Classic Outlook has no File tab.	You are using new Outlook.	Follow the new Outlook steps in this guide.
There is no Try the new Outlook toggle.	Your account is not yet supported in new Outlook, or your administrator has blocked the toggle.	Keep using classic Outlook, or ask your administrator whether new Outlook is allowed in your organisation.
You have forgotten your work password.	Your password has to be reset.	If your administrator allows it, reset it yourself at passwordreset.microsoftonline.com. If not, ask your administrator to reset it, then add the account again.
Outlook on the web shows a different mailbox.	You are signed in with a personal Microsoft account.	Select Account manager > Sign out, then sign in with your work email address.