How do I tell what type of account I have in Outlook for Mac?

Applies To
Office 2016 for Mac Office 365 Small Business

Outlook 2016 for Mac supports several different account types such as POP, POP3, IMAP. Some features in Outlook require a Microsoft Exchange Server account. Microsoft Office 365 includes Exchange Online and some Internet hosting providers also offer Exchange accounts.

Tip

If you are adding an account to Outlook 2016 for Mac and you don't know which type of account it is, check with your e‑mail provider, Internet service provider (ISP), or email administrator.

To find out what type of account you have, do the following:

  1. On the Home tab, click Accounts.
  2. In the Accounts box, in the left pane, click on an account.
    At the top of the right pane, it will tell you what kind of account it is. (i.e., Exchange, IMAP, or POP)

Note

Most modern e-mail clients and servers support POP3, and it, along with IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for email with many web email service providers such as Gmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo! Mail - also providing support for either IMAP or POP3 to allow mail to be downloaded.