Can't link my Plusnet email account to New Outlook

[#1]

Its about time Plusnet gave us some help on this.  When you ring and ask for help they just tell you they are not trained for email support and don't seem to know anything about this problem.

As Plusnet may be stopping their email account in the future  - I think they should be asking the question from Microsoft and get it sorted out for us.  Poor show Plusnet - would no longer give them 5 star for customer support - probably 2!

[#2]

Its about time Plusnet gave us some help on this. 

@LizMac42 Im sorry but why would you expect Plusnet to provide support for a Microsoft product?

From my tests it appears to be a limitation in Outlook that it assumes the email address is the same as the username to be used to access the mail server. This is NOT a valid assumption.

Most other email clients, whilst they might make this assumption initially, do allow you to override and change the username, Outlook appears not to allow it!!

[#3]

A long time ago, in another world, Outlook was known as outhouse.

[#4]

@MisterW 

I have just undertaken some testing myself ... this new Outlook is quite 'ugly'.  I do not like its instances that third party email box content will be stored in the cloud WITHOUT the user having any control / choice over matters.

Digging into the detailed settings, I found that it is possible to specify a not an email address user name for the SMTP server, however I did not complete the set up on my default email account as I DO NOT want my Plusnet emails syphoned off to Outlook's cloud storage.  It is not clear what the implications of that are - is it purely syncing to the cloud rather than my PC?  Who knows!!

I digress some ... it somewhat looked as though I was able to configure default@myaccount.plus.com though I did not complete the process of allowing my emails to be stored by Outlook.

I noted the option to switch back to the old product, which brought about a cunning idea ... switch to the old product, configure the account ... switch back to the new account.

Setting up the Plusnet mailbox in the old version seemed to work fine, even using mail@mydomain.me.uk - on returning to NEW Outlook that mailbox is there, though there is a demand to sign-in which is predicated on permitting Outlook Cloud to store (steal ?) my emails ... so I did not pursue this to a finally proved point of working.

[#5]

Digging into the detailed settings, I found that it is possible to specify a not an email address user name for the SMTP server,

@Townman where did you find that, and can you also specify it for the IMAP server ?

The trick of using the old version sounds useful.

[#6]

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@MisterW wrote:

@Townman where did you find that, and can you also specify it for the IMAP server ?

The trick of using the old version sounds useful.

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During the account set up, the SELECT PROVIDER buttons exposes the mail service type.  More accurately that button should read SELECT MAIL CONNECTION TYPE.

That said, though that allows the selection of server, port and encryption, for the IMAP server it does not expose the user ID.  From my testing I am inclined to suspect that the DEFAULT@myaccount.plus.com will work if one uses whatever is reported as the DEFAULT email address in the Manage Your Plusnet Mailboxes part of the user portal.

EDIT: I am now utterly bemused!!

In the interests of supporting this space, I accepted allowing Outlook to sync my emails to the cloud.  After a deal of fiddling with the server settings (which appear to get reset in spite of unclicking USE DEFAULT) and the setup NEVER apparently getting the mail@mydomain.co.uk set up to sign-in under new Outlook (as setup above under old WinMail) I now have working...

• DEFAULT@myaccount.plus.com
• DEFAULT@mydomain.me.uk

The same mailbox is being concurrently accessed using the native and hosted domain name email addresses.

NOTE for others - it is taking an age for these to sync the my PC / Outlook's cloud.

[#7]

General observations for anyone interested...

I can NOT recommend the new Outlook in any manner, it is an appalling email client.  If you are unwilling to pay for proper Outlook (Office365) then as much as I do not like Thunderbird, it is a far better option than New Outlook.  There are others which one can search for on Google.

As reported above, many users have had issues configuring accounts in part due to user configuration options being missing, but also I suspect to the settings being displayed might not be those the product is using.  Toggling USE DEFAULT off does not appear to stick and the wrong server settings become repopulated in the configuration screen.

The client does not have a force re-synch option ... at the moment I have two different views of the same mail box (as documented above) ... A does not reflect the read status of an email read in B ... and B does not reflect an email deleted in A.  Looking at the latter I observe that this email client will clear items from the trash folder AFTER 30 days and that appear to be non-negotiable (non-configurable).

It does not appear to be possible to modify an account's settings in account management.  The only option - REPAIR - does not appear to allow settings to be changed in the slightest.

[#8]

From my testing I am inclined to suspect that the DEFAULT@myaccount.plus.com will work if one uses whatever is reported as the DEFAULT email address in the Manage Your Plusnet Mailboxes part of the user portal.

@Townman didn't think of trying that🙄

I'd initially done my testing with a secondary mailbox and, of course, it worked fine. Once I came to try the main mailbox and couldn't find a way to set the IMAP & SMTP server credentials to just <accountname> , I gave up since I've really no intention of using Outlook in anger.

Not being able to set the server credentials to anything other than the email address is awful!

[#9]

To be clear, one can set the outgoing server to just <accountname> (and I guess <accountname+mailboxnane> but there is no such option for the incoming server.

It it's a shoddy implementation which isers need to take up with (provided feedback to) Microsoft if they really want to use this product.

There should also be the means of modifying the server setting post successfully setting up the account.

[#10]

MisrterW..What do you mean by putting in DEFAULT@myaccount.plus.com ?  Do you type just that or your own e-mail@myaccount.plus.com or something else?

[#11]

@LizMac42 it wasn't me who suggested using the default email address, it was @Townman 

He said

From my testing I am inclined to suspect that the DEFAULT@myaccount.plus.com will work if one uses whatever is reported as the DEFAULT email address in the Manage Your Plusnet Mailboxes part of the user portal.

So , you login to your Plusnet member centre and goto 'Manage account' and then 'Manage my Plusnet mailboxes'

It will show a list of email addresses that are defined with the mailbox names e.g someone@

One will be marked as the default , use that name in the email address for Outlook.

[#12]

I had difficulties but seem to have finally got it working by using these settings and the imap option

[#13]

I've just managed to set mine up by doing it in mail as opposed to Outlook(new).  I'm using Windows 10. 

Outlook(new) was overriding Mail every time Mail was opened,  so I went into computer setting - apps and removed the Outlook(new) app.   I'd made about 10 attempts over a couple of days,  and suspect Outlook(new)  was interfering, as I wasn't getting the  full options (only email and password) when trying to add the account. 

Once I'd removed Outlook(new)  I went back into Mail  clicked on the cog bottom left - manage accounts - add account - advanced setup and entered the imap information yet again. This time I got the full form to fill in with server details.

It said successful,  however when checking the new accounts sync settings ( manage accounts - click on the account - change mailbox sync settings - advanced mailbox settings) I noticed it had changed the outgoing server number to 486 (or something similar.  So I changed it to the correct 587 clicked Done and a second later my emails were in the mail inbox.  Yay!!!  😁

I thought I'd post my success in case the directions helped anyone struggling. xx

I'm not sure how long microsoft will let Mail continue.  At present the app is still available in the Microsoft store.  There is usually some overlap when they bring in a new program.  It will give me time to find something else, I really dont feel  like agreeing to the enforced cloud use.  These things should be voluntary.😡

[#14]

I use Outlook 2016, and even that is a PITA to set up for a "non predefined" mail service. 

From within Outlook 2016, you would hope that the account connection details would be there, but no, that is FAR to easy and obvious. No, if you search online, you discover that you need to go to Control Panel, select "Mail (Microsoft Outlook)" and select "Email Accounts", and whilst the screen you get looks just like the (useless) one inside Outlook, this one actually shows you the incoming and outgoing server details, and under the advanced you can set up your credentials! Why isn't that INSIDE Outlook???

Answer: because it's Microsoft!

[#15]

I used office 2000 and 2003 for years and outlook was easy to use in those days but as usual they "improved" things.

I think Outlook(new) is going to keep downloading itself via ms update every few days, which is going to be a pain. I'm assuming if I upgrage to outlook(new) it will tranfer the mail accounts as set up, but as said I'm unhappy about the enforced cloud requirement.

I tried thunderbird a few years back, but didn't get on that well with it.  I was contemplating buying a newer version of office, but doubt its worth it just for outlook as I'm happy using libre office these days. Pointless if the office Outlook is just as clunky.  🤔