This article is for University staff and students who need to add their University email account to a personally owned / non-university-provided device using Microsoft Outlook.

Please note we recommend that you use the MS Outlook application for your university email account, you may also add other email accounts to the application to. We are only able to support you accessing and configuring your University email account.

 

Adding an account

Installing Outlook and opening it for the first time

1. Go to Microsoft Office Home website and sign in with your University email (for example: abc1ed22@soton.ac.uk) and password

2. On The top right of the screen, click on the button ‘Install Office’ and select ‘Office 365’ app

 
The installation process could take a while before ending.

Please note: if you are a 'visitor', 'temporary staff', 'casual staff', or 'generic' you cannot download the desktop version of Outlook. You can find more information about Microsoft licenses in the article “Microsoft 365 License Comparisons (A5 & A1)”

3. Run Outlook

4. Enter your university email and select ‘Connect’. If requested, enter your password

Outlook should now get to work.

 

Windows users, from the desktop client

The following steps are for non-University-managed Windows computers. Students and staff using a University-managed Windows computer will find Outlook already configured.

Outlook 2013 or older versions do not support Microsoft Multi-Factor Authenticator. If you are using those versions, you may be asked to update your software to Outlook for Microsoft 365.  

Adding a university account

1. Open Outlook
   
   
2. Go to the menu bar and click on 'File'
   
   
   
3. Click on 'Add Account'
   
   
   
4. Enter the name of the account, then click 'Connect'
   
   
5. When it asks for a password, you need to click on 'Sign in with a different account'
   
   
6. Enter your university email (for example: abc1de22@soton.ac.uk)
   
   
7. Enter your password
   
   
8. You will need to close and re-open Outlook before the account is added.

 

Adding a second account (for example a Gmail account)

1. Open Outlook
   
   
2. Go to the menu bar and click on 'File'
   
   
   
3. Click on 'Add Account'
   
   
   
4. Enter your email address and click 'Connect'
   
   
   
5. If prompted, enter your password again and click on 'OK'
   
   
6. Click on 'Done' and start using your email account in Outlook.
    

---

Back to the top

 

MacOS users, from the desktop client

Adding a university account

1. Make sure you are logged into your account
   
   
2. Go to the menu bar and click on:
   
   1. 'Outlook'
   2. 'Preferences'
   3. 'Account'
   4. or click on 'Tools' > 'Accounts'
      
      
3. Click the plus (+) sign
   
   
4. Click on 'New Account'
   
   
5. Type your university email (for example: abc1de22@soton.ac.uk) and click on Continue
   
   
   
6. Type your password. If multi-factor authentication is enabled, verify your identity.
   
   
7. Click on 'Add Account'. Your screen might look different from the following depending on the account you're adding.
   
   
8. Click 'Allow' to continue
   
   
9. Select 'Done' to end the procedure
   
   

 

Adding a second account (for example a Gmail account)

1. Open Outlook
   
2. Go to the menu bar and click on 'Tools'
   
3. Click on 'Accounts…'
   
4. Click on the plus sign (+)
   
5. Enter your email address and password

Adding an account from Gmail or Yahoo, you may be asked to allow Outlook to access your mail, contacts, and calendars.

 

Adding a university email account on the Apple Mail app

If you need support adding your university email account to Apple Mail, please follow the instruction contained in one of the following articles:

• Microsoft: Set up an Outlook account on the iOS Mail app
• Apple: Add an email account to Mail on your Mac

 

Issues connecting to the university email server

If you are using Basic authentication to connect to your tenant, you may receive an error message. This can happen because Microsoft is helping its users switch from Basic authentication to modern authentication. Basic authentication users:

• Own Apple devices using an Exchange Online account that was set up several years ago.
• Have restored or migrated data from an old to a new Apple device.

In these cases, Apple may prompt you to set up or configure a modern authentication or the Microsoft Multi-factor Authentication (MFA). If you need guidance on setting up your MFA, please read the article "How to set up and manage Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)".

---

Back to the top

 

Using the browser version

1. Go to https://www.southampton.ac.uk/365/
   
   
2. Enter your university email (for example: abc1de22@soton.ac.uk) and your password
   
   
3. You may be required to confirm your Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
   
   
4. You are now logged in to Office. Access Outlook by clicking on the icon on the app menu (on the left)

Please note: due to Outlook settings, at present you cannot add another email account on Outlook on the web.

---

Back to the top

 

Android users

1. Install the Outlook for Android app from the Google Play Store. The icon looks like this:
   
   
   If you are already using Outlook for Android, you can add your university email account as follow:
   
   1. Open the 'Menu'
   2. Click on 'Settings'
   3. Select 'Add Account'
   4. Select 'Add Email Account'
   5. Skip to step 6 to complete the procedure
      
      
2. Open it and tap on 'Get Started'
   
   
3. Outlook may detect your Google accounts. To add them to Outlook for Android:
   
   1. Tap 'Google Connect Account'
   2. Tap 'OK' to confirm
   3. Tap 'Allow' to give Outlook access to your Contacts. If you don't want to add these accounts, tap Skip and then go to step 4.
      
      
4. Select the accounts you'd like to add and tap 'Add Account'. You may be asked to sign in. 
   
   
5. Tap 'Allow' to confirm offline access and go confirm any other prompts. To add another email account, tap 'Continue' and go to Step 6, otherwise tap 'Skip'
   
   
6. Enter your full university email address (for example: abc1de22@soton.ac.uk), then tap 'Continue'
   
   
7. Enter the password and tap 'Sign In' or 'Next'.
   
8. Outlook may also request permission to access your calendar, contacts: tap 'Yes' or 'Allow' to allow the synchronisation.

---

Back to the top

 

iOS users

Adding a university account

1. Download Outlook for iOS from the iOS App Store. The icon looks like this:
   
   
   
2. Open Outlook for iOS.  
   
   
3. Tap on 'Get Started'. If it’s not your first using Outlook for iOS, tap in the menu icon the upper left corner.
4. Tap on 'Settings'
   
   
5. Tap on 'Add Account'
   
   
6. Tap on 'Add Email Account'
   
   
7. Type your university email address (for example: abc1de22@soton.ac.uk), then tap 'Add Account'. If multi-factor authentication is enabled, verify your identity
   
   
8. Enter your email account password and tap 'Sign In'
   
   
9. Tap 'Yes' or 'Allow' to give Outlook permission to synchronise your calendar and contacts.

 

Adding a university email account using the iOS Mail app

If you need support adding your university email account to the iOS Mail app, please follow the instruction contained in one of the following articles:

• Microsoft: Set up an Outlook account on the iOS Mail app
• Apple: Add an email account to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

 

Issues connecting to the university email server

If you are using Basic authentication to connect to your tenant, you may receive an error message. This can happen because Microsoft is helping its users switch from Basic authentication to modern authentication. Basic authentication users:

• Own Apple devices using an Exchange Online account that was set up several years ago.
• Have restored or migrated data from an old to a new Apple device.

In these cases, Apple may prompt you to set up or configure a modern authentication or the Microsoft Multi-factor Authentication (MFA). If you need guidance on setting up your MFA, please read the article "How to set up and manage Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)".

---

Back to the top

 

Thunderbird users

Adding a university account

Only Thunderbird version Thunderbird 78.10.0 and above will support Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication. If you have an older version, you will need to update to the latest version of Thunderbird before the following steps.

Before following the instructions below, you need to contact ServiceLine requesting IMAP to be enabled - this is because IMAP protocol has been automatically disabled in all accounts. As soon as our technicians get back to you, wait for an hour and then follow the instructions.

 

Step-by-step instructions for Windows and Apple macOS users

1. Open the 'Account Settings'.

If you are a Windows user:

1. Click on the menu icon
2. Select 'Options'
3. Click on 'Account Settings'
   
   

 
If you are a MacOS user:

1. Go to the menu bar and click on 'Tools'
2. Open the 'Account Settings'
   
3. Go to 'Account actions' and click on 'Add Mail Account...'
   
   
   

2. For the rest of these steps, we are using "Your name here" and "bl1e12" as a seat marker. Replace these with your name, your email address (for example: abc1de22@soton.ac.uk) and your university password.

Please do not enter your ECS email address.

3. Then click 'Continue'
 

4.  If it finds some settings for you, and they mention "outlook.com" or "office365.com", then click 'Done' and go to step 8 (skip the next 2 steps).

Otherwise, if Thunderbird can’t find any Outlook as an email provider, click on Manual config:

 
5. Fill out the settings as follow:

• Incoming protocol: IMAP
• Server hostname: outlook.office365.com
• Port: 993
• SSL: SSL/TLS
• Authentication: OAuth2
  
  
• Outgoing protocol: SMTP
• Server hostname: smtp.office365.com
• Port: 587
• SSL: STARTTLS
• Authentication: OAuth2
  

If OAuth2 does not appear, you may need to restart Thunderbird and go back into the account settings.

7. Click on 'Re-Test' and then click on 'Done'

8. This should return you to the 'Account Settings' box. Select your new university email account on the left.
Then you can change the name of the account as it appears in Thunderbird (the top highlighted box), and the email address you wish to use (the bottom highlighted box).  

9. On the left, select 'Server Settings'

10. Then on the right, click on the 'Advanced...' button

 
11. Un-tick 'Show only subscribed folders' and then click 'OK'
 
12. To avoid spam filtering problems later, you might want to disable Thunderbird's spam filtering. To do this, select 'Junk Settings' on the left, then untick 'Enable adaptive junk mail...' on the right

 
13. Go back to the 'Account Actions' at the bottom left. As you will want to send email using your new Office 365 account by default, select 'Set as Default'.
 
14. Click 'OK' and you will return to the normal Thunderbird view of your email. You should now be asked to authenticate using the familiar University of Southampton authentication mechanism.

15. There should now be a new entry in the tree of accounts and folders on the left, named after whatever you put in the 'Account name' box. Click on the little arrow just to the left to unfold the list of folders, at which point Thunderbird should connect to Office 365 and fetch a list of all your folders.

 
16. Once you have checked the new account is working (try sending yourself an email message to your University address and another private one you happen to have), you can go back into the Account Settings and add your email signature and others you may wish to set.

 

Step-by-step instructions for Linux users

Before starting you must be running Thunderbird version 78 or above to enable the required OAuth2 authentication. When this article was amended, the OS was University RedHat8 version 8.8, and Thunderbird version was 110.12.0. You may find it useful to issue the command “sudo yum update” before commencing.

Please note: iSolutions officially supported Linux email client is Evolution, and this document is therefore provided purely as guidance for those users who wish to use Thunderbird but acknowledge that support will be limited should issues arise.

1. On first launch you should be presented with setting up your email account:

Fill out your details:

1. Your name 
2. Email address 
3. Password 

 

2. Then click the button “Configure manually…”.

 

3. You will need to configure the incoming and outgoing settings:

Incoming

• Server = outlook.office365.com
• Port = 993
• SSL = SSL/TLS
• Authentication = Autodetect
• Username = your university username followed by @soton.ac.uk (for example: ab1c23@soton.ac.uk)

Outgoing

• Server = outlook.office365.com Port = 587
• SSL = STARTTLS
• Authentication = Autodetect
• Username = your university username followed by @soton.ac.uk (for example: ab1c23@soton.ac.uk)

 

4. Then click Advanced Config

 

5. You will then see a prompt dialogue box, so now click OK

 

6. This will then take you into the advanced configuration

7. Click server setting on the left side

 

8. Change Authentication Method to OAuth2

 

9. Select Outgoing Server (SMTP) from the left.

 

10 Click your account in the window, then Edit

 
 
11. Change the Authentication method to OAuth2

12. Select OK and exit out to be taken to your mailbox.

 

13. Select “Get Messages” and you should now see the authentication login.

 

14. Sign in with your university username xxxxx@soton.ac.uk and password. The mailbox should now start to sync:

        

Thunderbird Address Book Configuration on Linux 

Thunderbird has the option to query the global address list just like Outlook, to provide the facility to search for a University of Southampton recipient. Thunderbird can link to an address book using LDAP to provide this functionality.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. If you wish to enable this feature, start by going to:

1. Tool
2. Address book
3. Add new

 

2. Select “LDAP server”. The required fields are:

• Name: UoS Address Book (or whatever you wish to name it)
• Host: nlbldap.soton.ac.uk
• Base DN: OU=User,DC=soton,DC=ac,DC=uk
• Port: 663
• Ensure the “Use secure connect (SSL)" is ticked.

 

3. Lastly, switch to the “Advanced” tab.

In the Search filter replace any current content with the following line (this will result in more accurate search results):

&(objectCategory=Person)(objectclass=user)

 

4. Once you have filled in the Search filter section, click “OK” to save and finish.

 

5. Once complete, you can now initiate a search for a recipient, and this will trigger a connection to the LDAP server and attempt to obtain a match. 

 

If you need to reconfigure an existing account

For IMAP:

1. Navigate to 'Account Settings'

2. Click on 'Server Settings' (for your university account)

3. Go to the 'Security Settings' section

4. Go to 'Authentication Method'

5. Click on the dropdown and select 'OAuth2'

 

For SMTP:

1. Navigate to 'Account Settings'

2. Click on 'Outgoing Server (SMTP)'

3. Edit (for your university account)

4. Go to 'Authentication Method'

5. Click on the dropdown and select 'OAuth2'

 

What to do if you have problems receiving or sending emails 

You can try fixing this issue by changing a setting in Thunderbird:

1. Select Settings (the gear icon bottom of your screen)  
2. Select the button Config Editor (you can find it at the bottom of the screen)
3. Select Show All
4. Type network.dns.dis in the search field
5. Choose the network.dns.disableIPv6
6. Select the toggle arrow on the right to make it true
7. Restart Thunderbird.

---

Back to the top

 

Linux and Red Hat users

If you prefer to configure a client for mailbox access, the supported application is Evolution. This is installed by default on all standard University RedHat Linux clients.

If you are not using the supported Red Hat build, you will need to install the Evolution and Evolution-EWS packages.

How to configure Evolution

1. Launch Evolution
   
   
2. Add a new account by going to the 'Mail Accounts menu' and selecting:
   
   1. 'Edit'
   2. 'Preferences'
   3. 'Add'
      
      If this is the first time you are using Evolution, select 'Cancel' on the 'Add' account wizard to show these options.
      
      
3. Click 'Next' on the welcome screen as shown below
   
   
   
4. Enter your name as you would like it to appear and your university email address (for example: abc1de22@soton.ac.uk)
   
   
5. Click 'Next'
   
   
   
6. Complete the settings listed below:
   
   1. Username: your university email address (for example: abc1de22@soton.ac.uk)
   2. Host URL: https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx
   3. Select OAuth2 as the Authentication type from the drop down menu
   4. Tenant: 4a5378f9-29f4-4d3e-be89-669d03ada9d8
   5. App ID: 51e20fb2-de82-43a4-932d-cb56b81262ac
      
      
7. Once complete, select 'Finish'
   
   
8. You will now be asked to authenticate using the University of Southampton’s modern authentication mechanism
   
   
   
9. Setup should now be complete. Email and calendar data may take some time to sync.

Back to the top

 

Removing an account

Using Windows, from the desktop client

1. Within Outlook, select:
   
   1. 'File'
   2. 'Account Settings'
   3. 'Account Settings'
      
      
      
2. Select the account you wish to remove from the list
   
   
3. Select 'Remove' from the top menu
   
   
4. Select 'Yes" and close the window

---

Back to the top

 

Using MacOS, from the desktop client

1. Launch Outlook for Mac
   
   
2. Go to the menu bar and click on 'Tools' and then 'Accounts'
   
   
   
3. Select the account you want to remove
   
   
4. Select the minus button (-)
   
   
5. Select 'Sign out' 

---

Back to the top

 

Using the browser

Removing a shared folder from your list is quick and easy:

1. Go to the shared folder you want to remove
2. Right-click on it
3. Click on 'Remove shared folder'

---

Back to the top

 

Using Outlook for Android

1. Open the Outlook app
2. Select the Cog in the bottom left of the page
3. Select the account you want to remove
4. Scroll down until the bottom of the list and click on 'Delete account'

---

Back to the top

 

Using Outlook for iOS

1. Go to 'Settings' and click on:
   
   1. 'Mail'
   2. 'Accounts'
2. Tap the email account you want to remove, then do one of the following:
   
   1. If you’re removing an iCloud email account:
      
      1. Tap 'iCloud'
      2. Tap 'iCloud Mail'
      3. Turn off 'iCloud Mail'
   2. If you’re removing another email account: 'Turn off Mail'.

You can also remove the email account from all apps on your iPhone by tapping on 'Delete Account'.

---

Back to the top

 

Using Linux

1. Open Evolution
2. Go to 'Edit' > 'Preferences'
3. In "Mail Accounts" select the account that you want to remove
4. Click the remove button and confirm if you want to remove.

In case you cannot removee your univesity email account, please get in touch with ServiceLine.

---

Back to the top

 

Related content

How to add or remove shared email accounts in Outlook

How to set up and manage Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Microsoft 365 License Comparisons (A5 & A1)

Microsoft 365 Support Centre

ServiceLine - The IT Service Desk