Unable to add email account to Outlook in Microsoft 365

[#1]

I tried to add my Force9 account to Outlook from Microsoft 365 but was unable to.  Outlook assumed my username was the full email address and wouldn't allow any changes.  It also assumed that the settings should be mail.plus.net and would not allow me to change to mail.force9.net.  I assumed that there must be a way round this as I can't be the first to have had this problem so contacted Tech Support.  I was not given any help, just told that they do not support third party software - which, considering that M$ Outlook is an industry standard I found quite surprising.

My wife and I share a mailbox and are getting frustrated with frequent emails saying that we are close to our limit of 1 Gb, the file size in the emails is significantly bigger than the one reported by Outlook.  I looked around and found an email provider who could give me 5 mailboxes of 5Gb each for a couple of pounds per month so have gone for it.  As part of the install of the new provider I was forced to delete my Force9 account with the intention of re-installing - which is when my problems started.

I have been with Force9 and subsequently Plusnet for over 20 years and recommended them to others.  I have stuck with Plusnet as I didn't want the hassle of changing my email  setup but as it has now been forced on me I will be looking elsewhere when my contract is up unless I can get this issue resolved.

[#2]

With OUTLOOK 2019 as I use it'll only work if you input settings manually, due to
strange config settings using PN.
Are you sure there's no such option in 365?
My POP3 settings incidentally are outlook.office365.com
& sending SMTP.office365.com

[#3]

I've attached some screenshots showing the sequence.  I suspect the problem is that Outlook expects the username to be the complete email address as it is with most email providers.

[#4]

Moderator's note(s):

Thread moved from Plusnet Feedback to Tech Help.

[#5]

Thanks for your post @jbweller and welcome to our Community Forums.

I'm sorry to see you're having issues setting up your Force9 emails on Outlook.

Have you tried following the instructions Here and going through the advanced or manual setup?

I can confirm it's definitely possible because I've set a Plusnet email address many a time on Outlook. 

@jbweller wrote:

I've attached some screenshots showing the sequence. 

Is is just me but I can't see a screenshot? 

[#6]

It doesn't allow me to enter a username which might be the problem as it expects the full email address to be the username.whereas Plusnet uses part of the email address.  I have attached a document containg screenshots as a Word doc - if they are not showing please advise what I should do to display them.

I have been using Outlook in it's various incarnations with my Force9 account for 20 years setting it up manually and this is the first time I have had a problem 😞 .I originally posted this in feedback as I was very disappointed with the response from the tech support agent.

[#7]

Thanks for getting back to me @jbweller 

Our documented process which agents should be following explains we can help with setting up an email client. I've arranged for feedback to be passed on through their manager. Really sorry for the experience you've had.

At the top left of Outlook, can you click on File, then Add Account then select the "Manual setup or additional server types"? 

Let me know how it goes.

[#8]

I tried that and essentially had the same result.  I've attached the screenshots doc with the additional screenshots.  The issue sems to be that I can either put in the correct server name or the correct username - but not both!  I appreciate that this is almost certainly caused by this version of Outlook 365 being too clever for its own good 🙂

If it would help you are welcome to call me, I'm at home until 1630 today.

[#9]

Ah OK. Yeah seems really odd. What version of Outlook is it?

I didn't get a chance to call earlier unfortunately, but I'm happy to call you tomorrow afternoon if you'd be free?

[#10]

I may have found the problem.  I am a volunteer with our local college and they have a corporate Microsoft 365 account which seems to have taken over my system.  I will investigate with their IT department to find out how to remove their account and try adding my email account again.  I'll let you know how it goes.

[#11]

I've managed to get out of their account and tried again but have the same problems.  The version of Outlook is

Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2109 Build 16.0.14430.20154) 32-bi.

I will be in most of tomorrow (Friday) afternoon but have to go out sometime, not known when yet, for about 30 minutes.

[#12]

Hi @jbweller 

I’m really sorry I hadn’t followed up today. I hadn’t had the opportunity to sadly but I’ll definitely check back on Monday and call you then to help you out

[#13]

Hi @jbweller 

Have you sorted your emails out yet btw? Happy to call you, I'm here until 8pm.

It does seem though the issue may be down to the version of Outlook, so you could try installing a different email client?

[#14]

Problem not solved yet.  Happy to receive a call.

[#15 · Accepted solution]

Cheers for your time on the phone @jbweller it was good to speak with you.

I'm really sorry to hear the issues you've been having with re-setting up your Force9 emails onto Outlook 2019. You should be able to use imap.plus.net as the server but see if you can change it to imap.force9.net and then enter your username when it prompts you afterwards to see if it's accepted.

As an alternative I'd personally setup your emails on a different mail client such as Thunderbird as this would likely easily work around the issue. Although I appreciate it'd be good to get to the bottom of the problem.

I'll keep an eye out for this issue in case I see other people having issues setting up their Plusnet or Force9 emails on this version of Outlook in case there's something awry going on

Feel free to let me know with how things go and/or if you need further help.

You can also reply to this ticket via our website Here and I'll pick this back up as soon as I can.