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Account setup in Outlook for iOS and Android using Basic authentication

Outlook for iOS and Android offers Exchange administrators the ability to "push" account configurations to their on-premises users who use Basic authentication with the ActiveSync protocol. This capability works with any Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) provider who uses the Managed App Configuration channel for iOS or the Android in the Enterprise channel for Android.

For on-premises users enrolled in Microsoft Intune, you can deploy the account configuration settings using Intune in the Azure Portal.

Once an account configuration has been created and the user enrolls their device, Outlook for iOS and Android will detect that an account is "Found" and will then prompt the user to add the account. The only information the user needs to enter to complete the setup process is their password. Then, the user's mailbox content will load and the user can begin using the app.

The following images show an example of the end-user setup process after Outlook for iOS and Android has been configured in Intune in the Azure Portal.

Account setup for Outlook for iOS and Android on-premises.

Create an app configuration policy for Outlook for iOS and Android using Microsoft Intune

If you're using Microsoft Intune as your mobile device management provider, the following steps will allow you to deploy account configuration settings for your on-premises mailboxes that leverage basic authentication with the ActiveSync protocol. Once the configuration is created, you can assign the settings to groups of users, as detailed in the next section, Assign configuration settings.

Note

If users in your organization use both iOS and Android for Work devices, you'll need to create a separate app configuration policy for each platform.

  1. Sign into Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

  2. Select Apps and then select App configuration policies.

  3. On the App Configuration policies blade, choose Add and select Managed devices.

  4. On the Add app configuration blade, enter a Name, and optional Description for the app configuration settings.

  5. For Platform, choose either iOS/iPadOS or Android.

  6. For Associated app, choose Select the required app, and then, on the Targeted apps blade, choose Microsoft Outlook.

    Note

    If Outlook is not listed as an available app, then you must add it by following the instructions in Add Android store apps to Microsoft Intune and How to add iOS store apps to Microsoft Intune.

  7. Click OK to return to the Add app configuration blade.

  8. Choose Configuration Settings. On the Configuration blade, select Use configuration designer for the Configuration settings format. The key value pairs used in this section are defined in the section Key value pairs.

  9. If you want to deploy account setup configuration, select Yes for Configure email account settings and configure appropriately:

    • For Authentication type, select Basic authentication. This is required for on-premises accounts that don't leverage hybrid modern authentication.

    • For Username attribute from Microsoft Entra ID, select User Principal Name or sAMAccountName. If sAMAccountName is selected, enter the NetBIOS domain name in the Account domain field.

    • For Email address attribute from Microsoft Entra ID, select Primary SMTP Address.

    • For Email server, enter the Exchange ActiveSync externally accessible domain name.

    • For Email account name, enter a descriptive value for the account.

  10. If you want to deploy general app configuration settings, configure the desired settings accordingly:

    • For Focused Inbox, choose from the available options: Not configured (default), On (app default), Off.

    • For Require Biometrics to access the app, choose from the available options: Not configured (default), On, Off (app default). When selecting On or Off, administrators can choose to allow the user to change the app setting's value. Select Yes (app default) to allow the user to change the setting or choose No if you want to prevent the user from changing the setting's value. This setting is only available in Outlook for iOS.

    • For Save Contacts, choose from the available options: Not configured (default), On, Off (app default). When selecting On or Off, administrators can choose to allow the user to change the app setting's value. Select Yes (app default) to allow the user to change the setting or choose No if you want to prevent the user from changing the setting's value.

    • For Default app signature, choose from the available options: Not configured (default), On (app default), Off.

    • For Block external images, choose from the available options: Not configured (default), On, Off (app default). When selecting On or Off, administrators can choose to allow the user to change the app setting's value. Select Yes (app default) to allow the user to change the setting or choose No if you want to prevent the user from changing the setting's value.

    • For Organize mail by thread, choose from the available options: Not configured (default), On (app default), Off.

  11. When you're done, choose OK.

  12. On the Add app configuration blade, choose Add.

The newly created configuration policy is displayed on the App configuration blade.

Assign configuration settings

You assign the settings to groups of users in Microsoft Entra ID. When a user has the Microsoft Outlook app installed, the app is managed by the settings you have specified. To do this:

  1. From the Apps - App configuration policies blade, select the app configuration policy you want to assign.

  2. On the next blade, choose Assignments.

  3. On the Assignments blade, select Select groups to include and choose the Microsoft Entra group to which you want to assign the app configuration, and then choose Select.

  4. Select Save to save and assign the app configuration policy.

Key value pairs

When you create an app configuration policy in the Azure Portal or through your UEM provider, you need the following key value pairs:

Key Values
com.microsoft.outlook.EmailProfile.EmailAccountName This value specifies the display name email account as it appears to users on their devices.
Value type: String
Accepted values: Display Name
Default if not specified: <blank>
Required: Yes
Example: user
Intune Token*: {{username}}
com.microsoft.outlook.EmailProfile.EmailAddress This value specifies the email address to be used for sending and receiving mail.
Value type: String
Accepted values: Email address
Default if not specified: <blank>
Required: Yes
Example: user@companyname.com
Intune Token*: {{mail}}
com.microsoft.outlook.EmailProfile.EmailUPN This value specifies the User Principal Name or username for the email profile that will be used to authenticate the account.
Value type: String
Accepted values: UPN Address or username
Default if not specified: <blank>
Required: Yes
Example: userupn@companyname.com
Intune Token*: {{userprincipalname}}
com.microsoft.outlook.EmailProfile.ServerAuthentication This value specifies the authentication method for the user.
Value type: String
Accepted values: 'Username and Password'
Default if not specified: 'Username and Password'
Required: No
Example: 'Username and Password'
com.microsoft.outlook.EmailProfile.ServerHostName This value specifies the host name of your Exchange server.
Value type: String
Accepted values: ActiveSync FQDN
Default if not specified: <blank>
Required: Yes
Example: mail.companyname.com
com.microsoft.outlook.EmailProfile.AccountDomain This value specifies the user's account domain.
Value type: String
Accepted values: Domain
Default if not specified: <blank>
Required: No
Example: companyname
com.microsoft.outlook.EmailProfile.AccountType This value specifies the account type being configured based on the authentication model.
Value type: String
Accepted values: BasicAuth
Default if not specified: BasicAuth
Required: No
Example: BasicAuth

* Microsoft Intune users can use tokens that will expand to the correct value according to the enrolled user. See Add app configuration policies for managed iOS devices for more information.