Troubleshoot problems setting up my account

Question

I am trying to set up my account, but am getting the error message below. What do I need to do to correct this issue?

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Answer 1

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Hi Will Fox,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum! 

Have a good day and I hope you're doing well! 

Thank you for reaching out, and I'm truly sorry to hear you're dealing with this frustrating Outlook error. I appreciate you sharing the details, and I'm here to help guide you through a potential fix step by step. Based on similar cases, this "The connection to the incoming (IMAP) server was dropped" message is usually due to the mail server rejecting the connection rather than an issue with Outlook itself. 

Please try the steps below: 

1. Sign in to your email account via webmail 

• If you cannot sign in, please change your password there, following your provider’s current requirements. 
• After changing the password, sign out and then sign back in to webmail using the new password to confirm it works. 

2. Check for “App password” / “App‑specific passwords” 

• In your email account’s security/settings page, look for options such as: “App‑specific passwords”, “App passwords”, “Manage passwords”, “Application passwords”, “App & Password”, etc. 
• Revoke / delete any old app passwords (if the interface provides that option). 
• Then create a new app password for “Mail” or “Outlook”. 
• Copy and save this new app password (it’s usually a long string of characters, different from your normal webmail password). 
• Just use the new password you set in step 2, or contact your email provider and ask whether Outlook/IMAP should use a normal password or an app‑specific password. 

3. Set the account up again in Outlook using the new password 

• Open Outlook on your computer. 
• Run the account setup again for this email address (for example via File > Add Account, or File > Account Settings > Repair). 
• When Outlook asks for your password:  
  • Use the new app password created in step 3, if you created one, or 
    • Use the new normal password from step 2, if there is no app password. 
    • Complete the setup wizard, then try sending/receiving email to see whether the issue is resolved. 

4. If the problem continues 
If, after successfully logging in to webmail, changing your password, (optionally) creating a new app password, and setting the account up again in Outlook, 

You still see “The connection to the incoming (IMAP) server was dropped”, please contact your email service provider. Their server may be: 

• blocking IMAP connections, 
• using different ports or encryption settings, 
• or having a temporary service issue.

For additional reference, Microsoft also documents this type of issue here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/4633900/the-connection-to-incoming-imap-server-was-dropped

I hope the information above is at least partially helpful for you. If you have any problems or concerns, or if I have misunderstood anything or something is unclear, please feel free to let me know. 

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