compuserve pop3 setup in office 365 not working not seting up

Question

I cany set up my compuserve pop3 account on office 365 - although I am using the same settings as office 2013 - working just fine.

Help - I have tried dozens of configs...no luck at all

Answer 1

Hi Ripgear,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A.

The settings that worked in Outlook 2013 may be rejected in newer versions of Classic Outlook for Windows due to stricter authentication requirements (e.g., requiring app passwords instead of normal passwords). The Simplified Account Setup (the blue "Add Account" box) can also be unreliable for POP3 accounts because it tries to auto-detect modern sign-in methods. A more dependable approach is to manually add the account via Control Panel > Mail.

Add the account via Control Panel (recommended)

1. Close Outlook.
2. Open Control Panel > search for Mail > open Mail (Microsoft Outlook).
3. Select Show Profiles > Add.
4. Choose Manual setup > POP or IMAP.
5. Enter your AOL/CompuServe server settings:
   • Incoming (POP3): pop.aol.com | Port 995 | Encryption: SSL/TLS
   • Outgoing (SMTP): smtp.aol.com | Port 465 | Encryption: SSL/TLS
6. Check "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication" > select "Use same settings as my incoming mail server".
7. Important: If your normal password is rejected, generate an app password in your AOL/CompuServe account security settings and use that in Outlook (this is commonly required for third-party mail apps).

Additional Notes

• You can also create new Outlook profiles through here: Create an Outlook profile.
• Since CompuServe/AOL is a third-party provider, Outlook must match their current security requirements (SSL ports + app password).

If the issue persists, please share the exact error message from the "Test Account Settings" dialog so we can troubleshoot further.

Please let me know if this proves useful to you, or if you would like further assistance.

I'm looking forward to your reply.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment”.   

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.