Microsoft broke IMAP access for Outlook.com Custom Domains – a product they discontinued, but promised to keep active for legacy users. The result of Microsoft’s glitch, and they still call it a glitch – despite not delivering the promised fix – is that IMAP access for Mac and Android was broken completely. The only options were to use the native Outlook app for iOS and Android, or Outlook.com in a web browser.

Needless to say, that was not a welcomed resolution. Thanks to Exchange support, you can finally get back your Mac Mail or Android access to your Outlook.com account… with the native apps. Outlook appears to have solved the issue, but only on their Exchange backend. IMAP is still toast for Outlook.com Custom Domain users.

On Mac, I recommend running OS X El Capitan. I haven’t tested with prior versions, but El Capitan has the best Exchange support built-in. In theory, this should also work with Android and Google’s new Gmail app – which includes native Exchange support too.

This should also work with the Email app on older Android versions – though AOSP devices do not include Exchange support unless they also include Google Play.

Set up the account as Exchange, and use your true email address, login and password. It should fail, and then you will be prompted for more information.

For the Exchange server URL, provide https://www.outlook.com/EWS/exchange.asmx as the URL. You should fill this in for both internal and external, when asked.

From there, it’s pretty straightforward. Everything works, and works as well as a corporate Office 365 account.

Frankly, I’m surprised Microsoft doesn’t bring back Outlook.com Custom Domains, or offer it as a cheaper alternative to Office 365. There are great solutions out there like ZoHo that are still free, have excellent spam filtering, and work great too.