Obsidian SuiteDocumentation
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Connecting phones, Macs and apps

People can use mail, calendar and contacts in three ways:

  • As an Exchange account on iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac: mail, calendar and contacts, all kept in sync, with push. Recommended.
  • As an IMAP account in any mail app (Thunderbird, Outlook for Windows, Apple Mail): mail only.
  • In the browser with webmail at https://mail.example.com/mail: mail, calendar and contacts. See Webmail.

For automatic setup to work, the domain needs its autodiscover record (see DNS) and the server a trusted certificate (see Certificates). Without a trusted certificate, phones warn about it and some apps refuse to connect.

iPhone and iPad

  1. Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts > Add Account > Microsoft Exchange (on older iOS versions: Settings > Mail > Accounts).
  2. Enter the email address and a description, then choose Configure Manually if asked, or Sign In.
  3. Enter the password. The server is found automatically.
  4. If it asks for a server, enter mail.example.com and the full email address as the username; leave Domain empty.
  5. Choose what to sync: Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

If the organization has phone security rules (see Phones and tablets), the phone asks the person to accept them, for example to set a passcode.

Android

Use the Gmail app (Settings > Add account > Exchange and Microsoft 365) or Samsung Email (Add account > Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync):

  • Email address and password; the server is found automatically.
  • If asked for server settings: server mail.example.com, port 443, security SSL/TLS, username = the full email address.

Mac: Mail, Calendar and Contacts

  1. System Settings > Internet Accounts > Add Account > Microsoft Exchange.
  2. Enter the name and email address and choose Sign In. When asked Sign in to your Exchange account using Microsoft?, choose Configure Manually.
  3. Enter the password. The server is found automatically; if not, enter mail.example.com as both the internal and external server.
  4. Tick Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

Outlook

  • Outlook for Mac: add an Exchange account with the email address and password. Legacy Outlook for Mac uses Exchange Web Services, which the server supports. If the new Outlook for Mac does not connect, switch to Legacy Outlook (Outlook menu) or add the account as IMAP.
  • Outlook for Windows (classic): add the account as IMAP with the settings below. Outlook's own Exchange connection (MAPI over HTTP) is in preview: an administrator turns it on for one person at a time with sudo oms mapihttp enable <address>, and that person then adds the account as Exchange in a new Outlook profile. Outlook signs in with the password, or with Windows sign-in (NTLM) when that is turned on (see NTLM sign-in for Outlook).
  • Outlook on the web: use the server's own webmail at https://mail.example.com/mail.

Thunderbird and other IMAP apps

Thunderbird fills in everything from the email address and password alone (through the autoconfig record). Other apps need these settings:

ServerPortSecurity
Incoming (IMAP)mail.example.com993SSL/TLS
Outgoing (SMTP)mail.example.com587STARTTLS
Outgoing, alternativemail.example.com465SSL/TLS
Incoming (POP3), if neededmail.example.com995SSL/TLS
  • Username: the full email address, for example [email protected].
  • Password: the person's normal password. Authentication method: normal password.
  • The outgoing server always requires signing in, and only sends mail from addresses the person may use.

IMAP on port 143 and POP3 on port 110 also work, but only after the app switches to encryption with STARTTLS; the server never accepts a password over an unencrypted connection.

Printers, scanners and scripts

Devices that send mail (scan-to-email, alerts) can:

  • Sign in like an IMAP app: create a user mailbox for the device, and use port 587 with STARTTLS and its address and password.
  • Send without signing in, when they cannot do encryption or sign-in: allow their IP address to relay (see Mail flow).

When an app will not connect

  • Check that the person can sign in to webmail with the same address and password.
  • After 10 wrong passwords within 15 minutes, the account and the IP address are blocked from signing in for a while; wait 15 minutes.
  • Check the Setup guide: the autodiscover record and a trusted certificate are the usual culprits.
  • See Troubleshooting.