Outlook email client---unable to receive emails

[LouLocc]

I recently got a new computer with a Windows 11 OS and am using Outlook email client. I created about 10 webmail accounts—some Gmail and some outlook—and added them all added to my Outlook mail client, so all 10 or so emails would load each time I opened my email client. (Not sure if this is relevant, but I created separate passwords for each account, because I didn’t know I could have created “alias” accounts.)
In any case, I am having a problem with my outlook email client, because every time I open it, a pop-up window opens which prompts me to create an “Hello” PIN for security.
So without knowing much, I decided to change some settings to stop this from happening.
The bottom line is that for several of my outlook webmail accounts, I cannot receive any emails and I fear I am missing some important emails, so I need some help to fix this.
I would really like someone to tell me what settings to check and to inform me what the correct settings should be, or anything else I should investigate, so that I can get my emails working again.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Thank you.

[Bruce]

let’s iron out some terminology to make sure we are all on the same page.

‘outlook email client’ - are you using the Microsoft Outlook program, part of the Office suite (Word, Excel, Publisher, etc) or are you using Outlook on the Web, aka OWA, via your browser?

if the former, what version?, and was it already on the PC or did you install it?

next… Gmail, and web based email accounts in general, are much better being checked via a web browser.
Outlook can do it, but it involves getting the incoming & outgoing mail servers correct, and using the correct encryption protocols and ports.
far simply to just use a browser, type in your address and password and pow, you’re in.
and… being access from a browser means you can use any browser, anywhere you go. saves having to setup the accounts in Outlook on different devices.

all email accounts have a webmail portal - that is, they can be checked via a browser.
non-online based accounts, like the ones from your Internet Service Provider, or from a domain hoster you have purchased your email account through, they would have given you all these details - both how to setup them up in Outlook with the appropriate settings, and how to log onto their webmail portals to check your emails.

[LouLocc]

Hi Bruce,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate you asking these questions, because I need to learn these distinctions. I will do my best to answer them in the order you asked.

I believe I am using the “Microsoft Outlook Program” but I am not totally sure—it is set up as an Icon on my desktop and by double clicking it allows me to see all my email accounts. BUT, it does not give me any version when I click on “Properties”–> “Details”, so that is strange. I am further confused because the “Geek Squad” technician transferred my old programs onto this new computer, so this may be a very old version BUT I also just recently purchased Office 365, although I am not sure if that downloaded and integrated into my computer correctly. I would appreciate your help in trying to figure this out.

FYTI, the way I set up all my web-based emails–both Gmail and outlook.com—is that I opened a browser and went to either google.com or outlook.com and set up each new email individually, by creating a unique email address and password for each email I created. I did this for about 10 email accounts. ONLY AFTERWARDS, did I open what I think is the Outlook email client on my desktop and went to FILE–> ADD ACCOUNT, at which point I imported each account into the mail client.

This morning, I got a slight clue as to what might be causing some of my email accounts to not work. I logged onto one of my accounts that wasn’t working, and I entered the PIN associated with my Microsoft account and immediately afterwards, all the emails flooded in for that particular account! The problem is that on another one of my “broken” email accounts, I had trouble duplicating that process.

I welcome your advice and guidance!

Thank you!

[Bruce]

to see if Outlook (and Microsoft Office) is installed on the PC, go to Start, Control Panel, Programs & Features, and look for anything starting with “microsoft”.
it should be something like Microsoft 365, or Microsoft Office 2019 - that sort of thing.

how did you buy Office 365 - online and downloaded it, or from a retail store and have the CD/DVD/USB to install it from?
the retail store purchase could also have been a piece of paper with the download instructions, but will have your Product Key to activate it once installed.

if the version on the PC currently is not the product you have purchased, I would be removing the current version and installing the purchased one before we go further.

[LouLocc]

My Control Panel has several Microsoft Programs listed:
Microsoft 365 en us (This is it!)
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 (Why do I have this program, isn’t this duplicating Microsoft 365? Did I make a mistake and purchase this program also? )
Microsoft One Drive
Microsoft One Note en us
Microfoft Update Health tools
Microsoft Visual C ++ (about 4 similar programs)

Does this look okay to you? All Microsoft programs seem to have an installation date within the last month, so that is a good sign.

I bought Microsoft 365 online and downloaded it, perhaps only 1 month ago.

If this looks okay, then please let me know how to proceed.

Thank you.

[Bruce]

that all looks fine, and yes, the Microsoft 365 entry is the one we want.
it means it is installed on your PC.

when you go to Start and find the Outlook entry, click that and in it, go to File, Account Settings, Account Settings. that’ll list all your accounts you want checked.

now the fun starts - you have to go into each entry and check the settings against the values supplied by your email provider.

you’ll need to decide if you want to set them up as POP or IMAP accounts, get the incoming and outgoing mail servers, get the appropriate SSL encryption protocols and corresponding port numbers, and enter the authentication method (this is probably where you went awry with one of the outlook accounts and the reason Hello was popping up).

[LouLocc]

Great…

I got to Outlook–>Account Settings–> Account Settings and it lists 13 email accounts:

1. 1st account is from Spectrum (@twc.com) set as type “IMAP/SMTP”–which will be discontinued any day now, since I recently cancelled my Spectrum Internet Service.
2. There are 4 Outlook.com accounts—all set as type “Microsoft Exchange”
3. There are 8 Gmail accounts—all set as type “IMAP/SMTP”

Actually, all these email accounts, perhaps with the exception of my Spectrum account since my computer guy set that up for me, had their settings automatically set by Google and Microsoft, as they “loaded” when I created the accounts and when I added them to the Outlook mail client, and I never had a say about them, which is a good thing I suppose. Now, there are a few strange issues: First, one of my Gmail accounts is listed 3x in this list of accounts that I found under Outlook–>Account Settings–> Account Settings, AND also listed 3x when I open the Outlook Mail Client. I have no idea why or how this happened! Next, today I tried to forward a message from my @twc.com account (Spectrum) to one of my Outlook accounts and I got an error message saying that the messages could not be forwarded to this particular Outlook account and I have no idea why!

I actually have no clue what settings I should change remedy these problems, but I do have a few additional observations I would appreciate your insight on:

1. Why would I change the settings in my Outlook email client rather than login to each Gmail account separately via google.com or each outlook.com account separately and change the settings there? It is in these individual website logins that I changed some of the settings in the 1st place.
2. I have noticed that the Gmail accounts seem to work much better with the Outlook mail client than the outlook.com accounts!
3. Also, would it be best to have one Login for all my Google Accounts and create “aliases” under that Login OR is it best that I created a separate Login page (and account) for each Gmail I have? Similarly with outlook.com? Maybe aliases would cause fewer problems when adding them to Outlook mail client?

Now, what exactly do I do next? If I have to change settings, which ones and how would I know what to set them to?

Thank you!

P.S. I am willing to hire someone to help me do this if needed, but I don’t mind trying to do it myself first.

[Bruce]

aliases are good in what you are describing.
instead of 10 separate, physical accounts, you have one ‘main’ account with 9 aliases, that way you give out the ‘burner’ aliases when filling in online forms, or joining website shopping carts to buy things - stuff like that - and the actual email is never spammed.
if the alias is, just delete it and create another.

as to what to do next - firstly I would log onto, let’s do the outlook.com accounts first, each of those accounts from your web browser by going to www.outlook.com - that would a) prove they work and b) make sure you know the password.

because after that, I would delete them from Outlook and re-add them.

[LouLocc]

This sounds like sound advice!

Just a few things to clarify:

1. If I change everything to having one ‘main’ account with 9 aliases, will my outlook mail client separate each email address when I open it up, the same way it does now or will it look different?
2. I will certainly login to each account separately via web browser to prove they work and to also make sure I know the passwords. You then recommended I delete them and then re-add them. I can certainly try this, but my concern is once I delete an account, Outlook and Gmail have not let me re-establish a new account with the same email address (as I have tried this several times before). Although, I don’t mind creating new similar email addresses if needed. Let me try and I will update you.
3. I am actually thinking of making all my emails Gmail accounts, as they just seem to work better. So, for example, if I have a current email address “@outlook.com”, I will create an alias under my main Google account as “@gmail.com” I will just use Google email for everything. Just an FYI, not sure this was even necessary to bring up.

Thanks again!

[COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]email address removed for security reasons[/COLOR]

[Bruce]

1. an aliases is a unique email address but points to a single email account.
   so if andy@outlook is the main account and you had aliases of bob@, chris@ and dave@ - when an email is sent to any of the aliases, it actually goes to andy’s inbox. all sent mail is still sent as andy.

so the owner only needs to check the one, primary account but public can use any of the aliases and the owner still gets the emails.

1. you’re not deleting the physical email account at the Provider’s end, just its address in Outlook. so you can remove it from Outlook and re-add it to your hearts’ content.
2. as I said in an earlier email - I’d be recommending you do just that - take Outlook out of the equation and use gmail.com (or outlook.com if you stay with MS) as your email checking process

[LouLocc]

All sounds good, except:

1. Regarding point #1, that is good, in a way, that all emails from different alias go to the main e-mail account Inbox. However, for me ideally, I would like a way to have the mails from my different alias stay separate from each other when they reach this Inbox. This is because, for example, one of my alias emails will be for medical emails and one will be, lets say, for financial emails. Any way to keep these separate once they reach my main email Inbox? t
2. Got it.
3. I think I will stick with Gmail, but below I have 2 choices (as shown in the below chart): CHOICE #1: Import Mail and contacts; OR CHOICE #2:
   Send mail as: (Use Gmail to send from your other email addresses)? I would guess I pick choice #1, correct?

Import mail and contacts: Learn more	Import from Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL, or other webmail or POP3 accounts. Import mail and contacts
Send mail as: (Use Gmail to send from your other email addresses) Learn more	<alias1@gmail.com> edit info Add another email address

1. And I can do all this without creating a Google Workspace, correct?

Thank you again!

[Bruce]

1. in that case you will need separate, actual, email accounts for each unique address you want to send from.
2. I would have said Option 1, but the other choice seems to suggest that Gmail CAN send from an alias.
   looks like my info is old, and admittedly, I stopped using Gmail about 6 years ago, so maybe they do now let you send from an alias and have that email arrive in the recipients Inbox looking like it came from a ‘legit’ address even though it was only an alias.
3. correct, you can just create Gmail accounts, no need to use any other Google product.

[LouLocc]

Bruce, thank you so much! I will give this all a shot. Will let you know if any other questions come up, but hopefully not.

[Bruce]

@LouLocc - how did you get on?

[phillpower2]

Being that the OP revisited the forum but chose not to reply this thread will be marked and closed.