IMAP Works for Outlook.com and Hotmail Again, and It Is Now the Default
IMAP with Microsoft sign-in works for personal Outlook.com, Hotmail and Live.com accounts, so MailVault now uses it by default. When you add an Outlook.com or Hotmail account, it connects over IMAP, the same way Microsoft 365 work and school accounts and every other provider do.
Why we moved to Graph in the first place
Early this year, signing in to personal Outlook accounts over IMAP stopped working, so we built a second connection through Microsoft's Graph API. The whole story is in The Outlook OAuth Odyssey. Graph kept those accounts working, but it is a different path from IMAP, and a few things that rely on IMAP never made it across.
What IMAP gives you
- Snooze, which Graph accounts do not have.
- Restoring an MBOX file to the server.
- Recover to server for deleted emails, not only recovery on your computer.
- The Inbox count in the add-account window after the connection test.
- One way to connect: an Outlook.com account behaves like your other IMAP accounts.
What changes for you
- New accounts connect over IMAP. Connect over in the add-account window is set to IMAP, and Microsoft Graph is still one pick away.
- Existing Graph accounts keep working and are not changed. When MailVault starts, each account still on Graph shows a banner with Switch to IMAP and Don't show again. Choosing the second hides the banner for that account for good.
- Switching is in Settings → Accounts → Connection: set Connect over to IMAP and choose Switch and sign in again. Your saved mail stays.
One setting to check
Outlook.com only serves a mailbox over IMAP once Let devices and apps use IMAP is turned on in its settings. If it is off, Microsoft accepts your sign-in and then refuses the connection with "User is authenticated but not connected". It takes a minute to fix: see How do I add an Outlook.com or Hotmail account over IMAP? for the steps, or MailVault says Outlook refused IMAP if you already see the error.
Graph is not going away. If you prefer it, or need nothing turned on in Outlook.com, choose Microsoft Graph under Connect over.