Last Updated May 23rd, 2015 at 10:57AM

The following details how to reconfigure MS Outlook on an Apple Mac to connect to Microsoft Office 365 Hosted Exchange. With these steps, users will be adding a MS Outlook account for their new Hosted mailbox, temporarily leaving the existing one in place. The advantage of this approach is the old MS Outlook account, along with all data and settings will still exist on the system as a backup. Users can then later remove the old account to save disk space once they are happy with the new setup. Users with multiple mailboxes will need to go through the steps below for each mailbox, one at a time.

1. If you have not done so already, please open a browser and go to https://portal.office.com. Login with the credentials provided to ensure they are correct. If you are prompted to change your password, please do so and make a note of what you made it. Going forward, SYGNET will not be able to see what your password is, we will only be able to reset it. If you have difficulties logging into the portal site, please contact SYGNET for assistance.
2. Open MS Outlook if you have do not already have it open.
3. In the menu bar, select Tools and then Accounts… to bring up the Accounts screen. In the Accounts screen, you will notice an entry in the left panel for each account you already have configured in Outlook. We recommend clicking on each existing account and then modifying the Account description: and Prefix it with the word “Old”. This will help you distinguish the old account(s) from the new one(s) later on.
   
   
4. You may have to close and reopen the Accounts screen to see the updated Account description(s) in the left pane.
   
   
5. In the lower left corner, click the + button, and select Exchange from the drop down list that appears.
   
   
6. A dialog box labelled Enter your Exchange account information will appear. Enter the Email address for the mailbox you are setting up in the E-mail address: and User name: fields. For the Password: field, use the updated password you created in the Portal website, or enter the SYGNET provided password if you were not prompted to change your password by the Portal site.  Click the Add Account button to proceed.
   
   
7. If you entered your credentials correctly in the previous step, you will likely receive the prompt below. This is a warning that a server is attempting to update your settings and this message is expected. Please verify the server address underlined in the picture is https://autodiscover-s.outlook.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml. If the address does not match, please contact SYGNET for assistance. Otherwise, check the box for Always use my response for this server and then click the Allow button.
   
   
8. If your new account is setup as expected, you will return to the Accounts screen. Confirm your new account appears in the left pane, and that the server communication indicator dot to the left of the account is green. The dot may start out as amber, however it should change to green after 20 seconds or so. If the dot does not turn green, close the Accounts screen and reopen it to make sure it is refreshed. If the dot continues to be amber, verify the settings you entered in step #5. If this does not resolve the problem contact SYGNET for assistance. Note: After the migration date, it will be normal for your old accounts to have an amber dot since they will no be communicating with the old server. 
   
   
9. If the account just configured should be your default account, click the Gear or Cog looking icon and select Set as Default. You can then close the Accounts screen and start using MS Outlook.
   
   
10. We recommend users check their MS Outlook signatures to ensure they are configured as required for the new accounts. To check your signatures, in the menu bar select Outlook and then select Preferences…. The Outlook Preferences screen will appear. Click on the Signatures option to open the Signatures screen. From the Signatures screen, click the Default Signatures… button.
    
11. In the Default Signatures… screen, use the drop down box to the right of each account and select the default signature that should be set for each one. Click the OK button when you are done, and close the Signatures screen. 
    
    

Congratulations, at this point MS Outlook should be fully configured to use your new MS Office 365 hosted mailbox!