Home » Blog » Windows Outlook » How to Fix IMAP Problems in Outlook 2013 and Office 365

How to Fix IMAP Problems in Outlook 2013 and Office 365

admin | May 16th, 2018 | Windows Outlook

Outlook 2013 has become the latest version of Microsoft Outlook. It is an element of MS Office suite and the most popular email application across the globe. Moreover, Outlook supports IMAP/POP3 and MS Exchange account, thereby enabling a user to configure various email clients like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Exchange, etc. Furthermore, users can set up various email accounts on Outlook to access all the mailboxes from the desktop. Apart from MS Outlook, many email programs support IMAP /POP for downloading email messages from the server. Although, IMAP, unlike POP3, leaves a copy of the email on the server until users may delete it manually. It will make the IMAP a preferred mail protocol. Therefore, in this blog, we are going to discuss a complete solution to fix IMAP problems in Outlook 2013 and Office 365 account.

How to Configure Microsoft Outlook 2013 with IMAP?

Similarly, earlier versions of Outlook email client, the most recent version also capable to support email accounts based on IMAP, POP, and Exchange Server. Even though, users will not see the email configuration steps as it is as they are in the current version (i.e. Outlook 2010). Follow below steps to set up the IMAP account on MS Outlook 2013:

  1. Launch MS Outlook 2013, go to File tab and then, click on Add Account
  2. Now, select Manual setup or additional server types, and press Next button
  3. Choose the last option named as POP or IMAP and click on Next
  4. On POP/IMAP Account Settings window, you have to mention the required details, and click on More Settings option

    5. Important: Under Server Information make sure to choose IMAP in the Account Type drop down menu.

  5. On the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box, select Outgoing Server tab and enable this My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication check box, and press OK
  6. Now, the POP and IMAP Account Settings window will open. Click Next button to start the email configuration
  7. After this, click on Finish when Outlook application is done

This is the right way to configure IMAP account in Microsoft Outlook 2013. However, Outlook 2013 and Office 365 users may face synchronization issues with IMAP and they become fail to access their all mailbox items. In many cases, the proper configuration can easily resolve IMAP problems in Outlook 2013 and Office 365 accounts.

IMAP Synchronization Problems in Outlook 2013 & Office 365

The issue may not be in the way you configured the IMAP account on MS Outlook 2013 but might be in few update or plug-in frequently installed. Microsoft often releases updates for all the products, aiming for enhanced the users’ experience. Although, more than one incompatible updates may cause various issues, such as IMAP synchronization issue. Due to some IMAP issues affecting both email accounts Outlook 2013 and Office 365, users fail to download their messages and go through the emailing over a communication channel established.

Reasons Behind IMAP Synchronization Issues

In order to identify the causes of the IMAP problems in Outlook 2013 and Office 365 accounts, you must research a little deeper to get more information about the same that brings the different culprits (i.e. KB2837618 or KB2837643 update for Outlook 2013) in the spotlight.

Important: In any case if you have not installed any of these updates, do not go for them. However, if you have already installed any of these updates, you should go on with this post to fix the issue.

As we all know, there are multiple users who are not able to access their IMAP folders, while many times they fail to download emails from the IMAP server. Although, one common thing with some users is that they have recently installed one of these updates. Fixing some IMAP issues in MS Office 365 and Outlook 2013 required to remove all installed updates instantly.

Manually Resolve "IMAP Synchronization Issues with Outlook 2013 & Office 365"

Let’s check some easy ways to fix IMAP Problems in Outlook 2013 and Office 365 accounts without losing any data. When IMAP sync issues are encountered after installing any updates i.e., KB2837618 or KB2837643, removing them will surely fix them directly. Now, you can follow the below steps to remove all these updates:

Uninstall Updates

  1. Click on Start menu and then, select Control Panel
  2. Now, search for Programs & Features option from the list
  3. In the opened screen, choose any of the KB2837618 or KB2837643 updates that have recently installed, and hit on Remove option given at the top.

With the help of aforementioned steps, you can easily remove the apprehensive updates. Then, you need to restart your system after uninstalling all the updates, and then open MS Outlook 2013. Alternatively, you can go for another method, i.e., change the path of root folder to get out of a trouble.

Change Root Folder Location

  1. Start Outlook 2013 and navigate to the File tab
  2. Click on Account Settings and then, select Account Settings option
  3. After that, go to Change option under the opening dialog box
  4. Click on More Settings and choose Advanced option
  5. Now, you can select Folders option and search for Root folder path option, and then type Inbox
  6. Click on Save button to apply the changes
  7. Finally, press F9 key to verify if Send or Receive option is now working

Change the Outlook settings from “show only subscribed folders” might also help in fixing the issue. Thus, you need to implement the following steps for the same.

Change Outlook 2013 Account Settings

  1. Launch Outlook 2013, click the Folders tab and choose IMAP Folders. This will open a dialog box that contains IMAP folders
  2. Disable this check box When displaying hierarchy in Outlook, show only the subscribed folders
  3. Now, you can save all settings and press F9 key to initiate Send/Receive check

Once all these settings will be changed, Outlook 2013 should start synchronizing with the IMAP server.

You might also try to set up your Outlook profiles again with IMAP protocol, but make sure that you implement such settings to avoid the same problems again. In case you may encounter any problem then, you can go for a reliable third-party tool.

Final Words

Most of the time users may encounter IMAP synchronization issues in Outlook 2013 and Office 365 due to various reasons. It may also affect the continuity of workflow. Thus, in this blog, we have explained a step-by-step procedure to fix IMAP problems in Outlook 2013 and Office 365 in detail. Make sure follow each and every step very carefully.