Access your email
Important changes to email authentication that may affect you
As part of ongoing work to enhance our email security, we have disabled all basic authentication methods for accessing your email. See help and support if this affects you.
Outlook on the web (Webmail)
Outlook on the web lets you access your email using your favourite web browser. Sign in with your University email address and password.
Outlook for iOS and Android
Get the free Microsoft Outlook app for your mobile phone or tablet and then sign in with your University email address and password. You can also see your calendar and timetable in the Outlook app.
Outlook for PC and Mac
You can download Outlook for free for your PC or Mac. Once installed, follow the instructions and sign in using your University email address and password.
If you need help see our step-by-step guides:
- Outlook for Windows set up guide (.pdf)
- Outlook for Mac set up guide (.pdf)
Help and support
I can't access my email, what should I do?
You'll need your University of Essex IT account details before you can access your email account. You can collect your IT account details online if you haven't already done so.
If you have your account details but are having trouble accessing your University email account, please the following steps:
- Check that your password is correct or has not expired.
- Check you have approved your login attempt with multifactor authentication.
- Check that you are using a supported email software/app and authentication method (see below).
If you still can't access your email account please contact the IT Helpdesk.
Supported email software/apps and authentication methods
Supported email software and apps
We support the following versions of Outlook:
- Windows: Outlook (2016, 2019, 365)
- macOS: Outlook (2016, 2019, 365)
- iOS and Android: Outlook app
- Linux: Use Outlook Web App (Webmail)
If you are using an older version of Outlook, please update to a newer version, which you can get from portal.office.com. This is necessary because older versions of Outlook do not support modern authentication methods.
Can I use other email software/apps? You may be able to use other email software/apps that support modern authentication, but we don’t recommend them as we don’t support or provide instructions for these.
Supported authentication methods
As of October 2021, only modern authentication methods are supported.
Modern authentication completely supports multifactor authentication (MFA) which is a key security service for protecting our University against cyber threats.
Not supported authentication methods
The following basic authentication methods are not supported:
- Exchange Web Services
- Exchange ActiveSync
- IMAP4
- MAPI Over HTTP
- POP3
- AutoDiscover
- Offline Address Book
- Authenticated SMTP
- Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP)
- Reporting Web Services
If your email software/app uses one of these basic authentication methods, you will need to update it to use modern authentication or change to different email software/app that's listed above.
How do I remove an email account or profile from my computer?
Windows computers
