Connecting a Traxio mailbox to Outlook takes a couple of minutes. The same settings work for Apple Mail, Thunderbird, and the mail apps on iOS and Android — only the menus differ.
Find your settings first
In DirectAdmin, open E-mail Manager → E-mail Accounts and view the configuration for your mailbox. You need the incoming and outgoing server names and the ports. They will be along these lines, but use the values DirectAdmin shows for your account rather than assuming:
- Incoming (IMAP):
mail.yourdomain.co.uk, port 993, SSL/TLS - Outgoing (SMTP):
mail.yourdomain.co.uk, port 465 (SSL) or 587 (STARTTLS) - Username: your full email address, not just the part before the @
- Password: the mailbox password
Adding the account in Outlook
- File → Add Account.
- Enter your full email address, then choose Advanced options → Let me set up my account manually. Outlook's automatic detection frequently guesses wrong for custom domains.
- Select IMAP.
- Enter the incoming and outgoing servers, ports and encryption exactly as shown in DirectAdmin.
- Enter your password and connect.
Two settings that catch people out
Outgoing server authentication. SMTP must be set to require authentication using the same credentials as incoming. If this is off, receiving works but sending silently fails — the single most common problem with a new setup.
Username is the full address. Entering just hello instead of hello@yourdomain.co.uk produces a password rejection that looks like a wrong password.
If it will not connect
- Certificate warning on
mail.yourdomain.co.uk. Use the server hostname from your welcome email instead, which is covered by the server's certificate. - Port 465 blocked. Some ISPs and corporate networks block it. Try 587 with STARTTLS.
- Repeated password prompts. Nearly always the username — check it is the full address, and retype the password rather than pasting it.
- Connects but sends nothing. Outgoing authentication is off. See above.
Mail sends but lands in spam
That is a domain reputation issue rather than a client one. Add SPF and DKIM records — see Fixing email that will not send.
The same setup in other apps
Identical settings, different menus:
- Apple Mail (Mac) — Mail → Add Account → Other Mail Account. Enter the address and password; when automatic setup fails (expected for a custom domain), the manual screen appears — fill in the IMAP and SMTP servers as above.
- iPhone / iPad — Settings → Mail → Accounts → Add Account → Other. Choose IMAP and enter the same details. The SMTP server has its own entry under the account’s Outgoing Mail Server — make sure a username and password are set there too, not just for incoming.
- Android (Gmail app) — Settings → Add account → Other. Choose Personal (IMAP), then enter the servers when prompted.
- Thunderbird — Add Account, then use Configure Manually when autodetection guesses wrong, which it will for a custom domain.
Getting Sent and Deleted items into the right folders
A common post-setup niggle: messages you send from Outlook do not appear in the webmail Sent folder, or deletions pile up in a second Trash. This is folder mapping — the client and the server disagreeing about which IMAP folder is which. In Outlook, check the account’s folder settings and point Sent Items and Deleted Items at the server’s existing folders rather than letting the client create its own. Do it once and every device that maps to the same folders stays in sync.
Removing and re-adding an account safely
Because IMAP keeps the messages on the server, removing the account from a device does not delete any mail — re-add it and everything resyncs. This makes remove-and-re-add a safe, effective fix for an account that has got itself into a confused state. The one caution: if anything was sitting only in a local folder (POP-era archives, or Outlook PST folders), that is on the device, not the server — check before removing.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose POP or IMAP?
IMAP, almost always. It keeps mail on the server so phone, laptop and webmail all see the same mailbox. POP downloads and (typically) removes messages, which made sense on one shared family PC in 2003 and creates confusion on multiple devices now. The one modern use for POP is deliberately draining a mailbox to keep server storage low — a niche choice.
Outlook keeps prompting for my password — is the password wrong?
Usually not. The prompt loop is nearly always the username (must be the full address), a trailing space from pasting, or SMTP authentication being off so the outgoing server rejects you on every send. Work through those three before resetting anything.
Will my mail stay in sync across devices?
Yes — that is IMAP’s whole design. Read a message on your phone and it shows read everywhere; file it into a folder and the folder move syncs too.
My mailbox is filling up my phone’s storage
Most mobile clients let you limit how much history syncs to the device (for example, the last month) while the full archive remains on the server and in webmail. Adjust the sync window in the account settings rather than deleting mail.