SFU Mail - IMAP, SMTP and POP Setup

Overview

This article provides the details on IMAP, SMTP and POP for SFU Mail (Exchange Online). This article also contains information the following:

Tip: To ensure the most seamless experience, we recommend that you use more modern ways to connect to SFU Mail, such as using Outlook with Exchange.

SFU MAIL UPGRADE IMPLICATIONS WITH IMAP/POP

Before any re-configuring on an email account that has previously been set up with IMAP/POP, we strongly recommend backing up your emails. Any account modifications, such as removing the account, will result in loss of certain messages.

These may vary depending on your application settings, however, the messages can can be potentially lost are:

  • Locally saved emails (such as emails within folders set to "This Computer Only")
  • Emails/folders not or have yet synced to servers, and
  • Any other client-sided customizations, including Email Rules and Flags/Categories.

IT Services has no way to recover any of these messages or settings since they were never stored on our servers.

Once your SFU mailbox has been upgraded:

  • If you are using Thunderbird, you can re-configure the account settings to connect to the new server when your account is migrated. Avoid removing your account to prevent loss of data.
  • If you are using any other application via IMAP, you will need to switch to Thunderbird or use a more modern connection method (e.g., Exchange).

 

IMAP for General Emailing:

If you wish to use IMAP for general emailing purposes, the only application that meet the above requirements for IMAP is:

  • Mozilla Thunderbird (available on Windows, Mac and Linux). Visit Sign into Mozilla Thunderbird for instructions to sign into SFU Mail using IMAP.

Note: At this time, there are no mobile apps that can connect to SFU Mail using IMAP.

Tip: Be sure to update your application to the latest version. Some older versions may not support OAuth2 and causing you to encounter errors.

 

POP for General Emailing:

Unfortunately, POP configurations are grandfathered. Any new request for POP connections are not available.

 

Settings:

Incoming Server (IMAP)
Field Setting
Protocol IMAP
Hostname outlook.office365.com
Port 993
Connection security SSL/TTS
Authentication method OAuth2
Username SFUComputingID@sfu.ca
Outgoing Server (SMTP)
Field Setting
Hostname smtp.office365.com
Port 587
Connection security STARTTLS
Authentication method OAuth2
Username SFUComputingID@sfu.ca

Note: These settings shown above are only for SFU Mail on Exchange Online. If you are currently on On-Premises and have not upgraded to Exchange Online, you will need to use the older IMAP configurations.

To see the older IMAP settings, visit the older IMAP Setup page.

Not sure if you have upgraded to Exchange Online? See How Do I Know If I have Exchange Online under General FAQs.

 

Technical Requirements:

In order to connect to SFU Mail using IMAP, your application will need to meet the following requirements:

  • Your application need to be from the list of approved applications, and
  • Your application need to support OAuth2 as the authentication method (Microsoft's Modern Authentication).

 

SFU Mail Retired Version (Exchange On-Premises) and IMAP

Note: This configuration is only available to select SFU service or application owners who need to connect to Exchange On-premises via IMAP.

Exchange On-Premises IMAP Configurations
Incoming Server (IMAP)
Field Setting
Protocol IMAP
Hostname imapnew.sfu.ca
Port 993
Connection security SSL/TTS
Authentication method Normal password
Username YourComputingID@sfu.ca
Outgoing Server (SMTP)
Field Setting
Hostname mailgate.sfu.ca
Port 465
Connection security SSL/TTS
Authentication method Normal password
Username YourComputingID@sfu.ca

To ensure email password security, configuring your email application to use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is required.

 

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