OVERVIEW
Target audience: All McGill (students, faculty, staff, alumni, retired)
McGill provides you with an email account and mailbox on Microsoft's Office 365 Exchange Online cloud service (see Email for Students, Faculty & Staff and Affiliates | Email for Alumni).
Note that Outlook for Mac is the recommended app for McGill email; however the Mail app is also supported on a best-efforts basis.
In this article:
IMPORTANT:
In order to support Two-factor Authentication (2FA), you need to be using Mail on macOS 10.14.6 (Mojave) or higher. In general, McGill IT Services supports the most recent version of macOS and one version prior. Get the latest macOS updates.
Important: McGill Outlook email storage capacity reduction starting May 31st 2024
On May 31st, 2024, McGill’s Outlook email storage for all students will be reduced to 20GB to comply with Microsoft’s new Storage quota for its educational sector clients. The Outlook email storage provided to staff or faculty members will not be affected.
If you are a McGill student, please verify your current storage using the instructions in this article: How to check file storage usage in outlook.
If your current storage exceeds 20GB, start by emptying your mailbox’s deleted items. As a secondary step, go through your inbox and all its online storage folders and download any "big" attachments such as videos, PowerPoint presentations or images by saving them to another location using the Save as... option in the attachment drop-down menu and then by Removing them.
Please note: these options are only available on Outlook for PC, not on the online or Mac versions. If you only use these platforms, download the attachments then save/delete the email. (Don't forget to empty the deleted items folder after.)
If you plan on storing those files on OneDrive, be aware that OneDrive's storage will also be adjusted to 20GB starting May 31st. For more information: consult the IT Services announcement on the subject.
Set up Mail on macOS X
This setup procedure automatically detects where your McGill mailbox resides. You must have Internet connectivity to complete this setup.
- Launch Mail (.app) from the dock or from Applications folder.
- Select Exchange and click Continue.
- Enter the following information and click Continue:
- Name: your full name, as you want mail recipients to see it.
- Email Address: your McGill email address (first.last@mail.mcgill.ca or first.last@mcgill.ca or first.last@affiliate.mcgill.ca - same as your McGill Username)
Password: your McGill password
- If you have set up your McGill account with Two-factor authentication (2FA), you will now be prompted to authenticate with method you selected in Office 365 (e.g. notification on the Authenticator app or text message on your mobile device).
- You will be prompted to allow your computer to retrieve information from the Microsoft site; click Sign in to proceed.
- The Account Summary screen appears. Note that the server address is automatically detected: outlook.office365.com
- Choose the apps you want to use with your McGill account: Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders.
Remove an email account from Mail on macOS X
You may need to delete your old McGill email account before adding a new one. Follow these steps:
- Open the Mail app.
- Click on Mail from the top menu, then click on Preferences.
- In the left pane, click on the email account you want to remove.
- If it doesn't say Exchange, click the Advanced... button in the right pane and check if your account is configured to use IMAP or POP.
- If your account is configured using IMAP, click cancel, and continue with Step 4.
- If your account is configured using POP, you need to make a backup before you can continue. Contact the IT Service Desk if you need help.
- Click on the “-” at the bottom.
- Click OK to confirm.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:
- Set up Outlook on macOS to access McGill email
- FAQs for Email on Office 365
- Microsoft Office 365 Learning Center (contains documentation and tutorials on Outlook for Office 365)