One of the most popular email platforms in the world is Microsoft Exchange; many corporations use this for their email, calendaring, contacts, etc. Many users will not realize they are actually using this because what they see on their computer screen on a Windows PC is usually Microsoft Outlook. You may open up Microsoft Outlook and be in it all day and not realize that all of your data is actually stored on a Microsoft Exchange server.
Thankfully Microsoft Exchange is widely used, and not only works extremely well with Microsoft Outlook as you would expect, but it also allows users to connect from Apple’s IOS based devices, such as the iPhone and the iPad.
In this document will take you through the steps to add your Microsoft exchange account to your Apple device. You may find this helpful in case you have to get a new phone or tablet and would like to quickly get connected and stay productive using your brand-new tool!
The screenshots shown below were all done on an Apple iPhone, the screen may look slightly different but be very similar on iPad.
Step 1: Begin the Process in Settings
On your Apple device open the settings application which looks like a small gear and is usually found on the first page of your apps. After you’ve open this scroll down and find the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”, when you have located that, tap it with your finger or stylus. (Figure 1).
Figure 1
Step 2: In the screen that shows up (Figure 2), select “Add Account”.
Figure 2
Step 3: Select Exchange as your New account (Figure 3).
Figure 3
Step 4: Enter your Exchange Server Credentials (Figure 4).
You will be asked to enter your email access credentials. This usually works just fine to enter the following.
- Your Email address
- Your password – the same password you use to login on your work PC everyday.
- A description – this is set to default as “Exchange” and it can stay this way, or you can set it to something more personal like “Midwest Exchange” if you like. It will show up in your email iPhone or iPad email application. There is no wrong answer here but you must provide something if you are changing it from “Exchange”.
When you have completed this, tap the word “Next” in the upper right corner.
If your credentials were accepted in Step 4, you will see the screen for step 5 that allows you to select which items will be synced to your device. If the credentials were not accepted, you will be shown a screen that asks for more information. You may enter the fields on this screen, or tap “Cancel” in the upper left corner which takes you back to step 3. When you return to this step, re-enter the information and pay special attention to the email address and password.
Figure 4
Step 5: Configure the Items to Sync
The screen in Figure 5 has options for the various items that Exchange is storing for you. You can move the slider bar to the right for any data type you want to sync and have available on your device. In the example shown, we are syncing Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Notes. Reminders (which are Outlook tasks) are not being synced.
When you have configured the options the way you like, tap the word “Save” in the upper right corner.
Figure 5
Step 6: Verify Account Exists
When you complete Step 5, you will be shown a screen similar to Figure 6. It will show the name of the account you created (“Exchange” in our example), and the lists of the things that are being synced.
Your account is now operational and opening the mail, calendar, contacts, or other apps that were set to sync should begin to show you the data. Note that you must be connected to the Internet or internal corporate network to be able to start syncing, and it may take a few minutes to show email, etc.
Figure 6
Step 7: Set your Default Account for Email and Calendars (if needed)
If you already have an email account setup (like Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) then you will need to set the default account that applications (like the Safari web browser use when you share something via email. Additionally, if you are already syncing a calendar you will likely want to set the fault calendar to use when creating a new appointment, to ensure it shows up on your work Exchange calendar.
- To do this, repeat step 1 above, but scroll down to the second mail section, and look for the option that says “Default Account”. Tap this and choose the account name you gave in step 4, or of you did not change it, it will say “Exchange”. Then tap “<Mail…” in the upper left corner.
- Now scroll down to the bottom, and under the section titled “CALENDARS”, set the default calendar to the “Exchange” calendar similar to how you set the default email above.
Note that these two steps are only needed if you already have a mail server setup (like Yahoo), or a calendar setup (like Google Calendar), otherwise you can skip this last step.