What's changed and why?
From February 2023, Microsoft and many other suppliers started moving away from basic authentication to make accounts more secure. Basic authentication is now an outdated form of security for your emails and using it could make it easier for attackers to capture your details, putting your personal information at risk.
Microsoft is our email supplier so this change will affect our BT Business customers who use a POP service.
What does this mean for me?
If you use a mail client like Outlook, Thunderbird, or MacMail, you won’t be able to send or receive emails using those clients anymore.
You can still access your emails using a browser on a laptop, Mac or PC or using the Outlook app on tablets and mobiles.
What should I do?
The best way to access your emails going forward is using a web browser.
Outlook Web Access (OWA), also known as Webmail, is an easy way for you to access your email.
You can access your email online at www.office.com or via My Account.
Outlook Web Access (OWA):
- Works from any (connected) PC or mobile device anywhere - never be without access to your mailbox again.
- Remembers your login details across common devices and signs in for you.
- Contains the most common and up to date mail client features – with the improved security of modern authentication.
- Looks and feels just like a mail client.
- Has easy-to-use junk filtering (block/whitelist senders and domains).
- Contains customisable themes to suit your style and mood.
It even lets you:
- create sub folders
- save contacts
- add to calendars
- create and use email signatures
- set up mail forwarding
- create user groups
- activate out of office auto replies.
Are there any other options?
Using OWA or Webmail is the easiest and fastest way to send and receive emails.
If you want to keep using a client for your email, you’ll need to upgrade to Microsoft 365.
There are two ways you can do this:
Self-migration
Self-migration is a complicated process, so only take this on if you’re confident you have the technical knowledge and experience. Your IT team or an IT service provider could also do this for you.
BT can’t be held responsible for any loss of data when using these steps, but we’ll try and help if there are any issues.
Go to our Migrating to Microsoft 365 from POP guide to learn how to migrate your domain and email accounts from the BT maintained POP email platform and set it up Microsoft 365.
Professional Setup
Moving your email can be confusing and time consuming, so our Professional Setup team are here to find the right products for your business and manage the migration to Microsoft 365 from start to finish.
Our Professional Set-up team will configure your domain, create your account (tenant) on the Office 365 platform, migrate your email data, and configure your email client.
Professional Setup is £349 excluding VAT per 5 licenses/users.
There’s currently a huge demand for this service, so there could be long wait times.
You can find more details and contact information on our IT Support for business page.
Although Microsoft 365 is a self-managed product after the Professional Setup has been completed, we can provide ongoing support for your computers and the Microsoft 365 service through our Enhanced IT support helpdesk. You can discuss this when you contact us about Professional Setup or after the set-up is complete.
Need more help managing your email?
How to download & backup emails from Outlook.
Setting up Office 365 Business Essentials with a new domain.
How do I move my mailbox from BT Business to another provider?