Connection Refused Error When Trying to Connect to Outlook Using Python's poplib

Question

I am trying to connect to Outlook using POP3 in python.

mailbox = poplib.POP3_SSL('outlook.office365.com', 995)

And I am getting the following error:

[WinError 10061] No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it

I am using a VPN, and can ping 'outlook.office365.com' without issue. I also tried 'pop-mail.outlook.com' and 'pop3.live.com' as I saw them mentioned as hostnames online, and received the same error. Please let me know if there is any more useful information I can provide.

Answer 1

for the office 365 email settings it seems that the port for POP is 903. You can try using the settings in the web under Microsoft365 to also try fetching your email with IMAP.

Just to save you same time I wrote down some working lines using imap for fetching your emails and a simple code for sending using smtp

import smtplib
import imaplib
import ssl

def send_email():
    send_port = 587
    with smtplib.SMTP('smtp.office365.com', send_port) as smtp:
        #Need a ehlo message before starttls
        smtp.ehlo()

        smtp.starttls()

        # Server login
        smtp.login(<user-email>, <password>)

        # Email data
        sender_email = <user-email>
        receiver_email = <destination-email>
      
        email_subject = <some-subjetct>
        email_body = <some-body>

        message = 'Subject: {}\n\n{}'.format(email_subject, email_body)

        smtp.sendmail(sender_email, receiver_email, message)
        smtp.quit()

def receive_email():
     receive_port = 993
     with imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('outlook.office365.com', receive_port) as imap:
         # Server login
         imap.login(<youremail>, <password>)

         # Get the list of folders in you email account and some extra info.
         retcode, folders = imap.list()

         # status of the fetch
         print ('Response code:', retcode)

         # folders and info of hierarchies
         print ('Response code:', folders)
         
     imap.close()

#Test     
send_email()
receive_email()

Be aware that this code needs the imap and smtp port open on your firewall. Also use same user-email and password as you were using https://www.office.com/