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I have been able to add 1 POP3 and 4 IMAP accounts to Outlook. When I try to add another IMAP account, it doesn't work even though I have reviewed that the settings and password are correct.

Is there a limit to the number of accounts that can be added using IMAP or a limit to the number of accounts that I can use in Outlook 2010?

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What do you mean when you say "it doesn't work"? – Oliver Salzburg♦ Mar 24 '12 at 17:32
Outlook fails to connect. It keeps bringing up a logon screen when attempting to "test connection" as if the user ID or password were incorrect. But I know both are correct and have been very careful to make sure that I am typing everything in correctly. I also went to gmail to make sure my user ID and password were correct. I reset the password, restarted laptop (Alienware MX15), Windows 7, MSOffice Pro Plus 2010. – Doug Mar 24 '12 at 17:52
In my personal opinion, it is more likely that the problem is specific to that single email account than to the total number of accounts you have. – Oliver Salzburg♦ Mar 24 '12 at 17:57
Thanks for the tip I will try adding a different IMAP acct. Currently I have setup one POP acct and 4 IMAP accts. Will post result of further testing. – Doug Mar 24 '12 at 17:59
I think you may be correct. And I am suspecting that the User ID may contain to many characters (17 characters) as I cannot add this account to my Apple Itouch either. Everything else other than the length of the User ID is the same as my other accts. And I can login to the acct by going to gmail.com Any thoughts? – Doug Mar 24 '12 at 18:24

2 Answers

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While I would doubt that the number of email accounts in Outlook is limited (especially to such a low number), I can't rule it out.
Nevertheless, I would advise you look into compatibility issues between Outlook 2010 and you email provider.

If I understood your comment correctly, you're trying to set up Gmail in Outlook 2010. A quick look into the Supported IMAP client list shows that Outlook 2010 is not listed. I don't know if that means 2010 is just unsupported or if it simply doesn't work at all.

Please note, the setup instructions for Outlook 2007 specifically note that you should enable IMAP support in Gmail. Forgetting to do so might result in the behavior you're experiencing.

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Wish it was as simple as that but I already have 4 gamil accounts setup as IMAP on Outlook 2010. I am having the same problem just trying to add the particular acct on my Apple Itouch which also contains other gmail IMAP accts. – Doug Mar 25 '12 at 13:24
Since it is now working on both my laptop and Itouch and the error I was getting was a failure to authenticate I can only draw the conclusion of: I was able to connect from IE but not Outlook or my Apple Itouch with autentication faliures. I would guess that gmail servers did not update my password change across all servers because everything just worked the next morning. – Doug Mar 26 '12 at 18:24
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If all of these different IMAP accounts are hosted on the same server, then you may be only allowed to have so many IMAP connections at once, controlled on the server-side. Outlook uses more than one connection to keep each IMAP account up-to-date when active.

So it'd be up to your email provider to check/confirm/fix this.

From Google Gmail help:

Too many simultaneous connections

According to the Gmail Terms of Use, each user account is intended for single use. This means that if you have multiple users frequently accessing the same account or more than one IMAP1 client accessing Gmail at the same time, you may reach a connection threshold and receive the error message, 'Too many simultaneous connections.'

Gmail currently has a limit of 10 simultaneous IMAP connections per account.

Please note that your mail client may actually open multiple connections in the background. This means it's possible to reach a connection threshold simply by using only two mail clients to access the same account at the same time.

If you often use multiple mail clients or mobile devices with the same Gmail account, we recommend closing and/or signing out of any mail clients you're not actively using.

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Well, today it has decided to work!!! :) Deleted one of the IMAP accts then tried adding it back and adding the problem acct and IT WORKED!!! Don't know why, did everything the same but now it worked. I won't question it, I will just take the win this morning and hope the rest of my day goes as well. Thank all of you for your assistance...doug... – Doug Mar 25 '12 at 13:51

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