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Office 365 system requirements changes for Office client connectivity

Alistair_Speirs's avatar
Alistair_Speirs
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Apr 20, 2017
Editor’s note: Changes have been made to the Office 365 system requirements. Go here to see the September 6, 2018 update and announcement: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/09...
Updated Feb 10, 2023
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Richard Tinker's avatar
Richard Tinker
Copper Contributor
May 31, 2017

Hi guys,

 

Interested in how this change will affect non-Microsoft client access to Office 365 Exchange Online.  We have an enterprise environment with a large Linux and Mac community and some business workflows that utilise non-Microsoft mail clients, and plain-text email utilisation with client automation with non-Microsoft email clients is prevalent. 

 

With respect to:

“Important changes to system requirements: Effective October 13th, 2020, Office 365 will only allow Office client connectivity from subscription clients (Office 365 ProPlus), or Office perpetual clients within mainstream support, to connect to Office 365 services. Please click here to learn more”

 

  1. Does this mean that after 13/10/2020 non Microsoft email clients that use standard email protocols that Office 365 Exchange Online currently supports (e.g. IMAP and POP3) will no-longer be able to access email via our Office 365 tenant?
  2. Does this mean, for example, that access to Office 365 Exchange Online email via Thunderbird, mutt, git send email, Apple Mail will not be supported?
  3. Will Microsoft be releasing Outlook clients for Linux, or if not how will Linux clients access Office 365 Exchange Online email?

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Richard