Outlook Web is different than desktop or iOS app.

Question

Outlook Web is different than desktop or iOS app.

Jason Baxter 20

On my desktop, iphone and ipad my email address is a icloud.com address and the one I use. Desktop (mac OS) and my iPhone and iPad all play happily together and sync beautifully.

However, I logged on to outlook.com as I wanted to delete a couple of folders, and there it's an entirely different-looking account with the address ******@outlook.com.

How do I get Outlook.com to look the same as my desktop and mobile apps?

I log into my Microsoft account with the iCloud email.

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Answer 1

EmilyS726 213K Independent Advisor

Hello

Outlook.com is the native web mail box for Microsoft's native domain addresses only, such as outlook.com, hotmail.com. It is NOT an email app like what you have on desktop or phone to host other email address.

When your Microsoft account uses a non-Microsoft email address (such as icloud), it does not have its own email functionality. The actual sending and receiving of emails still happens through your third party email provider. As a result, if you go to www.outlook.com, since it doesn't detect a native outlook.com address, it assigns a random place holder one like the one you saw.

If you need to check your iCloud email via the web, you go through www.icloud.com instead.

Jason Baxter 20 Reputation points

2026-03-07T17:38:15.5433333+00:00

Thanks for the reply. All I need to do is delete two folders, and when I searched this on Google, it appears I can only do this on the web. Is this the case, or is there another way to do this?
EmilyS726 213K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-03-07T17:39:17.6433333+00:00

In this case, you go directly to the source of the email address, which is www.icloud.com.

Answer 2

Outlook.com and the Outlook apps are showing different accounts because they are different services:

Outlook.com is a Microsoft-hosted mailbox with an @outlook.com address.
On Mac, iPhone, and iPad, Outlook is connecting directly to the iCloud mailbox (Apple’s email service) using the @icloud.com address.
Signing in to the Microsoft account with the iCloud address only identifies the Microsoft account; it does not turn the iCloud mailbox into an Outlook.com mailbox or sync its folders to Outlook.com.

Because of this, Outlook.com cannot be made to “look the same” as the iCloud mailbox unless the iCloud account itself is added to Outlook on the web as a connected account (which is not described in the provided context) or mail is migrated. The folder structure and contents of the iCloud mailbox live with Apple and are only mirrored in the Outlook apps that connect to iCloud.

To keep using the same iCloud folders and messages across devices, continue using:

Outlook for Mac with the iCloud account added.
Outlook for iOS on iPhone and iPad with the iCloud account added.

Outlook.com will continue to show the @outlook.com mailbox that belongs to the Microsoft account, which is separate from the iCloud mailbox.

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Outlook Web is different than desktop or iOS app.

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