Autodiscover and the multiple available protocols
Problem reported by Sébastien Riccio - 5/23/2026 at 10:55 PM
Submitted
Hello,

I have a question about the returned autodiscover XML and the multiple protocols available.

When I have a user with "only" IMAP/SMTP/DAV access configured, the autodiscover XML returns configuration for SMTP/IMAP/DAV. All good :)


When we enable MAPI / EWS for the account, the autodiscover XML returns ONLY the configuration for MAPI / EWS, but discard IMAP/SMTP/DAV configuration.


Shouldn't it be still also returning configuration for IMAP/SMTP/DAV for clients that doesn't support MAPI / EWS ?

I noticed this "issue" because we enabled MAPI for a user that also uses his account on other devices that only supports IMAP/SMTP.
When MAPI / EWS was disabled the IMAP device was able to autoconfigure, now that we enabled MAPI / EWS the devices that uses IMAP aren't able to autoconfigure anymore.

Kind regards.
Sébastien Riccio
System & Network Admin

Sébastien Riccio Replied
BTW I Asked Claude about if it is valid to report multiple protocols in Autodiscover, here is the answer:


Yes, returning multiple <Protocol> elements inside <Account> is explicitly allowed by the Autodiscover schema (MS-OXDSCLI). It's actually the normal case — you almost always need at least an incoming protocol plus SMTP for sending.
What works well in practice:

IMAP + SMTP (or POP3 + SMTP) — standard and universally supported. Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird-style clients all handle this fine.
EXCH + EXPR + WEB — the classic Exchange combo: MAPI/RPC internally, RPC-over-HTTP externally, plus OWA/EWS URLs in the WEB block.
EXCH/EXPR + EWS endpoints — EWS is typically advertised via the <ASUrl>/<EwsUrl> elements inside the Exchange protocol blocks, not as a separate Type="EWS" (there is no such type; EWS lives inside EXCH/EXPR or under WEB).

Where it gets messy:
Mixing Exchange-style protocols (EXCH/EXPR) with internet-style ones (IMAP/POP3) in the same <Account> is where clients disagree. Outlook generally picks the Exchange protocol and ignores the IMAP block — it doesn't treat them as a fallback chain in the way you might hope. Some third-party clients will get confused or pick the "wrong" one. If you actually want a client to choose IMAP, don't advertise EXCH/EXPR alongside it.

Also worth noting: Autodiscover allows redirect responses (<Action>redirectAddr</Action> or redirectUrl) and <AlternativeAccount> blocks if you need to express "use this server for IMAP, this other one for SMTP under a different identity" — but for a single mailbox served by both IMAP and SMTP, just two <Protocol> blocks in the same <Account> is the right shape.
So: multiple protocols — yes, valid and expected. Just be deliberate about which combinations you ship, because some clients treat the list as "pick one" rather than "use all."
Sébastien Riccio
System & Network Admin

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