Skip to main content

Setting Up 2FA Forwarding - Individual Outlook Account

The following are instructions on setting up 2 Factor Authentication in Unify for Outlook email accounts. Users may need access to the authentication device/application used for the accounts.

Written by SJ Hofecker

Set Up Outlook Email Forwarding to Unify for OTP Detection


Required Setup - Requires Administrative Access

Allow External Forwarding in Outlook
This will allow automatic external forwarding only for this mailbox (safer than enabling globally).

  • Go to security.microsoft.com → Email & collaboration → Policies & rules → Threat policies → Anti-spam

  • Create a new policy → Outbound

  • Name: Allow External Forwarding – OTP Mailbox

  • Recipients / Sender filters: From {the email you are trying to forward otp codes to Unify}

  • Automatic forwarding: Turn On – Forwarding is enabled

  • Save

1. Open Outlook forwarding settings 0:00

generated-image-at-00:00:00

  • In Outlook, click the gear icon in the top-right corner.

  • This opens the settings area where forwarding can be configured.

  • There are two ways to set up forwarding, but the recommended method is the simplest one.

2. Enable full inbox forwarding to Unify (recommended) 0:09

generated-image-at-00:00:09

  • Choose the option to enable forwarding.

  • Paste the destination Unify email address into the forwarding field.

  • Select Keep a copy of forwarded messages.

  • Click Save.

  • This forwards all incoming emails from the Outlook inbox into Unify.

3. Understand how Unify handles forwarded emails 0:30

generated-image-at-00:00:30

  • Emails sent to Unify are not accessible by any human.

  • They are only processed to check whether they contain an OTP code.

  • If no OTP is found, the email is deleted.

  • If an OTP is found, Unify extracts the code and then deletes the email.

  • Emails are not stored long-term or even meaningfully short-term.

4. Finish the Unify setup flow 0:55

generated-image-at-00:00:55

  • After saving forwarding in Outlook, return to Unify.

  • Click Next.

  • For Outlook, the confirmation-email step is not necessary.

  • Click Skip, then click Done.

5. Optional: create a rule to forward only OTP-related emails 1:23

generated-image-at-00:01:23

  • If you do not want to forward every email, you can create a rule instead.

  • In Outlook, go to Rules and choose Add new rule.

  • Name it something like OTP forwarding.

  • Set the rule to match keywords such as:

    • code

    • verification

    • security

    • authentication

    • access code

    • passcode

  • Set the action to Forward to the same email address provided by Unify.

  • Enable Stop processing more rules.

  • Click Save.

6. Use the rule-based method only if needed 2:22

generated-image-at-00:02:22

  • This rule-based approach is only necessary if you don’t want bulk forwarding.

  • The recommended setup remains forwarding all emails to Unify, since it is simpler and has fewer issues.

Link to Loom

Did this answer your question?