Outlook for Mac 2016 - Repeated password prompts still an issue ...

Anonymous
2015-06-20T22:09:21+00:00

All-

As we know, one of the biggest bugs in Outlook for Mac 2016 is the ever-so-annoying repeated password prompt problem. This refers to the constant pop-ups that make it appear like Outlook is forgetting your password every few minutes, etc. The problem was much discussed during the Preview phase of Office for Mac 2016 but never corrected. I did some digging on the forums here and found other threads that covered this problem with slight variances, but the core issue is the same -- credentials are somehow not being stored properly or become corrupted during normal operation of the software. List of the relevant threads I found below. This list may not be comprehensive:

It seems odd that a major bug like this remained unresolved after the official release of Office for Mac 2016 ... and still hasn't been corrected! Per post responses on Microsoft's official Office Blog, they are looking into authentication issues with Exchange Server, but who knows what that means or how long that will take. Based on what I can gather:

  • Bug shows up in Outlook for Mac versions 15.9.x and up, therefore ...
  • Version 15.8 and earlier are not affected, but that is a super old preview version from 2015
  • Changing the way you present your credentials can sometimes help:

            e.g. username@DOMAIN vs. DOMAIN\username vs. username

  • Problems seem to affect Exchange Server authentication as well as IMAP or POP,
  • Deleting your account and setting up Outlook from scratch sometimes helps,
  • The issue seems to be intermittent, comes and goes.

A ticket submitted by forum member *Filip Herman* to Microsoft's technical support around early August 2015 indicated that Microsoft is aware of the problem and has a planned fix in progress. Obviously its been years since that. Others have submitted tickets to support since. Scroll to the end to read the most current progress.

I'd encourage everyone to mark this post, indicating that you "recommend this discussion." This thread has tens of thousands of views and hundreds of comments, so its clearly not an isolated issue. Unfortunately, my company abandoned the use of Outlook for Mac 2016 some while back because of this issue, so I don't have an active platform to test on anymore. However, keep trading ideas here as needed.

Best of luck-

Seattle_Expat

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For business

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-25T17:23:33+00:00
    1. Modern Auth Prompt
    2. On restart of the app nearly every time.
    3. Yes, same login on webmail and same email and usernames in the accounts pref.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-05-24T16:16:44+00:00

    I am getting this issue with the following parameters:

    OS - OS X 10.11.4

    Outlook Version: 15.22

    Prompt for Credentials: Blue Outlook based prompt

    Our Server: office.outlook365.com

    Multiple prompts while outlook is running normally. 

    Additionally we also get these "Mail could not be received at this time. The server for account "XXXXX" returned the error "Login failure: unknown user name or bad password." Your username/password or security settings may be incorrect. Would you like to try re-entering your password? No Yes

    If you select NO, you go offline, if you select YES, nothing happens, no prompt or pop up, and you can stay connected. But the prompt for credentials will come back eventually.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-19T16:17:22+00:00

    Hi everyone,

    Sorry to hear you're having this issue, we understand this is a pain point for our customers and we are currently investigating for a fix.

    We'd like to hear from you so we can get the bottom of this. Can you tell us --

    1. Are these always the modern auth prompt (O365 sign-in page that can be customized for your organization) or are they the native Outlook prompts (blue Outlook logo) or some combination of both?
    2. For multiple prompts, are they while Outlook is running normally (in the middle of a session), once each time on restart of the app, or several times on each restart of the app? (you mention "log into Outlook" so just want to clarify)
    3. Is the email address you've used to sign into WXP with the same as your O365 mail account in Outlook, and do you have the same address in the account's email address and user name fields in the accounts pref?

    This will get us started, and we can also send details on how to capture logs to help us investigate further, as mentioned in this thread.

    Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you.

    Best,

    Noyonima

    Thank you Noyonima.  Yes it continues to happen on Mac Outlook 15.22 running OS X 10.11.4. Using personal O365 to connect to corporate Exchange network for managing mail.  Only experiencing issues with Outlook. 

    And respnse to your questions:

    1. Only Outlook native prompt - always requesting for password
    2. Prompts occur at startup and then constantly after Outlook is running normally. 
    3. For WXP I use my personal O365 login info, but for Outlook and specifically for the corporate email account I use the corporate credentials - which are different. 

    Hope a solution is available soon.  This issue makes use of Outlook pretty much impossible.  It used to work flawlessly before. 

    Thank you.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-19T09:14:54+00:00

    Hi,

    1. Native
    2. While Outlook is running normally
    3. I'm not using Outlook for Mac for O365, the specific account is not used for O365 and the email address is different from the user

    Thanks,

    nP

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-05-13T14:20:18+00:00

    1 - Red Office 365 sign in - Work or school account.

    1. Multiple Prompts then a One Drive prompt

    Everything fine until latest update - Version now 15.22 (160506)

    1. Same email as O365 no problems signing in online.

    Have just reset Keychain access and fingers crossed this has helped.

    Craig

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