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
    2017-01-24T21:32:31+00:00

    I was able to resolve the issue by deleting all  MS related password in the Apple Keychain.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-01-24T15:29:26+00:00

    Except that Apple Mail actually works and never caused any issues like this.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-01-23T15:09:14+00:00

    Thank you, this worked for me as well.  I didn't have to delete my Exchange account in Outlook in order for it to work.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-01-23T13:13:15+00:00

    Solution that worked for me.

    OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

    Office 365 + Outlook version - 15.29 (161209)

    First off - this step might be unnecessary - but it worked for me.

    Delete your Outlook account from Outlook 

    (Not going to mention backing things up etc - that should obviously done before hand!!)

    Next :

    Make sure Outlook is closed - properly closed - use the top menu, or otherwise kill Outlook completely.

    Open up Mac Keychain tool.

    Choose "Login"

    Remove *ALL* (delete) references to:

    "Exchange"

    "Microsoft Office Identities Cache 2"

    "@<something>" that has a type of "MicrosoftOffice15**"

    "Microsoft Office Identities Settings 2"

    "MSOpenTEch.ADAL.<something>"

    There should also be one listed as "unknown" - which if you double click on it - and look at the attributes - Microsoft Outlook is listed under "Always allow access by these applications"

    I then re-opened Outlook, and as I had deleted my account - re-added account  - and pop - worked first time, and no re-pop-up of authentication.

    Phew.... 

    Microsoft and Apple shouldn't make this so hard.

    Solution that worked for me.

    OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

    Office 365 + Outlook version - 15.29 (161209)

    First off - this step might be unnecessary - but it worked for me.

    Delete your Outlook account from Outlook 

    (Not going to mention backing things up etc - that should obviously done before hand!!)

    Next :

    Make sure Outlook is closed - properly closed - use the top menu, or otherwise kill Outlook completely.

    Open up Mac Keychain tool.

    Choose "Login"

    Remove *ALL* (delete) references to:

    "Exchange"

    "Microsoft Office Identities Cache 2"

    "@<something>" that has a type of "MicrosoftOffice15**"

    "Microsoft Office Identities Settings 2"

    "MSOpenTEch.ADAL.<something>"

    There should also be one listed as "unknown" - which if you double click on it - and look at the attributes - Microsoft Outlook is listed under "Always allow access by these applications"

    I then re-opened Outlook, and as I had deleted my account - re-added account  - and pop - worked first time, and no re-pop-up of authentication.

    Phew.... 

    Microsoft and Apple shouldn't make this so hard.

    Thank you, this worked!!  Why do I get the feeling Microsoft drags their feet on Mac related issues?  I bet they walk around saying..."Get a PC" and your problem is solved.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-01-23T10:16:41+00:00

    I found a solution to the problem.  (for me anyway).

    • Close Outlook (and Skype for Business if you use that too).
    • Open Keychain access, and search for "microsoft".
    • Delete all of the keys (I had over 32, many of the duplicates).
    • Restart Outlook.

    When I did this, I was prompted once to authenticate, and since then I've stayed logged in.

    Hope this works for you too.

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