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
    2015-10-08T21:04:15+00:00

    Thanks, appending the domain name helped immediately.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-09T21:02:30+00:00

    DOMAIN\username worked for me as well

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-05T20:49:20+00:00

    I just subscribed to Office 365 along with Office for Desktop and Mobile Device. I had the exact repeating issue until I went to the OneDrive web site for my account. When I entered OneDrive, it did some preparation operations. One they completed, I did not have the repeating credentials request anymore : neither on the Mac nor on the iPad.

    So my trick was : login at least once to OneDrive with the Office 365 account.

    I hope it helps.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-11-23T16:18:06+00:00

    Make sure Exchange runs SP3 Rollup 10. Then change user to DOMAIN\username and enter new password. Worked like a breeze for me after weeks of problems.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-11-24T09:09:39+00:00

    Thanks TonyMC98,

    I could be wrong, but this might be the first post that suggested part of the problem was with Exchange Server instead of just the Outlook for Mac client. Then again, others have had the same issue connecting to Gmail accounts where no Exchange Server is present. But, this got me to thinking and I took a look at the Exchange Server service packs and rollup updates to see if there was any mention of this problem. Nothing seems to reference the "Outlook for Mac authentication issue" outright, but there are several nondescript references to MAPI and IMAP client crash issues.

    For easy reference, I found these links on TechNet this might be useful for readers here. (Note: you might need to create a TechNet account to see the article content:

    Exchange Server and Update Rollup Build Numbers  <-- Exchange Server 2003 to 2010

    Exchange Server 2013 and 2016 Build Numbers (with Cumulative Updates)

    Hope this helps.

    SeattleExpat

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