Outlook continually re-asking for password

Anonymous
2017-01-05T16:43:54+00:00

Hi there, 

Wonder if anyone can help - this issue is causing me considerable pain.

Essentially my mac outlook keeps asking for my password periodically:

Enter your account information for "XXXXXX"

User name: <My email address>

Password: <unpopulated>

<checkbox> Remember this password in my keychain

When I enter the password, and submit the form it asks me immediately for the same details again. Even if I select use keychain.

Then after two attempts, it shows me this message:

Mail could not be received at this time.

The server for account "<my name>" returned the error "Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password." Your username/password may be incorrect. Would you like to try re-entering your password?

No/Yes

If I click "Yes" it shows me the same dialogue again....and when I click "yes" again it disappears.

This process restarts every 15 minutes through my working day - but I do get emails sporadically. So its kinda disruptive!

Can anyone help?

Graham

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For business

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Anonymous
2017-01-12T15:50:23+00:00

Hi All,

Thanks for your updates.

Firstly, I’m sorry that I may have misunderstood your different scenarios in the posts above. I have done more research and consulting about the issue and please check the different steps below:

@Graham, since you are using an Office 365 account, please double-confirm whether all the Office 365 related credentials are deleted on your Mac. (Although I understand you may have deleted the keychain folder earlier due to an irrelevant issue.) To check that, please refer to the steps below:

  1. Go to KeyChain Access.
  2. Search "Exchange" under Login --> All Items and delete everything.
  3. Search "Office" and delete everything.
  4. Search "ADAL" and delete everything.
  5. Launch Outlook.
  6. You will get the activation prompt and then If account is already added you will see the password prompt for app and ADAL again. Please do 2-Factor Authentication if asked to.

You can also let your colleague try the steps to see if the issue can be fixed.

@Tanner, since you are using a Mediacom account, I suppose you configured the account via IMAP in the Outlook for Mac client, right? Anyway, you may need to delete the Mediacom related credentials and the information in the thread that I shared above may not work for you. Please refer to these steps instead:

  1. Open Applications/Keychain Access
  2. On the left, select the Login Keychain
  3. On the left, select the Passwords category
  4. Find out and delete all the Mediacom related credentials.

Let me know how it works this time. Thanks for your time and cooperation.

Regards,

Sam

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-02-17T11:26:30+00:00

    Hi Tanner,

    Please provide us with some updates about the information mentioned above when you have time.

    Best Regards,

    Ruel

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-02-15T06:29:56+00:00

    Hi Graham and Tanner,

    @Graham, Apologize for the delay in reply. Thank you for the information you have provided in the private message

    Since you are using an Office 365 account on a Outlook for Mac version 15.30, This is a known issue that has been fixed in Insider Fast build 15.30.170117. As a temporary workaround, see Outlook 2016 for Mac repeatedly prompts for authentication.

    Regarding the insider fast build 15.31.170124, please use the In-app option for assistance. Please refer to this thread discussion.

    If you are not on Insider fast build, you may wait for the update for Insider Slow or Production channel. 

    Take note: Insiders Fast builds are pre-release and may have other bugs due to less complete testing. Here is an article about the differences of insider fast & slow for your inference.

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_officeinsider-mso_mac/announcing-office-insider-fast-for-mac-insiders/de603f73-3405-49d4-a6ee-d017773cb8a0 

    Thank you for your understanding and patience.

    @Tanner,

    I have read the whole thread and noticed that you also you have done clearing the keychain, I want to check other steps if it can resolve the issue.

    Since you are using version 15.30 (170107) Jan 12 update. Please provide the following information to further investigate the issue:

    1. Check If multi-factor authenticationis enabled on your email provider/service.
    2. Your full email address and provide it in this Private Message link.  
    3. Check if the issue still occurs when you disable any anti-virus/malware software temporarily.

    Looking forward to your updates.

    Best Regards,

    Ruel

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-02-14T15:41:34+00:00

    I've still got the problem of Keychain not remembering my Outlook password. I've deleted the appropriate logins in Keychain repeatedly, but it is a daily issue. I'm running v15.30 (170107). I thought it was fixed a few weeks ago but it's back. Password prompt comes up multiple times a day, must like before.

    Tanner

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-02-13T09:59:02+00:00

    Hi Chris,

    I've just checked I'm on v15.30 - which seems to be the latest version.

    I'll send you a screenshot now.

    Graham

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