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
    2017-01-05T21:15:08+00:00

    Hi Graham,

    Based on my experience, I suggest you clear the login credential related to the affected account in Keychain Access and set up your account again in Outlook to see if there is any improvement. To launch Keychain Access, just go to Finder>Applications> Utilities> Keychain Access.

    If the issue persists, I’d like to collect the following information to look into the issue:

    1. The detailed version of your Outlook for Mac (In Outlook> About Outlook).
    2. Which kind of account did you set up in the Outlook for Mac client? And how did you set up your account in it? Via Exchange or IMAP/POP?
    3. Some relevant screenshots about ‘my mac outlook keeps asking for my password periodically’ and ‘Then after two attempts, it shows me this message’
    4. To identify whether it’s an account problem, could you set up your account on another Mac with Outlook for Mac installed and check how it works?

    Thanks,

    Sam

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-01-06T11:26:04+00:00

    Hi Sam,

    I deleted all my keychain folder completely yesterday (due to an unrelated issue with the messages app), but the dialogues are still appearing from outlook.

    In answer to your questions:

    1. Outlook version is 15.29 (161209)
    2. Exchange (365)
    3. Photos below

    1. I'll try and do this another time when I have access to another machine.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-01-06T14:50:56+00:00

    I'm having the identical problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-01-06T20:34:17+00:00

    Hi Graham & Tannneronman,

    Thanks for your updates in this thread.

    @Graham, since you are using an Office 365 account when the issue occurred, please refer to the steps in this article and check if there is any improvement:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3156719

    If the issue persists, I suggest you try un-installing the Outlook for Mac client and re-installing it from Office 365 portal. Please follow the link to back up your data before the un-installation.

    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj984224%28v=office.16%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

    @Tannneronman, since you are experiencing a similar issue, I recommend you refer to the steps in my first reply to delete the credentials in Keychain Access at first. If that doesn’t work, please share with us your account details then and move forward with the issue based on the steps which I have just shared with @Graham.

    Looking forward to your updates.

    Thanks,

    Sam

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