The dreaded 0x800CCC0F sending error

OK - so what we have is "sending an email message stays stuck in the Outbox" - that sum it up correctly?

Yes.

#1 - Does this happen on any and every message you try and send out?

Yes. It started a few weeks ago, and it affects outbound email from both my GWA and my GMail account (both hosted by Google). It happened at the same time. My work Exchange email using Outlook is unaffected.

#2 - Is there anything that these messages have in common? (i.e. an elaborate signature line, attachment, recipients etc)

Nothing. "test" is the subject, "test" is the body. No attachments, no add'l recipients. No sig. The "To" is either the same account, or the other Google account.

#3 - Do you use any 3rd party Outlook anti-virus / anti-spam addins?

Nothing specific to Outlook. I've been running Symantec Endpoint for years.

To clean this up and trying to isolate things

#3 - Set Outlook to <Work Offline>

• to do that, click on the Send/Receive tab and click on the <Work Offline> (only once). This is an on/off toggle button and will turn gray when you're offline

#3 - Close and restart Outlook

#4 - Delete everything from the <Outbox>

#5 - Return Outlook to work online. Not necessary but just to start things clean, close and reopen Outlook

#6 - Does this happen when you send a simple message to someone, no attachments, no signature etc - just a benign message

Still have the same problem?

Yup. Still happening.

BTW, thank you for not throwing your hands up, running screaming. I much appreciate your efforts to help me.

OK - just to sum everything up to this point

#1 - You've created a new Outlook profile - correct? (That takes a corrupt Outlook profile out of the equation)

#2 - You configured the accounts again

#3 - No addins

#4 - Issue exists even when sending the most benign message

#5 - This only involves Google accounts

I'd suggest reinstalling Office at this point but personally think that would be a complete waste of time since only Google accounts are impacted with this

That leaves 2 other things to try in this quest

#6 - Do you by any chance have another machine you can try using these accounts to see if this is a machine specific thing?

#7 - If you turn off EndPoint - does that change anything? (I'd be surprised if it did but have to check)

*** any words of wisdom yet from the Google folks?

OK - just to sum everything up to this point

#1 - You've created a new Outlook profile - correct? (That takes a corrupt Outlook profile out of the equation)

Yes. Brand spankin' new.

#2 - You configured the accounts again

Yes,

#3 - No addins

None.

#4 - Issue exists even when sending the most benign message

Yes.

#5 - This only involves Google accounts

Yes. Perhaps I should resurrect a yahoo account, or icloud...

I'd suggest reinstalling Office at this point but personally think that would be a complete waste of time since only Google accounts are impacted with this

I removed the 32-bit version I had been using, and installed the 64-bit version. Still no love.

That leaves 2 other things to try in this quest

#6 - Do you by any chance have another machine you can try using these accounts to see if this is a machine specific thing?

Hmmm... I guess I could try my wife's Windows 10 machine. (Mine is 8.1).

#7 - If you turn off EndPoint - does that change anything? (I'd be surprised if it did but have to check)

I disabled it; still no love.

*** any words of wisdom yet from the Google folks?

The handoff to Tier 2 was about two hours ago. I haven't closed the chat window, but no signs of life.

Given everything else, I'd go for trying your wife's computer to see if things work. I unfortunately no longer have any test systems with Win 8.1 so can't test anything

If things work on Win 10, it would point to something obscure on Win 8.1 - either way would be good info to have if and when you finally connect with the Google folks

Well, my wife's computer has Word, but not Office; so I don't have another computer I can experiment with.

...but I think I've gone down a rabbit-hole anyway. The error reported by the change Google made is 0x800CCC92, not 0x800CCC0F, according to this website:

Task '******@gmail.com - Receiving' reported error (0x800CCC92): 'Your email server rejected your login. Verify your username and password for this account in Account Settings. The server responded: -ERR [AUTH] Username and password not accepted."

And since I have the retail version of Outlook 2016, I'm unaffected by this change anyway:

Users with Outlook 2016 (retail version), 2019, 2021, and 365 won't have a problem when Less Secure Apps is disabled. 

c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. ---Processing--------------------------

PRODUCT ID: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx SKU ID: xxxxx LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusR_Retail edition LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, RETAIL channel LICENSE STATUS: ---LICENSED--- Last 5 characters of installed product key: 2PMG3

So this was all for naught; especially considering, that each reconfig of an email service successfully transmits an email to the server.

So I've got to focus on why my Outlook client is returning an error of 0x800CCC0F - the original subject of this thread.