I received an email stating Update your sign-in technology before September 16th, 2024 to maintain email access. Is this legit or a scam?

I didn't read prior references to require that a "new" Outlook profile be created but saw

that access can be accomplished for third party email clients through app permissions

and settings that are possible to make in the Outlook account that agree with settings

selected in the email client app. There are different options and alternatives described

and the way I understood is that creating a new outlook profile was just one option

in a list of different methods, one way among several different options. It may be that

there is more than one way to skin a cat and the same effect is accomplished by the

settings changes and permissions being done manually, as would be automatically

done by the use of alternative methods where the same settings changes are made

for example when a new account is being set up automatically by a new account

helper bot.

As I posted before it does matter what server and port settings you choose to

update login to use OAuth2 and for POP you should use for incoming mail server

outlook.office365.com and port 995. Also make sure your app permissions are

set in the outlook web portal for your outlook account Mail settings to allow

the POP access by the third party client. You will likely get a password challenge

to allow the change to be effected, a Microsoft account password request popup

may appear. Send yourself a test message from another email like gmail and see

if the incoming mail server is responding normally and showing your incoming

test message as it should using the updated authentication login OAuth2.

I use PC-based "old" Outlook from Microsoft 365 with a dozen POP3 email addresses draining into one Inbox. (POP3 is the only way to avoid a dozen inboxes that must be viewed separately, unlike the aggregation available on any phone.)

The Microsoft instructions referenced in the previous post indicate that a new Outlook Profile needs to be created to receive an email from Outlook.com. It apparently must be separate from my other 11 POP3 accounts. Is that true?

I'm thinking it is, because I deleted my POP3 Outlook.com account and tried to add it back as an "Outlook" account. It became an Exchange account and badly corrupted my profile. It wouldn't connect to the exchange server, and opening Outlook produced a variety of horrible error messages in succession. And, of course, it demanded a separate data file.

The only way I could recover was to do a System Restore, which caused its own problems. Three hours later, I think I'm back to where I used to be.

So ... is it possible to do this without a separate profile in Outlook?

Thanks!

Here are Microsoft Support links that should be helpful also see my other replies here today

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/modern-authentication-methods-now-needed-to-continue-syncing-outlook-email-in-non-microsoft-email-apps-c5d65390-9676-4763-b41f-d7986499a90d#:~:text=Modern%20Authentication%20Methods%20now%20needed%20to%20continue%20syncing,5%20If%20you%20use%20Mozilla%20Thunderbird%3A%20More%20items?WT.mc_id=M365-MVP-5938

There are drop down sections that give more instructions in the linked articles https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/pop-imap-and-smtp-settings-for-outlook-com-d088b986-291d-42b8-9564-9c414e2aa040

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-your-outlook-com-account-to-another-mail-app-or-smart-device-73f3b178-0009-41ae-aab1-87b80fa94970

It doesn't make sense to me that the existing support pages regarding how

to configure email client apps would continue not updated to clearly warn

everyone about any coinciding deprecation of POP and/or IMAP that would

occur on September 16, 2024 along with the announced deprecation well

in advance being communicated about the end of password only login

and the requirement for users to update their login method to OAuth2.

There are several support pages that describe settings required for POP

and for IMAP access, but also say that these functions are disabled by

default and must be manually enabled through the settings and app

permissions so that third party email apps can be allowed access to

Outlook accounts which are webmail accounts. All of those support

pages show no warnings regarding any deprecation of POP or IMAP

but do show the needed settings for modern authentication OAuth2

login and for app permissions to be enabled through settings for Mail

accessed through the Outlook web portal.

So there is agreement on the support pages with the update being

required for the login to be changed to OAuth2 but the support pages

show no indication whatsoever that POP and/or IMAP are likewise

being deprecated to coincide with ending of password only logins.

If there is going to be a deprecation of either POP or IMAP coinciding

on September 16, 2024 with the deprecation of basic authentication,

then the following support page should be updated to state very plainly

that such deprecation of POP and/or IMAP is exactly what will occur.

It would be a hugely disruptive mistake for that much more to be done.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/pop-imap-and-smtp-settings-for-outlook-com-d088b986-291d-42b8-9564-9c414e2aa040