Outlook Keeps Asking for Password

Outlook Keeps Asking for Password

What can I do if Outlook keeps asking for my password?

1. Manually disconnect your Microsoft Account from your Office apps

  1. Open Outlook.
  2. Go to Settings and select Accounts.
  3. Choose Email & App Accounts.
  4. Select Accounts used for other apps.
  5. If you see your email addresses listed there, simply disconnect them.
  6. Restart Outlook.

Disconnecting your Microsoft account from your Office apps can solve this problem quickly so try it out.

2. Reset the login settings for Outlook

  1. Go to Control Panel and click on Credentials Manager.
  2. Navigate to User accounts and go to Credential Manager.
  3. In the Windows Credentials and Generic Credentials section, remove any stored credentials referencing Office 365 or Microsoft Outlook email addresses.
  4. Click on Details and choose Remove from vaults.
  5. Click Yes on the warning box.
  6. Repeat the steps until you remove all the credentials associated with your email address.

The first solution you can try is resetting the login settings for Outlook through Windows Credentials Manager. In order to do that, please follow the steps described above.

3. Check the credential settings

  1. Start Outlook and go to File. 
  2. Choose Account settings in the Account settings section.
  3. Select your exchange account.
  4. Click the Change button and go to More settings.
  5. Select the Security tab.
  6. Under the user identification, make sure the Always prompt for logon credentials option is not selected.
  7. Click OK and restart Outlook.

If the first solution did not work out for you, you could also try to verify if the option Prompt for credentials is not checked in profile as this could be another cause for this message to keep popping out.

If you’re having issues with setting up your Outlook account, check out this excellent article to help you fix set-up problems.

4. Clear the cached passwords

  1. Exit Outlook.
  2. Type control and click on Control Panel from the results.
  3. Navigate to Credential Manager and locate the set of credentials that has Outlook in the name.
  4. Click the name to expand the set of credentials, and then click Remove from Vault.

Your Windows system stores user credentials on your computer. If the cached credentials are incorrect, you will be prompted for the password again and again.

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5. Enable Remember password

  1. Click on the File tab and go to Account settings.
  2. Double click the account under the Email tab.
  3. A new window will appear, and you should check the Remember password option.

Another suggestion is to verify whether you have selected the option to save username and password in Outlook.

6. Install the latest update for Outlook

  1. Open Outlook and go to File.
  2. Choose Office Account and click on the Update options button.
  3. Select Update Now from the menu to check for new updates to Outlook.

It is important to always keep your software up to date so that vulnerabilities are fixed, and new features can be added.

Follow the simple steps above to check for Outlook updates and make sure that updates can be automatically downloaded and applied.

Note icon
NOTE
Note: The instructions above are for the Microsoft Outlook email program that is installed on a computer.

7. Create a new profile

  1. Exit Outlook.
  2. Go to Control Panel and click on Mail.
  3. Go to Show profiles and then click Add.
  4. Type the name of the profile and click OK.
  5. Enter your name and email.
  6. Click Next and then click on Finish.
  7. Back in the main window, select your new profile in the Always use this profile dialogue box and then click OK.

There might just be a bug somewhere in the profile, in which case building a new profile will get things right again.

Another solution you can use is to simply switch to another mail client app that gives you similar features and with an easier interface. 


Sometimes, Outlook gets stuck on the loading profile screen. If you bump into this issue, we’ve got this easy guide to help you get past it.

8. Disable your antivirus program temporarily or boot into Safe Mode

Run a System Scan to discover potential errors


Click Start Scan to find Windows issues.

Restoro Fix

Click Repair All to fix issues with Patented Technologies.

Run a PC Scan with Restoro Repair Tool to find errors causing security problems and slowdowns. After the scan is complete, the repair process will replace damaged files with fresh Windows files and components.

The antivirus program could be interfering with Outlook if it uses an add-in or firewall. If Outlook checks for and sends mail fine, after doing one of these two actions, reinstall the antivirus program.

You can easily check if Outlook is blocked by the antivirus or the Firewall with the help of this simple guide.

9. Start Outlook in Safe Mode and disable add-ins

  1. Go to File and click on Options.
  2. Select Add-ins in the left panel. This will open a new pop-up showing you all the add-ins where you can view and manage all your Add-ins installed.
  3. Click on the add-in you want to remove, and another small window will pop up. Click on the Remove button.

When you open Outlook in Safe Mode, it starts without extensions or custom toolbar settings. In order to do this, the simplest way is to hold down the Ctrl key as you are opening the Outlook shortcut.

Opening Outlook in safe mode does not involve using Windows in safe mode – they are two different aspects.

You can boot into Safe Mode and then open MS Outlook (normally or in safe mode) but only booting into Safe Mode does not automatically start the Outlook application in safe mode.

If the error disappears, then there is a problem with one of the add-ins and you need to disable it, delete it or troubleshoot how to fix it.

If Outlook only works in Safe Mode, check this excellent guide and you’ll be up and running in no time.

10. Outlook Anywhere is not configured to use NTLM Authentication

  1. Navigate to File and click on Account Settings choosing the Account Settings option once again.
  2. Select the Exchange account and click Change.
  3. Click on More settings and then go to the Connection tab.
  4. Click the Exchange Proxy settings button and under Proxy authentication settings, choose NTLM Authentication.

The Outlook Anywhere feature allows you to access your Exchange account remotely from the Internet when you are working outside your organization’s firewall.

When using Outlook Anywhere to connect to your Exchange server, we need to choose the authentication method among Basic Authentication, NTLM Authentication and Negotiate Authentication.

Users reported that using NTLM Authentication can significantly reduce the number of password prompts.

If you need some extra authentication software to secure your data, here are the best tools that do just that.

11. Slow or unstable network connection

Another cause for Outlook keeps asking for a password could be that your network connection is slow or unstable. Outlook may lose connection to the mail server and when trying to reconnect, it will prompt for credentials.

The solution is to switch to a more stable network environment and then check if this issue persists.

Did the solutions described above help you solve this Outlook issue? Please let us know in the comments section below as your feedback is very important for us.

Also, if Outlook seems so full of issues you can try an easier method of communication, here are best-automated chat software to improve business communication.

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