Outlook Keeps Asking for Password. How to Fix it?

Is your Outlook program continually prompting you for entering the password when you are trying to connect it to Office 365 email program? This problem usually occurs when you try to create an Outlook Profile or configure a connection with Microsoft Office 365 mailbox. You will see a “Trying to connect….” message with continue prompts for credentials when trying to connect to Office 365. What more frustrate users in this issue is that when you try to cancel the password prompts, you are prompted with the following message:

“The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.”

The main reason responsible for the issue is that the value of the Logon network security setting is set to something other than Anonymous Authentication on the Security tab of the Microsoft Exchange window. If you are too experiencing this issue in your Outlook program, you can follow the steps provided below to resolve it.

Guide to Fix “Outlook Continually Prompting for Password” Issue

Fixing Issue on New Outlook

If you are an Office 365 user using a new version, you can overcome the problem by using the “Outlook Keeps Asking for my Password” diagnostic tool available on the Microsoft website. The diagnostic tool help by performing an automated test and presenting solutions to fix the detected issues.

In case you are looking to connect to an Exchange On-Premises mailbox and Outlook is prompting for a password while Modern Authentication is enabled, it is suggested to follow these steps.

  1. Start by exiting from the Outlook on your computer.
  2. Next, go to the Registry Editor

 

  • For Windows 7: Go to Start option, enter exe in the search field and press Enter key on your keyboard.
  • For Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1: Press Windows Key + R key on your keyboard. This will open the Run dialog box. Enter exe in the search field and press Enter.
  1. Then, locate and click on the following registry subkey in the Registry Editor section: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange
  2. After that, go to the Edit menu > New and select DWORD Value.
  3. Then, enter AlwaysUseMSOAuthForAutoDiscover, and hit
  4. Right-click on the AlwaysUseMSOAuthForAutoDiscover option and select the Modify
  5. Then finally, click on the OK button in the Value data box and exit from the Registry Editor.

For Older Versions of Outlook

If you are using an older version of the Outlook program, it is suggested to change the Logon Network Security setting to Anonymous Authentication to fix this issue. This is how you can do it

  1. Exit from your Outlook email program and Start > Control Panel section and follow the below-mentioned steps according to your Windows OS.
    • Windows 8: Open the charms bar, tap or click on the Search option and enter the “control panel” in the search field. Alternatively, you can also enter the “control panel” on the Start screen to get to this option.
    • Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7: Go to Start option and enter “control panel” in the search field. Then, press Enter key on your keyboard.
  1. In the Control Panel section, locate and double-click on the Mail option. Next, click on the Show Profiles option, select your Outlook profile, and then click on the Properties option.
  2. Then, click on the E-mail Accounts option, select your account and click on the Change option. In the Change Accountdialog box, click on the More Settings option. In the Microsoft Exchange dialog box, you will need to select the Security
  3. Then, in the Login network securitylist, select Anonymous Authentication option and click on the OK After that, Click Next > Finish > Close button in the Account Settings dialog box.
  1. Finally, Close the Mail Setup dialog box and click on the OK option to exit the Mail control panel.

So, these are the steps you will need to follow in order to fix the “Outlook continually prompting for password” issue when trying to connect to Office 365. Fix your email problem by just dialing toll free phone number of Outlook customer care service to get professional tech support