Isn’t it wonderful how software programs make things convenient for us by remembering who we are and what we were doing last? It makes our lives so much easier.
Except when you need to send that proposal ASAP or respond to an urgent customer issue, and Outlook is prompting you for your email password?!
Why Now?!
If Outlook is preventing you from viewing and/or receiving emails until you enter your password, there could be several causes.
- Have you recently changed your email password?
- Has your password expired?
- Are you using the right password for that particular email address?
Top 4 Fixes
- Right Address, Wrong Password: If you have more than one email address in Outlook, verify that you are using the password that corresponds with it. Type in your password and make sure you click the “Remember my credentials” checkbox.
- Right Keys, Wrong cAsE: If you are sure that you are using the correct password for that email address, type the password into Notepad or a Microsoft Word document so that you can see exactly what you’ve been typing. You may have been hitting the right keys, but the Caps or Num lock might be turned on/off. If it looks correct, copy and paste it in and see if the system accepts it.
- Expired Password: One possibility is that your email host has set a time frame for active passwords, and yours has expired. Try logging into the website that is hosting your email and see if it accepts your password. If it says your password is wrong or has expired, you will need to create a new one.
- Reset: If none of the fixes above work, try resetting it.
- Start by removing the saved password from Windows. Type “Manage Windows Credentials” into your start menu search bar.
- Under “Windows Credentials,” look for the email address in the list and click Remove. If it is listed more than once, remove them all.
- Restart your computer and open Outlook to put in the new password.
In a world where things seem to be increasingly complicated, we can have the tendency to expect a complicated solution. Sometimes the solution is so simple that it is overlooked. We hope these four fixes will help alleviate your frustrations.
At Sawyer Solutions, we strive to create a stress-free work environment so that you can focus on what you need to do and leave your IT worries to us.
Call us at (844) 448-7767 or send us a message to take the stress out of IT.