Updated fix: Outlook 2013 modern authentication not working in Outlook 365
So two clients of ours had the Outlook 365 authentication issue at the same time requesting Microsoft 365 support. The issue was that Outlook needs an updated password but the M365 authentication box pops up quickly and then disappears straight away (you just see a flash of the white box on the screen). I’ve found the way to fix it is to close Outlook, go into Word, and sign out of the M365 account in use from the Office Account. Then sign back in, when it gives you the option of this app only press OK and let it apply the policy and then when you open Outlook again it should be working.
For those of us who have perpetual licenses for Office 2013, 2016 and 2019 there will come a time when we need to enable modern authentication to keep accessing Exchange Online services in Outlook 2013. For some of us that’s going to sooner rather than later.
Starting in September 2022 Microsoft released a timeline of events that will see Basic authentication being phased out and modern authentication being enforced. This is great as it means that users will be better protected from hackers by allowing MFA (multi-factor authentication) such as SMS, Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authentication.
For those that are not so tech-savvy, this is a bit of a nuisance as in October 2022 basic authentication no longer works by default and an IT support administrator needs to make some changes. Especially for users who are using Office 2013 with the Outlook 2013 app as they are no longer able to log in to their Exchange account on their Windows PC. Fortunately, we have a regedit solution that will fix the Exchange to Outlook connection issue by restoring the modern authentication pop-up.
Microsoft's timeline for basic authentication depreciation
Here are the key dates that you need to know and how you need to fix Outlook 2013 authentication issues in 2022:
- Past – September: All current opt-out requests are removed
- Past – September: new opt-out available. Re-enablement is not available in diagnostics
- Admin’s need to re-enable basic authentication in September (doesn’t include SMTP)
- New opt-out is executed by tenant admin
- Current – October 2022 – December: Basic auth is disabled for all protocols
- You need to start enabling modern authentication for workstations
- Future – January 2023: Exchange Online permanent basic authentication disablement for all protocols starts
Some users even thought about disabling modern authentication for their organisations but we didn’t recommend that for security reasons.
How to add modern authentication to Outlook 2013
The solution was simple, but we had to jump through a bunch of hoops and try out various methods first. Here’s what we tried to resolve our issue:
- Updating Outlook 2013 to the latest version
- Downloading SP1 for Office 2013
- Installing the latest Windows 10 / 11 updates
Some users even thought about disabling modern authentication for their organisations but we didn’t recommend that for security reasons.
How to update to the latest version of Outlook
A quick guide on how to update to the latest version of Outlook :
- Start up any Office application, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote or Access
- Click on the File tab and select Office Account from the bottom left
- You should see the Update Options button, hit that and Update Now
- You will want to be running version 5.0.4753.1002 or above.
Some users even thought about disabling modern authentication for their organisations but we didn’t recommend that for security reasons.
Solution to restore Outlook and Exchange login issue
After some time and with some Microsoft 365 support we finally found the solution to our issue. It was simple we just had to add 3 registry keys to our users workstations and the modern authentication pop-up was restored.
Here are the steps and registry keys that you need to add to your workstation:
- Click on start and type in Regedit and open the app
- Navigate to the right key/path (as per table below)
- Right-click and select New > DWORD (32-bit Value)
- Give it a name as per the table below
- Double-click on it to open and add enter 1 into Value data
- Repeat the above step 3 times for each registry key
| Registry key | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
| HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\EnableADAL | REG_DWORD | 1 |
| HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\Version | REG_DWORD | 1 |
| HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\AlwaysUseMSOAuthForAutoDiscover | REG_DWORD | 1 |
Remember that you must reboot after applying these keys in your registry for the changes to take effect or Outlook 2013 will still not work.
We hope you found this article useful and encourage you to enable MFA for all your accounts to eradicate security threats.
Fixing Outlook 2013 and Exchagne login issue
Here are the common search terms for this issue:
- Outlook 2013 no longer works with Office 365
- can’t log in to exchange on Outlook 2013
- modern authentication pop-up missing from Outlook 2013
- Microsoft 365 technical support for Outlook
- What registry keys do I need to fix Outlook
Thanks to Microsoft for the additional resource: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/basic-authentication-deprecation-in-exchange-online-september/ba-p/3609437
How to get Microsoft 365 Support
If you’re a small or medium business in Melbourne, Australia and are looking for experts to assist you with Microsoft 365 you’ve come to the right place.
Our technicians have extensive experience with Outlook, Office, Exchange, Teams and OneDrive. We provide onsite & remote IT support for critical outages and generate troubleshooting.
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