Outlook account keeps getting Authentication Error

Every other day, my Outlook email goes from working just fine to suddenly getting the error message “Cannot authenticate with ***@hotmail.com”, the account itself works fine in the browser and on my phone (using Spark).

Any attempts to re-add the email account then gets the error “Authentication Error - Check your username and password. (IMAP)”, the password is most definitely correct as this is being copied from a password manager.

I have tried to disable 2FA on the email account, use app passwords (whilst 2FA is enabled), change the password, but this issue keeps popping up and leaves my email account unable to be added.

8 Likes

I have the same issue with my hotmail account.

1 Like

I believe you are supposed to use the Office 365 button for hotmail. However, that doesn’t work for me either:

Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]: Error: An unknown error has occurred (mailsync: 134)
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (file:///tmp/nylas-build/electron-packager/linux-x64/mailspring-linux-x64-6Ns7Ou/resources/app/src/mailsync-process.ts:252:25)
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:513:28)
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:489:12)
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1093:16)
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     at Socket.<anonymous> (node:internal/child_process:451:11)
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     at Socket.emit (node:events:513:28)
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     at Socket.emit (node:domain:489:12)
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     at Pipe.<anonymous> (node:net:757:14) {
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:   rawLog: '\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     'Waiting for Account JSON:\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     '\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     'Waiting for Identity JSON:\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04 plasmashell[56978]:     'info: Identity created at 1717451715 - using ID Schema 1\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04 plasmashell[56978]:     'info: Fetching XOAuth2 access token (office365) for e0fb1f1e\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     'critical: \n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     '***\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04 plasmashell[56978]:     '*** Mailspring Sync \n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04 plasmashell[56978]:     '*** An exception occurred during program execution: \n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     `*** {"debuginfo":"https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/token RETURNED {\\"error\\":\\"invalid_scope\\",\\"error_description\\":\\"AADSTS70011: The provided resource value for the input parameter 'scope' is not valid...
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     '***\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     '\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     'critical: \n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     '***\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04 plasmashell[56978]:     '*** Mailspring Sync \n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     '*** An exception occurred during program execution: \n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04 plasmashell[56978]:     `*** {"debuginfo":"https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/token RETURNED {\\"error\\":\\"invalid_scope\\",\\"error_description\\":\\"AADSTS70011: The provided resource value for the input parameter 'scope' is not valid...
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     '***\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]:     '\n' +
Jun 03 13:22:04 plasmashell[56978]:     '/snap/mailspring/541/usr/share/mailspring/resources/app.asar.unpacked/mailsync: line 5: 58693 Aborted                 (core dumped) SASL_PATH="$SCRIPTPATH" LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$SCRIPTPATH;$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" "$SCRIPTPATH/mailsync.bin" "$@"\n'
Jun 03 13:22:04  plasmashell[56978]: } { pluginIds: [] }
1 Like

For weeks i have the same problem, is it mailspring or outlook that creates this problem??

1 Like

Hello,
As per my knowledge,
1 Update Outlook: Ensure it’s the latest version.
2 Clear Credentials: Remove stored credentials from Windows Credential Manager.
3 Re-add Account: Remove and re-add your email with manual IMAP settings.
4 App Passwords: Use an app password if 2FA is enabled.
5 Check Network: Ensure your network/VPN isn’t causing issues.
6 New Profile: Create a new Outlook profile in Control Panel.
7 Firewall/Antivirus: Temporarily disable to test if they’re blocking authentication.
I hope this will help you,
Thank you

Having the same issue and a bit confused with @robertsrose answer… what would the Outlook app and Windows Credential Manager have to do with Mailspring? What would my Firewall/Antivirus have to do with a connection to a remote sever? Excuse me my ignorance just trying to understand how Mailspring account authentication works to see if I can fix this…

I’m going through Mailspring’s account settings to try to connect… tried both with the outlook/hotmail and IMAP option but it’s the same… I haven’t tried Office 365 @Retalak said as there’s an explicit hotmail option and it didn’t even work for him… Are you guys AI’s? lol

I have the same here with my hotmail.com account

Hi all,

You need to use an app password via the Microsoft security web page.

  1. go to https://account.live.com/
  2. got to security
  3. click on advanced security
  4. scroll down to app passwords
  5. click “Create a new app password”
  6. copy and paste the new password into the password field in Mailspring
  7. click connect account.

If this doesn’t work do the same but using the IMAP/SMTP option.

Hope this helps

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Thanks but didn’t work for me… actually it’s the same thing as other solutions works for a while and then issue come up again after a few minutes…

I spent a while trying to get Mailspring to sign into an old hotmail account with an app password and it kept failing, but it worked a few days later when I did exactly the same thing, so I’d been blaming some kind of outage on Microsoft’s end. Maybe trying again later will work for other people.

However, by September 16th, 2024, something will need to change as that’s when Microsoft drop support for password-based login and the app password approach will stop working. I can’t find any thread where a developer’s said that they’re planning to do anything about that, so if anyone’s got a link, that would ease my mind.

1 Like

Changing app password did not work for me either.

I did not had this issue, but soon I will since app password are going to be deprecated after 16th September 2024 so there will be no way to authenticate with app password (or regular password if you got 2FA disabled) anymore.

yea there is no option for app passwords for me as well.

No option for “App password” for me!

I think that a lot of users will face the issue so if you cannot create “App passwords” or your account is missing the option, simply ACTIVATE 2FA IN YOUR MICROSOFT ACCOUNT !

“You only need to create an app password if you have two-step verification turned on and are using a device that doesn’t support it.”
Quote from How to get and use app passwords - Microsoft Support

That’s not true. App password that you are suggesting will not work after 16th September.
Read the above link

I quote:
“App passwords or Application passwords will be deprecated as part of the Basic Auth deprecation. You will need to use Modern Auth for all cases.”

1 Like

Yes, you are correct that AppPasswords for BasicAuth are disabled and that there is a lot of confusion because of Microsofts unclear/complicated statements. BUT also they state that “The deprecation of basic authentication will also prevent the use of app passwords with apps that don’t support two-step verification.” and that you now have to enable 2FA in your Account before you can create an AppPassword maybe makes it a “two-step verification method”.

Also why would MS still allow new AppPasswords/Registrations when they remove that feature in 2 Month? At least they would add a Notification to it … I would be thankful for a full and clear MS Statement to all this.

And btw, the best, safest and cleanest Solution would be OAUTH2 Support by MailSpring. AppPasswords are a workaround that can get disabled at anytime by MS

Every time that I open Mailspring it’s like this now. Do something or I will be obliged to change the client !
!

I’m having the same Sync issues with Mailspring for a couple of weeks now and only my Outlook Account has a problem. I have found if I close The Programme (Shut it down fully) for 15 Minutes it will start working for a while. The app I use on my phone (Bluemail) had a problem last week, only with the outlook account and after Re-authentication there has been no other issues whereas Mailspring is 5 times a day. I know this does not sort the problem but may help to fix