This article was written in 2019. Versions, tools and recommendations may have changed since then. Newer posts are collected under Blog.
For several months now there has been a bug(!?) in Outlook that often prevents Office 365 accounts from being added. The error message Outlook reveals at this point is a catastrophic one:
Something went wrong and Outlook couldn’t set up your account.
What a great error message! Not. You can find hundreds of entries via Google, Bing and Co. with corresponding search for help.
I have also run into this error twice (thanks to my brain!) and it took me hours to solve the problem.
Same today. Can't @Outlook just work or at least spit out helpful errors? https://t.co/kCXfHziI2z
— ð˜½ð™šð™£ð™Ÿð™–ð™¢ð™žð™£ ð˜¼ð™-𙩠(@Abt_Benjamin) September 14, 2019
Many forum entries mention DNS or IPv6 configs as errors - although all tools for Office do not show any configuration error.
The error is in principle but quite banal: apparently Outlook saved/s wrong credentials!
Two Factor Authentication
Hint: The normal Office 365 password cannot usually be used with Outlook if 2-factor authentication is active!
Microsoft says in the documentation that this would no longer apply to newer Office applications, but I know several cases where only the App Password works! My account with Office 2016 included. Microsoft offers a workaround so that a so-called “app password” can be used.
However, this must be set separately via the portal!
Microsoft Docs: Manage app passwords for two-step verification
Windows Credential Manager
Outlook stores the credentials - in the Windows Credential Manager. It can be accessed via the Windows Control Panel. In Outlook or Office itself there is no possibility to manage the stored credentials.
The Credential Manager can be used to delete the necessary entries.
The next time Office is started, it will query the credentials so that the correct data or App Password can be entered.
BEN ABT
Ben is Chief Engineering Officer and Principal Software Engineer at Medialesson.de, with a strong focus on .NET and Microsoft Azure. In his professional role, he designs and builds highly scalable platforms for hybrid and cloud-based scenarios. He also advises companies and C-levels on migrating to the sovereign cloud.
He runs myCSharp.de, the largest and most active German-speaking C# community forum, actively contributes to both his own and external open-source projects and regularly shares his knowledge through his blog, at community events, conferences and as a writer for technical magazines.
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