Microsoft Outlook Account - warning email

[TheOstrich]

As far as I can tell this isn't a scam, it's something to do with changes Microsoft are making from mid-September.

This is the text of the email I received today:

Update your sign-in technology before September 16th, 2024 to maintain email access.

The safety and security of your information is top priority for Microsoft. To help keep your account secure, Microsoft will no longer support the use of third-party email and calendar apps which ask you to sign in with only your Microsoft Account username and password. To keep you safe you will need to use a mail or calendar app which supports Microsoft’s modern authentication methods. If you do not act, your third-party email apps will no longer be able to access your Outlook.com, Hotmail or Live.com email address on September 16th.

What do you need to do?
If you are receiving this email, you are currently using an email or calendar app that uses a less secure authentication method to connect to your Outlook.com email account. You will need to upgrade your third-party mail and calendar app to a version which supports modern authentication methods.
Microsoft provides free versions of Outlook for your PC, Mac, iOS, and Android devices which can be easily downloaded and connect to your email account. Using an updated version of an Outlook application will ensure you are connecting in the most secure way.

How can you set up your Gmail, Apple Mail, or other third-party mail application?
Various non-Microsoft applications will have their own steps for connecting to your Outlook.com email account using modern authentication methods. See our help article - Modern Authentication Methods now needed to continue syncing Outlook Email in non-Microsoft email apps. However, you may need to contact the creators of those applications to provide you with instructions. In many cases, simply removing and re-adding your account with the latest version of that application will configure it to use modern authentication methods.

This is from the Microsoft Support website - I give the link because it's too long to copy paste:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/off ... 986499a90d

To access email on my desktop, I use Outlook (New) - something which of course we were all rather forced onto earlier this year. The PC's operating system is Windows 10 (to old to upgrade to Win11) but it's currently fully, automatically updated.

Now for emails, I have a live.co.uk account, a gmail.com account, and a btinternet.com account which all appear on the Outlook (New) "app" (I guess it is) on my PC. I also access the BT one via the BT website.
I can also access these email accounts on a reasonably modern Samsung Galaxy and just the live.co.uk account on an ancient Apple Iphone.

Frank / Suff, can you explain in standard English and words of one syllable, please (a) do I need to take any action over my PC and (b) do I need to take any action pover my mobile phones?
In both cases, what exactly do I need to do?

I suspect this is going to impact many punters like me who will not have a clue what to do ......

[Workingman]

Firstly let's not all jump on Microsoft.

OAuth (Open Authorisation) has been round for ages, since about 2008. It is as it says, an authorisation protocol. When it first came in most of us were using POP. POP3 or IMAP to download emails to a client on our computers to keep them all in one place, but things have evolved, hence OAuth2. Eventually all email providers will be using it.

Unfortunately some clients have not caught up, hence the warning.

I have two clients: EssentialPIM and eM Client. and I also got the warning. Both actually do support OAuth2 but it has to be configured manually and it is a bit of a faff. If it is not configured Microsoft gives the warning, which I think is a good thing.

A workaround is to move to Thunderbird as your download client. It will (should) offer OAuth2 when you set up an email address in it, and you can have a number of inboxes for different email addresses such as Outlook, Live, BTInternet, Zoho and so on. You can also download the Lightning Calendar extension to work in it and sync things. For Thunderbird help scroll down the link given: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/off ... 986499a90d. and go to If you use Mozilla Thunderbird: for setup details.

All I had to do with the Mail/Calendar app on the PC was to logout of my email accounts and then manually login again - sign in with my username and password. It all worked but I am on Win 11. If you have the new Outlook version it should all work.

As for the Samsung I have no idea as I do not use apps. Is this any help? https://www.samsung.com/africa_en/suppo ... axy-phone/

[Suff]

Hi Ossie,

You got this mail because you use the native email app on the crapple phone and you are probably using the native samsung mail app on the tablet. Mainly because both these devices steer you that way.

Outlook exists for both iOS and Android and is free. I use Outlook on all my devices and I had Mrs S running Outlook on her iPhone before she decided to move back to Android.

I came across one problem with my mother's older Android tablet when I tried to install Outlook on it. The old tablet is Andoid 7 and locked there, Outlook now only supports Android 10 and up. I just checked the crapple store and it claims that Outlook needs iOS 16 to run. I'm guessing your ancient iPhone has wheezed its last OS update some time ago and is not able to get there. In this case you can, as WM says, download Thunderbird and use that on the iPhone.

Steps are relatively simple if you want to leave any legacy mail in the other apps. Get the app, install it, open it and configure it with email address and password. If you need to extract mail that's a whole different ballgame and requires tlc and hand holding....

I already face similar with Outlook which insists I use an "App Password" for Outlook as Outlook doesn't support their MFA/2FA. I just create the password and use it.

Let us know if you have any issues.

[TheOstrich]

Thanks, both. So the problem arises on the two mobile phones, then, not the desktop.
OK, I'll have a play and see what I can do.

[Suff]

That's about the size of it.

[Workingman]

Ossie, part of the confusion seems to be that Microsoft is covering all bases. If you access emails on Outlook, Hotmail or Live on any client device that does not support the modern authentication methods you get the warning email, but it does not tell you which device or client is the problem. To be fair there are so many combinations they could not do it for each individual.

A PC using the New Outlook (free) app (Win 10 or 11) should not be a problem, as I found out. It's the other devices / clients that are not working 'their' way that got the warning, and that's where your focus should be.

Come September, according to the blogs, Thunderbird should be ready for PC (already is), as well as iPhones and Android - there will be others at some point. You might need to keep checking the "stores" for updates.

[Suff]

I've been using Outlook on Android for so long now I just see it as normal. If it is installed it just keeps working, but won't update. I was surprised when I found the version limit on it when I tried to install it on a tablet.

This is where Thunderbird may be better. It will likely have a larger range of OS versions it supports. But even the most accommodating apps draw a line eventually and the older your phones get the less likely it is they will continue to work.

[Workingman]

Do I have this right? Chrome (and clones) support OAuth2 so in theory if you have the latest Chrome (or clone) browser installed on a phone you should be able to login to Gmail, Zoho, Outlook (Hotmail, Live) BT etc. via a tab and be able to "read" your emails. You will not be able to download them but that's not a problem if you can still download them to a PC, laptop or tablet later on.

It is what I have been doing for years. I can read emails on my phone(s) but I only download them to my laptop(s) via a client. My current logins are saved so I only need to open a tab to be able to read emails. Apparently under the new system I will have to login every time I open the tab, but that's no big deal.

[Suff]

Yes you can do that. You also get Edge (chromium based), for both Android and iPhone.

But accessing via browser is not as useful as the apps on the phones and most people have no idea how to do it.

Browser is the universal access medium and then there are various app levels.

[Workingman]

Well, I don't have / use apps, except those I cannot get rid of, and most of them are disabled, so that's why I probably find the browser approach so simple. Each to their own I guess.