Under certain circumstances, Outlook won’t remember your saved passwords for your mail accounts and will prompt you again for it with “Enter Network Password” dialog.
In this guide you’ll find an overview of the most common scenarios and what needs to be done so that Outlook will remember it again.
Note:
This guide is currently being updated. All information on this page is still safe to use though.
Outlook 2002/XP on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
If you are using Outlook 2002/XP on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8, then the repeated password prompt is caused by an incompatibility issue. Outlook 2002/XP is not supported on these versions of Windows.
If you do want to continue to use it, you’ll need to provide your password each time that you restart Outlook. As long as you keep Outlook open, it won’t prompt you for your password again.
Mail profile or account corruption
Having a corruption in your mail profile is one of the most common reason why Outlook no longer remembers your password. To confirm that this is indeed the case, you can create a new mail profile with the troublesome account and see if it works correctly now. If so, you can transfer over your data to this new mail profile.
For information about recreating you mail profile and transferring your data, see: Adding/Recreating a Mail Profile.
As an intermediate test, you could also first try if removing the troublesome mail account from your current mail profile, restarting Outlook and then adding the account again solves your issue.
Basic Authentication for Exchange accounts
If you are using an Exchange account which uses Basic Authentication, you won’t be able to save your password unless you are using Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2013.
See: Password Exchange account not remembered
Don’t set your Send/Receive interval too short
The default Send/Receive interval in Outlook is 30 minutes and it is not uncommon to set this to a shorter time interval. In general, this should be a problem but try not to set it under 5 minutes.
Outlook and the server both need time to process the Send/Receive task. While this usually is done within a couple of seconds, sending or receiving larger or multiple emails takes longer. The server or your connection may also be slower at certain times and then the Send/Receive tasks will build up quickly.
When you have multiple email accounts at the same provider, don’t set the interval lower than 10 minutes.
Also note that the email provider could set a limit for how often you can connect to their mail server. When you reach that limit, you account could blocked temporarily and you’ll end up either getting an error or be prompted for your password.
You can control your Send/Receive interval settings by pressing CTRL+ALT+S in the main Outlook window or via:
- Outlook 2007 and previous
Tools-> Options…-> tab: Mail Setup-> button: Send/Receive… - Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
File-> Options-> section: Advanced-> button: Send/Receive…
Disable virus scanner integration
This may sound like a bad thing to do at first but in reality, having your virus scanner integrating itself with Outlook doesn’t offer you an extra layer of protection anyway.
In fact, over the years, virus scanners which integrated with Outlook have caused for quite a lot of problems of their own. Some of them resulted in poor Send/Receive performance and getting various error messages in return from the mail server including authentication prompt.
For more information about how to prevent your virus scanner from integrating with Outlook and why you are still safe when you do so see: Disable virus scanner integration?
Password prompts for Outlook.com accounts
If you are using an Outlook.com/Hotmail/Live account, you could get repeated password prompts when your password has expired or when you have enabled Two-Step Authentication.
- Password expired for Outlook.com account
- Outlook and Two-Step Authentication for Outlook.com and Hotmail accounts
Protect folder
For Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 see; Password not remembered in Outlook 2007 on Windows Vista
Protected Storage System Provider Registry key
This applies to Outlook 2003 and previous (including Outlook Express) on Windows XP or Windows 2000.
- Save password setting not retained in Outlook or Outlook Express
- Your password is not retained when Outlook 2000 is installed with the Corporate or Workgroup option in Windows 2000 or Windows XP
Missing RPC ClientProtocols Registry key
For Outlook in an NT domain with Microsoft Exchange Server see:
You receive error message and are continuously prompted for your Windows NT domain credentials in Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002, or Outlook 2007
