Old frustrations with New Outlook

[Diggs]

An old customer contacted me asking for help with the New Outlook getting Charter.net emails (two accounts). They said everything was working fine until the middle of last month when email quit in the New Outlook. It asks for their password and then will not validate even though the password is valid on phones and web mail. Checked all the Charter mail server settings and they were correct (and were working in the past). They exhausted Charter support after hours on the phone. They wanted to get away from Outlook but didn't know the options. We installed Thunderbird (two profiles and one instance of Thunderbird in each). Thunderbird asked for name and password which we provided, Thunderbird looked up the server details from their database and blink, there were all their emails, folders, history, etc. Switched profiles, did the same and again instantly all their emails were there and current. Checked what server settings Thunderbird was using and they were the identical settings the New Outlook was using without success. Arrruuu??? This has happened a couple times in the past with the old Outlook and customers. Everything appears perfect yet Outlook will not connect or tell you why..... Totally frustrating on my part. (I used Thunderbird for one of those instances but things get very complicated quickly when there are address books and calendars involved.

What are the options when New Outlook won't connect. Remove and re-install Outlook? Can New Outlook be uninstalled? I couldn't even get to the New Outlook settings to try removing/reset the account. When it starts it jumps to the password screen and won't budge.

 

[Markverhyden]

Did you try creating a new profile in Outlook? I setup some new emails on Outlook client. If you get it loaded completely there was a switch in the upper right corner where you can turn off New.

 

[Diggs]

If you get it loaded completely there was a switch in the upper right corner where you can turn off New.

I may not have tried/looked hard enough to find a way out of that login screen. I saw the settings in the upper right corner but greyed out. It loaded but then it wouldn't do anything until the login for the existing account was validated. Frustrating. The customers (husband and wife) already had their minds made up to get away from "New" Outlook. She uses Outlook at work.

 

[Markverhyden]

I may not have tried/looked hard enough to find a way out of that login screen. I saw the settings in the upper right corner but greyed out. It loaded but then it wouldn't do anything until the login for the existing account was validated. Frustrating. The customers (husband and wife) already had their minds made up to get away from "New" Outlook. She uses Outlook at work.

"outlook.exe /safe" launches with no profile so you go to the profile page. It'll probably have Outlook as the only entry. Create a new profile then add the account(s)

 

[Diggs]

"outlook.exe /safe" launches with no profile so you go to the profile page

+1
That's what I needed but couldn't find it quick enough with an audience. I told them I'd do some due diligence and can try Outlook again if they would like.

 

[Metanis]

The last call I took like this we found the "old" Outlook was still installed and functional. I just deleted the shortcuts to the "new" Outlook and the customer was happy.

PS. The "old" Outlook had zero authentication issues, while the "new" Outlook would never correctly deal with login issues.

 

[callthatgirl]

They might have a personal MS account with the same email. This is quite common. You can test it by going to www.office.com/myaccount and that is the personal/family login vs business. If it asks for a password, there there is an account. You need to remove that account from MS but be careful, their computer might be logged into that account as well as OneDrive. New Outlook is a bit wonky with accounts sadly, if anyone has a MS account, it hits that first no matter what.

You all will see this in the future more and more, I learned it the hard way ONCE. Never again lol. It's part of my onboarding now so I know what's going on before I do work.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What I look for when suspicious of a "personal account" is

Sign in to your Microsoft account

login.live.com

Business will be
https://office.com of which the profile page is at https://myaccount.microsoft.com/

Cliff notes...live.com be personal, microsoft.com be biz.

 

[timeshifter]

New Outlook and Charter, Spectrum, TWC is FUBAR. I ran into this with a client about a week ago and there is no solution, it flat out doesn’t work.

In the case of the client I was helping I installed EM client and that was the fix.

If I can find it, I’ll post a link to the Reddit thread where people are discussing this. Again, it’s broken and I don’t think it’s going to be fixed anytime soon, if ever.

 

[callthatgirl]

New Outlook isn't broken, it's just dominate for MS accounts first. Almost all of my clients use their email to log into their windows computer, which might create an Outlook.com account for them with that email (comcast, charter, gmail most common) and then you have to untangle that mess. It will not change I bet, so you have to create a new windows profile with no MS account, or swap it in the /myaccount portal to use another email.

this is our future, get to know how to explain to clients. 90% of my job now is explaining 10% tech work

 

[timeshifter]

which might create an Outlook.com account for them with that email (comcast, charter, gmail most common)

but those accounts don't receive that mail, in the same way an Amazon account you log in to with your Gmail doesn't receive mail.