Mail on MacBook constantly unable to recognise Hotmail account name & password (and app-specific password)

I was able to fix it with Sequoia, but only after going in my MAIL app and DELETING my HOTMAIL account. After, go to ADD ACCOUNT and take the steps to add an email account back to your mail app. If you have HOTMAIL, choose the option Microsoft EXCHANGE.

What’s to fix? Go talk to Microsoft. They are the ones that blocked third-party access to the account. Some would infer it’s a plan by MS to get people to use the outlook app… but who knows.

as noted previously, re-adding the account as an Exchange account seems to be a ‘fix’ for many people. Have you tried that?

THANK YOU everyone, it was driving me nuts not being able to access my hotmail acct on my macbook!!!

I added the email as an exchange acct then did some quick googling before officially deleting my hotmail acct.

----> BEFORE you delete your hotmail, make sure your apple notes are not connected to it (mine was) and move them to your icloud folder (if not already using that)....all the notes will be saved this way!

Can anyone get reliable access to Hotmail from Mail on a Mac?

I echo the above reports, and have tried everything they have without success.

In summary: Mac Mail is very unreliable, essentially unworkable, on my iMac. Buy Mail works well to access Hotmail on my iPhone. iPad access to Hotmail is also troublesome and unreliable, rather less so that Mac Mail.

Access in my case includes Hotmail folders (which were not accessible tieing in via Exchange servers)

Mozilla Thundersbird solved getting access on the iMac, and that's what I rely on. Thunderbird seems to tie in instantaneously, including recognising the Hotmail folders.

Access via an Outlook App is fine. And via the web version.

This issue popped up out of nowhere for me as well - Tried first to create a app-spesfic password that gave the same error message.

And after adding the account to authentication app (Microsoft) and then removing and adding the account again (as exchange) the error was gone

These are not stored locally and should return (it may take time to reload everything) after you recreate your hotmail account as an Exchange type account.

Hope this helps.

-Fernando

I have been having the same problem for weeks now. Initially, I had to "take the mailbox online" for my hotmail account and it would sync. Then even that stopped working. I was just fiddling with my security settings in my Outlook account in a browser and noticed you can get an app password for devices that don't accept the 2 factor authentication process. I figured it was worth a shot, created a new app password and put that into the password space in Accounts..... under the Mail tab (NOT Preferences, I didn't change anything there) and lo and behold, my hotmail account synched. Whether it continues to do so, I don't know, but for now, I am delighted it worked!

It only worked for me using as an Exchange Account!

It does not work if you have your Outlook/Hotmail account with passwordless option.

I do not understand why there is an option Outlook in Add Account from Mail App in MacBook Pro, just like you have in an iPhone

This is a Microsoft specific issue. They sent out an email a while ago saying outside apps wouldn’t be able to retrieve emails & their own old mail program (I have Outlook 2016) now tries to force you to subscribe to their 360 service.

I use Spark basic to check mail. It’s not the best but it works.

THE ANSWER, AS OTHERS HAVE MENTIONED.

• UPDATE LAPTOP TO SEQUOIA
• GO TO YOUR "MAIL" APP AND DELETE YOUR HOTMAIL ACCOUNT. I GOOGLED HOW TO DO THIS. IT'S ONLY A COUPLE STEPS.
• AFTER DELETING THE ACCOUNT, GO TO MAIL (at the top of the screen)>ADD ACCOUNT. YOU'LL BE GIVEN A LIST OF BROWSER APPS. BECAUSE MY EMAIL IS HOTMAIL, I CHOSE MICROSOFT EXCHANGE.
• THEN YOU'LL LOG ONTO YOUR ACCOUNT AS THOUGH YOU ARE CHECKING YOUR EMAIL. YOUR MAIL ACCOUNT SHOULD UPDATE FULLY.

THIS WORKED FOR ME! HOPE IT WORKS FOR YOU!