New protocols for using Apple Mail with Hotmail accounts

I'm not sure if I quite understand what you were saying, but deleting your Outlook account off macOS Apple Mail should not delete mail that you have moved from Outlook to an On My Mac subfolder. Those stay. What is removed is references to IMAP Outlook subfolders and email, which are all in the cloud. The actual subfolder and emails remain in the cloud; those are not deleted either.

The issue and current solution is this:

On September 16, 2024, Microsoft will stop accepting Basic Authentication (email and password) to access your Outlook/Hotmail email via third party clients such as Apple Mail; it will henceforth require Modern Authentication.

I think a lot of people, when adding their personal Outlook/Hotmail accounts to Apple Mail, choose "Other Account" and fill in their Outlook/Hotmail credentials. I believe "Other Account" is a catch-all for any other email service provider; and it will probably only ever offer Basic Authentication. Apple strongly suggests choosing Microsoft Exchange in their FAQ for all Microsoft email addresses, organizational or personal. On iOS, Apple gives both Microsoft Exchange AND Outlook as a choice. They do NOT yet do this on macOS. On MacOS, you must choose Microsoft Exchange.

So if you currently have a personal Outlook/Hotmail account set up under "Other Account," delete it. This will remove all references to it in Apple Mail. Set it up again, but choose Microsoft Exchange. Then choose "Sign In," not "Configure Manually" -- the latter will result in an error. Microsoft will ask you if you mind Apple having access to your account (Apple Mail needs this access to work), confirm and all of your email and subfolders will repopulate in Apple Mail. Your folders will say Exchange instead of Outlook but everything else will be the same. Deleting/flagging email in macOS Apple Mail set up under "Microsoft Exchange" will correspondingly delete/flag mail in iOS Apple Mail set up under "Outlook" without issue.

Until Apple adds an explicit Outlook choice in macOS Apple Mail, this is the only solution. The good thing is that it works and you will no longer have to keep signing into your Outlook account in macOS Apple Mail.

Have been helping out a family member with their hotmail account this week which has had a sporadic connection via Apple Mail (on an admittedly older Mac) for months (constantly asking for, and not recognising, password). Monday I copied all their folders from their Hotmail to their iCloud email address, and not a moment too soon it seems as the connection to hotmail (via Exchange in Apple Mail on Mac) has failed since Wednesday. Yesterday, turned on forwarding in the hotmail browser to send their emails to their icloud account and they'll be responding from icloud in the future. They didn't particularly want to move away from hotmail but rather than buying a brand new mac (unnecessarily when their current macbook works just fine for what they need), which doesn't seem to be a guarantee that hotmail would work in Apple Mail on Mac, and rather than mess around with any other apps such as Outlook (there's no way they're going to use a second mailing app, nor should they have to, when they now know their way around Apple mail), this seemed the best solution. It seems Microsoft wants to blackmail anyone who has a hotmail account into using their software, apps & browsers, and it seems Apple isn't too bothered to fix the issue as it will mean mac and iphone users migrate to icloud emails for an easier life. We live in a world of two global monopolies, mac or windows (as the recent global outage caused by Crowdstrike demonstrated) so, until any viable consumer-facing alternatives come along, the two monopolies should try to make the lives of users easier, not put obstacles in their way to try and grow their app usage. Shame on microsoft & hotmail.

I just called Apple support but they don’t have this as an issue saying it hasn’t come up! I showed the problem where Outlook is not an option to add as a new mail server. They suggested to contact Microsoft as it is they are supplying the mail. It appears Apple is not taking this issue seriously enough and it really is having an impact on so many people.

I only have this problem on my Mac machines with no problem on iPads or iPhones.

Hi everyone, macOS Mail, I thought deleting my hotmail accounts and adding them back in under Microsoft Exchange fixed the annoying password popup but after a good week it reappeared today. I use the Microsoft Authenticator app (on iOS) for my work email so figured I'll add my hotmail accounts in there as well (makes sense as it guarantees secure login). When Mail prompted me to enter my password, instead of entering it, I was able to approve sign-in via the Microsoft Authenticator app on my phone. So far, Mail has been working fine *fingers crossed*

Same here. I’ve been having login issues with my Mac ( not iPad or iPhone, they work fine)

The “fix” proposed by Apple support is to use Exchange (remove account and add it again as exchange account). But the problem is the email flagging option is terribly glitchy with exchange. Outlook for Mac is terrible, I hate it. Temporary solution : forwarding all emails to my iCloud account. Note: the more complaints Apple has regarding this subject the better. They need to fix this.

To get Apple’s attention, II suggest that everyone post on Feedback - iMac - Apple This is a feature that an Apple tech pointed out to me for leaving feedback. This is what the site says:

“Use the form below to send us your comments. We read all feedback carefully, but we are unable to respond to each submission individually. If you provide your email address, you agree that we may contact you to better understand the comments you submitted..”

Hello MAZ26, I hear you, this is frustrating. Not sure what device you are using, but I think I fixed this on my iMac, at least for now. As of now I have not removed my Hotmail account from the Apple Mail app but I have added a new account via Exchange (Mail > Add account > flag Microsoft Exchange, then follow the prompts). Somehow I wasn't offered Outlook as an option. Now, I basically have the same inbox duplicated: once as Hotmail and once as Exchange. I only read/delete/archive emails from the Exchange account and the Hotmail account syncs correctly. I have received no error message or password request on the Exchange account and although I see the "˜" sign next to my Hotmail account indicating that the problem is still there, I have not been asked to provide my password. I have moved all my archive from the Outlook.com server onto "On My Mac" folders and am planning on removing my Hotmail account definitively. I'm just giving it another couple days of observation. I'll let this group know how it went.

Following up on my previous post: after adding my account as Exchange, I successfully removed my original Hotmail account and all went smoothly. Nothing lost. I'm doing this on an iMac. It worked for me.

Can confirm this works just fine. Use the Exchange option in Apple Mail. You will need to delete and recreate the account as you're moving from IMAP / SMTP to Modern Authentication using App Passwords (tech speak). The way it syncs is different.

Before you delete the account read the guide here to make sure any email you store is saved locally too. Remove or temporarily turn off email accounts in Mail on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

The new account with Exchange will load everything as it sits in your Outlook.com account as you view it on the web.

I also dont want to change the app or loose my data. Anyone found a quick solution??

Not sure when Apple is going to update their Mail app to reflect the changes that show the Outlook.com on this screenshot. My guess will be once Sequoia is out of beta testing. I use their app that can be downloaded from the app store for my old Hotmail and Outlook accounts. The only place I use my Hotmail and Outlook accounts are on my iPhone and iPad in Mail.

[Edited by Moderator]

On my iPhone I see an option for Outlook.com as an email type (same as in the screenshot you provided). But it doesn't show up in the mail app on my Mac. On my Mac all I'm seeing is Microsoft Exchange.

I tried chatting with Microsoft Support about this today, but they were absolutely useless and kept offering solutions that had nothing to do with the problem.