New protocols for using Apple Mail with Hotmail accounts

This is my experience today, July 29. I have a Hotmail account I created years ago and today I was asked to enter the password for it. But even after doing that, Mail showed the account as being offline.

So I went to Mail->Add Account...

I selected the Microsoft Exchange option to create the new account. I entered my Hotmail address, and when a Microsoft screen showed up asking me to enter the password, I entered the password. And there was some verbage about letting the app connect or have access to my Microsoft account. Something along those lines.

After the account was created, Mail showed two accounts with the same email Hotmail address. The contents of both accounts was identical. They even both had a "New app(s) connected to your Microsoft account" message which stated:

New app(s) have access to your data

Apple Internet Accounts connected to the Microsoft account xr**s@hotmail.com.

If you didn't grant this access, please remove the app(s) from your account.

I selected Mail->Accounts, which brings up the various email accounts I have. I deleted the Hotmail/Outlook account.

Back to Mail and I have just one Microsoft Exchange account which has my Hotmail email address and all the mail of that account.

I still need to play around and see if there are any issues sending/receiving mail through that Microsoft Exchange account.

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.

Not sure if this will be helpful to the post by munsterlanders. I simply created a new account using Microsoft Exchange instead of "other" when presented with the dialog box to create a new account. This only changes the way you connect to Microsoft. I then deleted the outlook.com account set up under "other" and kept the Exchange version. As far as any emails you download to your Mac (NOT in any of the folders used by Microsoft Exchange) they won't be touched as they're not on the server once you download them to a separate folder on the Mac.

I also received this warning message from Microsoft on June 28, 2024 so I decided to look into it. It seems the message is legitimate as I was able to find several articles on Microsoft sites detailing steps to correct the login method. When I first setup the Outlook.com email account on MacOS, I chose the account type (from the list) as "Add Other Account". While this worked, it seems the login method used is being deprecated by Microsoft, so it will stop working.

A quick search for "Does Apple Mail on MacOS support Outlook email", turns of the following Apple Support article.

Choose the correct email service provider when you add an account to Mail - Apple Support

I followed the steps to delete the old Outlook account and recreated it, this time selecting Exchange as described in the article. I had created several folders (server based) containing older emails and all were preserved.

One suggestion for the folders that you created using local storage, Try creating a new Outlook account using the Exchange selection BEFORE deleting the old account from Apple Mail. Once the new account is setup and working, you should be able to move the local folders to the new account before deleting the old account from Apple Mail. Please let me and this thread know if this suggestion works.

After viewing all of your responses, I decided to just create a Microsoft "Exchange" account, following all of the prompts (not using manual sign-in) as someone else (LV2219) suggested and using my regular password. It worked perfectly. All of the emails that I had under my hotmail account were transferred over to the Exchange account. I did not lose anything. Guys, I think this is the way to go. I'm waiting until everything is downloaded before I delete the old hotmail account but as I look at it now, there are no emails left, because everything got transferred over to the Exchange account. Also, so far my email on my phone is working fine. I didn't have to change a thing.

What about moving email archive to folders/mailboxes under the group "On My Mac". Aren't these local folders that would not be affected by removing the account and adding it again? Of course, the archive can only be seen on Apple Mail, but personally I don't mind. And this seems safe to me. Hoping I got this right before removing my account...

There is a way to export Apple Mail Mailboxes as one or more .mbox folders. Then you could import the .mbox folder(s) once you have Apple Mail properly configured for "modern authentication. Check this link for instructions on exporting mailboxes: Import or export mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

My problem is that I don't see a way right now to configure Apple Mail on my Mac (as opposed to iPad) using the outlook.com link in the screenshot that Microsoft has provided (reproduced by someone in this thread).

It was quite simple once I added my Outlook.com account to Apple Mail on MacOS. Just add it as a Microsoft Exchange account under Menue: Mail/Add Accounts. Then you will enter your MS password and approve the Mail App to have access. All of my sub folders and sub email alias show up properly in Apple Mail App. I can also access the same thing mirrored on Outlook.com. Works!

Late to the game and just posted the solution that worked for me. It's not as complicated as many are making it out to be. Use the Exchange option to log into your outlook/hotmail/live account instead of "other" and I don't think you'll keep getting the dialog box asking to sign in with your password. I won't use Outlook on my devices and Apple Mail continues to do everything I need. Positive replies only please, we're all just trying to help. . . .

Can be simple to solve, real simple. No deleting, no moving folders.

I've had this problem and solved it through simple navigation. Hopefully this will work for others. I've used Hotmail for decades, am using Mac Mail on Mac Mini. Importantly, I also have an Exchange email that's completely separate from my Hotmail email, and you need an exchange email to do the simple navigation I describe. Again, among your emails in Mac Mail you have an Exchange email and a Hotmail email which is the situation I'm describing.

Yes, I wasn't getting my Hotmail emails on my Mac Mail. Here's the simple navigation that worked for me, hopefully works for others:

Under Mail, select Settings. Then in Settings, select Accounts. Then go down to Hotmail (it's there already because you have a Hotmail account). Then in Hotmail, go to Server Settings. Then input your incoming mail server and your outgoing mail server password (yes, it's the same password, just type it again all over again like it's new). Next you may try to save it and immediately get an error message, all is good and on schedule. Now before anything else while you're still in Mac Mail Server Settings on the Accounts tab, on the left click on Exchange, the Exchange email. Now again, you are asked if you want to save your changes. Save your changes! You have only re-input your Hotmail password, that's what you're saving but this is the right way.

Did it work for you? This is the first time I'm posting something here so somebody plz respond whether this helped.

The method I cited stopped working for me. I found that Mac Mail now allows more than one email account to be an Exchange account. I simply created a new Exchange account using my hotmail address and it worked.

Apologies that I haven't read all of your post, Munsterlanders, but I hope this might help: I set up my hotmail and live accounts again in System Preferences > Internet Accounts, as detailed by others here, using Exchange. That worked fine, and the old mailboxes automatically deleted in Mail, but my folders and emails remained under the name Exchange.

I've decided to use my iCloud email now for everything, but wanted to have copies of all those old emails sent through Microsoft accounts, just in case the day comes when Microsoft decides it's tired of hosting free email accounts for Apple users. So today I tried just dragging the folders from the Exchange mailbox to the iCloud mailbox, and it seems to be working.

A message appears at the bottom of the menu list at the left of the page, saying "Copying Messages, 34 of 412" etc. A couple of times there have been messages to say something could not be copied, but that's easy to check manually.

Feeling so good to be further removed from the Microsoft world now :) Only have to change my address with providers who have the old ones on record and check for new emails periodically. Oh, and I can delete all those emails from the Microsoft account! Yaaay.

If anyone thinks this process isn't correct or might have problems, please let me know! I'm definitely not a techie.

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.

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.