Cannot log in to outlook.com account

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Good Evening,

I have today just completed my routine “housekeeping” procedure on my Windows 10 22H2 desktop. This involves general cleaning of manual removal of browsing history, browser cache, cookies together with using the basic cleaning mode of C Cleaner. The cleaning is followed by Windows and third party scans and then a disc backup using Aomei Standard Backupper. I do this every two weeks and have been doing for years.

After todays housekeeping I cannot log into my outlook.com account – the log-in page now shows a box next to info about Outlook Co-Pilot but when filling in my usual details it doesn’t open the account but simply returns me to the log-in/co-pilot page.

The outlook.com account still shows in my eM Client page and is functioning normally – so far!- but I sometimes need to go direct into outlook.com to make adjustments and as things are now I can’t do that anymore.

What can be wrong and how do I fix it?

Thanks, Daddybear.

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J9438

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What browser are you using and have you tried another?

 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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J9438, daddybear

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Thanks for reply Susan,

Tried on MS Edge but no different – still being referred back to “Co-Pilot” page with no access to outlook.com account.

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J9438

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Hi daddybear:

Are you able to sign in from https://outlook.live.com/ ?

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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3448 * Firefox v118.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279

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J9438, daddybear

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Thanks Imacri,

No, can’t sign in from that link. That is the page that keeps coming up that keeps returning me to itself withpout opening outlook.com

I don’t have a “pure” outlook account – just the .com mail account.

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J9438

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daddybear wrote:

I don’t have a “pure” outlook account – just the .com mail account.

Hi daddybear:

Could you explain what you mean when you say you don’t have a “pure” Outlook account?

Are able to log in to your Microsoft Account at https://account.microsoft.com/account/ using your Microsoft email address (e.g., <yourusername>@outlook.com, <yourusername>@live.com, etc.) and Microsoft Account password? If so then scroll down to the bottom of that main dashboard and click on “Open Outlook.com” to see if that opens your Outlook.com webmail app.

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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3448 * Firefox v118.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279

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J9438, daddybear

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I was just trying to say I didn’t have a MS account with all the bells and whistles , office apps etc. just the mail.

I couldn’t log in to that last link, but I already managed to sign into outlook.com by saving all the cookies for outlook.live.com and login.live.com before rebooting and trying again – success on that attempt.

I am happy to press on with things as they are now – and see what happens at the next housekeeping session in two weeks.

Many thanks for your interest and help,

Regards,

Daddybear

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J9438

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Do you have an email address from godaddy?

And I honestly don’t recommend cleaning cookies so agressively that you lose proper urls into your browser.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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J9438

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“Do you have an email address from godaddy?”

No, sorry. What is that anyway?

“And I honestly don’t recommend cleaning cookies so agressively that you lose proper urls into your browser”

Sorry, Susan, I don’t really understand what you mean here.

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J9438

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I had the same problem. I for “decades” logged into MS outlook web by going to “www.outlook.com”. Then a month or so ago I suddenly got that page pictured above and just like daddybear clicking the sign in would take me back to the same screen but if I clicked the sign in a second time it would log me in.

After noticing the sign in link was “www.outlook.live.com” I started using that all the time and it works fine.

So apparently MS decided to change the direct log in from “www.outlook.com” to “www.outlook.live.com” without any warning.

So daddybear just always use “www.outlook.live.com”.

I did not have to do anything else like clearing cookies so it was just a link name change.

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Lars220, daddybear

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Thanks J9438.

That worked just fine.

Regards,

Daddybear

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J9438, Lars220

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Slight modification to my above solution. I just realized that the actual link is “https://outlook.live.com&#8221;. For some reason “www.outlook.live.com” gets a page not found. I had this in a copy/paste list so did not realize what I was actually using when I posted above. With computers I guess we have to be exact!

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Without the “&”?

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J9438

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Sorry that “&” was supposed to be a quote mark. Strange PC day. My submission went in twice and if I don’t put in the ” then your system changes a www to http.

So to repeat, the link to MS outlook web is “https://outlook.live.com&#8221;. Also you cannot put the www in either. So “https://www.outlook.live.com&#8221; gets page not found. Whew! Exhausting.

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It happened again. Your system is changing the quote mark at the end to the aper sign 8221 for some reason.

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Why does it need a quote? https://outlook.live.com/#8221 works for me.

(https://outlook.live.com also works for me.)

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J9438

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On my original answer when I typed “www.outlook.com” without the quote marks your system changed it to http when I submitted but I found if I added quote marks on each side the system left it as www.

So with the outlook.live I supposed I also needed the quote marks. So no quote marks are needed in the real link.

But notice on your submit above something still added that #8221 which is superfluous. I have no idea what that is or why it keeps getting added after submitting the post.

I am going to type the actual link without the quote marks and see if the 8221 gets added again. Here we go

https://outlook.live.com

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J9438 wrote:

I am going to type the actual link without the quote marks and see if the 8221 gets added again. Here we go https://outlook.live.com

Hi daddybear:

As the original poster of this thread could you just confirm that you can now log in at https://outlook.live.com? That’s the same link I suggested on 07-Oct-2023 in post # 2591982 that you said didn’t work for you.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v118.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019 v2309 / Build 16827.20166 C2R

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J9438

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Hello Imacri,

Yes, I can now log in using https://outlook.live.com

Once the account opens the address bar then contains  outlook.live.com/mail/0/ and everything works fine.

Hope this helps,

Daddybear.

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J9438, lmacri

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No, the outlook.com problem is back !!!

” daddybear just always use “www.outlook.live.com”.” (post October 13th)

Cannot now log in using the above.

Everything has been OK for the last fortnight, but after doing my routine ‘housekeeping’ – as described in my first post of 6.10.23 I am back to square one and logging in as before now takes me to the microsoft page advertising Co-Pilot!  Don’t know why it does this as I am still on Windows 10 22H2.

My wife can log into her Hotmail account on her laptop, but she has Edge as her default browser whereas I have Opera as mine – but even when I use Edge on my desktop PC it still reverts to the Microsoft page.

Might try making Edge the default temporarily as an experiment.

My eM Client still works fine with Outlook.com and Plusnet accounts included.

Totally confused now!!!

Daddybear.

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J9438

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daddybear wrote:

No, the outlook.com problem is back !!! …

Hi daddybear:

You didn’t tell us what browser you normally use, but if you wish you can browse to the Outlook.com sign in page at https://outlook.live.com/ and create a bookmark in your browser so you don’t have to worry about typing in the correct URL every time you want to visit that site. See the Computer Hope article How to Create an Internet Favorite or Bookmark.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v118.0.2 * Microsoft Edge v118.0.2088.57 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019 v2309 / Build 16827.20166 C2R

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J9438, daddybear

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daddybear wrote:

always use “www.outlook.live.com”.”

Sorry for the confusion. That was when I was having trouble with those quote marks.

Do this. Close all browsers. Then on Edge or Chrome type:

https://outlook.live.com

That should work. Works for me every time without any cookie clearing.

That takes you to the MS page where you click sign in on the blue box. After you type above it does go to the MS  page where you have to click the blue sign in box which then goes to where you enter your userid. No way around that step. I forgot that before it went directly to the enter ID screen.

If for some reason it does not work first time probably because of a type in error above just try it again and usually works second time.

I don’t know why MS had to change something that wasn’t broken.

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daddybear

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Imacri,

Chrome is my default browser – if all else fails I might try Edge or Chrome for a while.

J 9348,

Thanks for the suggestions – I may have fixed it again but without really knowing why !!

I found a “Requires attention” and “Manage/ Fix”  box next to my outlook address in Settings for Windows 10 and so clicked on the “Fix” button.  A box appeared which said that my outlook.com had been updated – what?!  Clicked apply and OK and then re-started computer.

Logging in on the https://outlook.live.com as you suggested worked perfectly and I have now put in a bookmark for it as suggested by Imacri- we shall see how that goes over the next few weeks.

Thanks to both for your prompt and kind interest and help- much appreciated.

Daddybear

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J9438

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daddybear wrote:

I found a “Requires attention” and “Manage/ Fix” box next to my outlook address in Settings for Windows 10 and so clicked on the “Fix” button. A box appeared which said that my outlook.com had been updated – what?! Clicked apply and OK and then re-started computer

Hi daddybear:

Did the message specifically say that “Outlook.com” had been updated? It seems more likely that you were being prompted to update your MS Edge browser, since a new MS Edge v118.0.2088.61 was released yesterday on 20-Oct-2021 (see release notes at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployEdge/microsoft-edge-relnote-stable-channel). If you launch MS Edge and go to Settings | Help and Feedback | About it will run a check for updates and automatically download the latest version if it hasn’t been installed yet.

If I open my Win 10  v22H2 settings and see a message next to Web Browsing I always ignore it.  I never click there because I don’t want Windows to change my default browser from Firefox to MS Edge and/or change all my custom settings in MS Edge back to their defaults.

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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v118.0.2 * Microsoft Edge v118.0.2088.61 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019 v2309 / Build 16827.20166 C2R

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J9438, daddybear

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Hello Imacri,

Yes, the message said:-

All Done!

Your account was updated successfully.

<my name>@outlook.com

I just ticked the box at the bottom which said “Done”

I too never tick messages next to Web Browsing.

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J9438

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daddybear wrote:

I found a “Requires attention” and “Manage/ Fix”

I have run into this several times but don’t remember when. I was always suspicious that it was a hack and never wanted to click it, but it kept reoccurring to the point of irritation.  So after a lot of stress and research I think I found out what it was.

If you will go to your Windows Settings (the * ) then go to Accounts and under your Funny picture you will see either “Local Account – Administrator” or your MS account if you are signed into MS.

Under that you will see a blue line that says “sign in with a Microsoft account” or “Sign in with a Local account”.

However, on rare occasions for whatever reason that BLUE line will change to something like the above mentioned “Requires attention”.

So for some unknown reason MS seems to either get confused or just wants you to verify your sign in by signing in with your id/ password. Since this is done by you by going directly to your settings instead of from a suspicious link I have a lot more confidence this way.

So if I see that strange “Fix it” I just go to my profile sign in with the blue link there and that seems to fix it. MS likes to keep us on our toes!!

This really should be independent of the outlook sign in problem I think, as this happened to me long before the outlook sign in change.

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lmacri

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J9438 wrote:

Under that you will see a blue line that says “sign in with a Microsoft account” or “Sign in with a Local account”…So if I see that strange “Fix it” I just go to my profile sign in with the blue link there and that seems to fix it. MS likes to keep us on our toes!!

Hi J9438:

If that’s what triggered daddybear’s “Requires Attention” and “Manage / Fix” warnings on the Win 10 Settings page then this might be related to the strange pop-up notification I saw below on 15-Oct-2023, which I just ignored – see further details in my post # 2594265 in the 14-Oct-2023 topic Edge browser ads for Microsoft services, NOT a favorite.

I say “strange” because I normally sign in to Windows with a Microsoft Account, so I don’t know why I was shown this pop-up notification about a Microsoft Account “problem” in the first place.  As other users noted in that 14-Oct-2023 thread, Microsoft is aggressively pushing users to sign in to Windows with a Microsoft Account instead of a local user account, and I find this constant nagging to use Microsoft products and services to be extremely annoying.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v118.0.2 * Microsoft Edge v118.0.2088.61 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.4.286-1.0.2163 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019 v2309 / Build 16827.20166 C2R

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J9438

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lmacri wrote:

As other users noted in that 14-Oct-2023 thread, Microsoft is aggressively pushing users to sign in to Windows with a Microsoft Account instead of a local user account,

I agree. I think when I had the problem I was logged in as local. I think Susan even mentioned this lately in a newsletter about this pressure to sign into MS. This “nagging” is happening more and more. Google is constantly doing it to me and many apps with constant promotions.

Please, Microsoft, sometimes your customers just want some peace and quiet. We just want to have a “moment” with our PC and don’t need to sync to the world. Corporations are stressing people to the limit with constant pressure to buy this and buy that. Little wonder there is so much violence. wars, and conflicts in the world. People will buy your product if you give them a good experience and don’t treat them like cattle sent to the slaughter without choice. (That makes me want to go vegetarian. LOL)

If there is a good reason for this pop up “fix it” that makes you sign into MS then let someone from MS answer this and tell us why so that we can understand.

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J9438 wrote:

So apparently MS decided to change the direct log in from “www.outlook.com” to “www.outlook.live.com” without any warning.

J9438 wrote:

I don’t know why MS had to change something that wasn’t broken.

“www.outlook.com” still works.

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J9438

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b wrote:

“www.outlook.com” still works.

Dare I say that since web versions can be tweaked on the fly, that perhaps someone from MS saw all our posts and quietly reversed the change that caused this?

The original problem that both daddybear and I had would take just the www with outlook.com and would take you to the MS screen with the blue sign in tab INSTEAD of directly to the ID enter screen. Then clicking the blue sign in tab would take you back to the blue sign in box again that had a link to outlook.live, which left us scratching our heads on how to get into our email since that link looped back.

Yes, it goes fine now but through the new blue sign in box and THEN to the ID enter screen.  I hope daddybear and I were not both hallucinating!!

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Using a script to send daily files.
Since 2024/01/07 script stopped working with :

“SMTPServer=smtp.outlook.com”
In the log :
“Send-MailMessage : Authentication failed because the remote party has closed
the transport stream.
At C:\Users\Exports\AppData\Local\Temp\~My_Mail.ps1:88 char:1
+ Send-MailMessage @mailprops
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient:Sm
tpClient) [Send-MailMessage], SmtpException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : SmtpException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Send
MailMessage

Googled : “outlook.live.com smtp settings”

POP, IMAP, and SMTP settings for Outlook.com

Username Your email address

POP port 995

POP encryption TLS

SMTP server name smtp-mail.outlook.com

SMTP port 587

Changed SMTPServer to :

SMTPServer=smtp-mail.outlook.com
E-Mails are sent as normal again…

[Moderator edit] removed html codes. Please paste text only

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