Forum Discussion
Outlook 2016 with MFA enabled MSA
2fa Support for consumer accounts is new to outlook 2016 (should be available in updates this month), so if you need the app password now, you soon won’t. Gmail 2fa support is coming too - I thought in the same update, but haven’t tested it yet.
Do you remember if, when you initially wired up the account into Outlook 2016, you used an App Password or were able to do it using actual 2-step methods (app notification, text message, code) for identity verification purposes?
2fa Support for consumer accounts is new to outlook 2016 (should be available in updates this month), so if you need the app password now, you soon won’t. Gmail 2fa support is coming too - I thought in the same update, but haven’t tested it yet.
I'm going to go with this answer because this seems to be in line with my observations, but I have to say that Microsoft's documentation is all over the map on this topic. Here's a general one about adding additional accounts to Outlook. It makes a big point about "some" systems that require app passwords and specifically calls out Gmail and Yahoo, but completely leaves Outlook.com off the list even though your answer and my observation say that app passwords are required.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Add-an-email-account-to-Outlook-6e27792a-9267-4aa4-8bb6-c84ef146101b
and here's one that makes a big point about using app passwords for Outlook 2010 and earlier with Microsoft consumer account. They could have saved themselves some ink and just said "all version."
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12409/microsoft-account-app-passwords-two-step-verification
I don't mind a straight answer because I can make a decision, but endless trolling of documentation that never really gets to the point is frustrating.
I'll live with the app password requirement for now.
Thanks.
Here is an official Microsoft document stating the need for an App Password in Outlook 2016 for Outlook.com accounts with 2FA: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/i-can-t-see-my-outlook-com-email-in-outlook-2016-or-outlook-2013-cda1751d-9503-40bf-bf76-e79454ac5eb3
Look for: "Important: If you're prompted to enter your credentials repeatedly, https://support.microsoft.com/help/12408 might be turned on for your Outlook.com account. To fix this issue, you'll need to https://support.microsoft.com/help/12409 to add the account in Outlook."
Yes I have created an app password and submitted that to outlook and it works. BUT outlook still asks for a password every few days (no not all the time, very random), I just hit the x to shut the dialog box and outlook continues to work. Very very annoying though, and should be easily fixed by Microsoft.
At present I am very reluctant to recommend MFA to clients based on my experience with outlook - works ok in all other areas.
