An issue involving Microsoft Outlook continually prompting for a user’s password after having recently made changes to the password in a Windows Domain Environment can quickly be resolved by following a few steps to verify the authentication settings on the Exchange Server.

First, a broad overview of the problem: a user is either prompted to change their password based on Domain requirements or they decide to change the password on their own. Immediately after changing the password, Outlook begins to prompt for the updated password. However, when the password is correctly entered, Outlook once again prompts. Logging out and back in doesn’t resolve the problem and neither does a reboot.

While initially looking into the issue, a “fix” was to completely remove the user’s Outlook profile folder (located at C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook) and relaunch Outlook. This worked because it created a new profile from scratch and the Exchange Server accepted the credentials. However, this doesn’t actually fix the problem and as soon as the password is changed again the error reappears.

This error is directly related to authentication settings on the Exchange Server; more specifically, related to the Providers setting for the implemented authentication method.

To get the issue resolved, open IIS, browse to the Autodiscover directory and select Authentication, as seen below.

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When the Authentication page has been loaded, select Windows Authentication in the middle pane and then click on “Providers…” on the right pane. See below.

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When the Providers window opens, add both Negotiate and NTLM as Enabled Providers. This setting gives guidance as to which Windows Authentication methods will be allowed and put into use.

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After these changes have been made, users simply need to close Outlook and open it back up to find the continual password prompt issue resolved.