The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on June 13, 2024.
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Today's Highlights »
- Modern Authentication in Outlook.com
- Coming to new Outlook: Offline support for mail actions and compose
- More changes coming to Outlook.com
- Export messages from Windows 10 Mail
Modern Authentication in Outlook.com
Coming soon to Outlook.com: the requirement to use modern authentication, not basic authentication. Basic auth was disabled on Microsoft 365 Work or School accounts previously and is hitting Outlook.com this summer.
Users with older versions of Outlook, which is any version from Outlook 2019 and older, will be affected. Classic Outlook desktop versions older than 11601.10000 do not support Modern Authentication for Outlook.com. Users will need to use Outlook on the web, new Outlook, or a third-party mail client, such as Thunderbird or eM client.
Note: if you are using a third party mail app, either on desktop or mobile device, and Outlook.com stops syncing, first remove the account and add it back. If the client supports modern auth, it will add the account back using modern auth. If you are using Thunderbird or eM client, you can update the account authentication without removing the account.
By the end of June 2024, users still using basic auth to connect to Outlook.com accounts will receive an email notifying them one or more devices is using basic authentication. On September 16th, 2024, users will be unable to use Basic Authentication to access any Outlook account.
Those most affected by this change will be users of classic Outlook 2007 to 2019. It is recommended to use Microsoft Exchange services to sync classic Outlook and Outlook.com, not POP or IMAP (which will no longer work to connect Outlook.com to Outlook.)
More information from Microsoft:
Modern Authentication Methods now needed to continue syncing Outlook Email in non-Microsoft email apps - Microsoft Support
Coming to new Outlook: Offline support for mail actions and compose
With all the bad news to report this week, we need a little bit of good news: the initial set of offline capabilities in the new Outlook for Windows is rolling out. Users may have noticed an Outbox in new the Outlook app. This is part of phase one of adding cached mode to new Outlook.
From the Microsoft 365 Roadmap:
“Mail, calendar events, and contacts will be stored on your device, so you can view them even when you're not connected to the internet. Additionally, you can perform key actions on your mail, including flag, move, and delete, and compose messages, to stay productive even when you're not connected to the internet. #newoutlookforwindows”
For all new Outlook items on the roadmap and their expected release date, see New Outlook for Windows on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap
More changes coming to Outlook.com
In addition to modern authentication requirements blocking older versions of Outlook from accessing outlook.com, these additional changes are coming to Outlook.com:
1. As I mentioned previously, as of July 1, 2024, connected accounts are being removed from users still using the feature. It was removed from accounts not using it two or three years ago.
2. Also going away is the Gmail “additional mailbox” feature available to Microsoft 365 subscribers. This was the feature that displayed the Gmail icon (or a mail icon) on the left rail. This has been buggy lately, often resulting in an error message instead of loading the mailbox. It only supported Gmail accounts, opening the mailbox using the Outlook.com interface in a new browser tab.
This will be removed at the end of June 2024.
Users can use the new Outlook for Windows instead. It offers the same features in the same interface, just not in a browser window. Mac users can use Outlook for Mac, available free in the Mac store if you don't have an Office license.
3. The “light” version of the Outlook Web App is going away later this summer. The light version was available in older browsers that could not run the regular Outlook on the web. Users will need to use a supported browser to use Outlook.com.
The minimum browser requirements for Outlook.com are fairly “old”, dating to 2018/2019.
Microsoft Edge (version 79 or later)
Chrome (version 79 or later)
Firefox (78 or later)
Safari (version 16 or later)
Opera (76 or later)
More information: Keeping our Outlook Personal Email Users Safe: Reinforcing Our Commitment to Security - Microsoft Community Hub
Export messages from Windows 10 Mail
Following the steps in Export emails and contacts from Windows Mail or People and import to new Outlook, you can export messages from Windows Mail to your hard drive as *.EML files, then open them using new Outlook.
However, some of the saved messages will be headers-only and longer messages may be partially cut off.
This is because the Save as feature saves exactly what is stored locally. If you didn't open a message, only the message header is stored locally. If you didn't read longer messages and click the link to download it completely, only part of the message is stored locally.
If only headers are saved, you need to click on each message to make sure it's fully downloaded to get it fully downloaded. For larger messages, click on a link to download the full message.
While I consider it a bug, the feature was added for to export messages stored locally, so it is “by design”. Other than this bug, the export works well, once you get Windows Mail open so you can use it. The *.EML files can be opened by classic Outlook, new Outlook, and other third party apps, including Thunderbird and eM Client.
New & Updated Microsoft 365 & Exchange Server Support Articles
June 2024 updates for Microsoft Office - Microsoft Support
Description of the security update for Outlook 2016: June 11, 2024 (KB5002600) - Microsoft Support
Activity-based authentication timeout for Outlook on the web in Office 365 - Microsoft Support
Describes considerations are applied for the activity-based timeouts
New & Updated Outlook Support Articles
Outlook Desktop calendar Out of Office color indicator unexpectedly changed - Microsoft Support
Outlook Desktop is unable to apply labels with encryption - Microsoft Support
Outlook email is delayed while a web add-in is working on the send request - Microsoft Support
Print to PDF is blocked if Mandatory Labeling is enabled - Microsoft Support
Other Resources
Microsoft Outlook introduces SMS on Outlook Lite
Now available: SMS on Outlook Lite to users worldwide. With SMS on Outlook Lite, you can send and receive SMS messages from the Outlook Lite app. SMS is integrated with email, calendar, and contacts. SMS on Outlook Lite is available in the Google Play Store. (Sorry, not available for Apple devices.)
Keeping our Outlook Personal Email Users Safe: Reinforcing Our Commitment to Security
The deprecation of Basic Authentication for Outlook personal email accounts effective September 16, 2024.
Copilot is now available in classic Outlook for Windows
Copilot available in the classic version of Outlook.
Spellcheck and Microsoft Editor not working in new Outlook
How to fix the Microsoft Editor and spellcheck not working in new Outlook for Windows.
Send an Email when you open Outlook
Today's entry in the Fun with Programming series is a macro to send a message every day when you first open Outlook.
Out of Office Indicator Bar Changes
Microsoft is updating the indicator bar used to identify out of office messages in Outlook to have an X pattern, rather than solid. The new pattern is used in classic Outlook, new Outlook, Outlook on the web, Outlook mobile.
iCloud error: Setup couldn't start because username or password is incorrect
iCloud error setting up Outlook sync: Your setup couldn't start because your username or password is incorrect. Go to iCloud for Windows, sign out, and sign back in.
Gmail All Mail and Outlook's Archive folder
Using Gmail's All Mail folder in new Outlook for Windows or classic Outlook for Windows. In the new Outlook, there is a folder named Archive and it appears to contain all of the messages in the All Mail folder in Gmail. Is new Outlook syncing All Mail?
Change Appointment Reminders using PowerShell
Use PowerShell to change the reminder times on Birthdays and other appointments in classic Outlook software.