Thanks to the new simplified Account Setting dialog in Outlook, the password field and server settings are no longer accessible through the File, Account Settings dialog. While Outlook will ask you to enter the password on the next send and receive, you can use the Reset Mail Settings button in the bottom left of the dialog to reset the account.
Note that you can only change POP3, IMAP, and SMTP passwords using these methods. Outlook.com, Office 365 Exchange online, and other Exchange users will need to wait for Outlook to ask for the password. You can also delete the credential from Credential Manager to force Outlook to bring up the password dialog.
If you want to check the server and port settings, customize IMAP Sent and Deleted folder settings (yes, these options are back) or change the password before Outlook asks for it, you can access the full account settings dialog through the Send and Receive settings dialog. Accessing the properties dialog from Send/Receive Settings is not new, but for the most part, it was just another way to get into properties dialog.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open Send/Receive settings. (You can also open it from File, Options, Mail or from the Send/Receive menu > Send/Receive Groups > Define Send/Receive Groups.)
- Click Edit.
- Select the account
- Click Account Properties to open the Internet Account Properties dialog.
- Enter your new password on the email tab then click OK to save and close the dialog.
Change the password through the Profile dialog
You can also access the old dialog through the profile setup dialog, accessible through File, Account Settings, Manage Accounts or Control Panel, Mail.
After opening Mail Setup dialog, click Email accounts (or the Show Profiles button if you have more than one profile).
Double click on the account name to open the older Change Account dialog.
Valerie says
Diane, I have four email accounts that come into Outlook 2016. I had to change the password of one gmail account. I have followed the above instructions (and have tried many times as I've read many ways to access the password). I believe the password is changed, because of the number of characters, which is different than my previous password. Yet, when I do a send/receive, it brings up the dialogue box <<Enter your user name and password for the following server>> The user name and password are in there! I've been dealing with this for 4 days now. Thoughts? Thank you
Drew says
Thank you so much for posting this! I am one of the old AOL users and had to implement using an app password to access my AOL mail. There was a lot of very poor info on how to do this and I don't think AOL wants you to do this as it circumvents a lot of their ads. You provided the only source of accurate, clear information on this that I could find. Thanks again!
emad says
Can I enforce Microsoft Outlook in order to ask me about password on sending mails only (not receiving ) ??
Diane Poremsky says
No, its all or nothing.
Louis Brit says
I would like to disable all the mentioned above for users so that they do not change any of the settings. Any guidance is appreciated...Thank you
Diane Poremsky says
Group policy should do it -
https://www.slipstick.com/how-to-outlook/group-policy-disable-commands/
Jay says
How can we update the account setting, especially the hostname, of all the accounts in the most optimal way as I have few hundred computers that need updating. and each system has 40 email accounts setup. VBA maybe?
Diane Poremsky says
VBA would be an option, but its not practical for a lot of computers - you need to set up the macro and macro security on each computer.
Frank says
I had to repair my outlook pst. Now when I change my pop 3 account it confirms everything is okay and sends a test email then switches back to the old settings which do not work.
Diane Poremsky says
Go to Send & Receive settings - Ctrl+Alt+S - then click Edit, select the account then Account Properties. Try changing the mail settings there.
-ceej says
Diane,
using Outlook 2016. I have multiple hotmail accounts on MS Exchange. All working fine. Time to change passwords. Did so though web access. Open Outlook. Am asked for password for 2 accounts; provided; get email. Two other accounts am not asked and yet seem to be getting email. Last account, not asked for new PW, am not getting email.
HOWEVER, no action I take, including these instructions, get me to a pane where I can manually (pro-actively) change my password.
Ah, I see this caveat: Outlook.com, Office 365 Exchange online, and other Exchange users will need to wait for Outlook to ask for the password. You can also delete the credential from Credential Manager to force Outlook to bring up the password dialog.
So Outlook is not asking. I'll need to go the Credential Manager method? I see that under Control Panel | User Accounts. There are 5 'live' (outlook/hotmail) credentials modified today. But they are all listed as guids - none has a UserName shown. If I knew the correct one(s) [and how would I?], then what would I do?
Thanks,
-ceej
Adam says
That was very helpful thanks a lot guys.
Rasu Shrestha says
Thank you for posting such a useful article. This article has worked out so well. I have been searching for such an article for so long and finally, I found the right one. I am so happy that I found this article. I tried the same steps as shown in an article and I got my password change very easily. All thanks to this article which have helped me to change my outlook password.
Great work.
Jonathan says
Do I lose my e-mails if I press "reset mail settings" button?
Diane Poremsky says
No, you should not lose any email, even in IMAP accounts - it just resets the server names, port, password fields, not the data file.
Mark Stepan says
Diane, do you know (if/how) to change the SMTP SERVER NAME setting through VBA? Thanks in advance. (I'm having a problem with my webhost such that my NORMAL SMTP server name stalls. If I update it to an alternate, it works --- FOR A WHILE! --- basically I can swap these 2. I'm chasing down the ROOT problem separately.)
Diane Poremsky says
If you change the settings from the Send/Receive settings, does it stick?
Go to Send & Receive settings - Ctrl+Alt+S - then click Edit, select the account then Account Properties.
If that doesnt stick, export the account's registry key and restore it. They are under a key in the profile, named 000000nn.
Steve says
Thank you for posting this. I have also read to use the Mail icon in Control Panel, and Microsoft has an article at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3189194/how-to-disable-simplified-account-creation-in-outlook on how to edit the registry to show the old interface. However the Windows App/Windows Store version of Office does not have a Mail icon in the control panel and the registry key does not work on it.
Diane Poremsky says
Use the manageprofiles switch to bring up the control panel dialog - right-click on the Start button and choose Run or press Windows key + R to open the Run command.
Type or paste the following into the Open field and press Enter or click OK to restart Outlook. (There is a space before /.)
outlook.exe /manageprofiles