POP Login Rejected

Recently I received this notice from Microsoft, implying that I am using a non-Microsoft account to login to my Microsoft account.

The thing is, I have only ever used Office 365 Home for the account.
I have been using POP for this account in Outlook Desktop in MS Office 365.

Today I have been unable to login on the desktop version of MD Office Outlook using my valid ID and password.
(It works perfectly on the web - www.outlook.com & POP is enabled)

I checked the latest POP & IMAP recommended settings as per outlook.com.

In that documention there is now an extra step:

"Authentication Method: OAuth2/Modern Auth"

However, in MS Office 365 for desktop I cannot find any option called "Authentication Method"

What am I doing wrong?

Use Option 2 below.
If you use Outlook for Windows:

Outlook supports Modern Authentication in all current Microsoft 365 subscription SKUs and Outlook 2021 LTSC (any SKU with build 11601.10000 or higher) when connecting directly as Outlook.com. If your Outlook is configured to connect to Outlook.com using POP or IMAP, Modern Authentication is not supported. This means that when Basic Authentication is fully deprecated, it will no longer connect.  For this scenario, you have a few options:

Option 1: Get a newer Outlook email app which supports Modern Authentication

If your Outlook client does not support Modern Authentication, you will need to upgrade to the latest version and then setup using Outlook.com Sync. You can either purchase a new Outlook License, use the Outlook that is included in your Microsoft 365 subscription, or download Outlook for Windows for free. 

Option 2: Switch to Outlook.com/Exchange Syncing

Instead of using POP/IMAP and SMTP, create a new Outlook Desktop profile and then add your Outlook.com account using automatic account configuration, which will add the account with Modern Authentication. To do this, please use the following guidance:

1. Create a new Outlook Desktop profile. For more information, please go to Create an Outlook profile.
2. Add your Outlook.com account. For more information, please go to Add an email account to Outlook.

The Doctor said:

However, in MS Office 365 for desktop I cannot find any option called "Authentication Method"

Click to expand...

You need to set it up in your account online. I take it that it’s an outlook.com address?

• Log in to the Microsoft Account
• Select your avatar in the top right, then select “My Microsoft Account”
• Click “Security” in the list on the left
• Click “Manage how I sign in”

Select one or more options.
But I believe you need to turn on “Two Step Verification” at the bottom.

OR I believe you can generate an App Password at the bottom.




My preferred is “Singn in notification” using the Microsoft Authenticator app.


Furthur reading:

Above post updated.

What an absolute shambles this is!
A total failure of communication by Microsoft!

Forcing us into the cloud will only be good until the cloud it fails, probably due to war or natural disaster.
Microsoft's Office 365 cloud has already failed a couple of times.

The cloud?

Not sure where the cloud comes into it? Sorry for my confusion.

If this is an Outlook Account email, then you’re already “in the cloud”

I need to have the local copy of my Outlook .ost file on a different drive.

I followed instructions to create the profile etc, but now Outlook says this:




I am out of ideas.
I am already logged into Office using the same email address.
I am the sole admininistrator on this PC.

The Doctor said:

What an absolute shambles this is!
A total failure of communication by Microsoft!

Click to expand...

They announced it back in June.

My perception of that screenshot is that the issue lies within Outlook365 itself. Possibly some sort of corruption. All I can suggest is to first try a repair on Outlook to see if it will help. However, I have my doubts it will.

If that doesn't work, completely remove and reinstall 365 as per the remainder of that article using the office scrub tool to remove.

The Doctor said:

I need to have the local copy of my Outlook .ost file on a different drive.

Click to expand...

OST is IMAP not POP3. POP3 uses somename.PST which is located in Documents/Outlook Files/ usually.

Anyway, if you’re using POP as you said, you didn’t have to move the PST file anywhere, you could of just used this plugin and have it backed up to anywhere you like. Remember
POP3 = .PST
IMAP uses OST


No offence intended and with all due respect, but it was pretty obvious right from the first post that you don’t really understand email or email clients, and that’s fine.
May of been better to ask here before you tried any major operations.

And you should ALWAYS have some type of system backup before doing anything so that in cases like these, you can restore Windows 11 back to where you were before errors showed.