For the last three days (since 3rd March) the Apple Mail app for iPhone and iPad hasn’t always been able to connect to Microsoft hosted mailboxes. While Microsoft delays, here’s the fix they won’t mention.
Since Monday, many Apple Mail users have been pestered with login requests for their Microsoft hosted mailboxes. No matter what they do, the Mail app can’t reconnect.
Or in Microsoft ‘weasel wording’:
“Users may be experiencing issues with accessing email messages on the iOS native mail app”. Microsoft issue ID: EX1021490
For days, Microsoft has been unable (or perhaps unwilling?) to fix this problem.
The simple fix
The fix is annoying but simple – delete the mail account then add it back again.
(It’s best to do this with a Wifi connection so the synchronization of the ‘new’ mailbox happens faster and without gobbling up mobile data.)
Go to Settings | Apps | Mail then select the Microsoft mailbox. There’ll be an error “Account not authenticated”.
You’re welcome to try ‘Re-enter Password’, just in case it works!
Note which the mailbox parts are synced with the device (Mail, Contacts etc.). Then choose ‘Delete Account’.
From Settings | Apps | Mail, choose Add Account, enter the same email address then authenticate to complete the login.
Check the account settings to ensure all the mailbox parts you wants are being syncronized.
Now open the Mail app and let it synchronize recent messages.
What’s the hold up?
The Mail bug appears to have started around the time there was a widespread outage of Microsoft 365 systems. While those bugs have been fixed, the Apple Mail problem remains. Since the Apple Mail app and iOS haven’t been updated, the bug appears to be with Microsoft. At worst, it’s an anomaly that Microsoft with Apple could have resolved more quickly.
Microsoft tried reverting to an earlier version of their server system but that’s no help.
Now Microsoft says they are still investigating and “we are treating this matter with the utmost priority and consideration.”. Customers would be forgiven for finding that hard to believe.
Perhaps Microsoft is “dragging their feet” finding a fix because isn’t in their self-interest? The company would much prefer people to use their Outlook mail app and this is an opportunity to encourage people to do that.
Their suggested fixes don’t help, according to plenty of online feedback.
- Users may be able to click “continue” when prompted and navigate back to re-entering their password to attempt to resolve impact.
- Additionally, some users may be able to bypass the prompt to sign-in by clicking “edit settings” and then entering into the app.
Notably absent from Microsoft’s advice is the fix that works, the one we’ve described above.
