Resetting local Outlook password cache

Today I wasted altogether too much time trying to figure out why my domain account kept locking me out. Turns out Outlook was the culprit. Despite the fact that I had entered my new domain credentials (I recently changed by password), it was still hanging on to the old password somewhere. Every time I started Outlook, it would automatically use the old one, retry several times, and voila, my account would lock out. After a few days of this, I got annoyed enough to put aside the real work to take care of it.

After an hour or so of perusing help & googling for a solution, I discovered this forum posting: http://tinyurl.com/3ess9xx. Following the advice there (On the user's machine, click start button->Run, type: control userpasswords2), I found the windows credential manager. This is probably old news to most IT guys, but I had not seen it in Windows 7. After clicking the advanced tab & the "Manage Passwords" button, I found my culprit. The "Manage Passwords" dialog - actually called the "Credential Manager" - had an entry under the "Generic Credentials" sections that looked something like this: MS.Outlook:me@myemail.com:PUT. I clicked edit, changed the password to my new domain password, restarted outlook, and the problem appears to be solved.

Comments

  1. You say you hope this blog helps the community - helped me help my colleague today, thanks :D not everyone takes the time to note down and publish these little gotchas!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. Hi Joseph, i have had a similar problem - mine does not remember any passwords

      I have followed you advice, but i have no entries in "Manage Passwords"

      Do you have any advice?

      I am using Outlook 2007 (do not have Exchange)

      Frederick

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