Fix: Constant credential prompts in Outlook ’07 using 365

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Today I have mostly been fighting with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and our Office 365 setup, as we are still in the early stages of deployment we have not yet implemented our ADFS servers. Which means we have are experiencing some pretty frustrating issues with Office and authentication.

One machine in particular decided to really test my patience and blankly refused to authenticate, presenting the user with a constant reoccurrence of the “Welcome back to Outlook.Office365” login box.

As it happened the machine had seemed to avoid the installation of several service packs, including Office 2007 Service Pack 3, and also what turned out to be some pretty important KB hot fixes. Leaving me scratching my head for what seemed like a lifetime… That was until today! When I finally managed to find the relevant KB hot fixes and install them manually..

OFFICE VERSION NOTES
Latest version of Office System requirements for Office 2013 and Office 365 ProPlus
Office 2010 with Service Pack 1 Automatic updates:

  • Customers who sign up for Office 365 after February 27, 2013, must apply all automatic updates that were released before December 2012.
  • Customers who signed up for Office 365 before February 27, 2013, must complete the following:
    • By July 1, 2013, apply KB2553248.
    • By April 8, 2014, apply all automatic updates for Office 2010 that were released prior to December 2012.
Office 2007 with Service Pack 3 Automatic updates:

  • Customers who sign up for Office 365 after February 27, 2013, must apply all automatic updates that were released before December 2012.
  • Customers who signed up for Office 365 before February 27, 2013, must complete the following:
    • By October 1, 2013, apply KB2596598.
    • By April 8, 2014, apply all automatic updates for Office 2010 that were released before December 2012.
Office 2003 only through POP and IMAP For more information, see Office 365 will now support POP and IMAP connections to Outlook 2003.
Office for Mac 2011 with Service Pack 3 Mac OS X 10.6 or later is required.
Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Support ends April 9, 2013.

The journey to 365 has been a long and winding one… This particular highlights the importance of ensuring all machines connecting to 365 are bang up to date with Windows and Office updates and service packs… Lesson learnt.

Mike Hudson

Mike Hudson is a Lead Cyber Security Analyst living and working in Kingston Upon Hull. With extensive experience in Microsoft and Apple technologies, ranging from desktop OS’s to Server OS’s and hardware. By day working as part of an infrastructure team, and by night ridding the world of IT issues through blog posts..

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