If you connect to Outlook through a Mac email client and your organization requires a new connection after a certain number of days defined by its security policy, you may find yourself mysteriously blocked and unable to solve the problem if you have the same problem as me. recently.
After years of receiving weekly requests to perform login and two-factor authentication through my browser for an Outlook account, it suddenly failed. No amount of troubleshooting seemed to get me back online. Strangely, on another Mac, authentication continued to work without a hitch.
After considerable trial and error, I discovered that new software I had installed was interfering with the launch of my email client’s browser. The new software, PeakHour, uses a small local web server to manage the collection of information about your Mac’s data usage. As with all Internet servers, it requires a port number – a unique number that identifies a particular service on any Internet-connected device, such as email, secure web browser, etc.
While trying to fix an unrelated network issue, I had installed PeakHour, which enabled its server on port 8000. What I didn’t realize (and you can’t find documented anywhere) is that ‘Outlook or an email client uses port 8000 to create a short-lived local web server to handle authentication with Microsoft’s Outlook login systems. Because my email client couldn’t launch a webpage on port 8000 – the PeakHour page showed up instead – it couldn’t authenticate.
Most software that creates a local web server also has the ability to change the number. I changed it from 8000 to 8002, restarted PeakHour and immediately was able to get my Outlook email account working again. Check the software settings for such an option.
Ask for Mac 911
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