Tip 691: Hotmail passwords

As mentioned yesterday, calendar publishing is having problems and asking for passwords frequently. We know the cause of the calendar problem is a buggy server. But what about all of the other times Outlook can’t seem to remember the Live password? I know from experience if the Internet connection is bad and Outlook can’t reach the mail server, it will ask for the password.

Craig shared his experience and it may account for some of the password issues with email:

“I made the mistake of changing my Live Password and then checking the box for changing it again every X days. I have Hotmail going to Outlook.

Time flies & All of a sudden I'd get a Hotmail Password Request Box REPEATEDLY popping-up whenever the Outlook Send/Receive was going. After hours of scratching my head the "Your (Hotmail) Password Has Expired" box Finally surfaced, and after creating a new one all the pop-ups stopped. Use this Change-Password feature with the above possibility in mind.”

Moral of the story: if you changed your LiveID password in the past and are now getting the password dialog, you might have an expired password. It’s certainly worth checking into.

Published December 23, 2009. Last reviewed on June 17, 2011.