IMAP connection pop-up in Outlook 2016.

[#1]

Hi,

I am running outlook and have 3 plusnet emails accounts added. Since this morning I keep getting pop-ups asking me for user name and password and also about IMAP Connection errors for all 3 accounts. However, everything is sending and receiving normally. There are no similar issues with my GMail account. I have not changed anything on the accounts, and certinly not the passwords and the accounts are set to remember the passwords. I have run the account repair in Outlook and it says everything is OK. How do I disable the pop ups as they come up even if I am not using Outlook but only for the plusnet accounts.

Any advice would be welcome.

[#2]

@LoneBee 

I can't remember the finer details but I think you can only have 4 simultaneous connections open to the PN mail-servers, so as you have 3 PN email accounts it could be that one or more of the accounts is attempting to connect before another  previous attempt has closed down.

So it may depend on the frequency of connection attempts, which may be solved by increasing the setting interval in your email client settings.

[#3]

Moderators Note
This topic has been moved from General Chat to Email.

[#4]

This has been happening to me for the last few days (IMAP via Outlook 2010). Nothing changed this end.

Getting 'Your IMAP server closed the connection'

Today noticed 'Clock skew detected - check the clock on the file server' (Port 143 imap.plus.net  Error 0x800CCCDD)

Any ideas?

[#5]

Ditto re the user name and password popup with my Plusnet account on Linux PC and my wife's account on her Linux lappy, both are imap through Thunderbird. Both our Gmail accounts are fine.

[#6]

I have looked at the send/receive frequency and have adjusted it. It doesn't seem to have fixed the problem and it seems odd that it only started happening this morning: I have been using all 3 accounts for as long as I can remember.

It seems to be intermittent and clears when I click send/receive all. I have also noticed that I am getting intermittent connection error messages on my iphone both when connected to WiFi and when connected to 4G networks.

The pop ups are a real nuisance as they keep coming up no matter what you are doing - using the internet of other applications such as word. The only option at present seems to be to keep Outlook closed and open it manually when I remember to until i have a fix. I hyave used the repair function and all seems OK and the test messages are coming through promptly.

[#7]

I attach a screenshot of the latest error message

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Personal information removed from an attachment in a public forum (to an area that staff can see).

[#8]

Yes, screenshot similar to mine, which started a few days back.

Could be totally unconnected, but this refers to Outlook issues caused by Microsoft messing up:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3567096/outlook-went-down-for-four-hours-wednesday-what-happen...

[#9]

Just saw, so clearly not Outlook specific after all!

[#10]

When not 'Clock Skewing' this is the other (more prevalent) error code:

"!Task 'Synchronizing subscribed folders for plus@[my user name].plus.com.' reported error,\(0x800CCC0E) : 'Outlook cannot synchronize subscribed folders for plus@[my user name].plus.com. Error:, Cannot connect to the server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider"

This is in Outlook 2010, on Win 10 Pro (everything fully patched) over Plus fibre.  No other email account showing errors, including a different Plus account email using POP3

And oddly enough, when you go into the Account settings and say 'Test', it connects with Plus and reports no problem.

So, something up with the IMAP server I guess? Clock skew is something an Engineer needs to be told about and check, I would have thought.

[#11]

Think I have found a fix which, so far, has stopped the pop ups (none for 40mins), and it does appear to be an Outlook issue.

I manually updated Outlook (File>Office Account>Update Options>Update now). Even though I have it set to update automatically, there was an update there which was installed.

Hopefully that will work for others with similar issues.

Lone

[#12]

It's not just an Outlook issue, I have the problem using Thunderbird, so most likely a Plusnet side issue

[#13]

Over the weekend, I saw issues on my iPhone, but not on outlook.

Superuser citation

This topic has been cited by one of the Superusers; the purpose of which is to provide a note for information which might help to focus continued discussion (but might not result in a staff response).

[#14 · Accepted solution]

Hi LoneBee - think the Outlook solution might have turned out just to be a coincidence.

Just after you posted, issues suddenly stopped my end (after days of it happening).

So, someone corrected something at the Plus end, but did not let on, or so I think!!

[#15]

@dirpluscom 

"someone corrected something at the Plus end"

Not necessarily so - it is more likely that users hit a different instance of the mail and or storage server for a subsequent connection attempt.  I saw the issue on and off through the weekend (certainly Saturday).