Outlook 2013 on MS 365 - where are my credentials stored?

Dear Community

I am running Outlook 2013 on Citrix (on Server 2008 R2). Outlook is used to connect to my mailbox on MS 365 platform.

I need to key in my credentials whenever Outlook is started.

Does anyone knows where my credentials are stored?

Is it on the server, under \Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Credentials

Or is it on the server, under \Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Credentials

I am redirecting the 'Roaming' part of the profile, mentioned above. It seems that whenever Outlook launches on a different Citrix server, I would have to key in my password again until my profile has been saved on all my Citrix servers.

Then if I reboot my Citrix servers, the same thing happens all over again.

Appreciate some help here.

Regards,

November 18th, 2014 3:58am

Hi,

Outlook credentials are not saved in the locations you mentioned. You should check Control Panel > User Account > Credential Manager, look at the set of credentials that has Outlook in the name.

If you are encountering issues that Outlook doesn't remember credentials issue, you can refer to this forum article to troubleshoot it:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/bcd2d9c2-1a1b-4446-bf32-69fee8cdf11b/why-does-outlook-keep-prompting-for-password?forum=outlook

If I've misunderstood something, please feel free to let me know.

Regards,

Steve Fan

Forum Support

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November 19th, 2014 8:37am

Hi Steve

Many thanks for the reply.

I have had a look at Credential Manager (CM), but nothing is saved there.

Since Outlook is running on my Citrix server farm, this should also be where my credentials are stored, but there are no entries in the CM list. I am not able to run Credential Manager as the same user who launches Outlook as the user does not have access to any Control Panel elements. I am only able to launch CM as a Citrix Administrator.

Do you know where CM stores the actual credentials?

My environment consists of an internal Active Directory which is synchronizing with MS 365 using DirSync.

Security tab > "Always prompt for logon credentials" is unchecked and greyed out.

Regards,

November 19th, 2014 9:02am

Quick update

So I managed to grant Control Panel access on my Citrix Server for a regular user.

I noticed that in Credential Manager, there are two entries. One entry is:

MS.Outlook.15:myloginid@mydomain.com, however 'Modified' date for this entry is almost 2 months ago

MicrosoftOffice15_Data:SSPI:myloginid@mydomain.com, which is modified today.

So it seems that this is actually working.

Since I have a Citrix farm, which is regularly refreshed and rebooted using Citrix Provisioning Service, it seems that this info is wiped out even though I redirect the user profiles to a share outside my Citrix farm.

Question is where is actually Windows Credential Manager saving this info. Is it in registry or in a folder on the server?

Regards,

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November 19th, 2014 10:02am

OK, so I found another post which is very interesting

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/c27a152b-6266-4ee9-ad46-601c68d76571/kb2986204-after-installing-users-being-prompted-for-a-username-and-password?forum=officeitpro

This seems to indicate that this is a problem which was introduced with http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2986204/en-us and possibly also with http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2899504

I have the first patch installed for Outlook on my Citrix servers, so I will try to uninstall it and see if this resolves my problem.

November 19th, 2014 11:07am

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for keeping me updated.

I found a article maybe a little help:

http://securityxploded.com/outlookpasswordsecrets.php

Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Regards,

Steve Fan

Forum Support

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November 19th, 2014 12:50pm

Hi Steve

Thank you for the info. This is very useful info.

Only question is around the locations. For Win7/8 it is mentioned that the credentials are stored in the Credential Store, which saves the info to both APPDATA and LOCAL APPDATA locations.

Does this means that the exact same info is stored in both locations?

If so, when I launch Outlook, which location is Outlook looking for the credentials? What if someone has tampered with or deleted the the info in one location?

This is important info, e.g. on Citrix platforms where the Roaming data (APPDATA) might be redirected to ensure data consistency regardless of which Citrix server my app is launching from. LOCAL APPDATA will most likely be wiped every time the Citrix server is rebooted, at least since I am using Provisioning Service and booting from the same image for my entire Citrix farm.

November 20th, 2014 10:25am

Hi Thomas,

Sorry for the delay.

I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue. There might be some time delay. Appreciate your patience.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Steve Fan

Forum Support

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November 24th, 2014 5:10am

Thank you Steve

Appreciate you checking.

In the mean time, I will proceed to uninstall the two mentioned hotfixes on my Citrix farm. I'll probably see the result of that over the weekend.

Regards,

Thomas

November 27th, 2014 8:08am

Hi,

All credentials on windows machine irrespective of the application are stored in Credential Manager in Windows. This is not controlled by Outlook but is windows proprietary.

If you are unable to sore the password, I would suggest you to open phone support case with Microsoft as we need to gather log and find out why the credential manager is not storing the password.

To open Phone support case please contact Customer central on 1-800-936-4900 or you can visit the site http://support.microsoft.com/oas

Hope this helps

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November 28th, 2014 1:32am

Hi, 

Could you resolve the problem?

November 28th, 2014 1:37am

I uninstalled KB2986204 over the weekend and so far it looks good. I am no longer prompted to type in the password.

I also did not install KB2899504.


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December 1st, 2014 10:57am

Hi Thomas

We see the same Problem on a Citrix Environment. Also Server 2008 R2 TS, Outlook 2013 and Office 365 Mailboxes with Cached mode enabled. I will try to uninstall KB2986204 tomorrow. I can't do it at the Moment because there is a pending test Version active..

Will send some Feedback asap.

Cheers Stephan

December 2nd, 2014 7:27pm

Hi Stephan

That is interesting. I look forward to your update once you had a chance to uninstall the update.

Regards,

Thomas

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December 3rd, 2014 5:13am

Just wondered if there is any update on this?

Thanks

January 20th, 2015 9:42pm

Hi, am also wondering if there are any updates on this?

Thanks,

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February 9th, 2015 5:33am

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