“Exchange Password Required” on Mac? How to Fix It in 2026

"Exchange Password Required" means a Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365 account on your Mac tried to sign in and the server turned it down. To fix it, check the password at Outlook on the web, update it in System Settings > Internet Accounts, and if the box keeps coming back, delete the account and set it up again with the Microsoft Exchange option.

The alert is irritating because it rarely says which app is asking, and it tends to come back a few minutes after you close it. It also has more causes than a wrong password: a password your company expired, an account set up before Microsoft changed how sign-in works, a network that can't see your company's server, or the Exchange change Microsoft started rolling out on October 1, 2026. This guide covers how to tell them apart and the fix for each, in the order I'd try them.

What "Exchange Password Required" means on a Mac

On a Mac, an Exchange account added in System Settings or Mail is shared by five Apple apps: Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Notes and Reminders, according to Apple. Any of them can trigger the sign-in, which is why the alert can appear while Mail is closed. Microsoft Outlook for Mac keeps its own separate sign-in, so if Outlook is the app asking, the fix is different (it has its own section below).

Apple's page on Mail password prompts lists four reasons a provider rejects a sign-in: you're using an old password, the provider wants a password update or reset, the account was deactivated or suspended, or the provider changed how apps authenticate. For Exchange accounts, two more come up often: a company server you can only reach on the office network, and Microsoft's shutdown of Exchange Web Services. Use this table to find your starting point:

Step 1: Check the password at Outlook on the web

Signing in to Outlook on the web in Safari with the same address and password tells you, in about a minute, whether the problem is the password or the Mac. Testing in webmail is one of the checks Apple recommends when Mail keeps asking.

1. In Safari, visit outlook.office.com for a work or school account, or outlook.com for a personal address.
2. Type the password by hand instead of pasting it.
3. If it's rejected, reset it. For a work or school account, Microsoft's steps start at myaccount.microsoft.com, then Change Password.
4. If the page asks you to approve a sign-in, set up a new authenticator or accept a notice, finish that in the browser first.
5. If it says the account is locked or disabled, stop here. Only your IT team can unlock it, and nothing on the Mac will help.

I run this check before I touch any setting on the Mac. If the browser lets me in, I know the password works and the Mac's sign-in is what needs fixing, which saves me from resetting a password that was never broken and then retyping it on every device.

Step 2: Update the Exchange password in Internet Accounts

If the password changed and your Mac still has the old one, replace it in Internet Accounts, where macOS keeps the copy that Mail, Calendar and the other apps share. These steps are from Apple's support article:

1. Quit Mail with Command-Q. If it won't quit, force it to quit with Option-Command-Esc.
2. From the Apple menu, choose System Settings, then click Internet Accounts in the sidebar.
3. Click your Exchange account.
4. Click Details if you see it.
5. If there's a password field, delete what's there and type the current password.
6. Close System Settings, open Mail and check that new messages arrive.

Many Microsoft 365 accounts show no password field at all. That's normal for an account that signs in through Microsoft's own web page rather than a password stored on the Mac, and it means the next step is the one you need.

Step 3: Delete the Exchange account and set it up again

When the password is right and the prompt keeps returning, the standard fix is to delete the Exchange account and set it up again. Microsoft turned off password-only (Basic) sign-in for Exchange Online years ago, and its notice on the change says up-to-date Apple devices can use the newer sign-in method (modern authentication): delete the account from the device and set it up again. An account set up before the switch can keep trying the old way.

To remove it, follow Apple's steps:

1. In System Settings, go to Internet Accounts in the sidebar.
2. Click the Exchange account.
3. Click Delete Account at the bottom, then click OK.

Then add it again, per Apple's setup guide:

1. In Internet Accounts, click Add Account.
2. Enter your email address and click Continue, or click Choose from a list and pick Microsoft Exchange.
3. Sign in on the Microsoft page that opens, and approve any two-step prompt on your phone.
4. Choose which apps should use the account: Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders and Notes.

Pick Microsoft Exchange even for a personal Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live or MSN address. Apple's provider list says those addresses use Microsoft Exchange on a Mac, and the same list puts @onmicrosoft.com work addresses there too. If you get to a screen asking for server names instead of a Microsoft sign-in page, go back and choose Microsoft Exchange again. Exchange Online no longer accepts a password typed straight into an app, so an account set up by hand that way can't sign in.

Is it Microsoft's October 2026 Exchange change?

If your work Microsoft 365 account stopped syncing in Mail or Calendar on or after October 1, 2026, the password probably isn't the problem. Microsoft began blocking Exchange Web Services (EWS), the connection Apple's Mac apps use for Exchange, by default in Exchange Online that day, for companies that hadn't chosen to keep it on, per Microsoft's Exchange team.

Apple's support article for this, published October 13, 2026, says Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Notes and Reminders accounts may stop syncing with Exchange or fail to sign in from October 2026. It also tells you what to do: contact your Exchange administrator. The details that matter:

• Who's affected: Mac users with work or school accounts hosted in Exchange Online. Companies that run their own Exchange servers aren't affected, and neither are iPhone and iPad, which connect a different way, MacRumors reports.
• What IT can do: turn EWS on for the organization and add Apple Internet Accounts to its allow list. Apple's article gives administrators the exact app ID to add.
• How long that lasts: Microsoft says EWS in Exchange Online will be fully and permanently disabled on April 1, 2027, with no exceptions after that date.
• Apple's fix: Apple says it is working with Microsoft to move Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Notes and Reminders to Microsoft Graph in a future update to macOS 27, per its deployment guide. Apple hasn't given a date.

Retyping the password over and over won't get you past a blocked connection, so send IT a short note instead. When I write to an IT team about something like this, I put the symptom and the date in the subject line ("Mac Calendar stopped syncing Exchange since Oct 2") and the Apple article link in the first line. It gets routed to the right person faster than a description of the pop-up.

While you wait, Outlook on the web works in any browser, and Microsoft's current Outlook for Mac is supported. The old one is not: a university IT notice warns that legacy Outlook for Mac relies on EWS and stops working with Exchange Online mailboxes from October 2026. Our guide to getting the new Outlook app for Mac walks through the switch, and Apple Mail vs. Outlook helps if you're deciding whether to move for good.

If the prompt only appears away from the office

When the Exchange server only answers on your company's network or VPN, macOS keeps trying to sync while you're off it, and the alert keeps coming back. Nothing is wrong with your password. In an Apple Support Community thread about exactly this, an Apple community specialist called it expected behavior, and users traded workarounds rather than a fix. These are the ones they reported, each with its cost:

• Let Mail stop managing the connection. One user said unchecking Automatically manage connection settings stopped the alerts while Mail still connected normally on VPN. The checkbox is in Mail > Settings > Accounts > Server Settings, per Apple's Server Settings guide. Treat this as one person's result, and only change it if you know your server details.
• Refresh the calendar manually. In Calendar, choose Calendar > Settings > Accounts, pick the Exchange account, then set Refresh Calendars to Manually, as Apple describes. Then use View > Refresh Calendars when you're connected. The catch: invitations won't appear until you do.
• Turn off the features you don't need on this Mac. In System Settings > Internet Accounts, click the account and switch off Contacts, Notes or Reminders if you never use them here. Apple warns this can remove that data from the app until you turn it back on.
• Take the account offline in Mail. Deselect Enable this account in Mail > Settings > Accounts > Account Information, which takes the account offline and hides its mailboxes until you turn it back on.

When I work from a hotel without the VPN running, the box comes back every few minutes. I connect to the VPN before I open Mail or Calendar, and on days I can't, I set Calendar to refresh manually and switch it back when I'm on the network. It's clumsy, but it's honest about what's going on: the Mac can't see the server.

If Outlook for Mac keeps asking for your Exchange password

When the prompt comes from Microsoft Outlook rather than macOS, the usual cause is duplicate or stale sign-in tokens in your keychain, according to Microsoft's troubleshooting article. Update Outlook first, through the App Store app or Microsoft's own updater depending on where you installed it, since Microsoft fixed the original bug in an update. If the prompts continue, clear the old tokens:

1. Quit Outlook and every other Microsoft Office app: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
2. Press Command-Space, type Keychain Access and open it.
3. Search for Exchange. Select each item, check the Account shown at the top to make sure it's your Exchange account, then press Delete.
4. Search for adal and delete the items whose type starts with MicrosoftOffice15_2_Data:ADAL.
5. Search for office and delete Microsoft Office Identities Cache 2 and Microsoft Office Identities Settings 2.
6. Quit Keychain Access and open Outlook. It asks you to sign in once, which is expected.

Microsoft notes this affects every Office app that uses modern sign-in, so expect Word or Excel to ask once too. If you'd rather not edit the keychain, Microsoft's password page for Outlook for Mac gives a gentler route for Microsoft 365 accounts: Outlook > Settings > Accounts, select Manage, take the account out and sign in to it fresh, then check that mail sends and arrives.

Can you turn off the Exchange password notification?

Not on its own. The alert comes from macOS rather than from Mail, so turning off Mail or Outlook notifications doesn't silence it, users in the Apple Community thread found. A Focus such as Do Not Disturb hides it along with everything else. The only lasting ways to stop it are to fix the sign-in, stop the account from syncing on this Mac (switch off its features or take it offline, as above), or delete the account if you no longer need it there.

I stopped trying to silence it after a week of closing the box during calls. Deleting the stale account from Internet Accounts and signing in to it fresh took less time than the dismissing had, and the alert hasn't come back since.

How to stop the Exchange prompt coming back

• Update the Mac the same day you change your work password, so it isn't left retrying the old one in the background.
• Add work accounts with the Microsoft Exchange option and sign in on Microsoft's page, not with server names and a typed password.
• Keep macOS and Outlook updated. Apple's Graph support for Exchange is planned for a future macOS 27 update, and you'll want it as soon as it lands.
• Ask IT about EWS if you're on Microsoft 365 and use Apple Mail or Calendar, and ask what they recommend after April 1, 2027.
• Connect to the VPN first if your company's Exchange server only works on its network.
• Remove old work accounts from Internet Accounts when you leave a job. Once your employer disables it, the Mac can keep asking for a password that will never work again.

If Mail is asking about a different kind of account, our guides to updating an email password on a Mac and fixing "unable to verify account name or password" go provider by provider.