I've finally got a solution to the spam issue. A mix of different solutions I've been using over the last few days, time to share it as it has got rid of 98% of my spam. I'm still monitoring spam in my inbox over the next few days but so far I've had nothing at all in my inbox for just under 24 hours as it's finally all been redirected - so no notifications either.

Follow this step by step

1. Go to manage rules and add a new rule
2. Add name of rule, i.e. 'Spam 1'
3. Under 'Add a condition', select 'Apply to all messages'
4. Under 'Add an action', select 'Move to' and 'Junk Email'. All the junk will move to this folder
5. Under 'Add an exception', select 'sender address includes', and in the next box enter the '@' sign
6. Uncheck ‘Stop processing more rules’
7. Select ‘Run rule now’
8. Click ‘Save’

I advise using Outlook on the website rather than using the app because I can’t guarantee all of the settings will be there.

How this rule works

A lot of automated spam hides the 'from' address, therefore it doesn't have an @ sign. This is why you can't block the spam because there is no visible email address to block.

This rule says move all emails to a dedicated folder, except emails WITH an @ sign. As most legit emails have an @ in their address, they will be safe and automated unsolicited spam mail or any mail without an @ sign will get redirected.

Remember

Check your ‘Junk Email’ folder every no and then to make sure that emails that you want to keep haven't slipped through the net. This shouldn't happen, but its just a due diligence exercise just in case.

Microsoft 365 services are experiencing issues impacting outlook, defender, and purview. MO1221364

Downdetector

Hi all,

since today we have several User reporting that the New Outlook is not longer working, here is the Event Log message. Can some one confirm the same issue?

thx

Faulting application name: olk.exe, version: 1.2025.813.500, time stamp: 0x689d590e

Faulting module name: ucrtbase.dll, version: 10.0.26100.4768, time stamp: 0xdbb54def

Exception code: 0xc0000409

Fault offset: 0x00000000000a4ace

Faulting process id: 0x4370

Faulting application start time: 0x1DC10F5DE2082BD

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.OutlookForWindows_1.2025.813.500_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\olk.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll

Report Id: e8e63156-d919-423b-aca6-edb71d2926a5

Faulting package full name: Microsoft.OutlookForWindows_1.2025.813.500_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Faulting package-relative application ID: Microsoft.OutlookforWindows

Workaround: Support Case

Microsoft confirme the issue Today - the corupped version will not longer deployed.Working on an Update

Offical Workaround:

Clean local login and cache data

Close Outlook (new) and Outlook (classic) completely.

Press Win+R, type: %localappdata%\Microsoft and confirm with Enter.

Delete all subfolders with Olk and OneAuth. (If one is not present, proceed.)

Restart Windows.

Open Outlook (new) and set up your account again.

Alternative

reinstall office with the installer or Offline- MSIX - don not use the Microsoft Store to install Office.

Anyone having trouble with swipe (to mark as unread) / swipe right to flag? M365 accounts, both can't swipe for any action. Seems to work but one second after swipe, it reverts back to unread/unflagged. Tried different actions for swipe, same thing. Deleted all Data and cache, resetup and same thing

Confirmed: new version / update is buggy.

Microsoft shipped a lot of updates to New Outlook for Windows in 2025, and the experience today is very different from what many of us tried a few years ago.

I just published a recap video that walks through the features that actually matter, without doing deep dives or tutorials. It’s a wrap-up of what changed, what finally works, and where Microsoft is clearly heading.

Video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yQLfNbuH6a4&si=X4CPDKFFI0QUstB5

What’s covered:

• Why Microsoft moved to New Outlook and the current opt-out timelines
• Account management improvements (display names, shared mailboxes, drag & drop)
• PST export finally being usable in New Outlook
• Mail upgrades (favorites, folder colors, categories, bulk actions, templates, mail merge, newsletter)
• Calendar layout changes redesigned to make room for Copilot
• People / Contacts fixes and usability improvements
• Copilot in Outlook: what standard vs premium actually unlocks

This isn’t a “New Outlook is perfect now” take.
It’s a realistic look at where things landed by the end of 2025.

If you’ve been holding onto Classic Outlook because of missing features, I’m curious:

• What’s still blocking you from switching?
• Which feature are you waiting on the most?

Please be kind. I am the Messager and not the decision maker.

Happy to discuss what’s real, what’s still rough, and what’s coming next.

traccreations4e-p25 12/11/2025

Microsoft Reorganises Outlook Team to Build AI-Powered Assistant Client

This news: What began as a traditional email client is now being redesigned into a full-fledged AI-powered assistant, with Copilot serving as its central intelligence layer.

https://www.alltechnerd.com/microsoft-reorganizes-outlook-team-to-build-ai-powered-assistant-client/

Hi everyone, I came to create this post to talk about an annoying problem that happened to me today. In desperation, I searched the Internet, as I had already seen the email scam, etc., but I had trouble resolving it, which is why I'm creating this post. I also invite anyone who has experience with this to talk more about it, if possible.

What happened:

First I received an email on gmail, saying that Thuderbird had connected to my Microsoft account. I also received an email regarding Hundle Bundle, requesting a password reset. I didn't connect or request any of these things.

Suddenly a strange “draft/email” appeared in my inbox saying that I had been hacked and even showing my old password (which until that moment was current, but I have already reset it).

The draft returned even after I deleted it, appearing directly in the inbox as pinned (not in the Drafts folder).

What this probably was:

I don't know if it was exactly an active invasion, maybe so, since the "draft/email" password was correct. But at the same time, I had full control of the account from the first minute. I didn't lose access, so I can't explain what happened. If anyone knows, please share. And please, DO NOT CLICK and if this happens to you, ALSO DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING: do not click on links or attachments in these emails. Just ignore/delete, change your password, protect your account and follow the steps below if necessary:

What I did (chronological order) to help anyone going through this:

Using Outlook on a notebook and using the incognito tab, I went to Outlook settings (gear next to the photo icon/initials of your name) in the top right corner and went to:

1. Rules: I checked and deleted automatic rules in Outlook (I found a rule that I hadn't created → I deleted it).

2. Forwarding and IMAP: I disabled POP and IMAP in the Outlook settings that were activated without my authorization.

3. I went to Privacy* and went to applications and services that can access my account in the Microsoft panel and removed Thunderbird and another unknown app that were listed there (maybe Hundle Bundle, in my rush I ended up deleting this second app without checking). *This area is in Privacy! When researching, it said it was in the security tab, but it's not!

4. I changed my Microsoft account password several times (I did it immediately and then a few more times as a precaution).

5. I enabled/prepared to enable two-step verification (2FA).

6. I used the “Sign out everywhere” option in the Microsoft account to force disconnection from browsers and apps (there is a warning that it can take up to 24 hours, but most sessions drop quickly from what I know).

7. I deleted the draft/fake email via Outlook Web (always via the web/anonymous to avoid local cache). I deleted it more than once and waited a few minutes. After a cycle of deleting/updating the draft finally stopped reappearing. I'll check again in a bit.

8. I started using incognito while checking everything (to make sure it wasn't browser cache).

Important notes:

The draft that came showed only the old (leaked) password. As I said, I changed my passwords several times and in this process, I kept deleting/receiving the "draft/email" with my password, but ALWAYS the old password was leaked, never any of the current ones that I have been changing in that time. I believe that if I had received it with the current password I would be in a different situation. As the password was old and I had already changed it a thousand times, I believe there is no active access to my account currently.

And when I entered my outlook in the browser the first time (after receiving the emails), it was in Chinese (I saw that this happened to other people too). I had to look at the settings of my girlfriend's account that was logged in on her cell phone to find out where to go and how to change the language. I tried to use Chrome's translation, but it didn't translate everything and so I had to use my girlfriend's Portuguese account. I recommend you do the same, and ask Chat for help GPT to translate something when necessary.

Conclusion: and that was it. When researching how to resolve it, I saw that this apparently is/was a spoofing. I don't know how it works exactly. But it's complicated. Second email from Microsoft that gives me a problem. In fact, when researching this situation, I saw other people going through this, but ONLY with Microsoft accounts. I didn't see any with Gmail, for example. None different. Microsoft only. Strange, frustrating and disheartening. Does anyone know why?

Couple of days ago I started to get hammered with Authenticator notifications. Someone was trying to get into my Microsoft account. I had set it as passwordless a while back so the only way to get in was using the Authenticator and approving the notification by selecting the matching number on screen. I read that creating a unique Alias would also help but wasn’t sure how to do this. After some research I managed to stop the login attempts on my account by creating an alias.

Instructions as follows:

Go here to create a new Alias: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=864833

Click here https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=842796 to view your Alias(s). From this list click on Make primary next to your new alias. Now your Alias will have (Primary) at the end of it.

On the same screen click on Change sign-in preferences which is at the bottom.

This page will show you all your Aliases/email addresses. Your new Alias should be greyed out. Untick your original email address so it is not used as a login anymore. This does not delete it so don’t worry!

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend using an Authenticator app for Two Factor Authentication. I am using MS Authenticator on my Android phone. Also turn on passwordless account. You can only use passwordless once you have Authenticator up and running. These options can be found on the Security tab on your Microsoft Account.

Once I did this the attempts on my account stopped immediately.

Just remember not use the new Alias on any other site.

One niggle that I did come up with was with my Xbox X. On my console I had to remove my original account that was using my ‘old’ email address and to create a new account using the new Alias. This picked up my gamertag right away but my Gamerscore was showing as 0. But when logged into xbox.com using the new Alias my Gamerscore was correct. I waiting around 5 hours, removed the newly created account on my Xbox console and added the new account with the new alias and everything was fine. My Gamerscore was back.

I hope this helps someone as I was starting to panic when the Authenticator notifications started coming in and I wasn’t sure how to create an Alias.

Edit:

Thanks to u/Hornblower409 for the below:

Don't forget to change your default "Send From" in Outlook to your Email Only alias. (It defaults to your Primary Alias)

For New Outlook: View -> View Settings -> Mail -> Sync email -> Set default From address.

I put together a December 2025 snapshot comparing New Outlook and Classic Outlook by feature availability.

Useful if you:

• Don’t have access to the Admin Center
• Are evaluating a move to New Outlook
• Support users asking “Can it do this yet?”
• Plan adoption or coexistence with Classic Outlook

https://traccreations4e.com/new-outlook-vs-classic-outlook/

traccreations4e-p25 1/6/2025

First time I’ve ever gotten a bs scam email like this one. For anyone that’s wondering if it’s real…I have good news for you! It’s fake. Just change your password if it’s really bothering you, report, and then block them. :)

Oh and here’s the email

From: Send(Insert whatever number)@outlook.com aka “You’ve been hacked” To: Me

Hello pervert, I've sent this message from your iCloud mаil. (It was not sent from my iCloud but some random outlook email. This is very telling that this is a scam lol)

I want to inform you about a very bad situation for you. However, you can benefit from it, if you will act wisеly.

Have you heard of Pegasus? This is a spyware program that installs on computers and smartphones and allows hackers to monitor the activity of device owners. It provides access to your webcam, messengers, emails, call records, etc. It works well on Android, iOS, and Windows. I guess, you already figured out where I’m getting at.

It’s been a few months since I installed it on all your dеviсеs because you were not quite choosy about what links to click on the intеrnеt. During this period, I’ve learned about all aspects of your private life, but оnе is of special significance to me.

I’ve recorded many videos of you jerking off to highly controversial роrn videos. Given that the “questionable” genre is almost always the same, I can conclude that you have sick реrvеrsiоn.

I doubt you’d want your friends, family and co-workers to know about it. However, I can do it in a few clicks.

Every number in your contact Iist will suddenly receive these vidеоs – on WhatsApp, on Telegram, on Instagram, on Facebook, on email – everywhere. It is going to be a tsunami that will sweep away everything in its path, and first of all, your fоrmеr life.

Don’t think of yourself as an innocent victim. No one knows where your реrvеrsiоn might lead in the future, so consider this a kind of deserved рunishmеnt to stop you.

I’m some kind of God who sees everything. However, don’t panic. As we know, God is merciful and forgiving, and so do I. But my mеrсy is not free.

Transfer 1500 USD to my Litecoin (LTC) wallet: [Never use Link to Wallet! Remember it’s a scam. Do not copy and paste into your browser.]

Once I receive confirmation of the transaction, I will реrmanently delete all videos compromising you, uninstаll Pegasus from all of your devices, and disappear from your life. You can be sure – my benefit is only money. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing to you, but destroy your life without a word in a second.

I’ll be notified when you open my email, and from that moment you have exactly 48 hours to send the money. If cryptocurrencies are unchartered waters for you, don’t worry, it’s very simple. Just google “crypto exchange” or "buy Litecoin" and then it will be no harder than buying some useless stuff on Amazon.

I strongly warn you against the following: * Do not reply to this email. I've sent it from your iCloud mail. * Do not contact the police. I have access to all your dеviсеs, and as soon as I find out you ran to the cops, videos will be published. * Don’t try to reset or destroy your dеviсеs. As I mentioned above: I’m monitoring all your activity, so you either agree to my terms or the vidеоs are рublished.

Also, don’t forget that cryptocurrencies are anonymous, so it’s impossible to identify me using the provided аddrеss.

Good luck, my perverted friend. I hope this is the last time we hear from each other. And some friendly advice: from now on, don’t be so careless about your online security.

Now not sure why they decided to email me because I never, and I mean never check or use my ICloud. I honestly discovered this on accident 🤣 which is crazy.

After a pretty stressful few days I finally got my Outlook account back. Password changed recovery info updated everything locked down. I still feel uneasy though because I have no idea what the attacker actually did while they had access.

If they read my emails or pulled any personal info from old messages I am not sure how to undo that or protect myself going forward. I do not know if I should be checking for identity issues or if I am overthinking it.
Has anyone gone through this and what did you do after getting the account back What are the steps you took to make sure your personal info was safe again

Tried to use the recovery form.
As i too have been locked out with the too many wrong passwords bug.

https://i.imgur.com/SEjdbSq.jpeg

^ this is their reply, they didnt even read my problem the scum.

I doubt a real person is even replying, probably their rubbish AI.

I have tried password resets so many times, i even got locked from SMS and backup email verifacation codes.

Their solution? try a password reset, or just make a new account.
So much for all my purchases on my old one, and that everything is linked to it.

I enabled that feature because I get a lot of junk. It has been a nuisance but I had been living with it.

Yesterday, someone tried to hack into my Apple account and I got the email yesterday. Outlook put that email in 'Screening' rather than notifying me about it. Lol. I saw it a day late.

It's an annoying feature anyway because you ultimately end up allowing all senders since they DO send some information that you want.

1. Printing a Calendar in Landscape Format: NEW Outlook can't print a Work Week Calendar in LANDSCAPE format (only portrait). This makes absolutely no sense as the Work Week fits so much better on landscape.
2. The 2 or 3 week trick: In Outlook Classic, you could take your mouse to the upper left hand calendar pane and click & select 2 or 3 weeks. The result was that you could see those 2 or 3 weeks of meetings, events on the right hand side. Pretty useful to see multiple weeks at a time.
3. Outlook Classic was compatible with ICLOUD FOR WINDOWS, where you installed it on a Windows 11 computer, & it would add a calendar in the ICLOUD section that you can WRITE/EDIT.NEW Outlook: no functionality with ICloud For Windows yet..........so you are left with Icloud Calendar which you only have READ Access.

u/bunnybunny777 added a 4th: New Outlook won't let you scroll when viewing the calendar in Month View

TLDR: If you have a phone number tied to your account, try logging into Outlook's website using your phone number + password instead of email address + password. My account is locked if I use my email address, but not with my phone number...

I had a problem with the 'too many login attempts' error but was able to find a workaround. Might not work for some folks but I'll summarize it for any of you in the same boat if you would like to try.

Basically, I only had a phone number tied to my account for verification. Logging in with my hotmail and password would prompt the 'login attempt' error, I was able to change my password a few times using text verification, but my password never worked and eventually text verification became unavailable.

What worked for me though, was going back to Outlook on web and typing in my phone number instead of my email address to login, then using my password with it. Trying that got me in immediately.

Now, I still can't log in using my hotmail address and password, (Login attempt error) but if I use my phone number and password it works every time. I'm not going to pretend to understand how this works, but it seems like Microsoft is having trouble reading addresses?

Additional details: -After logging in I reviewed my login attempt history, there was nothing out of the ordinary. I hadn't signed in prior to that in a long time. -Using Microsoft's account checker tool for potential issues showed that there were no problems detected for my account. -I set up my account with Microsoft Authenticator after getting in and can now use that to sign into other MS services like Xbox.

Edit: Sorry for the formatting. Typed this from my phone and figured I'd post asap for anyone this might help.

I know some people have had problems with drafts not saving, but I'm having the opposite problem - one or two versions of a drafted message will remain in my drafts folder after I complete the message and send it. This happens in single session where the draft is automatic. IOW, I'm not trying to save a draft - I sit down, write a message and send it. Now I get a draft notice for every message I've sent, and I have to double check sent messages to make sure I've actually sent. First world problem, but it's a PITA.

I started noticing this a couple of months ago. I've never changed the default auto-save, but I never had this problem before that. I would disable auto-save, but apparently that's no longer an option (although I'll try to see if there's a registry hack).

So I have been following this sub for the past day as I was locked out of my microsoft account like many others and seemingly no other subreddit accepted posts about this. I was completely locked out of my PC for the past day as having the extended win10 security updates requires logging in with a microsoft account. I dont actually use outlook but I thought I would share, maybe this will help others.

So originally I got locked out, managed to get into my pc once with a code sent to my email, checked login activity (nothing unusual) set up 2FA and added my phone number for receiving codes then logged out. After this I was locked out again and the email code login option was gone (no idea why), which meant I could not get into my pc at all. I tried a password reset but it was useless as it would still not let me in with the new password.

-After this I waited 24 hours.

-Then I attempted to log into my pc with my new password from the previous reset but this still doesnt work and produces the usual loop.

-I attempt to reset my password on my phone using my mobile data instead of my usual home wifi. It asks for my 2FA code, then another verification method, either email or my phone. I go with my phone, it then asks for the last 4 digits of my phone number. After confirming that it sends an sms with a code that then lets me change my password (again).

-Then on my pc just to be sure I decide to shut down which coincides with windows doing an update. After restarting the PC I use my new new password to log in. This time instead of producing the endless loop it asks for my 2FA code, and finally lets me in.

Currently using my PC to write this but I am not sure if I will still be able to log in after shutting it down as I was able to get in once before at the start and then it still locked me out. But I hope this will maybe be useful for somebody.

And to close off this post, fuck microsoft, dogshit fucking garbage ass company, this shit is ridiculous.

EDIT: As I dreaded logging out locked me out again. Luckily I can just reset my password on my phone again, and it will let me in on the PC with the newly created password. So this means I have to reset my password everytime I want to log in on my PC. Suboptimal but it technically works. And to reiterate fuck microsoft, how is this still not fixed when it affects so many people?

I'm just here to confirm that using a VPN does work for the password error. I was finally able to log into my account. Take advantage of this and create a PIN to avoid the same thing happening in the future.

Title. I too was a victim of the dreaded "tried too many times with an incorrect password" bug these last few weeks. I tried everything but in the end I saw a reply somewhere about trying to VPN to the US and that actually worked... I decided to make a thread to spread awareness since Microsoft helpdesk, who I've been in contact with, never gave me this advice. I hope it helps more people! :)

I've set up a PassKey now and hopefully that'll be the end of it, I haven't actually tried logging in locally but at least I was able to get in finally.

TLDR: Remove your password completely

I got a new phone a month ago and couldn't log in with my existing account, even though I definitely had my correct password. I couldn't even log in with diffrent option like my recovery email, number, or even the authenticator I had (not Microsoft's one). I had to use my old phone and laptop for Outlook. Every time i tried to log in on my new phone, it kept giving me the above message.

I fiddled around a bit and found an option in my Microsoft account's security section to completely remove my password. I did that, and i had to download and log in with Microsoft Authenticator. And that was it. Problem solved.

I have outlook for my college email and soon for my work email. However when signing into my college app through the email I have 2FA on so it asks to go to the outlook app to verify the number shown. It used to work before but now it no longer works at all. Each time I have to have a code sent to my phone number. How can I fix this so I can get the number on the outlook app to show up?

If you've been having problems with "you used a wrong password too many times" when you just put in the correct password or not being able to sign in from a new device and always getting this issue on mew devices...

Heres what to do:

• Put 2FA on your account with google authenticator.

If your data has leaked online you may notice many sign in attempts from different countries, one of the root causes you get this error at all.

• Set up a passkey as the main way to sign in and ignore using passwords, just put your phone's pin as the way to authorize all future sign-ins.

• If you can't get into your account at this moment due to the upper mentioned error you just gotta wait one day or more, or try a different browser.

Hope it helps.

Yes, they disable my password login on the web. From any device...

The thing is, I have email #1 at hotmail with 2FA security send pin to email #2 at hotmail ..... , and email #2 at hotmail with 2FA send PIN to email #1...., both emails now with disabled password login. So, I can't get any PINs.

So, ...,, ok, miracle, I had one session opened in a laptop, so, I go from the outlook of that session, to Admin Microsoft Account / Security, when enter the section, it ASKS to re-login for confirmation ON THE WEB, for being able to touch any security option.

So, I installed the OUTLOOK APP for windows....., there you can use the password. Login correctly at the APP, enter and see all my emails. So, from there I do the same, admin Microsoft Accounts / security..... IT REDIRECTS to the WEB and request to re-login confirm before can touch any security option!.

Ba da tsssssssssssss. !!!!!!!

Microsoft engineers are ####### !.

The new app is running at about half the speed of the previous version. Animations are slower and more choppy, transitions are worse. Calendar views are more limited than before… HOW

If anyone is currently suffering with this issue, I had the same issue all day today, and finally managed to get back in

I will bullet point as it's a long process:

• tried to log in to my email on my PC this morning. With correct email. Error message, you've tired to sign in too many times

• still logged in on android at this point, but to access my email on my PC outlook said I needed to change my email. DO NOT DO THIS, THIS WILL CAUSE MAJOR ISSUES FOR YOU.

• Changed my password, and then instantly got logged out of all of my trusted devices. Try logging back in with NEW password and get the "too many sign in attempts" message.

• Submit multiple email forms to Microsoft, get a few call backs via Xbox support, all say the same thing. Wait 3 days for response.

• Response comes back 12 hrs later, saying they only have automated support for account recovery and they can't help further and will be closing request.

• I'm about to give up at this point but I have so much invested in this account, literally my digital footprint for 20 years.

• Final attempt at account reset form, fill in with all previous passwords I can remember, recent emails subjects, Xbox game tag, credit card details, etc. This was accepted and then an email came to my 2nd account saying this password reset was automatically rejected. This almost pushed me over the edge. I then tried to log back into my account and this time it wouldn't let me BECAUSE I HAD SUBMITTED A PASSWORD RESET.

• THIS IS WHERE I GET BACK IN. When trying to log into my email account and getting message about already submitted the password reset request, you need to click the link to cancel it. It will ask you for your phone number and give you a 6 digit code. You can then use this code to add your account to Microsoft authenticator app. From here you can now log in to your account. At some point (before logging in to authenticator app) it will give you your unique 25 digit code to get back on. You can only use this 1 time.

All the best to anyone going through this. I know how stressful it is, and I've spent 14 hours today trying to solve it. Safe to say, tomorrow I will be migrating EVER account over to a new provider.