Hey everyone, I’m stuck with setting up my Outlook email in n8n and getting this annoying authentication error. I’ve been trying to get this working for hours now.
Here’s what I already tried:
- Turned on IMAP/POP access in my Outlook settings
- Set up 2FA and generated an app password
- Used these settings in n8n:
But I keep getting this error message:
Invalid login: 535 5.7.139 Authentication unsuccessful, basic authentication is disabled
It seems like Outlook is blocking basic auth even though I’m using an app password. Has anyone else run into this problem? Is there some other setting I’m missing in my Outlook account?
Any help would be awesome, thanks!
Microsoft’s been gradually killing basic auth across their services, which breaks tons of third-party tools like n8n. I hit this same problem last month with my workflows. The easiest fix I found was creating a dedicated M365 service account and enabling SMTP auth through the Exchange admin center. This workaround avoids dealing with OAuth2. Alternatively, if you have the option, consider switching to Gmail with app passwords, as I haven’t experienced any authentication issues since making that change. If you’re committed to using Outlook, however, OAuth2 remains the best long-term solution.
yeah, Microsoft changed their policies again. go to your Office 365 admin portal > mail flow settings and enable SMTP auth. there’s an option for authenticated SMTP - worked for me when OAuth seemed like too much hassle to set up.
Had the same problem recently. Microsoft’s killing basic auth for SMTP and other services - even app passwords don’t always work anymore.
Switching to OAuth2 fixed it for me. You’ll need to set up an Azure app registration and configure OAuth2 credentials in n8n. Looks complicated but it’s not too bad, and it’s what Microsoft wants you to use now.
You could enable SMTP AUTH through Exchange admin center if you’ve got admin rights, but that’s risky security-wise. OAuth2’s definitely the way to go long-term.