Some email apps are about to lose access to Outlook emails

If you’re one of the many people out there who uses a third-party email app to access Microsoft’s Outlook email service, you may need to start looking for an alternative email program soon.

As Neowin reports, Microsoft has started sending out a “final notice” that some third-party email apps will soon lose access to Outlook emails. The reason? The affected third-party email apps aren’t secure enough.

Microsoft wants users to switch from “Basic Authentication” (which only uses a username and password for logging in) to “Modern Authentication” (which uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol for a much safer login process that keeps accounts secure).

In other words, third-party email apps that don’t support OAuth 2.0 will lose access to the Outlook email service, and Microsoft’s older Outlook apps that don’t have OAuth 2.0 will also lose access.

The following apps are affected, among others:

“The following versions of Outlook Desktop do not support Modern Authentication for Outlook.com: Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016 MSI, Outlook 2019 LTSC. Any release of Outlook Desktop with a version less than 11601.10000 does not support Modern Authentication for Outlook.com.”

This change was first announced back in June, with users warned that unsecure third-party apps would lose access on September 16.

Microsoft has posted a guide on its support page where you can read, among other things, how to enable the OAuth 2.0 protocol in the Mozilla Thunderbird email application.

Further reading: Now’s the perfect time to try Thunderbird again