Outlook mobile Autodetect doesn't work reliably

Question

Hi all,

we're migrating our hybrid Exchange users to Outlook mobile on iOS and have issues configuring the profiles. Autodetect doesn't work in most cases. When we type in the email address of a user Outlook should switch to the modern authentication dialog but it doesn't most of the time. We have to try several times until it works. To troubleshoot the issue I used Remote Connectivity Analyzer and the Test-HMAEAS script from Github. I guess both send a request to https://prod-api.acompli.net/autodetect. To go a bit deeper I wrote a loop around the Test-HMAEAS script and noticed that it seems that behind prod.acompli.net there are two load balancing pools: https://prod3-api.acompli.net and https://prod5-api.acompli.net. The interesting thing is, the timeouts are only on prod3 and with prod5 we have no issues. To have a better understanding I attached a report (csv) that proves there are issues with prod3. With a Exchange Online email address there are almost no errors even with prod3.

Microsoft Support (case #23994663) said, they see the problem unfortunately they cannot help me even if they wanted because they don't have access to the autodetect infrastructure or outlook support and the in app support tells me we should fill out the configuration manually. This is nice, because as far as I know, it isn't possible to configure the Outlook mobile app manually with a mailbox that leverages hybrid modern authentication and even if, I don't know what to fill in. Is anyone out there understanding what's going on or may have a look?

Thanks, Daniel.

65405-test-hmaeas.txt

Answer 1

Hello Microsoft Team

I am facing same issue in one of my client .

around 7months we are facing this issue no one from Microsoft not yet solve this issue.

when users are try to configure "outlook for android and iOS" profile HMA not working and it's giving a option manual configuration option for users and as I understand Auto Dectect not working as expected.

Mailbox hosted in Exchange on-premise and well configure HMA in Exchange server.

after verified firewall, load balancer everything we came with conclusion that problem with Auto Detect service.

Note: sometime it will work !!! but we are not when it will work :) :)

I have done several test from my side and attached the file for your information.

I don't know why Microsoft not taking seriously on this issue.

Answer 2

Same here. Service prod-autodetect.outlookmobile.com is not up to date and returns bad results.

• on an address of a domain which changed its email service it returns the old config (I guess past results are kept in cache and served again),
• on an address of a new domain it returns no config at all (I guess for some reason the service can't fetch the domain MX record, though the rest of the world can).

It's been about 48 hours and no change. Our autodiscover XML works fine, if we manually deactivate SimplifiedAccountCreation there's no issue at all. But of course what's the point of autodiscover if you have to go change the registry for it to work.

Now that AutoDetect is also used on the Desktop app, the issue also applies there, not just on the mobile app.

I'm not sure why AutoDetect bypasses autodiscover, it should be the other way around.

Can someone at Microsoft keep us posted about this?

Answer 3

Hi all,

we have the same problem with automatic account detection. We have our own MX servers and if our customer adds an IMAP / POP account to Outlook or Windows Mail App, MS automatic detection at prod-autodetect.outlookmobile.com/detect returns incorrect information. At the same time, autodiscover.xml is downloaded and the autodiscover.xml test in Outlook processes autodiscover.xml correctly and does not return any errors. Therefore, the error is not in autodiscover, but in account detection, at prod-autodetect.outlookmobile.com/detect.

It would be better if autodetection did not return anything if it could not find the account, but it would be best if it followed the current autodiscover.xml settings, ie if MS followed its own autodiscover standard.

Example. Dig query for MX DNS record on real sample.cz domain:

Dig query for autodiscover DNS record:

Send POST request for autodiscover settings:

Autodiscover response at autodiscover.sample.cz:

Simulate autodetect HTTP request:

MS Outlook autodiscover test:

Correct details from autodiscover.sample.cz/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml:

Try to add new e-mail account:

Without success:

Same wrong hostnames as in simulation above in PowerShell: