Outlook (Classic) 365 Account Issues

Question

Outlook is having difficulty properly connecting to accounts.

This issue started with Outlook displaying a message about the mailbox being temporarily moved. Historically, this is commonly fixed by creating a new profile and readding accounts. However when creating the new profile Outlook already has the two email accounts in the welcome screen. When adding, Outlook looks like it connects and says it's connected but never downloads or displays any messages.

I have cleared stored credentials in credential manager but creating a new profile does not clear those stored accounts. I've even done a full uninstall and reinstall of office and outlook with no change.

I can create a new windows profile and can add the two accounts normally and they function without issue. But on this profile, Outlook always finds existing accounts to add and I think these entries are corrupt because while they can be added, they don't work. Manually typing the entry just seems to select the cached entry.

How do I clear these entries from Outlooks cache? I've already cleared credential manager of anything related.

Answer 1

Dear @SZ, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.   

I understand how inconvenient it is when Outlook keeps pulling old account entries and refuses to refresh properly, even after profile recreation or reinstalling Office. Based on the behavior you described, this issue is very likely not caused by a standard Outlook profile corruption. Instead, it stems from Windows‑level cached identities that Outlook continues to read during setup. 

Since you did not specify whether your accounts are work, school, or personal, please see the following workarounds that will help you verify the issue:   

Note: Some of these steps you have done before but performing them again in the correct sequence will ensure a complete and clean reset. 

Please start by opening any Office app, going to File, selecting Office Account and signing out of all accounts. This will force Office to release stored identity tokens that Outlook may attempt to reuse. 

Option 1: Remove cached Windows accounts (WAM) 

Go to Settings, select Accounts > Email and accounts. Remove any accounts listed under “Accounts used by other apps”. 

Next, go to Settings > Accounts > Access work or school. Disconnect any Microsoft 365 or organizational accounts that are still present. These accounts often appear in Outlook’s Add Account window even if they are no longer in Credential Manager. 

 

Option 2: Clear Credential Manager completely (Windows + Generic) 

You have already attempted this, but please confirm that all entries related to Outlook, Office, MicrosoftOffice, ADAL, OneDrive, Teams and Autodiscover or login.microsoftonline.com have been removed. This will ensure there are no remaining token fragments or stored authentications. 

 

 

Option 3: Clear Outlook cache data 

Close Outlook completely. 

Right click the Windows Start button and select Run.  

 

Type the following path into the Run box and press Enter:   

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook  

Open the RoamCache folder containing the cache files associated with your Outlook profile.   

 

Click anywhere within the folder, press Ctrl + A to select all files and then press the Delete key to remove them. Alternatively, you can right-click the selection and choose the Delete option from the context menu.   

 

Option 4: Reset activation state   

If your accounts are work or school accounts, you can reset the activation state to ensure a completely clean environment. 

Step 1: Clear AAD broker plugin cache  

Open File Explorer, paste the following path, and delete all files and folders inside:  

%localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy   

Step 2: Add Your Work Account in Access work or school  

Please go to Windows Settings > Accounts > Access work or school > Connect, then sign in with your work account.  

If the account was previously added, please Disconnect it and re-add to ensure proper synchronization. 

Restart your computer. This ensures that all changes take effect.   

Step 3: Reset the activation state  

Download OLicenseCleanup.vbs and run it. In this way, you can use this package to remove license, remove cached identities in HKCU registry and remove credentials. For more details, you can refer to this article: Reset Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise activation state  

Reboot your device.   

Reopen Office apps and sign in with the work account.   

If all your accounts are personal or Microsoft 365 Family, please let me know. I will get in touch with our experts on this to help you. 

As community moderators, we kindly ask for your understanding that our access to internal development details is limited. Our primary role is to guide users toward the appropriate resources and support channels. While we may not have visibility into performing deeper backend analysis, we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.  

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.    

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you. 

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have any extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.