After Changing Password, Users Are Getting Error -2147467261

Question

I've had two users change their password and when Outlook asked them for the new one, a handful of pop ups came up that I hadn't seen before, followed by the below error message. What causes this and how do we avoid it in the future?

Answer 1

Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.  

Hi @Brandon Redd

As your description, this issue might be related to cached credentials that are no longer valid after a password change. 

After a user changes their Microsoft 365 password, Outlook may still try to use old refresh tokens, and Windows Credential Manager may still hold expired credentials. As a result, Azure AD rejects the authentication attempt, and Outlook’s modern authentication stack also refuses the connection. 

To troubleshoot, you can try the following steps: 

Clear cached credentials 

Press Win + S and search for Credential Manager. 

Under Windows Credentials and Web Credentials, delete any entries that contain: 

MicrosoftOffice, login.microsoftonline.com, aad / adal / OneAuth / Outlook and the user’s email address 

Also delete any related Generic Credentials. 

Clear the Identity Cache folder 

Close Outlook. 

Press Win + R, type:%localappdata%\Microsoft\IdentityCache  

Delete everything inside the folder (or delete the folder entirely, it will be recreated automatically). 

If it exists, also delete:%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneAuth  

Restart and re‑authenticate 

Restart the computer  

Open Outlook > it should prompt for the new password to see if the issue still persists.

If the above solutions do not help, you can try removing the account completely: 

File > Account Settings > Manage Profiles 

Remove the account, restart the computer, and then re‑add the account. 

Next, open the desktop app in Safe Mode: 

Start Outlook in Safe Mode:  outlook.exe /safe 

To avoid this issue in the future, you could consider the following: 

Before changing their password, ask users to close all Office applications (Outlook, Teams, Word, etc.). 

Immediately after the password change, have the user sign in successfully to Outlook on the web first. This forces token refresh before reopening the desktop app. 

Keep Outlook and Office fully updated, either via automatic updates or manual checks. 

I hope this helps. 

Please understand that our initial reply may not always immediately resolve the issue. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution. 

---

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. 

Answer 2

The behavior is caused by Outlook still holding or reusing old/invalid credentials after the users change their password. When Outlook tries to re‑authenticate with those stale credentials, the sign‑in flow fails and surfaces a generic error (such as -2147467261) instead of completing the login.

To avoid and remediate this for affected users:

1. Update the password in Outlook
   After a password change with the email provider or in Microsoft 365, the new password must be entered in Outlook. If not, Outlook will keep prompting and can surface errors.
   Guidance for classic Outlook is in Change or update your email password (linked from the article below).
2. Remove stored Windows credentials for Outlook
   If Outlook continues to prompt or fails after the password change, clear the cached credentials so Outlook can start a fresh sign‑in:
   1. Open Control Panel → Credential Manager (if view is set to Category, go via User Accounts → Credential Manager).
   2. Under Windows Credentials, find entries that contain Outlook or Microsoft 365–related entries used by Outlook.
   3. Expand each such entry and select Remove from Vault.
   4. Restart Outlook and sign in with the new password.
3. Keep Outlook updated
   Older Outlook builds have known issues where stored credentials are not properly overwritten after a password change, causing repeated prompts and sign‑in failures. Installing the latest Outlook updates reduces the chance of this happening again after future password changes.
4. If prompts continue
   For classic Outlook that keeps asking for a password after it has been changed and updated, verify:
   • The username is the full email address.
   • The password has not expired again (for corporate accounts with expiry policies).

Applying these steps after users change their passwords should prevent the repeated prompts and related sign‑in errors from reoccurring.

---

References:

• Outlook continues to prompt for credentials after your domain password changes
• Troubleshoot Outlook email setup
• I can't send or receive messages in Outlook