Microsoft sets Nov. 1 deadline for shutting off old Outlook clients from 365 services

Commercial customers running older versions of Outlook have two months to upgrade before losing access to the visitor'due south Microsoft 365 and Office 365 services.

Senior Reporter, Computerworld |

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RayalHristova / Getty Images / Microsoft

Microsoft has reminded commercial customers using older versions of Outlook that they accept but two months to upgrade earlier they're cut off from the company's Microsoft 365 and Office 365 services.

"After November 1, 2021, only Outlook 2013 Service Pack 1 (with latest fixes) and later will be able to connect to Microsoft 365 services," the firm said in an unsigned Aug. 27 post to a company blog.

Terminal twelvemonth, Microsoft dropped support for older versions of Office connecting to its online services, such as Exchange Online, as of Oct. 13, 2020. Afflicted editions of Part included Office 2007, which was already out of all support; Office 2010, which was to exit support on that same Oct. 13 date; and Function 2013, which was to receive back up until April 2023. The support-on-services shutdown had been in the works since 2017.

At the time, Microsoft had been surprisingly gracious, saying that while support would officially end, that didn't necessarily mean the end of connectivity. "We won't take any active measures to block other versions of the Office client, such every bit Office 2013, from connecting to Function 365 services, but these older clients may meet operation or reliability issues over time," the developer said and so.

That is what'south different now. The Nov. i deadline really will cut older Outlook clients from Microsoft's services. Microsoft explained that the older Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 clients will be incompatible with two upcoming changes to services, including an end to support for Basic Authentication — essentially, the long-standard username + countersign combination — that was postponed in February 2021.

Microsoft did not say when information technology would drop Bones Auth back up, nonetheless.

For those who haven't still dispensed with the erstwhile Outlook clients, Microsoft recommended — as information technology has confidently — that they switch to the subscription model of Office 365 or Microsoft 365, which provides always-up-to-date client software.

Senior Reporter Gregg Keizer covers Windows, Office, Apple/enterprise, web browsers and web apps for Computerworld.

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