How to change your Outlook password

Making sure to change your passwords to something strong and unique on a regular basis is a major component of staying safe online. But with so many different sites and services with their own unique methods of altering your login credentials, it’s not always easy to do. To learn how to easily change your Outlook password, however, just follow the steps below.

Once you’re done, make sure to save your new password in a strong password manager.

Change your Outlook.com password

Changing your password in the Outlook desktop client doesn’t change your email provider password. If you’re using an Apple, Yahoo, or Gmail email in Outlook, follow our guides on how to change your password with those services, then skip to the section directly below to learn how to change your credentials in the Outlook app itself. Other email providers will require you to visit their respective websites to change your credentials there.

If you’re using an Outlook email address though, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Login to the Microsoft security page

Visit Microsoft’s dedicated security page and sign in. Then, select Password security from the dashboard. Follow the on-screen security measure instructions.

Step 2: Choose a new password

The next page will ask you to confirm your current password again, as well as input your new password. Choose something unique, strong, and long mixing numbers, special characters, and both lowercase and uppercase letters and input it twice as requested. Then hit the blue save button.

And that’s it! You’ve changed your Outlook.com password. If you’re using the Outlook email client, read on in the next section to learn how to alter your password there.

Change your Outlook client password

If you’ve changed your password with your email provider and you want to make sure that your Outlook email client knows it, follow these steps below to change it.

Note: If you are using an email account other than Outlook, you will need your app password. You can get help finding or generating those at the respective pages for Yahoo, Gmail, and Apple.

Step 1: Open Outlook’s Account settings

Launch the Outlook application. When it’s loaded, select File in the top menu, followed by Account Settings, and then Account Settings again in the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Change your password

If you have an Office 365 subscription that gives you semiannual updates, or a stand-alone version of the Outlook client, then select the email address you want to change, click Change, and then type in your new password in the respective fields. Then click Finish.

If you have a monthly update subscription for Office 365, you should instead click Repair. Select Advanced Options in the drop-down menu, and then tick the box labeled Let me repair my account manually. Click Repair again, and then update your password. Finally, click Repair one final time.

Step 3: Make sure it works

When you’re done changing your password, close down any extra menus you have open and return to Outlook. To test that your new password works as intended, click the Send/Receive button. If your emails arrive, great! You’ve successfully changed your password. If they don’t, or you get an error message of some sort, double-check that you’ve input the right password.

If you’re using a Gmail, Yahoo, or Apple email, you may need to use that service’s App Password instead of your login password. To learn more about that, click these links for Yahoo, Gmail, and Apple.