No emails visible in my Exchange inbox in Mac Mail or Outlook online

Question

I use Mac Mail to compose, send and receive email. I pay monthly for Microsoft Exchange server to host my email accounts. That's about the limit of my email knowledge! I was told to post here because this forum "is designed to support advanced users like yourself." I'm not an advanced user so please, dumb any answers down for me!

I bought a new Mac Studio. I used the Mac Mail "Add Account" dialog box that clearly offers Microsoft Exchange as one of the options. It asks me for my email address. I give it. Then it asks me for a passworrd. For some reason the password I entered doesn't seem to work. No matter. They send me a "One-Time Use" password and I get into my Microsoft account. I'm able to add the mail account. But the Inbox shows up empty.

I have this Exchange email account on four other Apple devices including a MacBook laptop, two iPads and my iPhone. I can get and send email on all my devices no problem ... except the new Mac Studio.

This has added to my confusion. Mac Mail says the Exchange account is online. I can send email from the account. I just can't receive any!

I keep coming back to the fact that when I tried to use the password it was incorrect. Just to check it, I went to outlook.office.com where I've gone before to pick up mail. Sure enough, when I try to sign in again it says my password is wrong. But again, it offers my the one-time code to bypass the password. When I use it, I can indeed get into my box. It shows I'm signed in. I see my picture in the corner and I can access my account information but, oddly, even on the web my inbox is empty! Again, I can see my Exchange email on four other devices. The box is definitely not empty!

This has taken my confusion and stirred in some fear. I tried Microsoft Support. The guy told me that Outlook no longer supports third party mail accounts. I told him that I can use my Exchange accounts (my wife and I both have them) on all my devices. I also told him that Apple Mail offers Microsoft Exchange as an option. He insists no, that soon I won't be able to use Exchange on my Macs at all. He's fightened me! I'm reluctant to change my password. I'm afraid that if I change it, I might not be able to access my email anywhere!!!

Any thoughts? I'm kinda desparate!!

Answer 1

Hi,@PeteMay

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

Regarding your login password issue, it is recommended that you reset your password and log in again.

Regarding the issue of no emails in Mac Mail inbox, we first need to confirm whether this is a Mac Mail issue or an Exchange issue?

It is recommended to install Outlook for Mac, then log in and check your inbox for emails.

Answer 2

Thanks for getting back to me Bruce.

OK, I changed my password for Microsoft 365. I was successful downloading Outlook. I installed it. It said it had found an email address associated with the account. The address it found was correct. It tried to connect with Microsoft 365 and I keep getting an error message.

Correlation Id: 5384d9db-29d8-f546-9d92-436a795f3505

Timestamp: 2024-11-18T06:33:14.000Z

DPTI: 000ca21963b66f735611a8372d9b231416d71eedcdf10e560c3d3ecc917e957d

Error Tag: 9hehw

Error Code: 0

Screenshot 2024-11-18 at 12.38.31 AM.png

I also went back to Mac Mail, deleted my Exchange account and tried to add it again. Rather than doing it with a code, I chose to use my password. This time I had more success. It added the account and gave me the opportunity of choosing which aspects I wanted to access: Mail, Notes, Calendar, etc.

I chose everything and clicked OK.

I went to my inbox and again, nothing.

Answer 3

OK, I fixed it Bruce. Thanks for your comment. Logging into Outlook was the key.

Screenshot 2024-11-18 at 1.21.14 AM.png

This error message would pop up but disappear in less than a half-second. After a half dozen tries I managed to catch it in a screen grab.

Anyway, I reviewed my switch to exchange back in early '23 and found a different web address for retrieving online mail. I was able to sign in there with the old password. Then the next time I tried to delete and re-add the account on my new Mac, it worked.

So, I don't know how I fixed it but I did.

Answer 4

Hi，@PeteMay

Glad your issue was resolved, the error may have been due to a problem with the account configuration, deleting the removal and re-adding the account brought it back to normal. For the convenience of other users who encountered the same to get the method, please mark my answer as answer. Thank you for your support and understanding.