Customers occasionally ask if there’s any way to view an email password that has been saved by the Outlook 2016 or 2019 mail program on a Windows computer (possibly because they want to enter that same password on a new device, or use it on our webmail pages).
For security reasons, we don’t store the plaintext password on our systems at all, but Outlook has probably done so. You can’t normally see that password in the Outlook settings, but there’s a trick you can use:
1. Start Outlook 2016 or 2019
If Outlook isn’t already running, start it now.
2. View the “Account settings”.
Click the File tab on the ribbon:
Go to Info and select the account for your email address if it’s not already chosen.
Then click Account Settings. A drop-down menu will appear. Choose Account Settings from that menu:
3. Choose “Repair”.
This opens a new window that looks like this:
Highlight the address you want to view the password for and click the Repair button. (It may seem odd to click “Repair”, but that is correct — this is the only way to view the password.)
4. Choose “Let me repair my account manually”.
In the repair window, click Advanced options and check Let me repair my account manually (circled in the screenshot below):
Then click Repair. Outlook will tell you it’s “repairing” the account, which may take a few minutes; just wait for that to finish.
5. View the password.
When Outlook is finished “repairing” the account, it will show you a new window that looks like this:
If you click the eye icon to the right of the password (circled above), the password will be displayed in plaintext.
6. Close the window.
When you're finished, click Go back and then close the “repair” window.