Unable to verify mail every time I am at a different location

Question

There are a lot of people that have a problem verifying mail clients and there are lots of solutions that may or may not work.

I've seen that I have this problem every time my mail client (Catalina) tries to access a Hotmail account from a physical location that it is not used to. I get an email notifying me about a suspicious activity, which I mark as safe, but the mail still cannot verify the account (password is certainly correct). The only solution until now was to completely remove and add the account, but I cannot do this every single time I travel. It is getting ridiculous.

I understand that this is a security feature for my own benefit, but most of the time lately I don't have access to the mails. Is there any way to disable this feature? Or some other workaround?

Answer 1

Per Microsoft:

Microsoft prioritizes account security and works to prevent people from signing in without your permission. When we notice a sign-in attempt from a new location or device, we help protect the account by sending you an email message and an SMS alert. If your phone number or email changes, it's important to promptly update the security contact info on the Security basics page so we can work with you to keep your account secure and active.

If you sign in to your account while traveling or if you install a new app that signs in with your account, you may get an alert. We just need you to provide a security code so we know it was you, and that your account is safe.

I added the bold part. It appears that MS notices the IP or access location is new or different than usual and requires the additional security login measures.

Catalina does not control your email access, it simply sends the credentials to the mail server. It's possible that it takes time for MS's mail servers to validate your response to their security challenge.

I also have a Hotmail account and I use Spark as my email client on Catalina. This happens to me when I travel but I find when I wait 10-15 min I can login again. Strangely, this doesn't happen to my Yahoo or gMail accounts, only Hotmail (and Outlook but it's the same system).

Answer 2

I think that is not Apple's fault, so you need to contact hotmail for a solution because the mail client works as expected.

The mail provider send you such mails in most cases in order to notify about this kind of suspicious logins, so may they are also able to turn it off.

[EDIT] Maybe the web client offers some settings for disabling such notifications.