Something went wrong and Outlook couldn't set up your account

ISSUE

When adding an Outlook account for Microsoft 365 with a custom domain or an Outlook.com account with a personalized email address, you receive the following error:

CAUSE

This issue occurs because the Autodiscover process that's used by Outlook receives an unexpected result from a third-party web server when it performs the root domain lookup. For example, Outlook may receive a result such as https://<RootDomain>/AutoDiscover/AutoDiscover.xml. 

Typically, the root domain lookup would fail in this case, and Outlook would perform an Autodiscover lookup against https://AutoDiscover.<RootDomain>/AutoDiscover/AutoDiscover.xml. However, because Outlook receives a successful Autodiscover response from the root domain lookup, Outlook tries to authenticate against the advertised protocols such as POP and IMAP, and the operation fails.

SOLUTION

Contact your web service provider or the web hosting provider of your domain website and make sure that the web server is not responding to Autodiscover requests.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue if the web service provider or web hosting provider is unable to resolve it, take the following action:

• Create Outlook registry keys to exclude the Last Known Good settings, HTTPS root domain, and the SRV record as detailed below. Once the registry entries are in place, restart Outlook and try to add the account or create a new profile again.

  • Use ExcludeLastKnownGoodUrl to prevent Outlook from using the last known good AutoDiscover URL
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
    DWORD: ExcludeLastKnownGoodUrl
    Value: 1
    
    OR
    
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
    DWORD: ExcludeLastKnownGoodUrl
    Value: 1

  • Use ExcludeHttpsRootDomain to prevent Outlook from using the HTTPS root domain
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
    DWORD: ExcludeHttpsRootDomain
    Value: 1
    
    OR
    
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
    DWORD: ExcludeHttpsRootDomain
    Value: 1

  • Use ExcludeSrvRecord to prevent Outlook from using the HTTPS root domain
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
    DWORD: ExcludeSrvRecord
    Value: 1
    
    OR
    
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
    DWORD: ExcludeSrvRecord
    Value: 1

For more information on Autodiscover and registry settings please see Unexpected Autodiscover behavior when you have registry settings under the \Autodiscover key.