acatalept/blog

Quick solution: RTFM (yes, it was right there on Google's help page) - clear the captcha by going to:

http://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

or if you use Google Apps:

https://www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/UnlockCaptcha

I've had a number of issues with Outlook over the years, and it's always proven to be an uphill battle when something goes wrong. In this case, I was trying to setup POP access in Outlook 2003 (this same solution should apply to other Outlook versions as well), and Outlook would repeatedly pop up an "Invalid credentials" window when trying to send/receive, even though the "Test Settings" procedure during account setup was successful.

This wasn't a case of mistyping the password, or forgetting to check the Save Password box, or a corrupt profile, or missing registry settings, etc. (been there, done that, none of those solutions worked). What finally worked was the answer to the Top Most Common Error on, of all places, Google's own Gmail help website: clear the captcha.

Yes, I am that dense. I'm just glad I found this solution before completely wiping out and reinstalling Office.

In any case, not sure why the captcha was being triggered - I'm guessing this is usually only a result of too many invalid login attempts, so maybe something was tripped while doing the initial account setup in Outlook.

YMMV. Good luck!