How-To: Time Matters—Exchange 365 and Modern Authentication
On 10/1/2022 Microsoft disabled Basic Authentication in Exchange Online. This ends support for traditional username and password authentication to Office 365 email (Exchange) servers.
All users will be forced to adopt Microsoft’s more secure “Modern Authentication” technology. Microsoft is doing this to protect customers from criminal activity which is a good thing. Unfortunately the switch comes with possible disruption for some services.
This change impacts the connection Time Matters uses to share data with Outlook via 365 Exchange. Time Matters version 16.6 and above supports Modern Authentication, but requires some special configuration changes in the Microsoft Office 365 Admin Console. These settings are not trivial and deal with the security of your Microsoft accounts.
P|T (owns Time Matters) is currently unable to provide consultants or customers with details of the necessary configuration changes in Microsoft’s system, as incorrectly applied settings could lead to a potential data breach. Their official recommendation is for firms to contact their IT support team or Microsoft for assistance. Unfortunately, those entities can’t do much without knowing which specific permissions must be enabled so Time Matters can talk to the Microsoft servers.
Free How-To guide with step-by-step fix
As Time Matters CICs (Certified Independent Consultants), we have knowledge and experience with its inner workings. Using clues from many Google searches, access to multiple client sites, conversations with colleagues, and collaboration with multiple client IT firms, we were finally able to piece together all the steps.
We share this information as a step by step How-To guide you can download here for free. Feel free to share this with your IT firm, or your own CIC. If you don’t have a good support option feel free to reach out and we will do our best to help you.
NOTICE: These instructions include details of the settings determined by our research and in successful testing on multiple client sites. We’ve made our best effort to provide accurate information here, but be aware we may have missed something. P|T developers created the TM code and are the ultimate authority on how TM accesses the 365 Hosted Exchange servers. So far, P|T has not shared those details, so we’re doing our best to help the community with this document. Use your own judgement on the viability of these settings and any potential security risks. You are ultimately responsible for any issues that arise from attempting this setup. In YouTube style, this information is provided for entertainment purposes only.
Robert Gray CIC
