Password Prompt When Clicking on Options in OWA

When clicking on Options in Outlook Web App (OWA), users may be prompted for their credentials. Even though the right credentials were entered by the user, the user is not logged back in to the OWA to view the Options page.

The Options in OWA is accessed by clicking on the Settings icon on the top right and Click Options as shown in below screenshot.

OWA Options

Troubleshooting...

There are two Exchange servers in the domain. They are:

• EX01

• EX02

When logged on to https://ex01.domain.com/owa, the user account does not get prompted for credentials when clicking on Options. Therefore, all good on that server. However, when logged on to https://ex02.domain.com/owa, the user account is prompted for credentials when clicking on Options. It proves there is something not right on the EX02 server.

When users login to OWA, its virtual directory settings are applied. However, when the user clicks on Options in OWA, the ECP virtual directory settings are applied. Compared Exchange Control Panel (ECP) Virtual Directory settings (Get-ECPVirtualDirectory) on EX01 and EX02. In EX02, the DefaultDomain parameter was empty. In EX01, the DefaultDomain parameter was domain.com

Well, the fix looks simple, just set the DefaultDomain parameter to ECP Virtual Directory. Hold on, there is a problem! Set-ECPVirtualDirectory does not have DefaultDomain parameter! How did EX01 get the value then? I thought it must be getting it from Set-OWAVirtualDirectory. Ok, time to check OWA (Get-OWAVirtualDirectory) on EX02, does it have DefaultDomain value set? Yes, it does! But, it has not pushed the value to ECP virtual directory on EX02.

If it's not getting the value, then it's a good idea to push it. But, how?

I ran below cmdlet to remove the DefaultDomain value

Set-OWAVirtualDirectory -Server EX02 -DefaultDomain $null

Then ran below cmdlet to set the DefaultDomain value

Set-OWAVirtualDirectory -Server EX02 -DefaultDomain domain.com

After few seconds, ran below cmdet to check if that has set the DefaultDomain value for ECP virtual directory.

Get-ECPVirtualDirectory -Server EX02 | fl Idenfity, DefaultDomain

The result was DefaultDomain now has domain.com value

User logged in to OWA and clicked on Options, was not prompted for credentials - the issue was fixed!