Administrator Cannot Connect to the Administrator Mailbox Using POP3 or IMAP4

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

You cannot connect to the Administrator mailbox through Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol version 4rev1 (IMAP4). This behavior is by design in Exchange 2007 to enhance security for the Administrator mailbox. To access the Administrator mailbox, you must use Microsoft Office Outlook or Outlook Web Access.

Symptoms

The following symptoms occur when you try to log on to the Administrator mailbox by using POP3 or IMAP4:

  • The logon attempt fails, and you receive an error message that states that the user name is unknown or that the password is incorrect. For example, in an e-mail client such as Outlook Express, you will receive the following error message:

    Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password

  • If you try to log on by using POP3, the following warning is logged in the Application log of the Client Access server:

    Event Type: Warning

    Event Source: MSExchangePOP3

    Event Category: General

    Event ID: 1005

    Description:

    Authenticated user Domain\Administrator attempts to access POP but is disabled for that protocol.

    For more information, see Help and Support Center at

    https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

  • If you try to log on by using IMAP4, the following warning is logged in the Application log:

    Event Type: Warning

    Event Source: MSExchangeIMAP4

    Event Category: General

    Event ID: 1005

    Description:

    Authenticated user Domain\Administrator attempts to access IMAP but is disabled for that protocol.

    For more information, see Help and Support Center at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Cause

The Administrator account is blocked from accessing its mailbox by using POP3 or IMAP4. This behavior is by design in Exchange 2007 to enhance security for the Administrator mailbox.

Resolution

Do not use POP3 or IMAP4 to connect to the Administrator mailbox. You must use Outlook or Outlook Web Access to access the Administrator mailbox.