You Cannot Change Your Password in Outlook Web Access (827614)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to change your password in the version of Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access that is provided by Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, you receive the following error message:

Either the password is too short or password uniqueness restrictions have not been met.

You receive this message even when the password is long enough and when it meets the unique password restrictions.

CAUSE

This behavior may occur if the following three conditions are true:

You try to change your password more than one time in a twenty-four hour period.
Your Exchange Server 2003 computer runs on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer.
The Group Policy object for your organizational unit has the Minimum Password Age set to 1.

By default, the Minimum Password Age policy in Windows Server 2003 is 1 day. However, the Minimum Password Age policy in Microsoft Windows 2000 Server is 0 days.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior so that users can change passwords more than one time in a twenty-four hour period, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.
Right-click Your_Domain_Name, and then click Properties.

Note If your users are configured to a specific organizational unit, expand Your_Domain_Name, right-click the organizational unit where the users reside, and then click Properties.
Click the Group Policy tab, click Default Domain Policy, and then click Edit.
In Group Policy Object Editor, expand Computer Configuration, expand Windows Settings, expand Security Settings, expand Account Policies, and then click Password Policy.
Right-click Minimum Password Age, and then click Properties.
Click to select the Define this policy setting check box.
In the Password can be changed after box, delete 1, and then type 0.

Note The default policy setting in Default Domain Policy is 1 day.
Click Apply, click OK, and then close Group Policy Object Editor.
In Your_Domain_Name Properties, click OK, and then close Active Directory Users and Computers.
On the domain controller, start Command Prompt, type gpupdate, and then press ENTER.

Note If your domain controller is a Windows 2000 Server-based server, you must enter the following command from the command prompt instead of the gpupdate command:
secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy /enforce
In some domains, you may have to restart the domain controller for this policy to be updated.