Hotmail now supports push email, calendar, and contacts with Exchange ActiveSync

Hotmail now supports push email, calendar, and contacts with Exchange ActiveSync

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Hotmail is making it easier for you to stay up-to-date and be productive on your phone. Starting today, you can get your email, calendar, and contacts pushed automatically to your phone using Exchange ActiveSync (EAS). EAS keeps everything in sync between your phone and Hotmail, so whatever you do on your phone, like delete an email, add an appointment, or update one of your contacts with a new number, will also be reflected on the web, and vice-versa. If you use an email client on your PC that already syncs with Hotmail, like Outlook with the Outlook Connector or Windows Live Mail, what you do on your phone will show up there as well, delivering a seamless experience for managing your stuff between your PC email client, your browser, and your phone. 

Get Microsoft Silverlight

Today, EAS is supported by over 300 million mobile devices worldwide, including some of the most popular Windows, Nokia, and Palm smartphones, as well as the iPhone and iPad. For a full list of supported devices, click here.

Setup details: I encourage you to take a look at the phone-specific setup instructions and known issues at the Windows Live Solution Center page on Active Sync setup.

Field

Setting

Server / URL

m.hotmail.com

Username

Enter full email address, for example: someone@example.com

Domain 

Leave this blank

SSL

Enable this

Certificate

Accept the SSL certificate when prompted

Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks

All can be enabled (see the Solution Center article for exceptions on some phones)

In the coming months, we will continue to bring out new features and capabilities based on feedback from our users, so please, stay tuned for more.

Dick Craddock
Group Program Manager
Windows Live Hotmail

165 Comments
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  • Great work!  The only problem is facebook contacts, now that facebook is connected, we need an option to not import facebook stuff, as my iphone contacts now contain hundreds of facebook friends who dont have contact details, and who I dont want on my iPhone!

    Also I seem to be battling with some phone numbers for contacts who are Live contacts, it keeps chopping the last digit off their phone number, which in turn syncs back to the iPhone and I dont know whos calling me!  odd!  only seems the be the mobile number property, its something weried with the country code (44) not displaying the number correctly (ie 00 44 for the UK)...

    Have been waiting for this a LONG time !

  • RobE 1 Posts

    Took a very long time but were here! Great stuff.

  • Gandhi 5 Posts

    Adding filters to the contact experience is something we will look at in coming months. Thanks for reporting the phone number issue (last digit chopped) ; we will look into it.

  • The instructions, even those mentioned through following the link do not apply for the Apple iPad, for example, the iPad doesnt give us the option to enter a server address...Anyone with an iPad got it to work?

  • Dick, you might want to note to everyone that Windows Mobile 6.x users will NOT get HTML email since the protocol version is 2.5 (Exchange 2003 SP2 compatible).

  • This would have been cool about 5 years ago!

  • Seydon 2 Posts

    @fahdriyami it works perfectly for me on the iPad. enter username, password and e-mail on the first screen, accept the certificate when prompted and after some time, you'll have a second page where you can put the server name.

  • @Seydon Yup, got it working. Thanks! :)

  • steph 12 Posts

    I am SO disappointed in hotmail. I have an HTC Desire on Android 2.2 (I currently use the Email application to access my emails), and was really happy to see that hotmail FINALLY supported push email. But now I have just read that Android users would still have to wait for a few months before being able to use Exchange ActiveSync ???? And that not everybody using Android 2.2 would be able to use it ? In that case, you should have released this once it was available for everybody. Could you at least tell me if it will be compatible (HTC Desire, Android 2.2, currently using the "Email" application with POP3 for hotmail). thank you.

  • It doesnt seem to push deletions and moves which are performed on Hotmail on the web, these only update when the inbox is refreshed. Not a major issue but a bit of a shame.

  • sp1der 35 Posts

    Great!!!!

    But when will be possible to sync photo contact between outlook <-> hotmail <-> mobile device???

    And when will be possible to sync task from hotmail <-> outlook???

  • RE: the mobile number issue, its not possible to enter a mobile number in the specific mobile number field (on hotmail on the web) which will display correctly on my iPhone. I choose 44, but regardless of wether I drop the leading 0 from the main number or not, when it syncs to the phone the number doesnt match (needs to be 00 44 7940 *** *** for a UK number. The only way to fix is to edit on the phone, which then syncs back to Hotmail and all seems well, but it then seems to drop a digital much later, maybe days later, which is weired. I am finding that I have to keep correcting this. I cant be specific as its a bit difficult to pinpoint. It seems to only be contacts who are a live ID.

    the contact filter is a must, Ive had to break the link to facebook as I cannot live with all those contacts being forced on me !

  • sp1der 35 Posts

    An issue: If I create task from my mobile device (HTC Touch PRO2), it's sync with hotmail, but If I create a task from hotmail, it doesn't sync on mobile phone...

  • efjay 14 Posts

    If Zack Williamson is right as to why WM 6.x devices wont get HTML email that is really sad, guess the Hotmail team decided it wasnt worth investing in an exchange verstion that is compatible with more devices. I guess as long as their iphones worked, that was all that mattered :( Once again MS gives WM users the finger....

  • @efjay: It's not a matter of it being "worth the investment" - it's a matter of getting the feature out to users. ActiveSync is much more complicated to implement once you use a version higher than 2.5. Because Hotmail isn't based on Exchange, but rather a custom-built mail system, it takes a great deal of integration in order to implement a basic ActiveSync setup. And considering this is the first version, I have to say that it's been very well done thus far.

  • Got really excited looking at this until I read that it's not for Android users yet.... boo..... Please get this out ASAP!

    I've got a Droid with FroYo (2.2) and would REALLY love reliable Hotmail access, especially with the abilities that ActiveSync would allow (deleting emails from server, push notification)

  • efjay 14 Posts

    @Zack: yet the iphone will support HTML emails, how come they managed to get support for that OS and not their own? And isnt the backend for this feature Exchange which is supportted on WM?

  • aubiker 7 Posts

    Just set it up on my Droid - running Froyo 2.2.  Worked seamlessly.  Just because it's not supported yet doesn't mean it doesn't work!  Thanks Hotmail Team!

  • Gandhi 5 Posts

    We are working on adding Android 2.2 to the list of supported devices. There are at least a few instances where the Android default client does not conform to the ActiveSync protocol, but users have been generally successful with 2.2. If you are having issues, you can also try the TouchDown app for Android 2.2 which has worked well - groups.google.com/.../installing-the-latest-beta

  • @aubiker How did you get it to work for you? I tried the given settings and it won't go for me.

    If anyone else has any way to get this to work on Android 2.2 with the default email app, please share!

  • steph 12 Posts

    @aubiker : what phone do you have ? (I am on HTC desire, Android 2.2). I tried setting it up anyway, but got the message that my account could't  be created.

  • steph 12 Posts

    has anybody had this problem on android 2.2 (unable to create the account) ? And/or will it be solved when android 2.2 will be added to  the list of supported devives (by the way will it be announced on this blog ??). Thank you.

  • @Android peeps.  I think it must be at least half-working.  I'm booting a 2.1 Android ROM on my HTC HD2 and in my testing over the last couple of hours it seems to be working.

    Not currently supported doesn't always mean won't work at all. :-)

  • @efjay: Because the rolled out version of ActiveSync is 2.5, WM 6.x sees the server as an Exchange 2003 SP2-style server. And since WM 6.x actually FULLY adheres to the ActiveSync standard, unlike any other implementation (iOS, Android, etc.), WM knows that 2.5 isn't supposed to handle HTML emails, therefore it's disabled from the device-side. To put it another way, WM has the ability to receive HTML emails via ActiveSync, but it's playing strictly by the rules of the Exchange ActiveSync 2.5 policy - which only supports plain text.

  • frankwick 37 Posts

    That's good news! The bad news is that my phone only allows one ActiveSync connection.  I already use it for my Exchange account at work.

  • frankwick 37 Posts

    @fahdriyami ,  the ipad support for ActiveSync is not complete and a little confusing but you should be able to enter a server address.  You have to.  I setup my ipad with my corp exchange acct and it asked for a server address.  You probably need to let the autodiscover timeout out.  When this happens you will see the server field.

    BTW,  I am less than impressed with my ipad for a business tool.  Trying to create content on this device is too cimbersome.  My kids love it as a game device though.

  • I got my Moto Q runnning WM 6.1 to sync but it keeps coming back and saying about 26 of the 100 calendar events it detects need to be synced fail.  I have contacts selected but it doesn't seem to sync them, although the progress bar showing it going thru them.  Also how do you get to task in hotmail?  I don't even see a it on the website.

  • drtechy 4 Posts

    I've been waiting so long for this!! Awesome work guys!

  • efjay 14 Posts

    @Zack, thank you for your responses but I think its time I gave up on Microsoft. Whatever the reason its clear that providing parity in functionality for WM users is something MS doesnt care about so I give up. Let them do what they will and make their competitors solutions seem more attractive than their own, just like they have done again with the android bing application. Its obvious if I want to get the best of Microsoft's services I need ot use eithe ran iphone or android. Thanks again for your information.

  • steph 12 Posts

    @Paul Smith  : It doesn't work on my Desire, did you use the settings given on this blog ? As I said, the message I get (at the last step, when I select what to synchronize) is that the creation of the account has failed. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem and if it will be fixed when Android 2.2 will be added to the list of devices.

  • @steph: ActiveSync works great on the first generation Droid with Android 2.2. I initially had problem because I didn't provide the full email with @live.com. Once I did it, it works like a charm.

  • steph 12 Posts

    @stackoverflow  : thanks for the info. I just tried again, with the details given on the blog, but it still doesn't work ! (same message). I have a hotmail.com address.

  • Does this support contact groups?

  • @steph Yeah I'm getting the same problem. HTC Desire with stock Orange UK 2.1. The support link does say there are problems with 2.1 so thats the only reason I could see unless there is a problem with the Desire as a whole with EAS support.

  • steph 12 Posts

    @ Silver47 : Yes the page does say that it doesn't support 2.1. I'm on 2.2 though, but I'm trying to figure out on other forums if people have succeeded with the Desire to know if the problem is related to Android or Desire !

  • aubiker 7 Posts

    On Froyo 2.2:

    Username: myemailaddress@live.com (or @hotmail.com)

    Password: **********

    Domain\Username:  \myemailaddress@live.com (or @hotmail.com)

    Server:  m.hotmail.com

    Make sure you check both "Use secure connection (SSL)" and "Accept all SSL certificates"

  • Steve B 15 Posts

    I'm still getting a message "Failed to create the account.  Please try again later."  I have a HTC Droid Incredible, OS 2.1 on Verizon Wireless.  I even tried a hard reset and nothing is working.

  • steph 12 Posts

    Thanks aubiker but it still doesn't work for me, I get the same message. Did you fill in both the domain and username (with the \ before the email adress?)

  • ColinN 1 Posts

    I'm another HTC Desire having no luck getting my account set up..... I'm pretty sure it's not the stock Android Mail client, it's a HTC one, so maybe that's why :( .

  • Nice to hear about this!

    Thanks!

  • aubiker 7 Posts

    Only use the "\" in the domain, not the username.

  • Just tried this via the RoadSync app on my T-Mobile Pulse Android 1.5 phone. Seems to be working like a charm. Well done guys!

  • @ColinN I believe you are right there, under apps the mail client says it is made by HTC. Looks like its in their hands now :(. Is there another mail app that can used on the market, couldn't find one under the market :/

  • Ykslad 2 Posts

    Firstly thank you Microsoft for doing this, I've never felt comfortable with Google having all my email etc.

    I've got a HTC Desire 2.1 with the HTC client and it works flawlessly with mail2web.com Hosted Exchange, so how come Hotmail EAS won't work? Surely Microsoft can sort this out, it's unbelievable that they can’t do what their partners can. Or am I missing something?

  • Maxim 9 Posts

    Please - correct numbers. Cellphone numbers of my contacts displays as +7.... And when I sync them with the phone all numbers appear like 7... without "+", so I get aerror when I try to use them in dialer. Also - Is it possible to set up Outlook 2010 to use Exchange with hotmail?

  • Ykslad 2 Posts

    Oh just re-read the posts and Zack Williamson's comments. Oh well, maybe Android soon pleaseee but then again I would love a shiny new Window 7 Phone if Microsoft decide to give some away like Samsung did with the Galaxy. Come on Microsoft, I even bought Vista on 2 PC's, don't you owe me :)

  • @Ykslad I'm wondering now if the reason Orange pushed back the release of 2.2 because of this...hmmmm

  • ivan_v 4 Posts

    Hi. I've just tested my Live.com address on my Nokia N900 device and its Mail for Exchange application. Works perfect. Didn't try Calendar sync yet.

    But, all my emails are shown in plain text, not HTML. On some forums I saw that it's neccessary to upgrade to Server 2007 to be able to receive push HTML emails. On Maemo blog it's said that latest firmware (PR1.2) supports Server 2007.

    Is there any way that my emails are shown as HTML?

  • cgrizz 3 Posts

    i have a Nexus One and this works great with the stock Email app.  Thanks Hotmail!!

  • cgrizz 3 Posts

    i meant to say i have a nexus one running 2.2.  it worked on the first try

  • Nater 147 Posts

    T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant non-rooted with Stock Android 2.1 (TouchWiz UI) works flawlessly.  I was actually able to use both my Hosted Exchange account side-by-side with Hotmail ActiveSync.  Now that Hotmail Supports ActiveSync, I'm ditching my Exchange host.  More people know my Hotmail Address than my Exchange address, anyways :P

    The Sync for Hotmail is abotu 2.5x faster than my Exchange Host.  Very Fast.  Very Solid.  Very well-done.

    On the flip side, I tried to setup a friend's iPhone 3G (no S) to Sync and the phone wouldn't let me set up the connection.  Maybe an iOS issue, though...

  • Nater 147 Posts

    The only thing I don't like, is that that Android doesn't support Tasks :(  At least not yet...

  • I'm using a Droid X with Froyo 2.1 software. It all seems to work ok, but it doesn't notify me when new mail arrives.

  • I'm getting an "incorrect password" error every time I try to set it up. I know for a 100% fact I am putting in correctly. All the other settings are also duplicated exactly, so what's the problem?

  • Nater 147 Posts

    Update:  Android 2.1 T-Mobile Vibrant with TouchWiz 3.0

    No HTML Mail supported.

    Useless, IMO.  Going to stay with my Exchange host and keep letting my Hotmail Account go unused.

    Anything that doesn't support HTML mail, is useless, as far as I'm concerned.

    It's 2010, not 2001.  Get with the program.

  • brianm76 61 Posts

    I have a couple of folders that return an error messagve instead of syncing....is there a limit on the folder size or number of emails preventing this folder from being accessed on my Iphone?

  • Nater 147 Posts

    If you have an Android phone, it's really not much use to use Windows Live (i.e. Hotmail), IMO.  Migrate all of you stuff over to Google Mail and enjoy a mail client that works correctly.  If you get to the point where your job requires you to use ActiveSync, they will probably have a version of Exchange deployed that isn't almost a decade old - which support HTML mail.

    Microsoft, esepcially, just makes me laugh doing this - considering how much trouble they go through to force users to upgrade to the "next version" of their software (OneNote Web App not supporting OneNote 2003/7, crippling Outlook Connector for < 2010 Outlook clients, etc. etc.).

    I know absolutely 0 people that send plain text emails, and I certainly don't sign up for any plain text newletters, update subscriptions, etc.

  • Do you know if this works yet for hotmail.CA or live.CA accounts?  And my ISP essentially uses Windows Live so does this also work for bell.net or sympatico.ca accounts?  And what would the settings be?

    Also, would this work on an old Dell Axim X3i?  The about page says it's Windows Pocket PC Version 4.20.0 (Build 13349).

    Thanks,

  • Chefbig 1 Posts

    Will sync SMS with Hotmail in the future ?

  • Nater 147 Posts

    Microsoft MyPhone does SMS Sync, if you're on Windows Mobile.  Hotmail needs Tasks, though, and so does Android...

  • Until now some issues:

    1. the order of the firstname and lastname is ignored for contacts that where created on the hotmail webinterface.

    2. the country code "+" from mobile phone number is cut off.

    3. umlauts of html mails are replaced by question marks (äöü -> ???)

  • sp1der 35 Posts

    I have another issue: If I create task from my mobile device (HTC Touch PRO2), it's sync with hotmail, but If I create a task from hotmail, it doesn't sync on mobile phone...

  • Got it working on my HTC Desire. Not through the stock HTC email app, but Touchdown works a treat.

  • bobwl 1 Posts

    Great work indeed! Although, as an iPhone user, I have encountered some problems after I set up my hotmail account through MS Exchange.

    Above all the tiny problems which can be ignored, MISSING EMAILS is intolerable... I got 3 emails this morning, but my iPhone can only retrieve 2 of them while push-mail is enabled, and later I tried retrieving them manually while turning push-mail off, still not working, the missed email cannot be retrieved this way either.

    I had to DELETE the account on my iPhone and set it up all over again, and it worked this time...

    I really do not want to re-setup my email account every time I want to be sure if there are any new emails...

    So, could you tell me if there are any stability issues with ActiveSync for hotmail accounts on iPhone platform? Shall I expect a fix soon?

    Looking forward to your replies.

  • pwaggs 1 Posts

    Fantastic!  This is the functionality that I always thought that my WM Smartphone was supposed to have.  I remember buying my first HTC Startrek 3125 and wondering why my calendar did not sync and my hotmail polled and did not push.  This has breathed new life into my dying Fuze and will certainly help me hang in there until WP7 hits the market in a few months.

    I am still experimenting after less than a day, but a few items that initially are stumping me.

    1.  It appears that the only way to silence alerts at night is to set that as your 'off peak' times and then set the phone to manually sync during that time and then restart pushing at your 'morning' peak time again.  That is not what the peak and off peak times are for, but I have managed to stop email alerts at night that way.

    2.  HTML mail.  It appears that the phone is attempting to display mail in HTML form once I selected the option and opened up the amount of data per message in the options, but this is not consistent behavior yet.  That may just be because I have not tweaked the download settings properly yet.

    3.  Now streamlining this with my Windows Live Mail Beta will make this a slick package.

    This is functionality which we have been waiting for for years and now it is a VERY welcome addition.  I feel like the WM platform is finally reaching its potential promised so many years ago.

  • steph 12 Posts

    @guycozon and all those who succeeded with Android : when you check your emails on the computer, do you do it through the Internet website or through Windows Live Mail ? Do you have to use Windows Live Mail to be able to set up an account on exchange active sync ?

  • On my stock Desire running 2.2 this doesn't work, I'm guessing its the HTC mail app. I get the 'Failed to create account' error. But... I installed Touchdown and it works very well through that.

  • steph 12 Posts

    With Touchdown, do contacts and calendar sync too ?

  • aubiker 7 Posts

    I've synced through Android Froyo 2.2.  You do not have to use Live Mail to do this.  Most of the time I only use the online web mail.

    However, there doesn't seem to be support for HTML.  That's a non-starter for me.  I was all ready to start forwarding my gmail to my live.com address until I discovered this flaw.  Until it is corrected, I guess I'll continue to use gmail.

  • steph 12 Posts

    Still does't work for me, even with the "\" and even with Touchdown ! I guess I'll have to wait until Android 2.2 is fully supported...

  • grh 7 Posts

    Great job...can finally use my Hotmail acc for everything!

    One thing I've noticed on iOS 3.1.3, with Push set to fetch new data, it doesn't always work...I need to go into my mail and get any new mails myself. Small problem as other than that...works a charm.

  • simonr 1 Posts

    HTC Desire with Sense interface and Android 2.2: NOT working...such a shame!

    I also hope this hotmail wave 4 MS is rolling right now is not the final update this year of the mail functionality, because gmail is adding funcionality like crazy and its getting harder and harder to find arguments to stay with hotmail.

    I DONT want to switch, but please keep the updates coming!

    Wishes:

    - improve the calendar functionality and make it easier to share items (invites) with other calendars

    - allow for shared calendars between yahoo mail, gmail and hotmail

    - make sure we can use email rules, both on windows live mail client as in the web

    - why keep using folders and not tagging of emails like gmail does? This would allow us to view and access emails from different angles rather than only via the single static folder name. When migrating you could just use the current folder name as the first tag name.

    - please implement full text search with advanced parameters, syntax hightlighting and facet navigation in both windows live mail client as in the web

    - hopefully activesync will sync all folders, so not just the standard folders but also the custom folders

    Please improve the windows live homepage a la netvibes/iGoogle, the current version of MS is way too limited

    In general I think MS is getting on the right track, but the release cycles of features should be much much shorter! Im talking days/weeks and NOT months like it is now! It is very hard to digest that supprot for Android 2.2 will be added over the coming months.

    Oh and one more thing, I understand that WP7 will have all features earlier and I'd love to have this phone, but then you should also make it available! From pure unavailability of MS stuff I bought the Desire. I'm from the Netherlands and it seems that I can never get the MS stuff fast. Google is much more localized in this. This is also a reason why Bing is having difficulties: everywhere it goes out of beta, Google has already captured the local market.

  • steph 12 Posts

    What would be nice too in the Calendar would be to have a sms alert for events and not just email.

  • sp1der 35 Posts

    I'd like to synchronize the secondary calendars... why only the primary calendar????

  • KTR 7 Posts

    @steph Calendar can send sms alerts. Visit the Options page on calendar.live.com and select "Change how you get reminders"

    @sp1der Multiple calendar support depends on the device. If the phone can display them (for example the iPhone does) they are there.

  • KTR 7 Posts

    @sp1der re "If I create task from my mobile device..." Are you creating the task as a "To do" in calendar.live.com and it isn't syncing down to your phone?

  • sp1der 35 Posts

    @KTR: Yes! If I create the task as a "To do" in calendar.live.com, it isn't syncing down to my phone! :-(

  • pcolmer 6 Posts

    I'm really pleased to see this functionality added to HotMail. What I'm curious about, though, is the fact that WM6.5 devices can sync all four types of information - mail, calendar, contacts and tasks - but Windows Phone 7 won't sync tasks? Is that a limitation of WP7 ... if so, one might hope it can be "resolved" fairly quickly through ongoing development of WP7?

  • sp1der 35 Posts

    But If I create the task in my phone it is syncing in calendar.live.com!

  • koo9 2 Posts

    I am having problem with the battery life in iphone 3G after setting up the sync account. the battery percentage number goes down like a stop watch. think it's just me. :(

  • @koo9 : You need to change your Sync settings on your iPhone: Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data > Push (set this to 'Off') now set Fetch to 'Manually' then under Advanced (for whatever you called your named your Hotmail settings) set Select  Schedule to 'Manual'.

    This will disable the iOS mail client from auto-polling the m.hotmail.com server. If you don’t want to manually check/poll the server for new messages, you could set it to poll at a predefined schedule.

    --Yogesh

  • immy79 1 Posts

    This is fabulous. I switched from gmail to hotmail so I could use this plus all the other great new WIndows Live stuff.

    However, I am having a super annoying issue. I can't for the life of me get my Contacts to sync. I have 473 contacts in my Contacts list on Hotmail.com. However, in my iPhone contacts, only 25 get synced. (ANd even weirder, there are only 150 in my Outlook 2010 at home, and I'm using the hotmail connector add-in).

    Ideas? How can I fix this?

  • jader3rd 24 Posts

    @GarethDPhillips Does the iPhone not have the ability to find contacts by typing in their name? It's possible that contact management is much more handelable on Windows Phones where it's really easy to find a contact. For example, I want to call my friend Scott. I open up the phone type 7 2, and his name is at the top of the list of contacts whose phone numbers start with 72 (of which there are none) and contacts whose names begin with Sc, Pa, or Ra. With this solution all of my possible contacts can be synced to my phone and there is hardly any noise in finding the contact that I want to call.

  • Orrinw 1 Posts

    I am on IOS 4.0.2 and sometimes I can sync and get my email sometimes, but more often than not I get the "user name or password is incorrect" message.  Clearly, it works sometimes, but not others, so the issue isn't the username/password.  I've removed and added the account, tried wi-fi and 3G, same challenge.  Any suggestions?  It seems like a login timeout interval is short or something along those lines.

  • KTR 7 Posts

    @sp1der, tasks are only synced from your default calendar. You can check which calendar is your default in calendar options under "Primary" calendar. You can see which calendar the task is on by clicking it and see which calendar is selected. Let me know if this fixes your issue.

  • Jonhern 1 Posts

    @aubiker

    This would not work on my EVO with the htc app, kept getting failed to create account, but I extracted the stock froyo email app from the cm6 rom and installed it and now it is working for me with my custom windows live office domain. I think it is because the htc app does not have the option to accept certificate, maybe it does it automatically or maybe it does not support it, idk.

  • Nater 147 Posts

    I'm sure microsoft is hacking wp7 to make it work, but atm this only works well on the iphone.  Android users would have to be retarded to get their gmail forwarded to hotmail for this.  I got a twitter email last night that was literally unreadable because of the nonexistent html email support for anything but iphones.  Good marketing for apple, imo. iOS will work with microsoft products that other microsoft products fail to work with.

    Windows live still useless on android compared to google services, which are superior to microsoft's even on winmo.  Google sync supports html mail on winmo 6.5 and android.  I just tried.  Can't compete if you aren't willing to do what's necessary.  Until them hotmail will remain the choice email host for scammers and spammers, while google laughs on the way to the bank.

  • Nater 147 Posts

    And by that, I mean making a book mark to the mobile Hotmail site and checking that is more useful than this "ActiveSync", and will actually save on battery power.

    That, or Setting you GMail account to download your Hotmail Email via POP3.

    I think Microsoft has a better Calendar and Contacts app than Google, but their shoddy end-to-end experience between device platforms (desktop-web-mobile) is embarrassingly bad.

    EDIT:  Facebook emails are also warped when they come in through this ActiveSync.  Gonna just remove this.  It's unusable, at the moment.  Will check back in a few months to a year and see if they upgrade it to something that works.  Not buying a new phone for this, when I have a phone that's been on the market less than 3 months total already.

  • Nater 147 Posts

    UPDATE:  Roomate's work uses Exchange 2003 for Corporate Mail and his HTML mail displays fine on his Android phone.  What's the difference?

  • Rene 1 Posts

    Great work from the Windows Live team... A feature I've been waiting for for about 2 years!

    Unfortunately I'm experiencing some minor issues with the sync of contacts (using an iPhone running iOS4 [as a sidenote: I used to have a Windows Mobile 6.5 based phone but couldn't longer stand the thing]):

    1. As already pointed out by some people on this forum, indeed when updating phone numbers from the online Hotmail interface, the leading "+" on the phone disappears rendering the phone number useless. Workaround as already pointed out: update phone numbers solely on hte phone and one's safe

    2. A more annoying issue has to do with the dates of birthdays and anniversaries that reaquires caution if you, as I do, keep track of birthdays and anniversaries using your Hotmail account:

    - Birthdays and anniversaries don't sync with my iPhone; the fields are blank

    - Worse, when I update a contact on my iPhone and sync, since the birthday and anniversary field are empty, the birthday and anniversary of my contact in Hotmail gets erased as well!

    - When I re-add the birthday on my iPhone, the birthday gets synced with my Hotmail contact BUT the date will be off by 1 day (e.g., when I select August 24 on my iPhone, Hotmail will display the birthday as being on August 23)

    - When I correct the date in Hotmail and sync back, the birthday field on my iPhone gets blanked out again!

    Especially the second issue is very annoying and a real shame since all the rest is working so perfectly!

    If anyone is experiencing the same issue or has a workaround, please share...

    Thanks!

  • Gandhi 5 Posts

    HTML support: we shipped version 2.5 of the protocol – the version supported by every device with ActiveSync on the market today. Unfortunately, how HTML messages are downloaded/rendered varies among the different mobile devices since each client is implementing the protocol independently. iPhone/iPad does it differently from WM 6.x/Nokia. Most clients support HTML mail for version v12.x or higher of the protocol.

    @schultzter: Hotmail ActiveSync will work for any account hosted by Hotmail including custom domain accounts. Dell Axim has not been tested.

    @chris2020080: Ordering of first/last name is known. Will look into the other contacts issues you reported.

    @bobwl: Hotmail ActiveSync is stable on iPhone on iOS 4.0 & higher. There is an intermittent issue with push for some accounts that will be resolved in a few days.

    @simonr: ActiveSync allows syncing multiple folders.

    @immy79: Contacts syncing discrepancy is not expected. Please try cleaning your contacts list via browser & refreshing on client.

    Gandhi, PM- Hotmail Protocols

  • I too am super excited about this functionality. As a very early Outlook Connector user (as well as present user),  it's been a long road with keeping my msn account synch'd within Outlook and I can appreciate what this will do for my msn account on my new iPhone.  

    My issue (like a former poster today) is that I can only get 25 contacts to sync. I have deleted my previous msn.com profile from my iPhone 4 and now only see a random 25 contacts getting synched (from A-Z). I have 1000+ contacts

    I have deleted, re-added the account, changed the fetch settings,  etc. but no go.  My Default Acct is this new account which is a msn.com and not a hotmail.com acct. Don't know if that has anything to do with it..

    I have to think it can't be a coincidence that we both only get exactly 25 contacts to sync....

    If anyone has thoughts or things to try, let me know

    Thanks

  • rube923 1 Posts

    There seems to be a problem with the Keep-alive settings. My client (Nokia 5230) with Mail for Exchange keeps losing the connection and has to reconnect. It looks like the operator's (WIND Canada) NAT router assumes the connection is idle and closes it but the keep-alive functionality of ActiveSync is supposed to prevent this. What is the lowest keep-alive interval that Hotmail will go down to and how is this configured?

  • efjay 14 Posts

    @Ghandi: Is there a reason why you shipped the version of Exhange/Activesync (2.5) that you did? It seems you were aware that v12 or higher would be compatible with more platforms, so why go with the lower version and leave so many without an important feature like HTML email?

  • brianm76 61 Posts

    I have a couple of folders that return an error messagve instead of syncing....is there a limit on the folder size or number of emails preventing this folder from being accessed on my Iphone?  The error message when I select folder and wait about 30 seconds:  "Cannot Get Mail - Server Error.  Contact your server administrator.  I have 650 emails in this folder.  I can access the folder both on the web and the WIndows Live Mail 2011 program.

  • zholy 1 Posts

    Gmail, yahoo mail and hotmail all services to the iphone or ipad ,which only shows that iphone and ipad are very popular , congratulate Apple . and this is a nice article about iphone.

    best free iPhone 4 Apps: best-video-dvd-converter.blogspot.com/.../best-free-iphone-4-apps.html

  • Nater 147 Posts

    efjay:  Microsoft is apparently ignorant of how ridiculous it is to not support HTML email in 2010.  They use a protocol from 2003 when a working alternative is available, and continue to regurgitate the same tired lines we read upthread as if it is some answer to the question.

    If it would have taken longer to introduce ActiveSync had they gone with a useful version of it, all they had to do was keep their mouths shut and announce it when it was nearly complete, instead of months ago to gem up hype ---  all before making us laugh hysterically when we checked the Hotmail inboxes on our mobile phones and realized we could not read over half of our email, and would have to use a Computer or website to do it anyways...

  • I have been waiting for this future for years! Thanks for your work.

    But! I have problems with syncing contacts on Nokia E51 via Mail fo Exchange 2.09 and 3.00

    Please, check out this issue!

  • Thanks guys for Push support. Does it work on custom domains? I use account with my own domain through Live Admin Center for some time and I have Nokia E71 with RoadSync installed. Still get "failed authentifiation" error.  Even tried native client from nokia, no luck.

  • @steph and others

    The problem is with HTC's Sense Mail Client. I am using a Desire with Froyo (2.2) and I normally use the web, so you defintely don't need Windows Live Mail at any point.

    I found the Touchdown version on Android Market didn't work, but the beta version linked above does. I have also found that the default Android Email client (that HTC remove, but is available on the web) works too.

    Both Touchdown & the Android Client do syncing of email, contacts and calendar, and integrate into your phone's contact list.