Getting hotmail to work like gmail

[lucidstate]

Ok so my gut is telling me this just isn't going to happen, but I would like to get a hotmail account to work like my gmail account does with my phone (moto droid 1). I've tried using both the stock email app and K-9. I set up K-9 to check for mail every 1 minute, but it takes much longer than that to see new emails. Deleting a mail on my phone sometimes instantly deletes it on the server, and other times it takes forever.

If it turns out that hotmail is just too weak to pull this off, what should I look to for an alternate email solution that can instantly sync with my phoen liek gmail does? The account in question is actually the main email account for the business I work for, so I kinda want to get it changed anyway since it's not very professional

 

[MarkY3130]

Microsoft just recently made normal hotmail accounts available to work as exchange accounts. What this means is you can use the stock email app with hotmail and it will sync all the folders between the phone and the web based version. (Sent emails from the phone show up on web version etc)
Open stock email app
Add account
Input username and password then click manual setup
Choose exchange
After slash put in full hotmail email address
Change server to m.hotmail.com
Check both boxes
Hit next/continue (can't remember)
And it should work. You manage the syncing both in the app and in the main phone settings under "accounts and sync". Works perfect for me and was what I waited for forever!

 

[lylez]

follow-up question on using exchange with hotmail

Microsoft just recently made normal hotmail accounts available to work as exchange accounts. What this means is you can use the stock email app with hotmail and it will sync all the folders between the phone and the web based version. (Sent emails from the phone show up on web version etc)
Open stock email app
Add account
Input username and password then click manual setup

I'm good up until this point. I don't see how to select "manual setup", although there is a checkbox for automatic setup, so I unchecked that.

Choose exchange

Once I click next, I am taken to a screen that displays:
General Settings
Incoming Server
Outgoing Server
Other Settings

General settings simply allows me to enter the account name, "Real name", and email address.

Under "Incoming Server", I can select "Pop mail server", or "IMAP mail server". Those are my only two choices from the drop-down list. I tried IMAP, but I don't think IMAP is the same as Exchange, and it didn't work anyway.

From here, I'd pretty much fallen off the rails, and wasn't sure what to do next. Any suggestions? - thanks, Lyle

After slash put in full hotmail email address
Change server to m.hotmail.com
Check both boxes
Hit next/continue (can't remember)
And it should work. You manage the syncing both in the app and in the main phone settings under "accounts and sync". Works perfect for me and was what I waited for forever!

 

[BigMcGuire]

Ok so my gut is telling me this just isn't going to happen, but I would like to get a hotmail account to work like my gmail account does with my phone (moto droid 1). I've tried using both the stock email app and K-9. I set up K-9 to check for mail every 1 minute, but it takes much longer than that to see new emails. Deleting a mail on my phone sometimes instantly deletes it on the server, and other times it takes forever.

If it turns out that hotmail is just too weak to pull this off, what should I look to for an alternate email solution that can instantly sync with my phoen liek gmail does? The account in question is actually the main email account for the business I work for, so I kinda want to get it changed anyway since it's not very professional

What about forwarding your hotmail email to your Gmail account (linked with your Android phone)? Then inside of your Gmail go to Settings --> Mail Settings --> Accounts and Imports Tab ---> Send Mail from another Address -- and add your hotmail account there. So when you go to your gmail app you can compose mail and hit the drop down at the top and choose Hotmail. This is what I used to do.

Now I just have Gmail checking my Yahoo, work, and Hotmail accounts as pop3 (pop3.live.com) - but I have Hotmail Plus/Pro/whatever so I'm not sure if that works for non-plus users. Granted this method (pop) means I don't get the mail right away - so that's why you can forward email in Hotmail to your Gmail for instant retrieval.

 

[takeshi]

Under "Incoming Server", I can select "Pop mail server", or "IMAP mail server". Those are my only two choices from the drop-down list. I tried IMAP, but I don't think IMAP is the same as Exchange, and it didn't work anyway.

Nope, it is not. You need to find an app that supports ActiveSync.

What about forwarding your hotmail email to your Gmail account (linked with your Android phone)? Then inside of your Gmail go to Settings --> Mail Settings --> Accounts and Imports Tab ---> Send Mail from another Address -- and add your hotmail account there. So when you go to your gmail app you can compose mail and hit the drop down at the top and choose Hotmail. This is what I used to do.

The mail fetcher polls. And you have no control over the polling interval. It's nothing like ActiveSync.

Microsoft just recently made normal hotmail accounts available to work as exchange accounts.

Just to clarify, they don't "work as Exchange accounts". Hotmail supports ActiveSync.