How to setup Hotmail/Windows Live Email on your iPhone

Hey all!

About a week ago Microsoft finally rolled out the support for Hotmail/Windows Live emails so that they can be synced by the Mail app on your iPhone or iPhone 3G.

I have received a few emails with questions and problems, and so today I will post a brief step by step instruction on how to get Hotmail/Windows Live Mail working on your iPhone.

How to set-up Hotmail/Windows Live Email Accounts on iPhone

1.) Go to Settings. Tap on Mail, Contacts, and Calendar. Then under the Accounts heading, tap Add Account…. Then tap Other.

2.) Under Name, enter your Name. Under Address, enter your Hotmail or Windows Live Email address. Example: yo********@*****il.com

3.) Under Password, enter your email address password corresponding to the email address you just provided.

4.) Under Description, type a description. Example: My Hotmail Email. Then tap Save. A message will appear regarding Windows Live Plus. By-pass it by tapping Next in the top right corner of the iPhone.

5.) Under the Accounts heading, tap the email account you just created

6.) Under the Outgoing Mail Server heading, tap SMTP. Under the Primary Server heading, tap smtp.live.com

7.) Ensure Server in On. Ensure Use SSL is On. Ensure Authentication is Password. Ensure Server Port is 587 (or Port 25, apparently both work).

8.) Now tap SMTP in the top left corner of the iPhone screen. Then tap the top left corner of the iPhone screen again to return to the previous menu. Then tap Advanced.

9.) Under the Incoming Settings heading, ensure Use SSL is On. Ensure Authentication is Password. Ensure Server Port is 995.

10.) Tap the top left corner of your iPhone screen three times to return to the previous menu. Then click the home button.

And that should do it. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes in the comments below.

As always, if you have any specific comments or questions that you want addressed personally, drop me a line at: x1zero [at] iphoneincanada.ca.

Enjoy!

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dashparr
dashparr
17 years ago

I tested it a few days ago. For me, I was only able to check my hotmail inbox and nothing else. I hope they changed this.

Teebs
Teebs
17 years ago

I’d try this… The thing is I have like 500 emails in my inbox… Are they all going to be loaded and will they be red with the number of emails I have to check them out before they go away?

I want to add my hotmail account but I don’t want them all to look unread.

Brian
Brian
17 years ago

Very nice! Thanks for the tip. It’s about time. Too bad I’ve pretty much switched everything over to my Gmail cuz of my iPhone. Took Microsoft a little bit too long. Their loss =P.

Andrew
Andrew
Reply to  Brian
17 years ago

haha same thing happened to me i had a yahoo account for yahoo answers but used hotmail for everything else but iphone didnt support it so i had to switch everything over to yahoo but it was worth the hassle to get all my emails sent directly to my phone/ipod:)

Brian
Brian
17 years ago

Oh, and it appears that every email in my inbox up to the last one is apparently “unread” lol

ChantelleJoy
ChantelleJoy
17 years ago

I’m glad for this but removed it as quickly as I set it up.
I’d much rather check it manually via Safari — Same problem here as Brian, loads 50 emails, 49 “unread”. Even after I delete 5 or so, another 5 load from my list as Unread. Just annoying. Hopefully they’ll fix this and have it set up properly in future. *shakes fist at Microsoft*

Bull
Bull
17 years ago

This is nice feature that is welcomed.

But

You can set up a gmail account for free
Then log into your hotmail and under settings or options you can have all your incoming email forwarded to your gmail account.
So now you have email in your hotmail, and then a new copy will be forwarded to your gmail on the iphone.

dashparr
dashparr
Reply to  Bull
17 years ago

Hotmail didn’t let me forward emails to Gmail, only to other Hotmail accounts. Am I missing something?

Dustin
Dustin
17 years ago

Does hotmail send email via pop3 or IMAP? I already forward my hotmail to my gmail IMAP is the only way to go.

Stef
Stef
Reply to  Dustin
17 years ago

Hotmail works via POP3 currently…

chevymb
chevymb
17 years ago

i have simply set my hotmail account to forward my mail to my rogers/yahoo account.

Mystique
Mystique
17 years ago

Thanx so much X1Zero…..I was really excited to read this post & started following your excellent instructions…..Imagine my surprise when all I had to do was enter my email address and password and it was all set up; without all the extra steps!
I quickly realized that the reason why this must’ve worked is because I had an app from the AppStore called ‘MBoxMail’. This app put Hotmail on my Springboard and worked well!
So, I deleted the ‘MBoxMail App’, & went back to my Hotmail account in settings. Everything was in place still, even after doing a reset/re-start!
Soooo, just wanted to pass along this tip for people who may have had this app because it sure saved me all the steps!
Thanx again, once more iPhoneFan! What would we do without u?

Dusty
Dusty
17 years ago

Very nice X1Zero!

MikeM
17 years ago

Worked great. Although, all the steps you gave were default on my iPhone. I didn’t have to change anything. Now I don’t have to use the m-box app anymore, to get my Hotmail.

Thanks.

Snap Booty
Snap Booty
17 years ago

how can you get your exisiting hotmail folders to show up? that would be handy.. otherwise great heads up..

Justin
Justin
17 years ago

same problem as others with having all my email downloaded. I have 53 pages of emails in my hotmail account and dont want each one downloaded. Oh well

Kevin
Kevin
17 years ago

i use m-box mail app for my main hotmail account, and set this up for my spam account.

not enough functionality for my main one :/

NeelyOrr
NeelyOrr
17 years ago

Just did this and it worked but can’t send any e-mails, can only recieve. Anyone else have this issue? Kinda usless to be able to check messages but can’t reply to them. Keep getting message that “sender e-mail is invalid”. Just curious before I go and switch to Gmail or something.

X1Zero
X1Zero
Reply to  NeelyOrr
17 years ago

I just successfully sent an email from my hotmail to another account (gmail)

Check the server ports maybe?

HL
HL
Reply to  NeelyOrr
16 years ago

Did you ever get this fixed? I have the same problem and my server ports are what the instructions say?

Abdul
Abdul
17 years ago

hmm…I’m getting lost after clicking “Next” to Bypass the msg about Hotmail. My iPhone just brings a pop up saying “This email service does not work with the iPhone” and takes me to the Account details page asking for a valid incoming and outgoing server names + usernames and passwords. and i have no choice but to cancel
How do i get it show up under accounts?
Could it be because im still running firmware version 2.1?

X1Zero
X1Zero
Reply to  Abdul
17 years ago

Could be two things maybe.
1.) it has been found that not all email accounts have the functionality yet

2.) I would update your iPhone to 2.2 and then try.

Good luck

thatgadgetgirl
thatgadgetgirl
17 years ago

I just updated to 2.2.1 and I only had to add my hotmail just as I would any other address. It did the rest for me.

RyanG
RyanG
17 years ago

Works for me, but you can only see the inbox, which isn’t a bad thing.

zank
zank
17 years ago

if i set this up in the mail app, along with my existing gmail account, does it give me an option upon starting mail which mailbox i want to go into, and then be able to write an email from within that account and ahve it shown with “from” from that specific account? or will the email from my gmail and hotmail be merged into my mail app if i set up this along with my gmail one already set up?

X1Zero
X1Zero
Reply to  zank
17 years ago

Zank,

Yes, when you set up the hotmail, you will have additional mail accounts in the mail app listed. So you will have your existing Gmail account and below that the hotmail account.

To send an email from a specific email account, you tap and enter the account. So, tap “Mail”, then “Gmail” and then compose a message. That way, your “sent from” will be from Gmail. Same process for the hotmail account.

slicecom
slicecom
17 years ago

Too late M$. I permanently switched over to gmail when I got my iPhone and its better than hotmail in every way.

Joe Orbs
Joe Orbs
17 years ago

it worked right away… thanks for the tip…

Anna
17 years ago

Very nice! Thanks for the tip

Mich
Mich
17 years ago

Doesn’t seem to work for live.ca email accounts…

Greg
Greg
17 years ago

I have a live.ca account and was able to set it up.
pop acc. info setup

Host name: pop3.live.com
User name: put your live.ca email address here
Passwor: I put my password in even though it was optional

outgoing Mail Server (under the smtp tabs as above)

host name: smtp.live.com
User Name: email address again xxx.live.ca
Password: again I put may password in

after I changed the settings like this …. it worked fine.

Good Luck

iPhone Fan
Reply to  Greg
17 years ago

Thanks for taking the time to help out and post this info!

richmond
richmond
17 years ago

doesn’t work with hotmail, don’t bother trying

X1Zero
X1Zero
17 years ago

Yes,
it does work.
I have my hotmail accounts synced fine, as do hundreds of other users.

Ang
Ang
16 years ago

I am having trouble doing this with a live.ca account… if you can help me I'd really appreciate it.

donaldtrisdale
donaldtrisdale
16 years ago

the directions for syn hotmail folders wih iphone did NOT work. I only got INbox and Trash. Verified all instructions.

Victoria
Victoria
16 years ago

Any tips on how to access the Windows Live contacts through the iPhone contacts icon? Or even how to populate the contacts list on the iPhone — perhaps through a .csv file export from Windows Live Mail and uploaded through iTunes? Not sure if that has been done. I really need my contacts!!!!!

iphoneincanada
16 years ago

You could import your Windows Live contacts into Windows Address Book on
your PC, then sync WAB within iTunes. That should have all your Windows Live
contacts on the iPhone.

DBensen
DBensen
16 years ago

How about for LIVE.CA e-mail accounts. The process above does not work.

DBensen
DBensen
16 years ago

Oh my! Thank you for this info, I haven't been able to get it working till now!

jamesang
jamesang
16 years ago

No matter how many times I try to follow the instructions again, it was not successful at all. It keeps prompting “The username or passowrd for “SMTP:XX*@*****il.com@smtp.live.com” is incorrect for sending out mail. Please tell me how to resolve this…thanks!!

navysealer
navysealer
16 years ago

if your e-mail address is for canadians and is a @live.ca address shouldn't the pop3 and smtp addresses be live.ca as well instead of live.com?

Dee
Dee
16 years ago

I am able to see my hotmail emails…but cant respond to them via the iphone. I get a message that the sender address was invalid. What do I need to do to correct this? Thanks

Mitsiii
Mitsiii
16 years ago

Hi there,

This was originally the only set of decent instructions I could find for setting up Windows Live email on my iPhone so thanks!! However, I have never been able to send emails – I get various error messages like:

Cannot send mail – The sender address was invalid (100% positive it is always correct) or something about the smtp.live.com being incorrect or the password not being right. I have tried with and without the username and password in the outgoing mail settings to no avail. Have also checked my settings against someone who has a Hotmail account set up on their iPhone although they have an older version of iPhone software and appears to be slightly different the settings are the same…

Desperately hoping someone can help?

Rogers WCTS
Rogers WCTS
16 years ago

your suppoe to have SSL turned off.
rogers tech suppoert agent.

Wanda
Wanda
16 years ago

that was easy! Thanks it worked great!

Ang
Ang
16 years ago

Would you know how to get this working for live.ca accounts? I see others have the same problem but I don't think anyone has really laid out if this can be set out or not and if so, how… I've tried but the process for live.com accounts doesn't work. Thought you might know being a rogers tech.

jess
jess
16 years ago

hmmm, i've tried all of the above and i still keep getting the same original error message….. finding this rather frustrating….

confused
confused
16 years ago

My phone requests a Host Name, User Name, and Password under Incoming mail server and the same under outgoing mail server and it also wants you to choose between IMAP and POP.

Glen
Glen
16 years ago

I get a Cannot Send Mail message that says the sender address was invalid. I have check and the email is correct. It has done this with several emails. I have checked all of the setting and they are as required. I am using port 587 but have also used 25.

Ray
Ray
15 years ago

before i couldn't get it to work, but now suddenly it works, i don't know if i did something different or what. but you put pop3.live.com for the incoming server and your username and password, then for outgoing you pu smtp.live.com but do not enter your username or password. i hope this helps (:

Mfornalik
Mfornalik
15 years ago

Thanks much! Worked easily enough and searched for instructions for 30 minutes! Awesome!

Cesar Lourenço
Cesar Lourenço
15 years ago

Thanks no my ipod is working fine! That really helps!

C Pottinger
C Pottinger
15 years ago

THISDOES NOT WORK

C Pottinger
C Pottinger
15 years ago

THISDOES NOT WORK

Khanh
Khanh
15 years ago

Mitsiii

I was just trying to send an email for the first time on the iPhone just now and it gave me the same (or similar) error message. What I did was went to the page as stated in the of step 6 and ensure your email is in the User Name box and your Password is in the box below it. As soon as I put that in, my outbox'd email sent immediately! Hope that works.

Omar
Omar
15 years ago

this works great!

shounak deshpande
shounak deshpande
15 years ago

Hey folks.

Here's a working solution I found.

Simply go to settings on your iphone

Go to settings, create a new mail account.

Enter your basic information
NAME
USER NAME xy*@**ve.ca or live.com
YOUR PASSOWRD *******
Description xyz account

Now in the next page,

POP account information
NAME aosindason
Address xy*@**ve.ca or xyz@ live.com
Description aosidnoasin

HOST NAME(Incoming mail server) POP3.LIVE.COM
USERNAME xy*@**ve.ca or xy*@**ve.com {specify the email! wont work with just the username!)
PASSWORD *****

Out going mail server is SMTP.live.com
No need to add username and password here!

save it- it will ask you “wana proceed without ssl?” SAy no, then save , save again.

Then go to outgoing mail server>primary server> SSL ON check port , it must be 587>DONE

Then go to advanced >incoming settings> SSL ON> server port 995

That's it!-
Your are done!

Remember key things,
SSL must be on for both servers, ports as specified above for all live.com and live.ca accounts. It must work!

Cheers,
shounak deshpande

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