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Summary: Windows Live Hotmail has no POP3 or SMTP settings with which to download your mail. However if you use certain mail programs, you can still download.
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What are Hotmail's POP3 and SMTP settings? I want to download my email into my desktop email program instead of using the new Windows Live Hotmail user interface. |
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Update Microsoft has apparently started to roll out true POP3/SMTP support. Please read: What are Windows Live Hotmail's POP3 and SMTP settings? for the latest informaion. |
That's actually a representative question that brings together a couple of things that people have been asking for:
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There is an answer, but unfortunately the answer won't make everyone happy.
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In the past, users of Outlook Express were able to download email from their MSN Hotmail accounts directly into OE. Unfortunately Microsoft began phasing this out some years ago without providing a suitable replacement. Essentially MSN Hotmail users were left out in the cold - the official line was that they had to use the web interface and only the web interface.
In recent months things appear to have changed.
Windows Live Mail, which is a free downloadable desktop email program that effectively replaces Outlook Express officially supports Windows Live Hotmail accounts. In other words you can configure Windows Live Mail to download your Windows Live Hotmail mail.
Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is a free downloadable add-in for Microsoft Outlook 2003 or 2007 that adds support for downloading your Windows Live Hotmail directly into Outlook.
This is great news for users of those email programs, or those willing to switch to those email programs. Among other things it means that there's now an official way to download and backup your Windows Live Hotmail.
However if you use another email program things are still not so rosy.
If, like me, you use Thunderbird, there is the WebMail extension. Using this extension you can download not only Windows Live Hotmail, but also several other web-based email accounts into Thunderbird. The downside is that it's naturally not supported by Microsoft. And of course it requires that you run Thunderbird. All that being said, it's a fine solution for Thunderbird users.
I'm not aware of solutions for other mailers.
Specifically, where this comes up short for many people, is that I'm not aware of a solution for mobile devices such as Blackberry or Palm PDA and phones. Those require standard POP3/SMTP email settings, which Windows Live Hotmail does not supply. Naturally you can view your Hotmail in a web browser, but on portable devices that's often very difficult to manage.
However, there is a workaround.
Windows Live Hotmail will now allow you to forward your email to another address. So, to receive your email using a mailer that requires a POP3/SMTP connection, you can:
Open a GMail account.
Configure your email client to use GMail's POP3 and SMTP services.
Configure your Windows Live Hotmail account to automatically forward all incoming email to your GMail account.
That's all there is too it. Now you can access all the email sent to your Windows Live Hotmail account on whatever device you prefer. If your device supports the configuration, you can even change it to set your return address to be "From:" your Hotmail address, even though you might be sending through GMail.
Related:
Ask Leo! - What is POP? Or POP3? Or a POP account? And what about SMTP?
Ask Leo! - How do I backup my GMail?
Ask Leo! - From where can I download Outlook Express 6?
Ask Leo! - Are free email services worth it?
Article C3166 - October 3, 2007
Tried what you suggested as far as forwarding hotmail address to my Gmail account, MS now has this disabled as well.. figures..
Posted by: Shawn Stietz at May 21, 2008 12:30 PMhotmail will not allow me to forward email directly to my new gmail account??
Posted by: Victoria at June 18, 2008 5:48 AMI want to ask, how i can login on my hotmail? I by new computer and i cant login:-(((((
Posted by: GOCA at July 10, 2008 5:01 AMYou can synchronize your hotmail messages to your MS-Outlook by usinbg Microsoft Outlook Connector. Search the internet for this small file provided by Microsoft and install it on your machine. I use this file to synchronize my emails with MS-Outlook, it is working with MS-Outlook.
Posted by: Fadi at October 4, 2008 5:42 PMLet me know if you have any problem.
Thanks
For those with a paid Hotmail account, forwarding the mail to a POP3 type, such as GMAIL is an option. From your live.com email webpage, select "Options" (right side of screen), then "More Options (bottom of list), then "Manage Your Account", then "Forward Mail to Another Account".
Posted by: jac5219 at October 14, 2008 6:44 PMSir,
How do I download my gmail account on my out-look express
22-Oct-2008
I just want to have Mail on my MacBook Pro and Thunderbird on my Windows machine to fetch my mail from this server. I hate using web based email with a passion. I much prefer an application that does it for me. How do I do this?
Posted by: Kyle at December 18, 2008 7:41 AMwhenever i try to download it says this link appears to be broken how do i fix it?
Posted by: David at May 21, 2009 6:59 AMSince (at least a short while ago) the new "improved" free Windows Live Hotmail was unable to store messages on the local computer (which you could do before by getting a "Print" view), and because my father was running Windows 2000, which can't run Windows Live Mail client, which can download messages from Windows Live Hotmail, I finally found a solution: the premium service Windows Live Hotmail Plus (about $20/year) does offer POP3 access, and my father can get it using OE.
However: http://mailcall.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!CC9301187A51FE33!44348.entry (September 21 of an unclear year) claims that MS plans to offer POP3 access to all Hotmail sometime, and http://email.about.com/od/windowslivehotmailtips/qt/et_pop_access.htm claims that it's available now. FWIW
31-May-2009