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.
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:
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Open a GMail account.
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Configure your email client to use GMail's POP3 and SMTP services.
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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:
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What is POP? Or POP3? Or a POP account? And what about SMTP? POP, POP3 and SMTP are all acronyms that you might see used when talking about configuring email. We'll look at what they mean, and how they relate.
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How do I backup my GMail? Relying on free email services - even GMail - can be an unnecessary risk. Fortunately GMail makes it possible, even easy, to backup your email.
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From where can I download Outlook Express 6? Outlook Express 6 is part of Internet Explorer 6. But if you've moved on to IE7, then Outlook Express 6 can be difficult to locate and download.
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Are free email services worth it? Free email services and accounts are convenient and ubiquitous. But free email services aren't the right place to keep your important information.
Article C3166 - October 3, 2007
But it doesn't accept my "custom domain" either. Hotmail Help says, "You can forward e-mail that's sent to your Windows Live Hotmail Inbox or custom folder to another hotmail.com, MSN.com, Live.com, or Windows Live Admin Center e-mail address."
Posted by: alm at April 10, 2008 7:34 PM-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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Forwarding works for many people. Please read this article:
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_automatically_forward_my_windows_live_hotmail_mail.html
Leo
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Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at April 12, 2008 9:15 AMoiRYmOwtFtzQiiKdARWEQwE=
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You 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
Since (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
hi i am having trouble with the downloading of windows live messenger. my computer is telling me i lost the link every time i start to press the download button and goes to download screen. i have tried and tried to download it but not getting anywhere.
Posted by: sandy at July 17, 2009 9:04 PMi have windows messenger but for some reason it doesn't have the mail and file transfer and the other stuff that used to come with it so it is useless the way it is.for me to check mail i have to do it through the actual site now.
Great information. I tried it and it worked very, very well. Happy user of Thunderbird as well now. Thankk you for sharing!
Posted by: RInko Huisman at August 16, 2009 2:27 PMThis is what happend when the system whants to get control of everyone. Said no to hotmail close your account no micro.
Posted by: Luis Firpi at September 20, 2009 9:40 AM