Must Read: Sorry, but bringing back the Start menu won't help Windows 8

Topic: Cloud

How to connect Hotmail and Gmail accounts to Outlook 2013 preview

Summary: If you're using the just-released preview of Outlook 2013, you might have run into a bug that prevents you from properly setting up a Hotmail account. Here's a workaround, and some bad news for Gmail users.

Ed Bott

By for The Ed Bott Report |

If you’ve installed the Office 2013 preview, you might notice one welcome addition in the mail setup routine for Outlook 2013. It now supports Exchange ActiveSync as an explicit option.

That means you no longer have to install the kludgey Outlook Connector to set up a Hotmail account with Outlook.

Unfortunately, as I discovered in my testing, the account setup wizard doesn’t always detect Hotmail accounts correctly. If you enter a Hotmail address and it can't set up Exchange ActiveSync, it will try to set up your account using POP and SMTP support. Bad idea.

The good news is there’s a simple workaround.

In Outlook, click File. On the Info tab (shown below), click Add Account.

eb-outlook2013-hotmail-1

That opens the Add Account dialog box, with Auto Account Setup selected. Don’t enter your email address and password here. Instead, click Manual setup or additional server types and then click Next.

In the Choose Service dialog box (shown below), select Exchange ActiveSync and click Next.

eb-outlook2013-hotmail-2

Fill in the Server Settings dialog box using your name, email address (Hotmail.com, Live.com, or MSN.com), and password. In the Mail server box, enter m.hotmail.com. Your settings should look similar to these.

eb-outlook2013-hotmail-3

Click Next to continue. Outlook will test your connectivity, and if you’ve configured things properly you’ll see a new message store in the navigation pane on the left, with your Hotmail messages arriving.

As for Gmail, the news isn’t as good. Although Gmail supports Exchange ActiveSync on mobile devices, it offers only POP and IMAP options with Outlook. If you try to set up a Gmail account manually using Exchange ActiveSync, you’ll be unsuccessful.

Historically, IMAP performance in Outlook using Gmail accounts has been dreadful. I’ll be testing it in this preview release to see if things have improved, but I’m not holding my breath.

If I find a workaround for the latter limitation, I’ll update this post.

See also:

Topics: Cloud, Microsoft, Software

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

16 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • Google/Outlook Calendar Sync.....

    ....also seems broken to me. I repeatedly get asked which outlook profile I want to use, if I hit cancel then I get a Google Connector Sync error.
    alsw
    Reply Vote

    • Let Loverock Davidson know your problem & he'll contact someone in Redmond

      and have it fixed within six months to a year. Loverock never fails to help.............just ask him
      Linux_Lives
      Reply 3 Votes

      • Oh, yeah!

        Let's make Loverock Davidson work helpdesk for Outlook problem - pretty much guarantees he won't have time to post crap on zdnet.
        vgrig
        Reply 1 Vote

    • Fix

      Go to control Panel > Mail/Mail (32-Bit) > Profiles > Always use selected profile and choose the correct one =)
      Btsmith91
      Reply Vote

  • Do you "live" in Outlook

    Do you want to stare at the bleak, washed-out, grey-on-white navigation pane on the left-hand side of Outlook 2013 for the next few years? If not, you need to e-mail, blog and post to implore Microsoft not to make the Outlook 2013 interface so dull, drab and lifeless. Forget the cloud integration features or Metro styling, no one will want to look at the colorless and washed-out interface for more than a few hours, so Outlook 2013 could be a flop for this reason alone. Microsoft is piling mistake on top of mistake in GUI design. What is the benefit of making the interface so barren? What focus group looked at Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 side-by-side and cried out, "Give us LESS color! Make the screen DEPRESSING!" ???
    YukioCowboy
    Reply 7 Votes

    • Oh, goody!

      Dull interface - does that mean it'll be easier to server this insane emotional attachment users have to Outlook?
      Then i vote - no changes!
      Outlook is not a nightmare it used to be, but still a crap (i know, i know - users love it!).
      vgrig
      Reply 1 Vote

  • When will Microsoft ever learn???

    Anyone running other mail clients such as Evolution, Thunderbird, etc...can set up Hotmail and Gmail accounts very easily, both Pop and IMap. Why does Outlook still have these issues after all this time??? And they wonder why the Microsoft bashing continues.....
    linux for me
    Reply 1 Vote

  • One would think it'd work right out of the box...

    But why referring to the "kludgey Outlook Connector"?
    For me (still on the much preferred interface of Outlook 2003), I have never had issues with the Outlook Connector. It allows me to both read/download, message into Outlook, but also to upload message from (any account in) Outlook into a Live service such as Hotmail.
    wellcraft19
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Problem Syncing

    So I add my Hotmail account and only in Outlook 2013 I get this error "There are too many devices syncing with this account. To sync using Outlook, try removing another device that is connected with this account such as a phone or another computer." For me that defeats the whole purpose.
    User94327
    Reply Vote

  • Only default calendar

    When using older versions of Outlook and the Outlook connector I can get all my Hotmail calendars that I created. In Outlook 2013 I only get my default Hotmail calendar. A big show stopper for me.
    User94327
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Only default calendar

      Same issue here...I can only get my default Hotmail calendar. Beta-software I know, so I assume they're working on it (I sent them a frown :-).

      So far I'm digging Office 2013 though. I'm just about ready to rip off the bandaid and switch full time from gmail to hotmail. Crossing my fingers that Microsoft will offer a sweet upgrade deal on Office 2013 like they are for Windows 8.
      Chris Crawford
      Reply 1 Vote

      • Good luck

        Good luck with that -- if you use event reminders much in Gmail/Google Apps, you'll find Google's offering much more robust. For some mysterious reason, Hotmail limits event reminder at 2 weeks out. If you want reminders prior to 2 weeks, you're out of luck. Tried my personal domain hosted with Hotmail for a while, couldn't take the Calendar limitations in general -- Google's Calendar is much better...
        benjitek
        Reply Vote

  • What about Hotmail hosted domain

    I have my domain's email (for example, mypersonaldomain.com) hosted by Hotmail. Any magic needed to get that working?
    Flydog57
    Reply Vote

  • What about Yahoo apps?

    I've been using it for years and would love to be able to sync a calendar and contact list.
    khunter
    Reply Vote

  • Not Syncing

    Followed the steps but its not syncing. Can anyone suggest me a solution ?
    DK Ningthouja
    Reply Vote

  • Thanks

    Thank You! I have been having great trouble trying to connect my outlook to an email address and I couldn't even open it up to use the calendar or anything at all. But now that I have the correct mail server name from you I have finally got it to work. Thanks a lot!
    Questionablely
    Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close