Hotmail on your mobile (and iPhone!)

Tuesday 17th March 2009 by Andy Simpson in How to Guides.

I think I’m safe in saying that most people have, or have had a Hotmail account. Up until recently it was my main email account outside of work, but as I needed my own email while I was out and about, Hotmail lost its appeal as it was a web only email service and was only accessible by logging into the web/wap site on my phone – a slow and frustrating process.

Thankfully, Hotmail have now added POP3 support to their email services. For those that aren’t up to speed on email jargon, POP3 is a protocol that lets pretty much any email program send and receive email. So now it doesn’t matter whether you’re using your mobile, iPhone, BlackBerry, Mail on Ovi, Outlook, Thunderbird or any other email program, you can now get your email where ever you want!

To set up Hotmail on your phone or email application, these are the settings that you’ll need:

  • POP Server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)
  • POP SSL required: YES
  • Username: Your windows live ID/Email Address (myname@hotmail.co.uk)
  • Password: Your usual sign in password
  • SMTP server: smtp.live.com (Port 25)
  • Authentication Required: Yes (Same username and password as above)
  • TLS/SSL required: Yes

If you’re not familiar with setting up email on your phone, most handset manufacturers can send the settings through for you. Just make sure you have all the information listed above to hand, and then click on your manufacturer below to go to their email set up wizards.

If your handset manufacturer isn’t listed here, this just means that they don’t have a settings wizard, so you’ll need to consult the user manual for your handset to find out how to set up your phone for email.

For BlackBerry handsets, please see our guide on Setting up BlackBerry Email.

iPhone users simply need to add a new account, enter your username and password and the rest of the settings will be downloaded for you.

If you have a Samsung handset (Tocco Ultra in particular) and are having problems configuring your email account, the settings are explained in detail on the Mobile Fun Forums

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  • Craig Fitzpatrick

    This works great for receiving emails but should I be able to send emails using this method? Messages just seem to be languishing in my ‘Outbox’.

  • Craig Fitzpatrick

    Sorry, should have follwed all the instructions! It works fine!

  • Warreb

    I Went to nokia option as I have n96 and I was only sent 1 configuration message?

    I have done the settings manually myself and can recieve and connect to my inbox but I cannot sen messages?

    Can anyone help?

  • Andy

    You might need to change your ‘send’ settings to be those of your network provider.

    Let me know which network you’re on and i’ll hunt out the SMTP settings for you

  • Warren

    Hi Andy

    Thank you so much for your response it is appreciated.

    My network provider is T mobile

    My outgoing setting are as follows
    Outgoing Mail server: smtp.live.com (Port 25)
    Security: SSL/TLS
    Username:(myname@hotmail.com)
    Password: My Password
    Access Point in use T-mobile internet

  • Andy

    Hi Warren

    Try changing your smtp settings to this one:

    smtp.t-mobile.co.uk

    some networks restrict smtp access to other servers to prevent spam being sent.

    Andy

  • Warren

    It says internet server not found when trying to send?

  • Andy

    Which email program are you using on the phone? is it the email program on the phone or the mail on ovi application?

  • Andy

    if that smtp didn’t work, try smtp.t-email.co.uk

  • Warren

    Still doesn’t seem to be working

    It connects but doesn’t send the message, then disconnects leaving the message queued in the outbox.

  • Warren

    I am using a hotmail email address?

  • Warren

    Any ideas?

  • http://forums.mobilefun.co.uk/nokia/541-hotmail-nokia-n96.html#post2124 Hotmail on Nokia N96 – Mobile Fun Forums

    [...] on Nokia N96 The method on your blog works great for receiving emails but should I be able to send emails using this method? Messages [...]

  • Andy

    This might get lengthy, so I’ve moved this over to the forums to get this figured out for you – We will get this sorted :)

    Follow this on the Forums

  • suz

    I can not get this tor work for my Iphone. am I doing something wrong? please mail me

  • Warren

    I have registered but I can happily inform you setting up windows live messenger via the download link provided works for sending and reciving e-mails.

    The set up is nice and easy and solves the problem with setting up your hotmail on the N96.

    I hope others can be helped form this as it has taken me all day.

    Cheers

  • Andy

    Hi Suz,

    I’m uploading some pics to the forum now for the iphone settings.

    Click here to go to this thread on the forum

  • Andy

    Glad its all working now Warren. I’ve fixed the bug on the forum too.

    Andy

  • Sara

    I’ve just got the new Samsung Tocco Ultra and it’s a lovely phone but the manual only covers the basic functions so for things like setting up email there are no instructions at all! I’m trying to set up my Hotmail account and have used all the settings above. It seems to connect and tries to download then I get a message saying ‘Hotmail: invalid password or ID’. I have tried the SMTP address as both O2 and Live and it doesn’t make any difference. I have also checked my email address and password and both are correct. Any ideas?

  • Andy

    Hi Sara,

    Apologies if any of these questions seem obvious :)

    have you made sure that you’ve put the @hotmail.co.uk part of your email address in as your user ID?

    delete the password you entered and try it again too, sometimes, using a phone keypad, you get an extra press of a key without realising and you got a character wrong.

    If you’ve tried these and its still not working, let me know and i’ll get a phone out the warehouse and try it.

    Andy

  • Sara

    Andy,

    Yep I tried both of those things. I also tried it with another hotmail address I have (in case it didn’t like my email addrss for any reason) and that made no difference either. Also there seem to be slightly different setting suggestions elsewhere on the web (Wikipedia suggests different port numbers) so I tried those too. I’m no technical whizz but I really don’t think I’ve made any schoolboy errors on this!

    Sara

  • Andy

    Cool, Sorry for asking, but you’d be amazed at the things some people do :)

    I can’t get my hands on one until I’m back in the office on Monday, but will go through it step by step and see if there is anything slightly different on the Tocco Ultra

    Let me know if you manage to get it working in the mean time!

    Andy

  • Sara

    Thanks, will do.

  • http://www.mobilefun.co.uk Karen Hamilton

    Hello Andy, I am having the same issue as Sara, gone thru the whole process as given on the O2 website, checked all my settings passwords etc and when I try to download my e-mails I get the “invalid Password or ID” error – I am able to send e-mails thru my Samsung Tocco but not receive them. Hope you can help or offer some advice. Thanks Karen

  • Andy

    Hi Sara & Karen,

    I’m waiting for our delivery to arrive as we sold out over the weekend. Should be here mid morning, and as soon as it is I’ll get it set up on the phone and post back and let you know how I get on.

    Andy

  • Andy

    Right, sussed it!

    I’m guessing that like me you set it up using the email wizard, which only takes the bare basics off you in the way of information. Once you’ve finished the wizard, you need to go back in and edit a setting or two.

    On your email accounts screen, choose your hotmail account, on the next screen you can scroll down, and you need to look for “POP3 Port” it will probably say 110, if it does you need to scroll down a bit further to “secure connection” and change it to SSL. this should then change the port number above it to 995.

    Scroll down further and you’ll see the username field, this will probably only be the bit before the @ sign, you need to put your full email address in.

    Once that’s done, press save and come back to the messages menu, scroll down and hit settings -> email -> email profiles and make sure you’ve got a wap profile selected (not MMS) to connect to the net to download your emails.

    That should be all you need to change to get it working.

    The first time you connect you might see a security certificate error, accept it and your emails will start to download

    Any other problems let me know

  • Sara

    Got it, thanks for all your help Andy!

  • Andy

    No Worries! Glad its all working :)

  • JIm

    Having the same problem as sara with the tocco ultra and hotmail. Tried your advice above but to no avail still getting “invalid password or ID message.

    Any help would be most appriciated.

    Jim.

  • Andy

    Hi Jim, If all the port numbers are correct and the username is entered in full (with the bit after the @ sign) you shouldn’t be getting any errors.

    Can you access internet normally on the phone using the web browser?

    If you can, try deleting the email account off the handset, and then starting again from scratch, it might be that you’ve accidentally missed a step out.

  • Sara

    Hi Andy, me again! I’ve been happily downloading my emails for the past week or so without a problem but when I tried to respond to one for the first time this morning I got a message saying ‘Hotmail: No Response’. I have tried to re-send the message from my outbox several times since then but get the same error message every time.
    I also tried sending a new email (rather than a reply) as a test and I get the same error message every time and again, it just sits in the outbox. I’m afraid it seems the settings you gave out work fine for receiving but not for sending :-(

    Has anyone else had this problem?

    Sorry to drive you crazy btw!

  • Andy

    No worries, I was half expecting this to happen!

    Chances are your network have blocked the hotmail smtp server for sending emails, so you’ll need to change the SMTP server to o2′s (smtp.o2.co.uk) you’ll need to leave it as a secure one, but change the log in details to those of your o2 online account. When you sign in to your o2 account online, and go to mail, you should see that you’ve got an o2 email address, use that as your username and your o2 password as your password and that should fix it.

  • Sara

    Andy,

    You truly are a star, it all works perfectly now!

    Many, many thanks :-)

  • Andy

    Phew!

    Glad it’s sorted!

  • Angela

    Hi Andy, just got the tocco ultra and having same problems as Sara had – using the hotmail settings you gave my emails are downloading fine. But when trying to send its giving the username and password error. I then changed the SMPT server and log on and password to my O2 account details, but getting a connection failed message. Any ideas to be able to send and receive successfully?

  • Andy

    Hi Angela,

    The only thing jumping out at me is that its SMTP not SMPT?

    Might be worth double checking that – and apologies if thats just a typo on here :)

    Your o2 log on details isn’t your normal username and password that you use to view your bill, its your O2 email address and password – O2 will have created this for you when you got your phone.

  • mike

    i can not get hotmail pop settings to work on my sony ericsson w910i. i on payg with three.

    i have tried all the suggested settings and some variations, both manually on email client on phone and through the sony ericsson website.

    i have contacted microsoft support, three and sony ericsson and nobody seems to have the answer.

    please can anyone help me?

  • Mike

    I can not set up Hotmail on my Sony Ericsson w910i using POP settings.

    I have tried the suggested settings and other variations but nothing works. I have tried both manually and through the Sony Ericsson website.

    I have contacted Microsoft support, three.co.uk (my mobile network on PAYG) and Sony Ericsson but nobody can help.

    Can anyone here?

  • http://forums.mobilefun.co.uk/nokia/613-nokia-e71.html#post2450 nokia e71 – Mobile Fun Forums

    [...] How to – Nokia E71 support and this blog post has all the settings that you’ll need for hotmail: Hotmail on your mobile (and iPhone!) | The Mobile Fun Blog __________________ You’ve read the forum, now check out the Blog! [...]

  • http://thisone Juel

    I have got a samsung jet phone and read the comments on here and can successfully download emails from my hotmail account. however, i cannot send mail. i changed my smpt thing to send.vodafone.net as i found it somewhere on the internet…it’s still not working!!! would appreciate a reply…

  • Andy

    Hi Juel,
    I’m getting conflicting information on the vodafone website as to why you might have this problem. your best bet will be to speak to vodafone and get them to confirm the SMTP settings. Chances are you will need to authenticate your account somehow, but they will be the best people to tell you how to do this.

    There is an online settings wizard that might be able to set your phone up for you, but as I don’t have a vodafone account i can’t check it.
    http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=templateCClamp&pageID=OS_0096

  • Andrew

    Hi, I have a Samsung Tocco and I’m having the ‘invalid username and ID’ issue as above. I’ve read all the other comments and changed the settings to match, but I’m having the same problems. Help!

  • Andy

    Which network are you on?

  • David Williams

    I have 3 hotmail accounts, a hotmail.com which i set up with a silly name eons ago so I also set up a more formal one as a live.co.uk. I’ve also got a joint account which I share with my partner for online bills which is a hotmail.co.uk address.

    I can get the .com address working fine on my iPhone but the live.co.uk and the co.uk accounts can recieve mail but when I try to send i get an address not valid error message.

    This seems to be a common problem with .co.uk hotmail accounts but as of yet I can’t find a work around and the MSN team have been completely useless in dealing with it.

    Anyone got any ideas?

  • Tracy

    Help me please, I am trying to set up email on my phone I have the samsung toca and I can download them ok but for some reason I cannot sent them, I get the no response from hotmail thing !

    As far as I can see my settings are correct, am stumped ! Any suggestions?

  • Andy

    You’ll need to change your SMTP settings to match those of your network provider – who are you with?

  • Tracy

    Hi Andy

    I am with hotmail.com I have done the following and I still get the no response when trying to send an email. I am pulling my hair out !

    POP3 Server: pop3.live.com (port 995) – SMTP Server: smtp.live.com (port 25) {Note: If port 25 has been blocked in your network or by your ISP, you can set SMTP port to 587 with TLS or SSL Encryption depending on the client in use} Note: Please make sure to check the box that indicates that your outgoing server requires authentication (in most e-mail clients, this is not checked by default). – Username: your full e-mail address – Password: your Windows Live ID password Also, our POP3 service requires that you use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with the POP and SMTP connection and use SMTP authentication. This is to ensure that your e-mail address and password are not subject to tampering.

  • Andy

    Sorry, I meant which network is your phone with! You’ll need to change smtp.live.com to your network smtp settings

  • Tracy

    Oh sorry it’s vodafone

  • Andy

    No worries, try changing the smtp.live.com to send.vodafone.net and don’t tick the ‘requires authentication’ box

  • Tracy

    Andy you have no idea how long I have been trying to get that to work ! It says it has been sent so lets hope I recevie it.

    Thank you so much.

  • Andy

    No worries :)

    Glad I could help!

  • Tracy

    Andy

    For some reason it’s not sending the email, it says sent but you never recevie it !

  • Andy

    try changing the smtp port to 25 or 587, see if that works?

    Its odd that the handset says it’s been sent – that would normally suggest that the settings on the phone are right but there might be a problem with hotmail/vodafone

  • Tracy

    Port 25 works and it says it’s sentthe other gives a no response. But I still don’t get the email !

  • Andy

    Hi Tracy, Have you checked your spam/junk folder to see if it’s been tagged as junk?

    If you’re sending email from yourself, to yourself, it might be worth logging into the hotmail website to see if the emails are there – it might just be that there is a delay in your phone getting them?

    The settings should be:

    Account Name “hotmail”
    SMTP Server “send.vodafone.net”
    SMPT port “25″
    Secure Connection ON
    Incoming e-mail server POP3
    POP3 Server “POP3.live.com
    POP3 port “995″
    APOP login NOT TICKED
    Secure Connection SSL
    Download limit “300″ (everytime i change it to 5 it changes it back)
    IMAP4 Incoming e-mail NEW
    Retrieving option SUBJECT ONLY
    Keep on Server TICKED
    My address “emailaddress@hotmail.com”
    User name “emailaddress@hotmail.com”
    Password “your password”
    Use POP before NOT TICKED
    Use SMTP TICKED
    SAME AS POP3/IMAP4 NOT TICKED
    User name
    Password

  • Tracy

    Thanks Andy, yeah seems to all be there, I have tired sending ones to other emails adyy’s to and no such luck with retreving them.

  • Andy

    Right, I’ve had a look on the vodafone support forums and they’re saying that the hotmail smtp should work too, so, I’d suggest deleting your email off the account completely and starting again from scratch, but without using the account set up wizard that’s on the phone

    Account Name “hotmail”
    SMTP Server “smtp.live.com”
    SMPT port “587″
    Secure Connection OFF
    Incoming e-mail server POP3
    POP3 Server “POP3.live.com
    POP3 port “995″
    APOP login NOT TICKED
    Secure Connection SSL
    Download limit “300″ (everytime i change it to 5 it changes it back)
    IMAP4 Incoming e-mail NEW
    Retrieving option SUBJECT ONLY
    Keep on Server TICKED
    My address “mye-mail @hotmail. com”
    User name “mye-mail @hotmail.com”
    Password “my password”
    Use POP before NOT TICKED
    Use SMTP TICKED
    SAME AS POP3/IMAP4 TICKED
    User name “my e-mail @hotmail.com”
    Password “my hotmail password”

    You need to make sure that you’re using ssl on the smtp server too. I can’t get to a tocco at the mo to see the exact wording

  • Michelle

    Hi Andy/Tracy,

    I’ve just found this thread as I’m having the same problem with a htc hero handset on vodafone. It seemed like emails were all sorted to send out (finally!) but all I get is an email sent message but no emails appearing in a different account! Arrrrgh!

  • Andy

    Hi Michelle,

    If you’re having the same problem, but with a different phone on vodafone, then I’m pretty sure this will be caused by a problem on the vodafone network. It might be worth contacting vodafone and asking if they have any problems with their SMTP servers.

    If it was the settings on the phone, it wouldn’t send or say sent!

  • Michelle

    Hi Andy,

    It will be interesting to see if anyone at Vodafone can even understand that question, as over the past few days they’ve been no help at all in trying to sort out this email issue! But thanks for your input, I’ll give them a call tomorrow and will let you know how it goes.

  • Andy

    :) the joys of call centres eh!

    I used to work for vodafone, so I’ll try and get hold of some of my old colleagues, see if they can shed any light on this for us.

    Good luck! Let me know what they say

  • Pete

    I was having the same problem with sending e-mail from my Nokia 5800 on Vodafone, but then realised I had set up the Access Point in use to “Default”, and it was trying to connect using my wi-fi.

    If you change the Access Point to “Contract WAP” it works fine.

    I assume send.vodafone.net needs to see that you are connected on a mobile phone network to be able to send, and if you connect by Wi-fi it just sees an internet connection from a PC.

    Hope this helps.

  • Andy

    Looks like all the test emails that I tried to send while I was figuring this out are finally starting to be delivered! What ever the problem was with vodafone, it seems to be fixed now.

  • Brian

    THANKS SOOO MUCH!!

    lol i was just in the middle of sending a million qustions as to why my email wouldnt work and then they all started coming through!

    phones…..i love em and hate em !!

  • http://forums.mobilefun.co.uk/lg/846-lg-cookie-hotmail.html#post3457 LG Cookie Hotmail – Mobile Fun Forums

    [...] doesn't work on pay as you go, only contract. let me know how you get on with these settings: Hotmail on your mobile (and iPhone!) | Mobile Fun Blog Setting up Email on your Samsung Tocco | Mobile Fun Blog Andy __________________ You've read [...]

  • Judi

    Hello.

    I’ve been really frustrated with getting hotmail instant emails on my mobile. I have a samsung Jet, and I am on t-mobile. T-mobile have said that Hotmail need to check box in order for me to receive emails, as they can’t do anything from their else from their side.
    My SMTP server is: smtp.live.com
    SMTP PORT: 25
    SECURE CONNECTION: SSL
    INCOMING SERVER TYPE: POP3
    POP SERVER:POP3.LIVE.COM
    POP3 PORT: 995
    THE APOP LOGIN BOX IS CHECKED
    SECURE CONNECTION: SSL
    KEEP ON SERVER BOX IS CHECKED
    POP BEFORE SMTP BOX IS CHECKED
    SMTP AUTH. BOX IS CHECKED.

    MY username and password is fine.I cannot send or receive emails on my phone, and ive tried changing the smtp server to the t-mobile one.

    Ive also tried changing the email profile from email to t-mobile, and still not working.

    When I try to send am email, I keep getting the no response sign.

    Please help, as I am racking my brains about this.

    PS, Sorry that this message is so long winded, but I just wanted to give you all the information.

    Thank you.

    Judi

  • Andy

    Hi Judi,

    I’ve written a separate post that covers email on Samsung handsets, take a look at the settings info on these pages:
    http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/blog/2009/08/setting-up-email-on-your-samsung-tocco/
    http://forums.mobilefun.co.uk/samsung/566-hotmail-my-samsung-tocco-ultra-edition.html

    If you still have problems, add to the thread on the forums as other members with working phones will be able to offer their help too :)

    Andy

  • Judi

    Hi. I have a nokia e71. I am trying to get instant email on my phone for hotmail. I am using t-mobile. Do you have any ideas on the settings I need to receive this? Thank you.

  • rachel eden

    i have a samsung tocco lite and have the invalid message come up. i need help with yahoo email – can someone please send me the setting details for my phone? thanks

  • Andy Simpson

    Hi Rachel, There isn’t a way to get the settings sent to your phone, but there’s a thread on our forums that talks through getting email working on a tocco handsets in great detail:

    http://forums.mobilefun.co.uk/topic/347-hotmail-on-my-samsung-tocco-ultra-edition/