Setting Up an Outlook.com Exchange Account

[haravikk]

Okay, so I recently upgraded my Hotmail.com account to use Outlook.com for e-mail (but retaining my hotmail.com address as my login for now).

However, I'm trying to set up the account to use Microsoft Exchange but I'm having trouble.

When I open the Mail, Contacts & Calendars system preferences pane I choose to add an exchange account with my hotmail.com address as e-mail and enter the correct password. The pane tries for a hotmail server but gives up and asks for more details.

So I correct my username to be my full hotmail e-mail address, and I enter "m.outlook.com" as the exchange server which is what I believe it's supposed to be. However, the preference pane just complains that there was a problem and that I should check my login details. If I continue anyway then none of the accounts that it sets up work (as if my account details were wrong).


I've tried using hotmail addresses for the exchange server but none of them seem to work (invalid address) so I expect they may have been shut down.

Anyway, I've tried trawling through Microsoft's useless support documents; I couldn't even find one that gave details of exchange setup, only one mentioning it as the preferred method but going into no further detail whatsoever. I got the "m.outlook.com" address from user questions from a search; it seems like the right address and seems to be a valid server but it just won't accept my username and password.

Has anyone else managed to set up an Outlook.com e-mail account as an Exchange account on OS X Lion (or Mountain Lion)?

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by haravikk

...

Has anyone else managed to set up an Outlook.com e-mail account as an Exchange account on OS X Lion (or Mountain Lion)?

This can only be an option if Microsoft allows access to Hotmail via Exchange. Microsoft makes no mention of anything other than POP on its Live.com website.

[haravikk]

I've upgraded my hotmail account to an Outlook.com one though, so I'm not sure the previous restrictions on hotmail.com should still affect it?

[Weaselboy]

Last time (a couple months ago) I tried this, I found a outlook.com suport article that said Exchange is only for mobile devices. Desktop clients only have access to POP3. No IMAP and no Exchange. I recall the article said they were "considering" changing this.

[viniciusferrao]

You should use this app to get at least IMAP support with Outlook.com
http://fluentfactory.com/mboxmail/

[]'s

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by viniciusferrao

You should use this app to get at least IMAP support with Outlook.com
http://fluentfactory.com/mboxmail/

[]'s

This is an iPhone app. Because iPhone Mail does what the OP wants, your app is superfluous. The OP is trying to use the Exchange protocol on his Mac.

[haravikk]

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

Last time (a couple months ago) I tried this, I found a outlook.com suport article that said Exchange is only for mobile devices. Desktop clients only have access to POP3. No IMAP and no Exchange. I recall the article said they were "considering" changing this.

Ah, in that case I assume it's still like that then, so it looks POP3 is still my only option then. Thanks!

Sucks a bit though, as Outlook.com has a rather annoying feature of constantly "reminding" me that an application is using POP to access my mail if I sign into it from a browser… Microsoft's support documents are also delightfully vague and inconsistent as the one I read definitely said Exchange was available and made no mention of any restrictions, but at the same time also didn't give any hints as to how to set it up


Anyway, thanks for the responses!