Microsoft / Outlook / Hotmail Up To More Tricks

[JetsetBkk]

Well, not exactly "tricks", just screwing their long term customers yet again.

Yesterday one of my Hotmail accounts could not be accessed by Outlook Express. I had to log in using as browser, go to the Options page, find the POP settings and re-enable POP which had mysteriously been disabled. The account had been changed from "Hotmail" to "Outlook".

Today a similar problem with another Hotmail account, except this time the "Options" page did not appear until I logged out of the account and logged in again.

Thanks MS, you really are fun to work with.

[Pib]

Same thing happen to me around 22 April/a Friday. I have a Microsoft live.com and outlook.com accounts and use Outlook to do a POP3 access. Had been working fine for years, although occasionally (maybe once or twice a year) when Outlook is accessing my various gmail, live, and outlook accounts one account might not be accessible for some reason, but it would always clear-up in a few hours...one day worst case.

Anyway, on/about 22 Apr my live.com email account couldn't be accessed via Outlook, but I could access it via a browser or the MS Mail app in Windows. And I had the same problem on on three of my computers so it just wasn't some issue with only one of my computers.

OK, I told myself it always clears up in a few hours or maybe a day worst case, but it didn't this time. So on 24 Apr/Sunday afternoon when logging onto my live.com account via a browser I went into the setting and found POP access had been disabled. So, I reenabled it and now POP works again...can access via Outlook. But for my outlook.com account the POP has stayed enabled.

Bottomline I expect some software upgrade on the MS accounts end had disabled my POP access on my live.com account but left my outlook.com account alone.

[lostinisaan]

MY Hotmail account seems to be hijacked by Hotmail pirates. It's completely different and i don't even see a chance to get back to the ordinary Hotmail, not outlook.

And i only have one bullet for my Magnum....

[Suradit69]

I access Hotmail accounts (and GMail) through Thunderbird. No problems (so far).

[Halfaboy]

Also my welcome / logon screen to Hotmail has (been) changed.

Waiting for more info on this subject.

[DogNo1]

My hotmail account is totally screwed up. Microsoft apparently moved everryone over to Exchange Server. What used to be labelled Outlook is now changed to Mail. I have ended with my Global Online (my email ISP provider) account connected to the Outlook account at two places under different names. I wasn't receiving email on my hotmail or Global Online accounts so I appealed to Microsoft for help. An agent took control of my computer remotely, disconnected Global Online from the hotmail account and then installed it as an alias. I am now able to send emails from Global Online but I am not receiving emails because they disconnected the account. I tried reconnecting the account but got it delivering emails to the Hotmail folder again but not sending email. My online Outlook/Hootmail is terribly messed up and I don't know how to fix it. I have defaulted to Gmail which is working fine. I don't think the support technicians yet understand what has happened and how badly people's accounts are screwed up. They were not able to clean up the two redundant connections to Global Online. I did try re-enabling POP that that didn't help. I'm now wondering if there is any way to completely reset my Outlook/Hotmail account. Any ideas will be appreciated.

[topt]

Also my welcome / logon screen to Hotmail has (been) changed.

Waiting for more info on this subject.

Mine changed some weeks/months ago and initially I had to retype in every time my full email address. Thankfully this has now reverted back to remembering it once I enter the first character.........

Otherwise just a different look.

[JetsetBkk]

<snip>

So on 24 Apr/Sunday afternoon when logging onto my live.com account via a browser I went into the setting and found POP access had been disabled. So, I reenabled it and now POP works again...can access via Outlook. But for my outlook.com account the POP has stayed enabled.

<snip>

Some years ago MS tried to drop the protocol that Outlook Express uses to access Hotmail, but after a lot of protests they relented.

They also tried to make people pay for POP access to Hotmail. As someone who has always used Outlook Express to access Hotmail for free, they promised to continue to allow us "long term" users free access.

But I don't know what happened to this "pay for POP" idea. I guess competition from Gmail may have put a stop to that.

So now they have changed two of my Hotmail accounts to Outlook accounts and have "forgotten" to enable POP access for them.

Deliberate or incompetent?

Edit:

I just found an article on the history of the DAV protocol / stoppage / as-you-were MS screw-up:

In 2004 Microsoft stopped allowing new Hotmail users access to their accounts using WebDav, old Hotmail accounts still worked, but if new subscribers wanted their Hotmail account to work with programs like MailWasher or Outlook Express they had to sign up for Hotmail Premium.

http://www.firetrust.com/en/blog/chris/hotmail-now-with-free-pop3-and-imap-access

[DonaldBattles]

Like most other Microsoft internet programs Outlook really sucks. You have no record of sent Emails. When replying the original message option for answering is not there. You have to go to the trouble of deleting the original message if you don't want it included in your reply. Windows and virus is a big problem. I switched over to Apple 10 years ago but my wife's computer is on Windows. What a friging nightmare. On my Apple I can run both Windows and OAS side by side but I never open the Windows portion because there are always problems. Since Bill Gates left Microsoft has gone way down hill.

[mikebell]

I occasionally have to (try) to use Outlook but can't find the send button.

[Old Croc]

I've had several messages like this which I have ignored and deleted.

[Pib]

I got my first email account with MS many years ago when I just got a whim for another email account other than with my Internet Service Provider and Gmail. Later on I got a second account due to a signup for MS Office 365. So I have two MS accounts but I never use them to send mail or give out those email addresses for use...they are basically just backup accounts or accounts I got due to use of a MS product. My Gmail accounts provide 99.9% of my email use. The MS email accounts are basically a spare tire that rarely get used to send/receive email but the account's do get checked frequently via Outlook pop access when also accessing my other email accounts.

[thedemon]

I've had several messages like this which I have ignored and deleted.

Capture.PNG

That email doesn't come from Microsoft. It is a phishing attempt.

The spelling error (De-activate) and bad English gives it away easily.

[JetsetBkk]

I got my first email account with MS many years ago when I just got a whim for another email account other than with my Internet Service Provider and Gmail. Later on I got a second account due to a signup for MS Office 365. So I have two MS accounts but I never use them to send mail or give out those email addresses for use...they are basically just backup accounts or accounts I got due to use of a MS product. My Gmail accounts provide 99.9% of my email use. The MS email accounts are basically a spare tire that rarely get used to send/receive email but the account's do get checked frequently via Outlook pop access when also accessing my other email accounts.

My first was with CompuServe Remember those 10-digit numbers [at] CompuServe.com? Mine was something like 100774.1744 [at] .... Then they let us use our real names [at] CompuServe.com. Exciting times!

[DogNo1]

I worked on both Outlook.com and Outlook 2016, the application that came with Office 365 for a couple of hours today. I'm happy to report that my Hotmail account and my ISP email account (Global Online) are both successfully sending and receiving from my Gmail. I disconnected and reconnected my Hotmail account from Outlook and discovered that somehow during the Exchange Server changeover, my Hotmail account got connected as [email protected] (1). I disconnected that and reconnected the account without the (1). Everything started working again but I have a whole bunch of redundant folders that I can't seem to get rid of or organized very well. I'm now considering establishing new pst and ost files as repositories for a new collection of folders. I have try to backup everything up though. There used to be a program called "Outback" to do this. This is all Microsoft's fault. It seems as though different generations of developers don't articulate very well with the earlier generation.

[Pib]

Same thing happen to me around 22 April/a Friday. I have a Microsoft live.com and outlook.com accounts and use Outlook to do a POP3 access. Had been working fine for years, although occasionally (maybe once or twice a year) when Outlook is accessing my various gmail, live, and outlook accounts one account might not be accessible for some reason, but it would always clear-up in a few hours...one day worst case.

Anyway, on/about 22 Apr my live.com email account couldn't be accessed via Outlook, but I could access it via a browser or the MS Mail app in Windows. And I had the same problem on on three of my computers so it just wasn't some issue with only one of my computers.

OK, I told myself it always clears up in a few hours or maybe a day worst case, but it didn't this time. So on 24 Apr/Sunday afternoon when logging onto my live.com account via a browser I went into the setting and found POP access had been disabled. So, I reenabled it and now POP works again...can access via Outlook. But for my outlook.com account the POP has stayed enabled.

Bottomline I expect some software upgrade on the MS accounts end had disabled my POP access on my live.com account but left my outlook.com account alone.

And today/24 May it happened to my outlook.com email address...that is, POP was disabled in the settings and Outlook could not access the access the account. Same thing that happened to my live.com email address around 22 Apr.

The fix today for the outlook.com account was the same as for the live.com account last month---reactivated POP access.

[JetsetBkk]

Same thing happen to me around 22 April/a Friday. I have a Microsoft live.com and outlook.com accounts and use Outlook to do a POP3 access. Had been working fine for years, although occasionally (maybe once or twice a year) when Outlook is accessing my various gmail, live, and outlook accounts one account might not be accessible for some reason, but it would always clear-up in a few hours...one day worst case.

Anyway, on/about 22 Apr my live.com email account couldn't be accessed via Outlook, but I could access it via a browser or the MS Mail app in Windows. And I had the same problem on on three of my computers so it just wasn't some issue with only one of my computers.

OK, I told myself it always clears up in a few hours or maybe a day worst case, but it didn't this time. So on 24 Apr/Sunday afternoon when logging onto my live.com account via a browser I went into the setting and found POP access had been disabled. So, I reenabled it and now POP works again...can access via Outlook. But for my outlook.com account the POP has stayed enabled.

Bottomline I expect some software upgrade on the MS accounts end had disabled my POP access on my live.com account but left my outlook.com account alone.

And today/24 May it happened to my outlook.com email address...that is, POP was disabled in the settings and Outlook could not access the access the account. Same thing that happened to my live.com email address around 22 Apr.

The fix today for the outlook.com account was the same as for the live.com account last month---reactivated POP access.

I wonder what they are up to at MS.

Or is it just incompetence?

.

[Pib]

I'm sure it's money related.

[thedemon]

The POP protocol only allows a single simultaneous connection to the server so isn't generally compatible with today's environment where it is common to have multiple devices polling the same email account.

It's an almost 30 year old protocol and some say it has security issues. I don't know if that's really true but in any case I would suspect that MS want to encourage users to move on so they can get rid of it.

[lostinisaan]

I taught my Saturday student how to use a hotmail account to be able to Skype with her Canadian daddy.( Hotmail comes with Skype now instead of the messenger)

After this change i almost gave up. Nothing is as it was. Can't we sue them for let's say $ 10 billion?

Edited May 24, 2016 by lostinisaan

[lostinisaan]

I'm sure it's money related.

No, you can't bribe me. Aeeh, how much would you pay me?........

[Lannig]

The POP protocol only allows a single simultaneous connection to the server so isn't generally compatible with today's environment where it is common to have multiple devices polling the same email account.

Huh? no problem with POP by itself, it you choose to leave mail on server. Of course if your mail client is configured to pull all mail then you'll obviously have problems accessing it from another machine.

It's an almost 30 year old protocol and some say it has security issues. I don't know if that's really true but in any case I would suspect that MS want to encourage users to move on so they can get rid of it.

POP is old, but so is SMTP and it's still the standard for sending and routing mail.

IMAP is more advanced feature-wise.

Free e-mail providers are much more interested in having you read your mail from their web mail because they can push ads to you there. So POP (or IMAP or MAPI for that matter) isn't their priority I suspect.

[dick dasterdly]

I get pissed off every time Hotmail change the screen layout etc., but this thread has made me realise that I've been (so far and fingers crossed) v lucky.

No idea why I have to type my user name out in full every time I access Hotmail nowadays - but this is just an annoyance, rather than the genuine probs experienced by others. Perhaps its because I only use Hotmail, and not the other Outlook options?

[Lannig]

No idea why I have to type my user name out in full every time I access Hotmail nowadays (...)

Well, because accounts from hotmail.com and outlook.com (and possibly others) can be used to log in from the same page. So they can't assume any domain anymore.

[dick dasterdly]

No idea why I have to type my user name out in full every time I access Hotmail nowadays (...)

Well, because accounts from hotmail.com and outlook.com (and possibly others) can be used to log in from the same page. So they can't assume any domain anymore.

That makes sense, but as I only use Hotmail its a bit annoying from my POV!

[JetsetBkk]

And today/24 May it happened to my outlook.com email address...that is, POP was disabled in the settings and Outlook could not access the access the account. Same thing that happened to my live.com email address around 22 Apr.

The fix today for the outlook.com account was the same as for the live.com account last month---reactivated POP access.

Another one of my old Hotmail accounts was changed to an Outlook account today.

POP was disabled.

Well done MS, keep up the bad work.

[JetsetBkk]

And yet another one... Hotmail changed to Outlook, POP not enabled.

And another one... same-same, can't tell if POP is enabled as they want a phone number or alternate email address before I can get to the mail account. And there is now no way you can say "I don't care" when they insist that you will forget your password one day so you MUST provide the information.

Morons@microsoft

[Aussie69]

I hope they aren't changing @live , it would be a nightmare for me to update all my accounts & recipients. I know that they introduced @outlook and associated it with my account, this happened a long time ago, but it's just an alias address (or more likely they have changed to @outlook in the background and my @live is the alias?)

[Pib]

I hope they aren't changing @live , it would be a nightmare for me to update all my accounts & recipients. I know that they introduced @outlook and associated it with my account, this happened a long time ago, but it's just an alias address (or more likely they have changed to @outlook in the background and my @live is the alias?)

MS still uses both the @live.com and @outlook.com email domains. I have an account for each. As mentioned earlier in this thread the pop access setting for both my accounts (under live and outlook domains) changed from activated (as I had set it years back) to deactivated...this occurred several weeks apart for the two accounts. I had to log onto the accounts "via my browser" to go into each account setting and reactive the pop access. Been fine since...can use Outlook to send/receive via pop through those accounts...never have to do the caveman primitive browser logon to send/read email.

Don't know why MS did this...that is, switch a person's account setting for the pop access from on to off requiring them to logon and turn it back on. Maybe it was an upgrade glitch that caused it....maybe for some other reason...don't know.

[JetsetBkk]

I hope they aren't changing @live , it would be a nightmare for me to update all my accounts & recipients. I know that they introduced @outlook and associated it with my account, this happened a long time ago, but it's just an alias address (or more likely they have changed to @outlook in the background and my @live is the alias?)

MS still uses both the @live.com and @outlook.com email domains. I have an account for each. As mentioned earlier in this thread the pop access setting for both my accounts (under live and outlook domains) changed from activated (as I had set it years back) to deactivated...this occurred several weeks apart for the two accounts. I had to log onto the accounts "via my browser" to go into each account setting and reactive the pop access. Been fine since...can use Outlook to send/receive via pop through those accounts...never have to do the caveman primitive browser logon to send/read email.

Don't know why MS did this...that is, switch a person's account setting for the pop access from on to off requiring them to logon and turn it back on. Maybe it was an upgrade glitch that caused it....maybe for some other reason...don't know.

I just did some tests on the two accounts that got changed to Outlook.

The one that I could log into via a browser is working OK using Outlook Express. I re-enabled POP and can send and receive emails. (I didn't try sending or receiving before I re-enabled POP).

The one that requires me to give them a phone number or alternate email address also works using Outlook Express - so POP must still be enabled. So I can send and receive emails using POP (via Outlook Express), but I can't via a browser! Stupid or what?