The longer I deal with Microsoft the less surprised I become by there aggressive and underhanded marketing. The latest from Microsoft is that they are converting all of their existing Hotmail/ Live/MSN accounts to their new outlook.com. What these good people forgot to mention is, if you have been getting your mail via the pop protocol until now, they are going to turn that option off for you.
How did I become aware they had done this for me. Thunderbird no longer received mails from my Hotmail accounts. Instead I got this lengthy and opaque error message.
| Sending of password for user {MyEmailAddress]@hotmail.com did not succeed. Mail server pop3.live.com responded: Authentication failure: unknown user name or bad password. [Error="ProxyNotAuthenticated" AuthResult=0 Proxy=SIXPR0201MB0940.apcprd02.prod.outlook.com:1995:SSL] |
So now I am aware of this blatant decision to ignore the users settings in favour of some that favour vendor lock-in. I think it is high time for some user instructions on how to set things back to rights.
First log into your account at Hotmail/Live/MSN/Outlook using your browser. Once you get there you will probably be facing a user interface that is entirely new to you.
To start locate the cog on the right of the toolbar pane. It displays the following menu, and is included in the image
Select options from the menu entry and you will be taken to the following page, where you will need to click on the POP and IMAP settings entry on the left.
Change the POP options to on. and click the save "button"
Click on another folder and then click back on the POP and IMAP settings entry.
You will now see that the settings for the account, including the server name are shown Make note of that server name. Currently simply turning the option back on will restart downloads to your mail client, be it Thunderbird or any other POP client. However for future proofing, I strongly suggest you change the server name you are using to the one provided by the web site. There is no telling when they will simply remove the old server names.
Right click your account in the folder pane of Thunderbird, and select settings.
In the server setting page for the account insert the server named in your settings on the web page.
In my case I was advised the server name was pop-mail.outlook.com so that is what is shown in the image above. When I changed the server name Thunderbird warned me about filters. This is not an issue, as all that is changed is the server name. Everything else remains the same, really it is the same account on the same server, so just acknowledge the warning. Your user name will not change from what you are using currently, which should be your full email address.
