fixed : iOS Mail.app “Fetch New Data” settings page completely greyed out

Question :

I have troubles with my eMail on my iPhone, so I started to look for solutions in the iOS Settings.app ; I don’t know if this is relevant for the solution to my mail-problem, but I found that when I try to adjust the settings for Fetch New Data (in the Settings.app > Mail > Accounts > scroll down to bottom) is turned OFF, and when I click on it the entire Fetch New Data settings page is greyed out, so I can’t switch it back ON and have my mail checked automatically…

What is wrong ? How can I fix this ?

Answer :

Relax, there’s nothing wrong… it’s just strange that iOS isn’t telling you why the entire page is greyed out and how you can fix this…
The thing is : your iPhone is in Low Power Mode (a.k.a. Battery Saving Mode)… (if you look closely, you will see that the battery indicator top right is yellow in stead of white or green)
To fix this, do this :

  • swipe down from the battery indicator top right
  • in the window that opens, scroll down to the white tile with the battery (in yellow) and click on it
  • now the tile wil turn dark and the battery will turn white
  • if there is no battery-tile, then go to Settings.app > Battery and switch the slider at Low Power Mode to ON
  • to check, go to Settings.app > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and you will see that you can now set everything as you like

    That’s it !
    enjoy 😉
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fixed : set IMAP eMail for Hotmail.com, Live.com and Outlook.com on iPhone/iPad

Question :

I would like to setup my Hotmail-eMail on my iPhone, but rather as an IMAP-account than as the usual POP-account.

Is there any way to do that in iOS ?

Answer :

Yes, IMAP eMail has finally come to Hotmail.com, Live.com and Outlook.com eMail.

To set up a Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail account on your iPhone/iPad, do this :

note : instructions for setting-up Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail on MacOSX can be found here.

if you’re running iOS 7 [ scroll down for iOS 6 and iOS 4.2.1 ] :

1- open the Settings app, go to “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” and in the “ACCOUNTS” chapter, click on “Add Account”

2- in the window that opens, click on “Outlook.com”

3- in the next window,  type your Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail address, your Password and any Description you like, then click “Next”

4- in the window that follows, select the options you want (at least keep “Mail” switched “ON”) and click “Save”

That’s it… congratulations ! 😉

if you’re running iOS 6 [ scroll down for iOS 4.2.1 ] :

1- open the Settings app, go to “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” and in the “Accounts” chapter, click on “Add Account”

2- in the window that opens, click on “Microsoft Hotmail”

3- in the next window,  type your Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail address, your Password and any Description you like, then click “Next”

4- in the window that follows, select the options you want (at least keep “Mail” switched “ON”) and click “Save”

That’s it… congratulations ! 😉

if you’re running iOS 4.2.1 (if you’re on an iPhone 3G ; iOS5.5 instructions for iPad 1 are expected to be very similar) :

1- open the Settings app, go to “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” and in the “Accounts” chapter, click on “Add Account”

2- in the window that opens, click on “Microsoft Exchange”

3- in the next window,  type the following :

at “Email” type your Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail address

at “Domain” type hotmail.com (if you have a Hotmail.com-eMail address)

at “Domain” type live.com (if you have a Live.com-eMail address)

at “Domain” type outlook.com (if you have an Outlook.com-eMail address)

at “Username” type your Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail address

at “Password” type your Hotmail/Live/Outlook-Password

and at “Description” type any description you like

then click “Next”

4- then the same window updates and an extra chapter appears named “Server”, it will be  automatically filled out with either m.hotmail.com or m.outlook.com ( and probably sometimes even m.live.com ) ; don’t bother, just click “Next”

5- in the window that follows, select the options you want (at least keep “Mail” switched “ON”) and click “Save”

That’s it… congratulations ! 😉

Note : if you want to change the settings of your Hotmail/Live/Outlook-accont in iOS, open the Settings app and go to “Mail, contacts, Calendars”, there you can click on the eMail-account you want to edit, and you will be able to change things like :

• “Mail Folders to Push” ; which mailboxes (besides your Inbox, so your Sent or even your Trash maybe) to Push (= auto-update) to your iPhone/iPad

• “Mail Days to Sync” ; how many days ‘backwards in time’ you want your iPhone/iPad to sync to Hotmail/Live/Outlook

• do you also want to sync your Contacts and/or Calendars to Hotmail/Live/Outlook ?

• do you want to change specific settings of the account itself ? (like the Server, SSL on/off, the Description, etc.)

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fixed : set IMAP eMail for Hotmail.com, Live.com and Outlook.com in MacOSX Mail.app

Question :

I’ve always though it was extremely annoying that Microsoft only allowed POP eMail for Hotmail.com for MacOSX, but I kept my Hotmail-account alive for al these years since I actually liked it, even after I switched to Mac…

Recently I heard that Microsoft is finally allowing IMAP access to Hotmail.com eMail, but I can’t figure out how to set it up on my Mac…

Can you please help ?

Answer :

Yes, you’re correct : IMAP eMail has finally come to Hotmail.com, Live.com and Outlook.com eMail.

Setting it up in MacOSX is not as straight forward as one might have hoped however…

The tricky part is that MacOSX will automatically set-up a POP-account if you are setting up a new account in Mail.app using a Hotmail.com, Live.com or Outlook.com eMail-address.

note : instructions for setting-up Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail on iPhone/iPad can be found here.

That being said…

If you follow these steps, you will be able to succeed anyway :

( if you are on OSX 10.9 Mavericks, read this first )

1- in OSX Mail.app, go to Preferences, then to Accounts and (if you have one) select your current POP-setup for Hotmail/Live/Outlook from the list, then go to the Account Information tab, and there un-check the “Enable this account” option

2- then use the Plus-button (bottom left) to add a new account

3- in the pulldown-window “Add Account” that appears, fill in your Full Name, type a fake eMail address ( e.g. nobody@blabla.com ) and leave the Password blank, then click on Create

4- in the next window, set the Account Type to “Exchange IMAP” (only if you don’t have that option choose “IMAP”) and use the following info, depending on what eMail-address you have :

for Hotmail.com-eMail, use :

Description : Hotmail IMAP ( or if you perfer your eMail-address, make sure to add “IMAP” or something like that to it, else it will conflict with your previously set-up Hotmail POP )

Incoming Mail Server : imap-mail.outlook.com [ will automatically select Port 993 ]

User Name : username@hotmail.com [ replace “username” by your own username ]

Password : ••••• [ your Hotmail-password ]

Outlook Web Access Server : m.hotmail.com

for Live.com-eMail, use :

Description : Live.com IMAP ( or if you perfer your eMail-address, make sure to add “IMAP” or something like that to it, else it will conflict with your previously set-up Live.com POP )

Incoming Mail Server : imap-mail.outlook.com [ will automatically select Port 993 ]

User Name : username@live.com [ replace “username” by your own username ]

Password : ••••• [ your Live.com-password ]

Outlook Web Access Server : m.live.com

for Outlook.com-eMail, use :

Description : Outlook IMAP ( or if you perfer your eMail-address, make sure to add “IMAP” or something like that to it, else it will conflict with your previously set-up Live.com POP )

Incoming Mail Server : imap-mail.outlook.com [ will automatically select Port 993 ]

User Name : username@outlook.com [ replace “username” by your own username ]

Password : ••••• [ your Outlook.com-password ]

Outlook Web Access Server : m.outlook.com

5- then click “Continue”, and if you get an error-message, just click “Continue” again

6- in the next window put a check-mark in front of “Use SSL”, set Authentication to “Password” and click “Continue” again

7- in the next window, use these settings :

for Hotmail.com-eMail, use :

Description : Hotmail SMTP ( or anything you like )

Outgoing Mail Server : smtp.live.com [ will automatically select Port 25 or Port 465 ]

you can check “Use only this server”, but it’s not obligatory

do check “Use Authentication”

User Name : username@hotmail.com [ replace “username” by your own username ]

Password : ••••• [ your Hotmail.com-password ]

for Live.com-eMail, use :

Description : Live.com SMTP ( or anything you like )

Outgoing Mail Server : smtp.live.com [ will automatically select Port 25 or Port 465 ]

you can check “Use only this server”, but it’s not obligatory

do check “Use Authentication”

User Name : username@live.com [ replace “username” by your own username ]

Password : ••••• [ your Live.com-password ]

for Outlook.com-eMail, use :

Description : Outlook SMTP ( or anything you like )

Outgoing Mail Server : smtp-mail.outlook.com [ will automatically select Port 587 ]

you can check “Use only this server, but it’s not obligatory

do check “Use Authentication”

User Name : username@outlook.com [ replace “username” by your own username ]

Password : ••••• [ your Outlook.com-password ]

8- then click “Continue” and if you get an error message, just click “Continue” again

9- in the next window, put a check-mark at “Use SSL”, select Authentication “Password” ( or “External (TSL client Certificate)” if you happen to have that ), and click “Continue”

10- in the next window, put a check-mark at “Take account online” and click on “Create”

11- then, back in Mail.app’s Prefecences, under Accounts, select your newly created eMail-account and click on the “Account Information”-tab and re-type your correct eMail-address in “Email Address:” (replacing the nobody@blabla.com you had originally entered) and check if all settings are as they need to be according to the above

12- then exit the Mail.app Prefecences (click the red button upper left) and click “Save” when the “Save changes” pulldown window appears

13- now, back in Mail.app itself (if you do not see the normal Mail window, go to File –> New Viewer Window), you will see the new Hotmail/Live/Outlook account has appeared, and it is looking for your old & new eMails on the Hotmail/Live/Outlook-mail servers

…most people will have lots of old eMails to import, so this might take some time (don’t be surprised if this takes 15, 20 or maybe even 30 minutes…)

14- if the import of the old & new eMails from the Hotmail/Live/Outlook-mail servers is complete, they will appear in the Inbox window and you’re done…

Congratulations !

…if you do not see your old & new eMails appearing, but you do see an “Unread eMails”-number next to the name of the Hotmail/Live/Outlook-inbox in the listing on the left, you have run into a bug in Mail.app that was only recently solved in OSX 10.8.5

to manually solve this problem, quit Mail.app, open Disk Utility (from the Applications –> Utilities folder), run “Repair Disk Permissions” on your Hard Drive’s main partition and when that’s finished, re-open Mail.app and all should be solved

Enjoy !

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