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.)