The Death of Hotmail for Mail.app users and a new solution
UPDATE: Not quite as bad as it sounds — See later post.
In April Microsoft announced 
that it would be terminating WebDAV access to its Hotmail accounts at the end of June this year and replacing it with a proprietary service of Microsoft’s own creation (DeltaSync).
This is bad news for Mail.app users with Hotmail accounts, who have been using utilities like HTTPMail and MacFreePOPs to access their email. After 30 June, they won’t work. (There are reports that 10.5.3 has broken HTTPMail for some users, merely hastening the inevitable).
For those unwilling to let go their Hotmail email address, another solution beckons. While the plugins might not work any more, a web-based service is offering the same function.
IzyMail , so it claims, “enables you to access webmail from major providers such as AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, Windows Live, Fastmail or Gmail with any eMail application”. It even has a special page on setting up Hotmail on the iPhone.
It provides users with incoming and outcoming servers that can be plugged into Mail.app’s Accounts preferences. IzyMail does the heavy-lifting behind the scenes, and delivers fresh Hotmail into your Inbox via POP.
It offers free accounts (with some limitations) and a paid option (c. USD 18/year):
Or perhaps it’s time to take another look at Gmail.
Tags: AOL, Apple Mail, desperate measures, fastmail, GMAIL, hotmail, httpmail, izymail, macfreepops, mail.app, microsoft, webmail, wevdav, YahooRelated posts
June 16th, 2008 at 3:25 am
The irony! The has-been tech giant that wanted to buy Yahoo (MSFT) can’t even manage simple web mail (HoTMaiL).
June 16th, 2008 at 3:50 am
I tried izzymail - registered and tried to set it up on Apple Mail. NOTHING… Mail would try to access the izymail servers and then give up. Their setup process is very confusing. If anyone else has good luck with this service, I would like to hear.
AM
June 16th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Or just go to hotmail.com and check your mail there.
And if you want your mail in an app, then use a service that does actually supports it. All these viavia workarounds can make it risky.
I mean, how many can you make if you would be able to read every message from a person that has hotmail, has a mac, uses Mail.app and likes a work-around.
I bet you can make more money out of that, then it will actually build a service that makes it possible to redirect it to your mailprogramm.
Anyway, hotmail has no good-parts in comparision with gMAIL, your own ISP-address or an own domain-address.
Just send everybody your new address, and check your hotmail every week once for the next 6 moths. After those 6 months, delete it. Or, check it once in a 30 days just to be sure that if someone with a timemachine that met you 10 years ago will be able to send you a message (not that he will actually read the reply…)
-just my thoughts.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Screw Micro$oft and Hotmail. Have you hangers-on not frelling learned?!?!?
June 16th, 2008 at 11:23 am
“Microsoft announced that it would be terminating WebDAV access to its Hotmail accounts at the end of June this year and replacing it with a proprietary service of Microsoft’s own creation (DeltaSync)”
What a surprise! Microsoft replacing WebDAV with proprietary DeltaStync.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:30 am
ok get this. not only does hotmail not allow retrieving email (hence the workarounds like HTTPMail etc) it also DOES NOT allow forwarding to a domain other than msn or hotmail. i just tried it with gmail, and it straight up told me it wouldn’t forward to that domain. i also tried the mail fetcher in gmail: same problem mail.app has.
…what an amazing company. they deserve a class-action-suit.
July 21st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
IzyMail is the answer. Took me 5 minutes to register, set up my hotmail account in Apple MAIL and test it by sending myslef an email at Hotmail. I received it at Aplle MAIL jsut as iZy promised.
Love it.
All else sucks.
Thank you HAWKWINGS. THANK YOU.
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