A tutorial for Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2016 is at Tutorial: Set up Outlook.com account to sync Calendar and Contacts
Use this method with Outlook 2010 and above with Outlook.com accounts to sync your calendar and contacts with other computers or smartphones "over the air" when your personal email account is POP3 or IMAP. (Outlook 2007 will sync Outlook.com and Office 365 Exchange accounts, however, Outlook 2007 will suffer from degraded service.)
All you need is a Microsoft Account. If you have a Microsoft account for your personal address (gmail.com, comcast.net, etc), you will need to add an Outlook.com alias to the account before you can add it to Outlook. If the alias is not set as the default address for the account, it will be added to Outlook using an Outlook_big-long-code@ format for the address). Set the outlook.com address as Primary to fix this.
Using an Outlook.com account for email too? See Configuring an Outlook.com account in Outlook.
You do not need to configure Outlook.com to pull in your other email accounts to use it for Calendar and Contacts. In fact, I do not recommend adding your email account as a connected account to outlook.com because, at this time, you cannot send mail from the connected accounts using Outlook desktop without sending it 'from outlook.com on behalf of other address'.
You'll need to move or copy existing appointments and contacts to the new Outlook.com data file. You can move the appointments and contacts between folders within Outlook using drag and drop or the Move to folder command. For the Calendar, use the List view, select all (Ctrl+A) then drag or use Move to folder command.
You should set the Outlook.com Account as your default data file (this puts the calendar on the To-Do Bar) but I do not recommend setting it as the default email account, unless you are using it for email too.
If you enabled two-factor authentication on the Outlook.com account, you'll need to generate an app password to use with the account in Outlook. Log into Outlook.com and check your account options for instructions.
Setup Account using Outlook.com
Step 1: Create a Microsoft Account if you don't have one already. If you are using a non-Microsoft domain (like Comcast.com, gmail.com, or your own domain name) for your Microsoft Account, you'll need to add an outlook.com alias to your Outlook.com account before you can set it up in Outlook.
Step 2: Add the account to Outlook using the Add Account wizard. Go to File, Add Account and enter your Outlook.com email address. Enter your password when asked.
Once the Outlook.com account is added to Outlook, you'll have two accounts in Outlook: your ISP or "real" email and the Outlook.com account for calendar, tasks, and contacts.
When you send mail, Outlook 2010, 2013, and 2016 will use the account associated with the folders you are looking at. This means if you are viewing the calendar in Outlook.com data file and start a new message, Outlook will use the Outlook.com account to send the message. However, you can set an option or a registry value to always use the default email account for new messages.
This option was added to Outlook 2016's Mail settings. In File, Options, Mail, look in the Send messages section about two-thirds down for Always use the default account when composing new messages.
Set your email account to be the default on the Email tab.
Set the Outlook.com account to be the default data file on the Data Files tab. This puts the calendar in the To-Do bar and new appointments and contacts will go into it's Calendar and Contacts folder.
The final piece of the puzzle: in File, Options, Advanced, you can set your "real" Inbox to be the default start up folder.
If you want, you can rename the Microsoft account.
After you set up the account in Outlook, move your appointments and contacts to the Outlook.com data file folders. Hint: it's easier if you use a List view, especially in the Calendar folder. Select all, drag and drop.
If you want to remove the calendar and contacts folder from the .pst your "real" account uses, see Delete Special folders. If you are using an IMAP account in Outlook 2013 or newer, close Outlook and delete the IMAP account's data file. When Outlook restarts, it will create a new data file without the special folders. Don't forget to move the appointments, contacts, and tasks to the Outlook.com folders first.
Configure outlook.com account for syncing
In this tutorial, I'm adding a Microsoft Account that uses the same email address as a POP3 account in the Outlook profile and setting it as the default data file, so the Calendar and Contacts folders are the default folders.
The process is the same for IMAP accounts.
Registry key for Outlook 2010 SP1 and Outlook 2013
Out of the box, Outlook 2010 SP1, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2016 use the default account for Send to commands but not for new messages created while viewing a data file that is used for delivery. This means if you send a message while viewing the outlook.com calendar, it will be sent via the Outlook.com account. This is not necessarily the desired behavior when you are using an Outlook.com account only for syncing calendar and contacts.
Outlook 2016 users can make this change in File, Options, Mail. Look in the Send messages section about two-thirds down for Always use the default account when composing new messages.
For Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013, you'll need to set a registry value to always force the use of the default account.
To force all new messages to use the default email account, regardless of which data file you are viewing, browse to the following registry subkey in Outlook and add a DWORD named NewItemsUseDefaultSendingAccount:
Outlook 2013:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
DWORD value: NewItemsUseDefaultSendingAccount
Value: 1
Outlook 2010
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
DWORD value: NewItemsUseDefaultSendingAccount
Value: 1
If you prefer not to edit the registry yourself, you can run a registry file to set the NewItemsUseDefaultSendingAccount key:
Meeting Requests
The registry key above changes the account on all new messages to the default email account but does not apply to meeting requests. For this we need to use a macro. This goes in ThisOutlookSession.
See How to use VBA Editor for instructions.
Private WithEvents m_Inspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Private WithEvents m_Inspector As Outlook.Inspector
Private Sub Application_Startup()
Set m_Inspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub
Private Sub m_Inspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Outlook.Inspector)
Set m_Inspector = Inspector
End Sub
Private Sub m_Inspector_Activate()
Dim olNS As Outlook.NameSpace
Set olNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
If TypeName(m_Inspector.CurrentItem) <> "AppointmentItem" Then
Exit Sub
End If
' so it doesn't fire when you open a meeting
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.CreationTime < Now() Then
Exit Sub
End If
' (1) this the default account
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount <> olNS.Accounts.Item(1) Then
Set m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)
m_Inspector.currentItem.Display
End If
Set m_Inspector = Nothing
Set olNS = Nothing
End Sub
Add your email account to Hotmail or Outlook.com
I DO NOT recommend using this method at this time. Outlook.com is using an ugly address (outlook_alpha-numeric-id@outlook.com, or as I call it, outlook_ugly@) as the From address, not the "Microsoft Account" address. Keep both accounts in your profile and use the registry key above to force Outlook to use the default account as the default for all email.
If you use a Microsoft Account from another domain and want to bring your email into Hotmail or Outlook.com, log onto your account using a browser, go to the gear icon (next to your name) > View Full Settings > Sync Email and add your email account as a connected account. Outlook.com will sync the account and store a copy of the mail in your Outlook.com mailbox.
If you do this, you can read your email online, at outlook.com as well as in Outlook. You should remove the connected email account from your profile, otherwise you will have duplicate messages in Outlook.
If you send mail through the Hotmail servers, some antispam filters may reject email from the account because the address is not a Microsoft domain but using Microsoft SMTP servers. (Yahoo Groups rejects messages sent using this method.) If you control your own DNS you should add an SPF record for hotmail. The SPF record you need is v=spf1 include:hotmail.com ~all
Toby says
This looks like an ideal solution if you have a Windows machine. Is it possible on a Mac? It seems that the default file situation isn't the same on Mac :(
Diane Poremsky says
You can add an Outlook.com account to Outlook on Mac but the macro and registry settings are specific to Outlook on Windows.
Stacy S Scott says
because my outlook 2013 account is a work environment I cannot add my outlook.com account, anyone got any other ideas as to how to sync these calendars?
Diane Poremsky says
Share the calendar to get a link - you can subscribe to it in outlook. It will not be merged with the work calendar but will be visible in your outlook.
Lonnie Moore says
Thank you for this information; using it I was eventually able to get my business partner's desktop Outlook (Win 10) to sync its calendar and contacts with her iPad and iPhone via her outlook.com account. I wanted to pass on a problem others may encounter. After setting it all up via your instructions, the iPhone/iPad Calendar and Contacts would not sync to outlook.com, even though the desktop Outlook was syncing to it. I spent hours fooling with the iPad and iPhone settings until I happened to notice there was an email received from Microsoft in the "user"@outlook.com Inbox. We never used any of the outlook.com addresses for email so there was no reason I would normally have looked, but the email from Microsoft required that I click on a link that I did NOT want to use the Outlook app instead of the native iPhone/iPad apps. Once I clicked on that, the MS webpage said it would allow syncing to take place and all the contacts and calendar items began syncing.
That was one big waste of time and effort caused by Microsoft that hopefully others can avoid.
Diane Poremsky says
Interesting. This is the first I've heard of this. Thanks for sharing!
Samuel says
Quote
Set the Outlook.com account to be the default data file on the Data Files tab. This puts the calendar in the To-Do bar and new appointments and contacts will go into it's Calendar and Contacts folder.
Unquote
this does not happened. I do set the default data file to "outlook.com" account. but when I create a new appointment, it goes to my calendar on pop3 account because I'm working on that account. it does not go to my "outlook.com" account.
by the way, I'm using Outlook 2016 on Win10.
Diane Poremsky says
That's because there is a Calendar folder in the POP accounts data file. You can move the events to the outlook.com calendar (use a list view) then use MFCMAPI to delete the folder. Repeat for Contacts and Tasks.
Heidig says
Hi. I know this was from March. but I think this may be the solution I am looking for. I am computer savvy, except for when it comes to cloud stuff. So, am I understanding this correctly: I can sync my desktop Office Outlook calendar (in the .pst) with the calendar on Outlook.com? These will sync? My ultimate goal is to get some sort of cloud based calendar that syncs with my desktop OR syncs with my iPhone. I regularly use iTunes to sync my iPhone to my Office Outlook desktop (.pst). It is quick and easy.
I have looked into may ways to do this but many solutions are time consuming and cumbersome. Gmail calendar does not sync with Outlook desktop calendar anymore. I didn't like what iCloud did to my Outlook desktop calendar. It seems I have 3 cloud choices: Outlook.com, Gmail, and iCloud. Ideally, i would only want to do one sync and it all takes care of the rest (the iTunes sync).
Anyway, is this what you are explaining to do here? Thanks.
Jeffrey says
I have my Outlook client sync up with an exchange supported server, SOGO. Is there a way I can sync contacts and calendar but not emails?
Diane Poremsky says
No, sorry. When you use exchange it syncs everything in the mailbox. You might be able to set up a filter on the mail folders that will limit the amount of mail that syncs.
right click on the inbox and choose properties, then look on the synchronization tab. The hard part is comping up with a filter than won't sync anything.
Rico says
Diane - I've been using this approach since retiring in Sept 2017. Thanks so much for creating and sharing this! It is working very well for me, but...
Since the middle of Dec, when I send e-mails (yahoo acct) from Outlook on my PC, they send ok, and show up in Outlook 'sent', but they are not showing up in 'sent' in Yahoo Mail. If I send yahoo emails from my iPad and iPhone they do show up in 'sent' in yahoo mail. When I sent an email from a Gmail acct from Outlook on PC, it works fine and the email shows up in Gmail 'sent'.
As a result (I believe), I am getting a lot of Sync Issues in Outlook for the Yahoo account under Synchronizing local changes in folder 'Sent'. The error is 800CCC0F-0-0-322 and it looks like I get one for every email I sent from Outlook for each time the 'Sent' folder is sync'd.
Is my Outlook mis-configured? Any thoughts you have would be appreciated.
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
i don't think its misconfigured - i will test it with my yahoo account. is outlook using the same sent folder that the phone and yahoo.com uses? do the messages from other devices sync down to outlook?
Rico says
Yes, if I sent from Yahoo Mail, iPhone and/or iPad (using my yahoo address), the messages show up in my Outlook (PC) sent file. However, when clicking on Sent in Outlook, it starts 'Synchronizing Sent' and continues for a long time. I guess this takes a while because of the Sync Issue errors, as well as my Sent folder is 345 MB. I started getting errors with respect to Synchronizing local changes in folder 'Sent' on Dec 17, 2017. Was not getting these errors in Oct & Nov and e-mails from Outlook were syncing to Yahoo Mail Sent. I'm using Office 2013 and Windows 7.
Thanks for look at this...
Diane Poremsky says
So far, i have not been able to repro it. Outlook is super slow to send mail through yahoo though. I know some servers will fail to sync sent items if you move them using a rule (but can move them using a macro). But it should work using the standard sent folder (called Sent for yahoo accounts.)
one possibly is that one message is gummy up the works - if you know the oldest message that is causing a sync error, delete it.
Do you need copies of the sent messages? Try creating a new folder and moving the ones that won't sync into it. See if that generates a sync error - if so, you'll need to move them into a pst, at least for now. Then delete the yahoo account's ost file (its at %localappdata%\microsoft\outlook) and let outlook resync your mail. Try sending a message and see if it generates an error.
Rico says
Thanks for the input. I like to archive my sent items and in this case Outlook has a complete list of Sent Items (I think), so I'm OK.
So, I moved all my Sent items to an archive pst, then sent an e-mail from Outlook via my Yahoo address, and the news is good! The sent e-mail shows up in Yahoo Mail Sent, and there are no new sync issues in Outlook. Seems like something in the Outlook Sent folder was gumming it up.
Thanks a bunch!
Diane Poremsky says
Thanks for the update. Wild guess - maybe a message with an attachment got 'stuck' and gummed up the works.
Rico says
Yep - I think you are right. I was making it more complicated than it was. Thanks for helping me thru it!
Simone ;) says
Possible exception to your setup?
I use Outlook 2016 (Office 365 Home editions) on my Windows 10 pc and I want to sync my calendar & contacts so I can see them & update them on my iPad when I’m traveling etc. So whatever I add to my iPad uploads to my pc Outlook.
HOWEVER, will your instructions work if you need to have two (2) separate mailboxes in Outlook? For Example: I have my *personal* account (x@gmail.com) of course for my personal emails, contacts & *shared Family* calendar. I also have my work account (work@gmail.com) in Outlook as a separate mailbox (with its own separate work contacts & calendar). So on my pc in Outlook I click on my work mailbox to access it for work & vice versa for my personal mailbox. But both show on the same main page/screen, one under the other and the calendars are separate - but side by side so I can see both.
As you can gather, I am not tech savvy, so I want to make absolutely sure that if I use these instructions they stay as separate mailboxes (ie personal emails & work don’t all come into one Inbox, rather they stay in their respective mailbox/inboxes). Likewise the contacts & calendar stay separate too and when they sync to my iPad the also stay separate. I have over 1000 work contacts & I really don’t want them mixed up with my personal, which is equally large. Also, I need my shared family calendar to stay private so work does not see our appointments.
Hope I’m making no sense?
Can this be done? Will your above instructions work with this scenario, or a modified version......or am I just plain hooped?
I thank you in advance for any help you can give me!
Diane Poremsky says
>> HOWEVER, will your instructions work if you need to have two (2) separate mailboxes in Outlook?
Using one outlook.com account, yes, since you only need to sync the personal calendar & contacts (the business account syncs to the server - set up that account on the phone).
icloud - or since you use a gmail account, using companionlink or gsyncit to sync outlook to gmail and then you sync gmail to phone is also an option.
Joseph Cheeley says
Diane, when I add the Outlook.com account to the desktop Outlook, it downloaded all of my e-mail from the Dot Com account. How do I prevent email from downloading so that I can use the Dot Com calendar and contacts sync with the desktop?
Diane Poremsky says
When you add the outlook.com account, it will sync all folders. You can lower the sync settings so it downloads less mail, but cant turn off mail in desktop Outlook. Go to File, account settings, double click on the outlook.com account and slide the marker all the way to the left.
Doug M says
Hi again. Well I deleted one of the account from my phone and got rid of the duplicate issue. But now have a different issue. Using just the Microsoft Exchange account on the phone (removed the Outlook account) no more dups, but all the Contacts with only a company name (nothing in the first and last name field) are showing up with parsed info in the first and last name. So Delta Airlines is showing up as Airlines, Delta! If I go in and delete the First and Last name info (Company name still Delta Airlines) then it sync's back to my Outlook 2016 and messes up that contact. It sorts above the A's, with no text description in the header - what was formally Delta Airlines. Very frustrating!
I tried to go back to just using the Outlook account, but I can't add it back. It says its already there, and will not show up in the list of account from within Google Contacts on the phone. Grrr. That account did not seem to have the issue of parsing text into the First and Last name fields.
Thanks,
Doug
Diane Poremsky says
>> I tried to go back to just using the Outlook account, but I can't add it back. It says its already there,
I hate that message. :( It means bits of the account were left in the registry. I used the method at https://www.outlook-tips.net/how-to/delete-outlook-ghost-psts/ to find and remove them.
Doug M says
Hi Diane,
Thanks again for your great article.
I have set up Calendar and Contact to sync using your instructions, but I am having a devil of a time with contacts. When my Google contacts in Android sync, I get many duplicates. Yes I can use the merge feature, but there are very creative duplicates which are hard to find, and am wondering why/how these duplicates are being created. Let me explain: On my Android phone in the Accounts settings, there is an Outlook account, and an Exchange account listed. Why the two? I have only the Outlook account set to sync Contacts. But I am wondering if somehow the arrangement on Outlook.com is causing this double sync? The main culpits seen to be company names where there is no First, middle, Last name, and one of the duplicate contacts which end up on the Android will have the First and Last names parsed into those fields from the Company name field. Example - Delta Airlines will end up with First name of Delta, and last name of Airlines. Of course, this sorts under the A's! One of the contacts will show the account as Outlook, while the other shows Exchange. It is the Exchange synced contacts which seem to break all the rules. But get this - if I delete the Exchange supplied contact from my phone - it reverse sync's back to my Outlook 2016 desktop app and deletes my main and only contact! Maddening! As far as I know, I only have one Microsoft account - wihch is xxxx@outlook.com and is set as Primary. I have another account listed, my email IMAP account with another ISP. All my contacts exist in Outlook 2016 in the xxxx@outlook.com account. Come to think of it - in Outlook 2016 contacts it listed as outlook_A7_ugly_blahblah@outlook.com. This address is no longer listed in https://account.live.com/names/Manage anymore.
Can you shed any light as to why I seem to have two accounts, creating these duplicate contacts?
Thanks much!
Doug
Diane Poremsky says
>> On my Android phone in the Accounts settings, there is an Outlook account, and an Exchange account listed.
Are they both for the same account? I would delete one of the accounts from the phone and see what happens.
>> It is the Exchange synced contacts which seem to break all the rules. But get this - if I delete the Exchange supplied contact from my phone
Do the "Outlook account" contacts sync with the server and outlook desktop? if both accounts are syncing to the phone, you'll have dupes on the phone- delete one account. I don't think it matters which one you delete...
>> The main culpits seen to be company names where there is no First, middle, Last name,
Yes, this is a "known issue".
>> Come to think of it - in Outlook 2016 contacts it listed as outlook_A7_ugly_blahblah@outlook.com.
it sounds like you have a 3rd party address - probably your isp address - set up as the Microsoft account, added it to outlook then added an outlook.com alias and deleted the other address. The display name in the folder list is set when the account is added - if you remove the account from outlook and add it back, you'll have the pretty@outlook.com address... or just ignore it. (You can edit the display name.)
Lillian says
Hi Diane, thanks for explaining this. I've followed the instructions and added my outlook account as the exchange account and set the default email etc to my own IMAP domain email. I'm still having trouble with calendar though and it is sending and replying to all invites from my outlook address which is a pain. Do I have to make the changes to the registry as you outline above to make this work fully in outlook 2016? I'm nervous about doing this as I am not a technical whiz! Thanks for your help, Lillian
Diane Poremsky says
You mean set the NewItemsUseDefaultSendingAccount key? That won't help... outlook sends the meeting requests from the mailbox that owns the calendar.
Are you using outlook.com because you use the email or to sync calendar & contacts with a smartphone?
Miguel says
Hi, Marianne. I have a similar problem: I use Outlook 2013 and I have followed your instructions above to the letter and everything seems to be working fine except this: when I respond to meeting requests Outlook defaults to my Outlook.com address for the reply and I need to edit the responder’s address to my ‘real’ e-mail account manually, which is a bit tedious. Interestingly enough, however, when I send out a new calendar invitation, it does automatically default to my ‘real’ e-mail address. How can I replicate this behaviour with meeting requests replies?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Miguel
Miguel says
Hi, Diane. I have a similar problem to Lillian's above: I use Outlook 2013 and I have followed your instructions above to the letter and everything seems to be working fine except this: when I respond to meeting requests Outlook defaults to my Outlook.com address for the reply and I need to edit the responder’s address to my ‘real’ e-mail account manually, which is a bit tedious. Interestingly enough, however, when I send out a new calendar invitation, it does automatically default to my ‘real’ e-mail address. How can I replicate this behaviour with meeting requests replies?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Miguel
Diane Poremsky says
The invites are sent to your real address, not to the outlook.com address? It sounds like outlook.com is taking over because the meeting is added to the calendar, but I'll need to test it to be sure.
Miguel says
Yes, Diane – the invites are sent to my real e-mail account, not to outlook.com. Furthermore, contrarily to what I wrote yesterday, new invites also default to outlook.com. This appeared to be working for a while, but alas, no longer.
Thanks for your good advice – and apologies for calling you Marianne yesterday: a Marianne just e-mailed me as I was about to message you – you know how it goes
Per says
Hi Diane, and thanks for your information!
Since I switched to using MS Live instead of Gmail as my default account/data file in Outlook in order to benefit calendar sync I have encountered a big problem with my Outlook rules.
Although all my rules (quite many) are linked to my Gmail account it now takes a ridiculous long time for the rules to update to the MS server, around 30 - 40 minutes which is unbearable.
So I just wonder if there is a solution to this issue?
Diane Poremsky says
Hmmm. The rules should be in the gmail data file. Export the rules to a file, then delete them from outlook. Wait for them to sync then restart Outlook and import them into the gmail account.
As an FYI, Outlook.com (and any Exchange account) have limited storage space for rules, unlike other accounts. you might get 50 or so with really simple rules.
Michal says
Hi Diane,
thanks for that, I had this problem back in January, my calendar from outlook.com stopped synchronising on outlook 365 desktop (even through it worked fine on outlook on my windows phone). I called Microsoft back then, talked for an hour with their rep, couldn't fix it. They escalated it to 'Level 2', somebody called me next day, I spent 2 hours on the phone, and obviously they had no clue how fix it.
I wish I had found your post earlier, this would save me a lot of aggro.
It's very dissapointing that Microsoft did some changes in their setup and their tech support have no idea what is going on, even through I pointed them specifically to an email from microsoft back in Jan or Feb saying something about reconfiguring outlook profile (but their info was vague, while yours in plain English described the process and differences between outlook.com and outlook desktop (365 in my case), so that lay person can do it in a quarter of an hour. And I seriously spent a few days back then trying to figure it out.
Thanks again. Regards.
John says
Hi Diane,
Thank you so much for your time and generous sharing of information. I have read this thread two times and searched for many hours on exactly how to use an outlook.com email account solely to sync my calendar and contacts for my primary, legacy, non-outlook, non-gmail, IMAP email account between my desktop, my Surface Pro and my Android fone. Can you please provide the link to a step by step article on exactly how to do this?
Diane Poremsky says
you need to use outlook 2010 or newer to sync calendar & contacts with outlook.com. (outlook 2007 will stop syncing calendar & contacts Oct 31 2017).
if you don't have an outlook.com account, create it.
add the account to Outlook 2010 or newer - use autoaccount setup and it should add it as an Exchange account.
Move calendar and contacts into the folders in the outlook.com account
if you have a folder in the imap account called 'calendar(this computer only)', make sure all of the 'this computer only' folders are empty (move the contents to the folders in outlook.com) then close outlook and delete the imap data file. Outlook will rebuild it without the this computer only folders.
Diane Poremsky says
I added a tutorial at https://www.slipstick.com/outlookcom/tutorialset-outlook-com-account-sync-calendar-contacts/ - adding the account to outlook (and to phones) is easy with auto account setup, but there are a few settings in Outlook that may not be "correct" after the account is added. The areas to check are in the second half of the tutorial.
John says
Hi Diane,
Thank you very much for your reply and for the tutorial. I believe I now understand what to do. One more question: My Microsoft account that I created when Windows 10 was released uses the exact same email address as my primary, legacy, non-outlook, non-gmail, IMAP email account (blahblah@nc.rr.com). So, if I understand well, I simply let Outlook 2016 do its autoaccount setup with blahblah.nc.rr.com and then put my contacts in the Contacts folder that Outlook creates when it adds the new email account, yes? And I will not have to delete any imap data file... correct?
Sincerely, John.
Diane Poremsky says
Because its not an outlook.com address, you need to add an outlook.com alias to the account then use the alias to set up outlook. if you put in the rr address, autoaccount setup will find the rr servers. (Microsoft is trying to find a solution for this so you can use your rr address to set up the outlook.com account - no ETA though.)
See https://www.slipstick.com/outlookcom/add-alias-outlook-com-account/ for the basic steps to add an alias. (Hopefully the screens haven't changed too much since i wrote that.)
John says
Hi Diane,
Okay, last question: It turns out that Outlook will not let me create an outlook.com alias using blahblah.nc.rr.com because that is the email address that I used to create my Microsoft account two years ago! So, I created a brand new email account on outlook.com named blah@outlook.com. If I simply ADD this new outlook.com email account to my desktop Outlook 20116 and move the contents of my Contacts folder under the blahblah.nc.rr.com account to the Contacts folder under the new blah@outlook.com account, will this work? Then set the .ost for blah.outlook,com account as the default data file. Then delete the .ost for the blahblah.nc.rr.com account and let Outlook 2016 recreate the .ost file for the blahblah.nc.rr.com account without the Contacts folder? Thank you, John.
Diane Poremsky says
Correct, follow those steps and it will work... note you could have used the old microsoft account (microsoft accounts are outlook.com accounts) and added the outlook.com alias to it. (Now that you have a new one account, you can't close it and add the new outlook.com address on the old MS account.)
Mary says
Following along on your instructions, I am using Outlook 2013 on a Windows 7 computer.. When I went to find the registry key to add the value you recommend, I am not finding a Mail subdirectory in the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Options\" directory.
Diane Poremsky says
You may only have it if you changed some of the default settings - if it does not exist, create it.
Jane says
Diane, They have done it again! The latest update has messed up icloud calendars and contacts. I tried uninstalling all of the Outlook updates with the exception of KB967642 that would not uninstall. I also uninstalled the security update for Outlook. I have uninstalled and reinstalled icloud but no luck. Any solutions on your end? Thanks again, Jane
Diane Poremsky says
Any error messages?
I haven't heard of any problems with the latest updates - and the only real problem with the june update was solved by the registry key.
Jane says
Diane, Yes it was the same error message that I received before about files not being able to be loaded. But when I deleted icloud the error message is now not showing. I am thinking about deleting the installed update files individually since my machine will not do a system restore that deletes the update. I have tried deleting icloud and reloading several times and it still does not take. Any solution you have would be much appreciated. Thanks, Jane
Diane Poremsky says
i think you will need to manually uninstall - get rid of any registry keys that point to icloud.
Crosby says
Hi Diane, When adding suggested code in VBA to change the default for meeting requests, i get a run-time error 91 "Object variable or With block variable not set". Is there a modification to that code to fix this error? I appreciate your help.
Diane Poremsky says
it should just work. What types of email accounts do you have in your profile? Did you change this to reflect the account you want to send from?
(This sends from the default account)
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount olNS.Accounts.Item(1) Then
Set m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)
Jane says
Diane, I have been using icloud calendars and contacts with Outlook successfully since moving to Microsoft Exchange. However, today icloud disappeared from Outlook. I have tried reloading icloud for windows and also deselecting the checkbox from icloud. I removed the icloud data file and tried to add it back but am now getting an error message that says "the .ddl file for the information service could not be loaded." Thoughts on what to do to get this working again? Appreciate your help. Your guidance enabled me to move to Microsoft Exchange, so I thank you very much for that.
Diane Poremsky says
It's the latest Outlook update causing problems - for 2007, the # is KB3191898.
Jane says
Diane, Thanks for your prompt reply. I uninstalled that program, reinstalled iCloud for Windows and then checked the calendar/contacts box in iCloud. It came back perfectly. So appreciate your help!! You are a real lifesaver!
David says
Diane,
I have a specific problem that I can't seem to figure out. I have a client that wants to share personal calendars. They are all upgraded to Office 365 Suite installed on all computers. They have pop email accounts. I setup an Outlook.Com email and created calendars within this account for each employee. I then added the account to their Outlook Desktop so that they can see everyone's calendars. Calendar sharing is efficient and works great. The problem is that when they use the Invitation option to setup calendar events it posts into their personal Outlook calendar and not in their shared personal calendar.. My question is, is there a way to setup a default calendar using the Outlook.Com shared calendar for each individual user. I have tried setting the default files to the Outlook.Com OST but either way it posts to their personal calendar within Outlook.
Thoughts? Help?
Diane Poremsky says
When a calendar exists within the data file that mail is delivered to, meetings will go into it. You would need to remove the calendar folder so the outlook.com account has the only calendar. But.... when she sends meetings, they would go on out from the outlook.com address too.
I have macros that move or copy new items to another calendar to avoid sending from the wrong address at https://www.slipstick.com/developer/copy-new-appointments-to-another-calendar-using-vba/.
John P says
Diane,
I have Outlook 2016 set up with two accounts: my decades-old email account (a compuserve.com account now operated by aol.com) which I sync using IMAP (historically POP), and an outlook.com account containing my calendar and contacts, which I’ve recently updated to Microsoft Exchange (from Exchange ActiveSync as they required). I use the outlook.com account to sync calendar and contacts with all my devices. The compuserve.com address I’ve used for email for decades and it would be a huge effort to change it.
I’ve thus done by trial and error most all of the things you suggest in your excellent webpage, before I recently discovered it. Wish I’d found it before. My next step was going to be to move all my Inbox and Sent Items contents across to the outlook.com account, so these also synchronise across all devices. Outlook 2016 email sync with compuserve.com would be replaced by an outlook.com sync with compuserve.com (POP or IMAP are available – POP should be sufficient?). The final step would be to make sure that sent emails from outlook.com have my compuserve.com address as their From: and Reply to: addresses – this is essential to me. Your webpage helpfully describes how to do that by a change to the registry.
My main reason for writing is, if this all works, why do you put on your webpage, “I do not recommend configuring outlook.com to pull mail from your mailbox - use outlook.com only for calendar and contacts.” You don’t say why. What is the reason?
Sorry if this is long, but I thought if I gave you the whole picture, you would be able to provide the best solution. Many thanks, John
Diane Poremsky says
>> My main reason for writing is, if this all works, why do you put on your webpage, “I do not recommend configuring outlook.com to pull mail from your mailbox - use outlook.com only for calendar and contacts.” You don’t say why. What is the reason?
Connected accounts are buggy and the connection can stop working. Replies won't be from the connected account when you use Outlook desktop - not a problem if you are migrating from the old address to outlook.com, but not necessarily desirable if you don't want to everyone replying to the outlook.com address.
Everything in the old email address should sync to all devices - but you will need to set the email account up on the devices, in addition to adding the outlook.com account.
Will Smith says
Diane,
I've used your method to sync my iphone calendar with outlook through outlook.com with a ***@mydomain.com (POP account) address for years. Now that its no longer working I've tried to follow your instructions to get things syncing again. I'm stuck. I've created an alias in outlook.com and added this ***@outlook.com address to outlook through exchange auto account setup. That seemed to work fine but. The data file this created shows "private folders". When I try to expand the folder I get the message that Microsoft is currently busy.. Likewise, when I try to set the data file as default I get a similar message that Microsoft is busy followed by a message stating "the specified default store cannot be opened. Verify you can access your default store and try again." Any thoughts?
Diane Poremsky says
Has it been more than 24 hours since you did it? Can you log into outlook.com using the outlook.com alias?
Are you using 2-factor authentication? if so, you need to use an app password.
Will Smith says
The alias was created a week ago. I can successfully log in to outlook.com with it. Two step verification is not on. I tried removing the account from outlook again and adding again. Again, the data file name says "private folders", location "online". But appears to prevent me from accessing it. Thank you for your input.
Diane Poremsky says
is it adding it as an exchange account? look in account settings or the control panel, mail applet.
if using outlook 2016, try the manual setup option and enter the outlook.com address in the office 365 address field.
James P. says
Will try to import an ICS file into Outlook.com, but how come is it that items in Outlook 2013 Calendar does not sync automatically to the (Outlook.com) account in Outlook 2013?
I can "see" the (outlook.com) calendar in Outlook 2013. When I create an item in Outlook.com (web), it will show in Outlook 2013 calendar, but not the other way around. Just seems odd.
(and sorry for MSFT genarting a mess with such similar product names....).
Diane Poremsky says
If you are using Outlook desktop and have the account set up as a Microsoft Exchange account, anything you create in the desktop's Outlook.com calendar should sync up - no need to import them using an ics. (f you have a calendar in a pst, that will not sync up.)
Events should sync up within a couple of minutes but the calendar service seems really slow this week -so its running a few minutes slower. But they definitely should sync.
The usual cause of problems is having multiple calendars and creating the events on the wrong calendar, but if you create it on the same calendar as the one that synced down from the web, you should be using the correct calendar.
James P says
Thanks,
That's what I'm expecting as well - but no working. The Outlook.com account is set up as Exchange in "Outlook desktop".
The "Outlook.com" calendar is not set up as the "default" calendar (that one still resides in a .pst file) but items added to the that one ("Exchange", .ost based) calendar) in Outlook desktop ought to show in Outlook.com as well.
As others, just like to add that your time and support is always very appreciated!
Diane Poremsky says
>> items added to the that one ("Exchange", .ost based) calendar) in Outlook desktop ought to show in Outlook.com as well.
Correct, anything added to the outlook.com folder should sync up. Did you make any changes to the send and receive settings, specifically to the Exchange account settings? When Exchange account send and receive settings are changed, it won't sync calendar & contacts properly.
James P says
No, no changes, zero.
I will deleted the Outlook.com based account in "Outlook desktop" and see if it works after setting it up again. Will just park all the items to another (empty) calendar, and then copy them over to the Outlook.com one (in "Outlook desktop"). Hopefully they'll also sync nicely and become visible in the "on-line", web based version.
Outlook 2013 works great with the iCloud plug in, syncing nicely across devices, but iCloud's calendar has some limitations that a functioning Outlook.com would solve.
Aaron says
Hi Diane,
First of all, I admire your efforts to help people.
I was able to sync outlook.com calendar with my smartphone (android), but could not sync outlook.com calendar with the outlook desktop app. I followed the instructions and set an Exchange account (eas server, not Hotmail) on outlook, but it doesn't sync. I tried to delete the exchange account and reset it using auto account setup, but it didn't setup as an exchange account, rather a regular (as my "real" account). any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
You are using a non-outlook.com address? You need to create an outlook.com alias and use that to add the account to outlook.
https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/add-alias-outlook-com-account/
Aaron says
Hi Diane, after setting up an alias, I created the outlook.com account in the outlook desktop via auto-setup and it worked like magic, thanks!!.
Aaron says
Hi Diane,
it worked like magic! thanks!!
KATHY KRAFT says
Sorry, but guess I'm stuck, I use Windows 10, I have a personal 365 account. My email is through Spectrum/Time warner but uses name@satx.rr.com. So I can send email but still can't receive. I thought I had done what you explained. I went to File, Account and at the top my email shows: tab shows outlook2106viaTimeWarner???? Then I went to settings, and my correct address is listed; also listed is an outlook email address. it SAID primary; so I changed the primary to be my roadrunner address. Went back to mail. SOME mail came in, then it froze again; and i'm getting the same error: Microsoft email not responding; with one of three options i.e. close program. over and over. can you tell me what I'm still doing wrong? many thanks I haven't even 'thought' about my calendar and contacts yet.
Diane Poremsky says
If you have two accounts in Account Settings, your own address should be set as default, the outlook.com account set as the default data file.
Now that outlook.com is on office 365 exchange, you need to use an outlook.com alias to add it to the desktop. If the alias is not set as primary, you'll see an 'outlook_ugly@' address in the folder list. The is a bug, where if you have a non-microsoft address in your microsoft account, outlook will appear to reply using the outlook.com address. Not sure if that is what is happening here - for most people, the mail is sent using the correct account.
You need to use auto account setup to add it as a microsoft exchange account, Exchange ActiveSync is no longer supported.
jirkaesch says
Hi Diane, great stuff, thanks!
Is there any way, however, how to get rid of the message Outlook 2010 fires when you are using default email account in outlook.com calendar?
Something like This appointment is not in Calendar for the email account...
Thanks!
j.
Diane Poremsky says
No, not within outlook. I don't think we can kill it using vba either. Outlook 2013 and up will only trigger that message for meetings in a na sub-calendar.
Bob says
Before I go through all of this I want to check on something. Once I have the Outlook.com calendar on my PC and syncing correctly, if I invite attendees to a meeting will the "From" field show up as bob@outlook.com or my business email address bob@abc.com?
It does me no good for it to show as bob@outlook.com
Diane Poremsky says
If you create the meeting request while viewing your abc Inbox, it should be from abc, but be sure to test it to verify. If you go into the calendar to create it, it will be from the outlook.com address for sure.
Bob says
Thanks, Diane. It still is a bit of a kludge. I really only want one calendar and I want that one to show up on Outlook.com. I can send a calendar invite from the Outlook.com calendar I can select the From address, and it does show correctly and the responses do show up there. That's perfect.
But, when I receive a calendar invite that is sent to my abc.com email inbox and I accept it, it shows in the abc.com (local) calendar. So, I have to move it over manually to the Outlook.com calendar.
This shouldn't be so hard to have one email inbox and one calendar and have it both locally and on Outlook.com.
What am I missing???
Diane Poremsky says
You need to delete the calendar in the abc.com data file - as long as there is a calendar in the data fle, outlook will use it. Assuming it is in a pop account, you can delete it using mfcmapi if outlook had delete disabled. If it's imap, delete the imap data file. Make sure you move anything in the calendar, tasks, contacts, and notes before deleting an imap data file.
James Giffin says
Hello Diana,
In December I followed your tutorial and I successfully got Outlook.com to sync with Outlook 2013 calendar on my pc. Thank you for the excellent guide. Sometime in January I noticed that Outlook.com was no longer syncing with my pc. This week I decided to try and reestablish syncing. I have been somewhat successful. I can now view my Outlook 2013 calendar on Outlook.com, but I cannot get the calendar (with appointments) on my pc anymore. I’m not sure what to try next. Any suggestions to fix the desktop calendar would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Jim
Diane Poremsky says
It needs to be set up using auto account setup so it comes in as a Microsoft Exchange account. The calendar & contacts should sync back and forth - if you only have one calendar, reset the view. if you have more than 1 calendar, make sure you are looking at the correct one.
Martin says
Hi Diane,
I hope you can help me, I've been going round in circles with this for weeks as my knowledge of how these systems work is very basic.
I am trying to sync my Outlook calendar (Office Professional Plus 2013) with 2 iphones without success. I have followed steps on another of your posts to create a pst file however, this has not corrected the issue. My email address is via IMAP.
Thanks in anticipation.
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using outlook.com as the middle man or icloud? If you use outlook.com, you don't need a pst file, you need to add the outlook.com account to outlook then move all of the calendar & contacts into it. Add the account to your phone too and set it as the default calendar. The other option is to use the icloud (installed alone or with itunes) to sync calendar & contacts.
Martin says
Hi Diane,
I really hope you can help. I've been going round in circles with this for weeks!
My email on outlook is via IMAP and my calendar was 'this computer only' ost file. I have followed your instructions to set up a pst file and have transferred my calendar from the ost to the pst to try to set my calendar up on 2 iphone's and cannot get it to sync. I can see my calendar on outlook (Professional Plus 2013) but not on the iphones and I just don't know where I'm going wrong.
I would really appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Martin
Diane Poremsky says
What are you using to sync? The pst file will not sync with anything, unless you are using iTunes. You either need to use icloud or outlook.com - both of which store the calendar & contacts in their own data files.
Allard van Krevel says
Hello Diana,
I followed your steps and reconnected Outlook 2013 to Outlook.com. I want to use my personal emailadres name@domain.nl for default email and calendar syncing. Email works fine. But if I send an invitation from my personal email adres, it shows up in the 'personal' calendar (only this computer) and not in de Outlook.com calender (outlook_ugly@outlook.com), so there is no syncing. What am I forgetting or doing wrong?
Kind regards,
Allard
Diane Poremsky says
That is an imap account? Move all items in the calendar, contacts, and tasks folders that are labeled 'this computer only' into the outlook.com folders, make sure the outlook.com data file is set as default, then close outlook and delete the imap data file. Outlook will create a new imap data file without those folders.
See section B and C at https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/2013/imap-accounts-outlook-2013/ for screenshots and steps.
Dane says
Hello! I am wanting to sync my corporate outlook/exchange contact list to my outlook.com contact list. I don't think this method will work for me because I need my primary account to be my corporate account. Is there a way I can sync my local outlook/exchange contact list to my outlook.com contact list? Thank you! ..dane
Diane Poremsky says
Not using native outlook features (other than copy and paste). companionlink should do it though.
Dane says
Thanks Diane- I will have a look..
Conor says
Hi Diane, thanks a lot for your very useful guide. I believe i have followed most of your instructions but i am having an issue:
I set up my Outlook.com Windows account email using your instructions, ( I had to use an alias for the Windows Account as the primary email is a duplication of the POP account I also have on my Outlook for Windows software (my Real Email). So i added in the alias, it is now the account in Outlook for Windows for Contacts and Calendar( brilliant!!) , and i have my pop mail account ( real email) set up for email. When I go to create an email from my real email account, everything works ok. ( although the name of the Outlook.com Windows account alias address used has become a long ugly looking name(Outlook_xxxxxxxx@outlook.com) ....but since I wont be using this to send email i don't care....
BUT: when i click on Reply or Forward for an email that has been sent to my real email address account, the From field ends up being the ugly Outlook_xxxxxxxx@outlook.com ..... I can change this manually to the Real pop email but obviously this needs to be changed automatically.... any ideas?
thanks again!
PS, on a related topic have you any advice on how to manage rules in this situation? i have rule configured on Outlook for Windows that work well on my real pop account , but don't seem to work at all on the Outlook.com account ( or Alias account) .... and when i set up rules on the Outlook.com website, they don't seem to work either..... since the original account is a connected account.....
Diane Poremsky says
The From account is a bug - try sending a test message and see if it is from the correct account - when I tested it a couple of weeks ago, it was sent from the right account, even though it didn't show it. (hit reply on a message, then replace the To address with your own address.) The other solution is to set a pst as default, but that defeats the purpose of using outlook.com for calendar and contacts. :(
more info: https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-com-reply-account/
Conor says
Hi Diane, thanks for the reply. When i test replying to an email , i get a nasty email name :
outlook_ECXXXXXXXXXX@outlook.com via mydomain.fr I have had to change my PST back to default for Data ( it was already default email client) but as you say it kind of defeats the purpose ....
I cannot see any other work around as if i delete the alias then i cannot add the Outlook?com account in the first place. please keep us posted if this situation gets resolved!
PS, did you see my first PS ? :) about how to manage rules of a connected account on outlook.com? To give you a bit more detail: i have a personalised Outlook.com email which is connected to my primary pop account on Outlook.com : when i create rule on outlook.com these rules don't seem to apply to my account at all...is this because it is a connected account?
(i am asking this because when i use the outlook.com account on my mobile phone, all my messages are downloaded without any sort of rule filtering.....a nightmare!
thanks!!
Diane Poremsky says
Is this a grandfathered custom domain?
If you set the outlook.com alias as the primary or as the default for email, you'll lose the outlook_ugly address.
Rules should work on connected accounts but you my need to tweak the conditions. How does the rule read?
Todd says
Hi Diane,
I learned of the migration last fall when one of my TWO Hotmail accounts stopped sending/receiving with Outlook 2007. I also came to understand that 2007 did not support multiple exchange accounts.
I have now upgraded to Outlook 2016 (365) and created Outlook.com aliases. I am still unable to get two Outlook.com accounts set up correctly with mail, contacts, and calendars. The fully functional Outlook.com account was automatically set up as MS Exchange. The second Outlook.com account was automatically configured as IMAP/SMTP. How can I configure two exchange accounts or at least get the contacts and calendar to function correctly on the second account?
Diane Poremsky says
How many Exchange accounts are in your profile? Outlook 2010 and up support more than one so it definitely should be in as Exchange unless you have other exchange accounts, then you may have hit the limit and need to set a reg key to add more.
Try the manual setup to add the account as Office 365 - it *should* work (it does here, but so does auto account setup).
Catriona says
Hi Diane
It's great to have access to you - I can see from prior posts that you have solved a lot of people's issues. I have followed your advice re setting up an alias to enable calendar and contact syncing from my outlook account (which was set up with my own email address rather than an @outlook.com address. I can see that the reconnected outlook (alias) is using Microsoft Exchange by looking at account settings. This seems to have worked to enable these items to sync to my desktop (Surface pro) and Iphone and Ipad. Thank you!
I do have a few questions though:
1. On my Surface the new account's mail, contacts and calendars are showing with a strange long string of numbers and letters@outlook.com. Is this usual? Does it matter?
2. I think I saw you say that we should not set up the new outlook connection data file as the primary data file. Is that correct or have I misinterpreted?
3. I am considering this as a stop gap solution to keep things aligned but am seriously considering just setting up a new Outlook.com account and transitioning off my current provider so that everything is in the one place and i can take advantage of the Microsoft world. When I set up my new Surface (in March 2016 I set it up with my Telstra bigpond email/password (which was connected to Microsoft until that arrangement unravelled last year). My question is - If I set up a new outlook account and import my calendar, contacts and emails from my Telstra account with a view to closing down Telstra, with that cause me an issue as my Surface/Microsoft account is my original Telstra email account. I was looking at the idea of setting up a new administrator account on my surface to point to my new outlook.com account but am not sure if that would work and/or if it would mean I'd need another outlook 2016 subscription etc etc. Are you able to provide any insights?
Many thanks for any help you can provide.
Kind regards
Diane Poremsky says
1. is normal (i call it outlook_ugly@). You can eliminate it by setting the outlook.com alias as the primary in the microsoft account and as the default address in outlook.com options.
2. you'll want the outlook.com data file as default but your most used email address as the default email account. If replies are showing the wrong account, then you might want to use a pst as the default data file.
3. I always recommend using an address that is not linked to your isp account. You don't need a new outlook.com account - you can use the current one. Set the alias as the primary - you can remove the isp address from the account as long as you have at least one outlook.com alias on the account. if you want a different outlook.com address, you can add it to the account - it supports at least 5 aliases.
Catriona says
Thank you Diane - just wanted to let you know it's all working now. Much appreciated.
Irene says
Hi Diane, I have recently upgraded to a new Surface Pro laptop and while setting up Outlook 2013 I have been able to sync all my email from the Outlook.com as well as my ISP mail, however my Outlook.com contacts and calendar do not sync down to my Outlook 2013. This is working fine on my phone and my iPad and when I log online using a web browser, the information is there. All status showing online and in sync yet these areas are empty. Any thoughts on how I could fix this?
Diane Poremsky says
is the account set up as a Microsoft Exchange account?
Cindy says
I'm using Office 365 Home, and tried to resync my calendar since it stopped syncing. The calendars that are in my outlook.com will sort of show up in name only, and the data doesn't ever come in. Any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
Did you reconnect the account? https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-comswitch-account-microsoft-exchange/
Fernando says
Hi, using outlook.com since forever to sync my calendar between two Windows PCs, as well as Android and IOS devices (on Windows I use Outlook 2016 desktop). Recently I was forced to redo my account due to the EAS being deprecated soon. What I did is pretty much what you recommend in your post.
I have several IMAP accounts, and use outlook.com only for calendar/contacts sync (i.e., it is my default "data file").
Problem is that the "new outlook" is always using a weird "outlook_@outlook.com" as a From address every time I try to "reply" or "reply all" a message, no matter in which account it is in.
This wasn't happening with the old EAS server... is there a way to force outlook to use the same account where the message came through as a From address reply?
Cheers
PS: also tried to connect all accounts to my outlook 2016, expecting it to function as a big "hub" of all my e-mail accounts, but it didn't work because it is *too* slow on syncing accounts (i.e., more than 40 minutes to show a new message).
Diane Poremsky says
on the PS - i thought it pinged the connected accounts every 30 minutes, but it seems like it might be hourly - which is really too slow.
On the outlook_ugly@ problem - the only way to remove it currently is to set the outlook.com alias as the default - probability in both outlook.com's options and in the Microsoft account's settings. If the account in question is a gmail account, they are working on a solution that syncs gmail to the microsoft cloud - a small number of Windows Insiders had it enabled with the last Windows 10 Insider build. Unfortunately, i wasn't one of the lucky ones, so i can't say how it will work (plus they will continue to tweak it) but i was told it will fix the outlook_ugly problem for gmail addresses.
Holly says
Diane, PLEASE HELP. I had your Hotmail connector working with my desktop computer Outlook 2010 install, and an outlook.com account (with an alias, as my login matched my pop3 email account from another vendor per your older instructions). I just read all of this, and went through to setup the new account in my desktop outlook, since the Hotmail connector had ceased to sync the calendar and contacts that it had been syncing previously (from my desktop, to the outlook.com, and thus to my smartphone).
You noted to remove the old Hotmail connector email account, so I clicked to Remove that as I added the outlook.com account as a new email in addition to my local pop3 email account. However, when I got to your instructions to move the contacts and calendar items to the newly added outlook.com email account, I go to my local email calendar, and it's lost all color categories, and ALMOST ALL content. Where will I find a backup of this? I cannot afford to lose my local calendar, as it was my master, and hadn't been syncing to outlook.com for many months.
thank you.
Diane Poremsky says
We solved this, but for others having the same problem - the ost file used by the Connector account is stored at %localappdata%\microsoft\outlook and we can export it using ost to pst programs to recover calendar and contacts that haven't synced up to the server. Category names are stored on the items but the colors are lost - they need added back to the master category list. Outlook has an option to 'Upgrade to color categories' that is supposed to add them back, or group the calendar by category view, select one item in a category then click Categorize > All Categories and add the category manually.
Chris says
I have set up Outlook as an ICs transfer from Outlook 365 to Outlook.com as in this https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Share-an-Outlook-for-Windows-calendar-on-Outlook-com-25cd2b28-9237-4657-9623-7c55cfd818cb
The support article implies they will sync each other, but I don't think that's right. Is there any sync option anywhere?
Diane Poremsky says
The article describes sharing a read-only calendar as a "subscribed calendar" - it should update hourly, unless you choose an option to not update. This will only display what is in the calendar on the server.
If you want a calendar that syncs, add the outlook.com account to outlook using autoaccount setup. The Outlook.com calendar syncs between the outlook.com account in Outlook and the server - it does not sync between a pst file in outlook and the server - you would need to move the appointments (and contacts) into the outlook.com data file. If you want to sync a pst file, companionLink can sync the pst to outlook.com server.
Sam says
Diana, now that EAS is disable for desktop outlook, how do we connect to calendars on outlook.com on our desktop version of outlook. you mention connecting with auto account setup but for me that does not work. when I do that it pulls in all my IMAP. I am just trying to set up the calendar again like I had when EAS worked on the desktop. Help
Diane Poremsky says
is this using an address not owned by microsoft? You need to add an outlook.com alias to the account to log in.
Pascal says
Greetings from France,
Not sure this is right place to post this. Here is my issue:
Last week, just before I quit my company, I did an export of my former company exchange account to a pst (especially my calendar and contacts). Then I subscribed to a third-party hosted exchange account that I linked to an adress in my own domain. Next I imported the pst. So far so good.
Now in Outlook (Office 365 version) I see three calendars. Two are ok (one for the hosted exchange account, one for an Outlook.com account) but the last one is odd: "Anniversaires' (might be 'anniversaries' or 'birthdays' in English). It seems to be automatically populated from my contact birthdays. As I already have imported all my family and friends' birthday calendar reminders from my pst, I end up getting two reminders each time. One reminder coming from my hosted exchange calendar and another one from this self created calendar.
How can I avoid the "Anniversaires" calendar to be populated? Or alternatively, how can I ensure that this calendar does not get created at all?
Best regards.
Diane Poremsky says
Is the new account hosted on Office 365? It sounds like the new Birthdays calendar. Log into outlook on the web, go to Options then calendar and change the setting for the birthday calendar.
Pascal says
So simple...
Actually this is not the first time that I forget to look at OWA for my Exchange account settings.
Thanks for the tip and sorry for the dumb query
Pascal says
addon re: "Is the new account hosted on Office 365? ".
Well, as stated earlier, my PC Office suite is 365 indeed. For the hosted Exchange, I understand it is under Exchange 2016.
Diane Poremsky says
The office suite is separate from the email hosting. :) At this point in time, all but a few thousand accounts are on the Office 365 Exchange server hosting outlook.com - the last ones will be migrated soon.
Kim Haines says
I would like to deactivate my Microsoft Outlook account because I have been using my Gmail account more. How can I make my Gmail account the go to account instead of Outlook?
Diane Poremsky says
you can set it as the default in outlook - File, Account Settings - select Gmail and set it as the default email account. If you are using calendar and contacts, they won't sync between outlook and gmail without a 3rd party utility.
Marco says
Hi,
I have the problem with not syncing calendar and contacts with outlook/live.com Outlook 2016. Until last week, everything worked fine for years!
I use the desktop client of Outlook 2016 which is up-to-date.
I still try to make a new "Exchance ActiveSync" account, with my live-id (which is not a outlook-mail, but a freenet-mail). With this account I only sync calendar and contacts. Nothing more. No mails. I will do that with mail-accounts only. There the server will be set to "eas.outlook.com" where you wrote, that it will not longer be used.
So if I change the server manually to m.outlook.com or m.hotmail.com it doesn't work and sometimes when I check back, it was changed to eas.outlook.com.
So what must I do? On outlook.com I see all contacts and the calendar. I want to sync them again with Outlook 2016 (desktop client; with my Windows Phone everything will be still synced!)
Diane Poremsky says
They disabled ActiveSync support over the last couple of weeks. https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-comswitch-account-microsoft-exchange/
You'll need to add an outlook.com alias to the account to set it up as an exchange account.
Marco says
Yes, that works. Funny, that they didn't show that solution anywhere!
Thank you.
André says
Hello Diane, my last post seems to have gotten lost, so I am trying again.
I have been using my own domain with Outlook 2013 and now Outlook 2016 (v16.0.6965.2117 up to date) for a few months, to sync Calendar & Contacts with Android devices and other Windows devices. Though I link/read many email addresses through Outlook, I use the one @mydomain as the default (no email use) connected through Exchange ActiveSync (eas.outlook.com / eas.outlook.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync - I also tried outlook.office365.com seen in this Q&A).
Since about 3 weeks ago, I cannot sync between Outlook 2016 (Desktop) and Outlook.com (outlook.live.com). I had received an email form MS advising me to Reconnect Outlook 2016 or Outlook 2013 to Outlook.com for uninterrupted email access (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Reconnect-Outlook-2016-or-Outlook-2013-to-Outlook-com-for-uninterrupted-email-access-cda1751d-9503-40bf-bf76-e79454ac5eb3?ui=en-US&rs=en-CA&ad=CA) I tried and still no sync. I contacted MS and no one seemed aware of such an issue, when I got a L2 call-back, I was told that the support staff had just been made aware of a possible issue (Outlook 2016 would not support ActiveSync!) I was advised to wait for an update to correct the situation. Do you know of a fix, or are aware if one is to be released, shortly, by Microsoft? I’ve started to test using an @outlook.com address to sync Calendar & Contacts, seems to work but I am not sure that I want to use an address I cannot control to sync Calendar and Contacts. Also, I would need to find a clean way to transfer (ALL) my current data from @mydomain to an @outlook.com. Do you know of any? I often need to search Calendar history, Contact notes and past email, so Outlook 2016 is great for my needs. I really need to find a way to repair the sync issue. Thank you in advance for any help. André.
Diane Poremsky says
Not lost, I'm just way behind in answering. :(
They are disabling EAS - everyone needs to switch to Exchange - https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-comswitch-account-microsoft-exchange/ (BTW, this will not be fixed - EAS is a poor choice for connecting to Exchange server. The old outlook.com was not on exchange but they left it enabled to make it easier during the migration. )
You will need to add an outlook.com alias to the account then use that to log into outlook.
https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/add-alias-outlook-com-account/
André says
Hello Diane,
Thanks for the response. I have a back-up pf my Calendar & Contacts from mid-January. The Contacts file haven't evolved much in the last few days, but I've continued using the Outlook.live.com Calendar. I am looking to export (all) of my Calendar activities. I've found "Settings/Options/Publish Calendar" to create either en ICS file or a HTML link but neither contain any information past August 2017 (6 months!)
How can I get the past history as well as future activity to export (an ICS file)?
P.S.: I will be trying to use an alias, but I realy do not want to risk loosing any Calendar info.
Thanks again, A.
Diane Poremsky says
Adding an alias to the Outlook.com won't affect the calendar - nothing will be lost (even if you then remove other aliases - the account is id'd by a GUID that never changes). The only risk you would have is if you have the account set up in outlook desktop and it's not syncing - new items added in outlook desktop won't be synced up to the server. Export to a pst for backup.
Creating an ics that includes all events (and full appt info) would be equivalent of a backup of the calendar. I know you can do a full ics from outlook but the Outlook on the web version may limit it, especially since its used for sharing rather than backup.
André says
Hi Diane, Thanks for the information and your responses. I created an alias (xxx@outlook.com) for the existing (@MyDomain) account. All seemed good everything in the OWA Calendar and all OWA Contacts were replicated to the Desktop Outlook (DT-OL). On the DT-OL, the Calendar is identified as Calendar - outlook_letter&number_String@Outlook.com.
When I create a new appointment it replicates in all views; OWA, DT-OL & Windows10 Mail. In fact, all sync well and replicate new appointments. But, when I edit information in an existing appointment (not withstanding where it was created) OWA and W10 Mail always overwrite the contents on the DT-OL, i.e. if the text/details of the appointment was: Meet with Gary and is modified on the DT-OL by: Met with Gary, follow-up in 2 weeks; after a Refresh Send/Receive, the content reverts back to: Meet with Gary! If the modification is done via OWA or W10 Mail, both comments remain!
I noticed that when I open an appointment created earlier by DT-OL to try to edit with OWA, it looks like an invitation sent by the @MyDomain account (as organiser) and the alias account (xxx@outlook.com) is identified as an attendee. With OWA I cannot edit the appointment [no save], but I can: Send, Cancel, Reply, Attach, etc. But I can edit the appointment with W10 Mail and once edited by W10 Mail (after Refresh Send/Receive) I then can edit with OWA!
When I try to edit an appointment already created with DT-OL, on DT-OL I get the following message: This item was not completely updated during the last sync with the server. Click here [View local failures] to review other versions. And any edits by DT-OL are overwritten by the (original) version that was synced to OWA!
Any Idea on what could be causing this issue, and how can I fix it?
Thanks in advance, A.
Diane Poremsky says
i haven't been able to repro this yt but will keep trying. it definitely should work 'as expectd' in all of the clients.
André says
I've also tried again to repro but could not, so it's back to working "As expected" Thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
Not being able to repro is the bane of all bugs. It's possible there was a temp server-issue that went away.
André says
Diane, Thanks for the information. I created an alias (xxx@outlook.com) for the existing (mydomain) account. All seemed good everything in the Web Calendar Contacts was replicated to the Desktop Outlook. On the Desktop Outlook, the Calendar is identified as Calendar - outlook_letter&number_String@Outlook.com.
When I create a new appointment it replicates in all views; Web, Desktop & Windows10 Mail. In fact, all sync well and replicate new appointments. But, when I edit information in an existing appointment (not withstanding where it was created) Web and W10 Mail always overwrite the contents on the Desktop version, i.e. if the text/details of the appoint was: Meet with Gary and is modified on the Desktop by: Met with Gary, follow-up in 2 weeks; after a Refresh & Send/Receive, the content reverts back to: Meet with Gary! If the modification is done via Web or the W10 Mail, both comments remain!
Any Idea on what could be causing this issue, and how can I fix it?
Thanks in advance, A.
Diane Poremsky says
I'll see if i can repro - it definitely should not be doing that. do you get any type of 'conflict' warning?
André says
I Also noticed that when I open an appointment created earlier by DT-OL to try to edit with OWA, it looks like an invitation sent by the @MyDomain account (as organiser) and the alias account (xxx@outlook.com) is identified as an attendee. With OWA I cannot edit the appointment [no save], but I can: Send, Cancel, Reply, Attach, etc. But I can edit the appointment with W10 Mail and once edited by W10 Mail (after Refresh Send/Receive) I then can edit with OWA!
Diane Poremsky says
Thanks for the additional information.
Hugh says
I am trying to sync my phone to Outlook 2013 which is on my PC.
It was synced and was working fine, but it has stopped working in the last few days.
Each time I get the message;- Log onto Exchange ActiveSync mail server (EAS): The username or password you entered isn’t working. Please try typing them again.
I have followed your suggestions on how to remove and reinstall the account in Outlook, but it is still not working.
Could I check the settings with you?
In Outlook the Mail Server was "eas.outlook.com", in the new setup it should be "m.hotmail.com"
Is the password the Microsoft Account password? That is the one I could use to log into my PC?
Are these the only two settings that need changing?
I had a look in windows10 Email, calendar and contacts …sync settings, and it is using eas.outlook.com
Could this be why it is not syncing?
Currently I my Outlook Calendar has gone blank which is a bit of a problem.
Thanks,
Hugh
Diane Poremsky says
They are disabling EAS - everyone needs to switch to Microsoft Exchange server type - https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-comswitch-account-microsoft-exchange/
You will need to add an outlook.com alias to the account then use that to log into outlook.
https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/add-alias-outlook-com-account/
Hugh says
Thanks, I now realize that I had all the settings correct, I just needed 2 step authentication.
Hugh
Diane Poremsky says
Ah... thanks for the update - hopefully that is the reason others are having problems too.
Hugh says
Diane,
The calendar worked fine for a week, but this morning it is not displaying any calendar events that are on the EAS server.
Either on my PC or my Android mobile.
I have tried deleting and recreating the EAS email account.
Any suggestions as to what to try next?
Thanks,
Hugh
Diane Poremsky says
What server name is the android using? Outlook desktop needs to have the account added as a Microsoft Exchange account, not ActiveSync, but EAS is supported on devices. Arte you using the native android app or outlook app?
I will see what i can find out - at least one other had sync issues this week too.
Hugh says
I am using the Outlook app on the Android device just for the calendar.
I can't see what the server address is at the moment.
My mobile is currently my only way of getting email so I don't want to upset it.
I tried changing the Outlook desktop account to MS Exchange from EAS.
I deleted the old EAS account.
It said close Outlook and set up an MS Exchange account in Control Panel.
I did that and I got a message about change my server details.
I then tried to start Outlook and got a message, "Cannot open Outlook Window….folders cannot be opened."
Deleted the account and set up a new IMAP account.
Outlook now loads but is set to "Working Offline".
So I now can't get my email or my Calendar.
It looks like the data files are in the correct folders.
If I could get the IMAP account working then I could at least get emails but then I would have to change it again to MS Exchange server to get the Calendar.
How do I get outlook to go online?
Thanks,
Diane Poremsky says
EAS will still work on devices - just not in Outlook desktop. I would try adding the account to outlook again, using auto account setup. You can leave the imap account in the profile for now - remove it after the Exchange account works.
On working offline, does mail download if you press the send/receive button? On the Send/Receive tab, is the working offline button highlighted?
H S says
Going through the steps in the video above to try to add my existing outlook.com account (that previously synced calendar and contacts only, per your earlier instructions a few years back, as the Hotmail connector Sync), but as I follow your steps adn go to New-->Email Account-->Manually-->...I'm not getting the same choices you show, to use 1) Outlook.com versus 2) POP/IMAP versus 3) MS Exchange. My selections are still the old 1) Internet Email, 2) MS Exchange, 3) text messaging, or 4) other. Do I need to update something on my desktop Outlook install to make this work? Just want to have my desktop calendar/contacts syncing successfully to my smartphone again, and this has stopped despite the old setup still existing in my Outlook 2013 on my computer. Thank you.
Diane Poremsky says
Outlook not longer supports EAS or the connector - you need to use auto account setup to add the account to Outlook 2007 and up.
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-comswitch-account-microsoft-exchange/
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-com-migration-status/
Andrej says
Hello Diane. I have hotmail.sk account and outlook 2013 up to date, but im not able to do autoconnection through exchange. always i got message: "an encrypted connection to your mail is not available"
. Please can you help? Is hotmail.sk domain still supported?
Thank you. Andrej
Diane Poremsky says
As far as I know it is still supported. I'll check on it.
Andrej says
Hello. So the issue is, that our country domain .sk is not supported. So I created alias with @outlook.com and it work well. Thank you for your goodwill. Have a nice day. Andrej
Diane Poremsky says
Thanks for the update.
Brian says
Hi Diane, Thanks for your help on this stuff. I used your method above to sync calendars - i.e., me@isp.com used as an alias at Outlook.com. To correct for the end of EAS, you suggest using auto account setup, but if you have a me@isp.com, how does Outlook desktop app know it is an alias? Won't it just go to my ISP rather than "find" the me@isp.com alias on the Outlook.com server? The manual setup on the embedded video is the "old" EAS method, right? Any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
You need to add an outlook.com alias to the account as ActiveSync is now disabled.
https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/add-alias-outlook-com-account/
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-com-migration-status/
Jochen says
Dear Diane,
thank you. Just solved my sync problems using your guidelines. I spent two days without success. I even spoiled everything - really. By the way: poor behavior from Microsoft. I agree with others who feel alone and not informed rightly. Again, thank´s. Many thank´s.
Greetings from the very South of Germany
Jochen
Jochen says
Dear Diane,
thank you, just solved my sync problems using your guide. I spent two days - without success. I was close to spoil everything - really. Then, I obviously put the right questions into the search box and found your website. By the way: poor behaviour from Microsoft. I agree with others who feel alone and not informed rightly. Again: Thank´s. Many thanks.
Greetings from the very South of Germany
Jochen
Bill Tarkulich says
Thank you for your tutorial. It and all your responses herein didn't solve my problem didn't unfortunately. I finally fixed it for my specific config. It only took about 5 hours of rebuilding.
Here's my config. I'll use a ficticious email address to protect the guilty: mickey.mouse@kingdom.com
My objective on my desktop PC is: a) continue to use my private mickey.mouse@kingdom.com to get to my own mail server using IMAP and b) Use only Outlook.com for calendars.
1. I have two devices: a) An Office 2013 Desktop client. b) a windows phone.
2. I have a private email address: mickey.mouse@kingdom.com
3. I sign into outlook.com with mickey.mouse@kingdome.com
4. My outlook.com account has been "migrated", so I removed and re-added it. That's when the problem started.
I setup my Outlook 2013 like this:
1. An IMAP mail account for mickey.mouse@kingdom.com
2. An outlook.com account using the credentials mickey.mouse@kingdom.com, and manually configuring it to use outlook.com as the account.
The connection is successful, mail works, but no calendar.
In this case, looking at the account setup, you see that it went back and created an outlook eas account. No calendar.
I know the calendar is on outlook.com, as I can sign onto outlook.com via the web app and see it. I also know it connects perfectly to my windows phone, as I can exchange appointments in either direction.
SOLUTION:
1. Setup an email alias on outlook.com from the web app, using outlook as the domain.. I made mine "mickey.mouse@outlook.com"
2. Setup an account on your PC Outlook 2013 using "mickey.mouse@outlook.com" Let it automatically configure.
WORKS.
Your problem may not be the same, but I concluded that using an email address for outlook.com signin that is the same as your private email address is not cool.
Good luck.
Diane Poremsky says
They turned off activesync and everyone needs to use an auto account setup to add it back - and you need an outlook.com alias to do that.
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-comswitch-account-microsoft-exchange/
https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/add-alias-outlook-com-account/
David Gates says
I had my own personal account and it was previously set up and synced email, contacts and calendar via Outlook.com.
I got a message saying I needed to reconnect the account to Outlook.com but since doing so, the ONLY thing that will sync is Folder Names - the contents of the folders (including the inbox) are NOT syncing. If I add a new folder in Outlook.com it appears in my Outlook 2016 client. If I MOVE email into that new folder, it DOES NOT SYNC! No contacts or calendar entries sync.
Can you advise? I've tried recreating the profile from scratch, same result. It "finds" the eas.outlook.com email account when setting it up in Outlook 2016 but nothing syncs.
Diane Poremsky says
It shouldn't be using EAS - they are turning EAS off (for Outlook desktop; smartphones will still use it) and you need to reconnect using auto account setup, which should set it up as a Microsoft Exchange account.
Sam says
Diane, I have the same issue. I deleted the EAS link and tried doing the Auto Account Setup but that connects to my non-outlook account via IMAP. I am just trying to get the calendar to sync to my desktop outlook 365. What do I need to tell it to do if I want a separate IMAP account and also have the calendar sync like it was set up in EAS?
Diane Poremsky says
You'll need to add an outlook.com alias to your account and use that to set it up.
https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/add-alias-outlook-com-account/
ales says
Why should you do it user friendly, if you can do it complicated as hell?
Stu says
I'm operating with the latest updates to Office 365 on Windows10. I used your instructions to set up calendar syncing between Office 365 and outlook.com but I continually get the message "Trying to Connect". Do you have any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
is the account in your profile as Microsoft Exchange or Exchange ActiveSync? You need to use autoaccount setup to add it as Exchange.
Tom says
Hi Diane. I have Outlook2016 and followed instructions to set up a POP3 account and then set my Outlook.com datafile as default. Now Outlook is confused as to shere it puts meetings. If I enter a meeting on the meetings screen it puts it in the Outlook.com calendar, but if I pick the new meeting icon on the e-mail screen it puts it into the POP3 calendar. If I accept a meeting in my email it goes to the POP3 calendar, but if I send a meeting from the calendar screen it goes to the Outlook.com calendar.
Can you advise how I fix this?
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
That is correct behavior. If you have a calendar folder in a data file and are working in that data file, new meetings will go on it. If you receive a meeting request and the data file that account uses has a calendar, it is added to it. You have two choices: a new pst for pop3 that does not contain a calendar (if you don't set it as default, it won't have a calendar) or use mfcmapi to delete it (after moving any events on it)
Speranza says
i am using Outlook2010 on my laptop and want to sync my calendar with the Outlook app on my ipad. I have created an outlook.com account, and items entered on the web calendar sync OK withe IPAD app. The calendars between my laptop and the web do not sync. I have installed the Outlook connector and made its data file the default. But I receive error messages when i try to send/receive calendar files. i want to continue to do mail and calendar on my laptop,not on the web. EMail syncs fine with Ipad. I Don't use active sync or exchange. Is this a lost cause?
Diane Poremsky says
You cannot use the Outlook Connector - that is no longer supported. You need to use Microsoft Exchange account type to connect to outlook.com. This requires Outlook 2007 or newer with all updates installed. You need to use autoaccount setup to add the account to outlook.
Bernard Smith says
Hi Diane. Any update of when the calendars will be syncing for the migrated users. I have tried everything on this page and others multiple times to get my calendar sync back post migration. How could Microsoft get it so wrong and remove a functionality enjoyed by many. I would just like to be able to use outlook 2016 and sync to my android phone, is that too much? I pay a yearly subscription just to hav this and yet it has been removed. I find it so sad I have read only access to my own outlook.com calendar, with a fully paid outlook 2016.
Diane Poremsky says
It should be syncing - try removing the accounts from the device and outlook and add them back using autoaccount setup.
trey says
Diane,
I am still having trouble syncing the calendar so perhaps you can help me determine where I've messed this up. At this time I have 2 mail accounts, the IMAP account which will procure email and the outlook.com account that I used the connector to configure. But it will not pull in any data at all. I am getting 2 errors when I send/receive 0x8004102A and 0x8DE00005. If I used the IMAP account I can send and receive emails, but I can't do anything with the connector. I've made sure I'm updated to 14.0.7015. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the connector, creating an outlook.com alias, I've tried purging my %userprofile% of all existing .pst files and re-configuring. The outlook data file that's generated from the connector says not available and the one generated from the IMAP configuration I can't select as default, but neither have the appropriate calendar information.
Have I missed a step here? Please help.
Thank you!
Trey
Diane Poremsky says
The outlook connector is no longer supported. Ypou need to use auto account setup to add the account to outlook 2007 and newer.
See https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-com-migration-status/ for more information on the migration and how to set up your account.
Andy says
Hi Diane. It's nearly a month and a half since my last contact and I seem to be fairly close to getting things back to as they were when Hotmail Connector was used. I still have an account showing myname@outlook.com when I want it to show myname @tiscali.co.uk. I can't send messages from my Outlook 2010 desktop. I get a pop up box every time that pre-populates my server (smtp.tiscali.co.uk) my username and Password and I can't get past it. All my emails are having to be sent using the online Outlook Email via outlook.com which isn't really satisfactory. The syncing process however for calendar and contacts appears to be working. Any idea how to resolve these issues? Many thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
Sorry I was swamped and missed this earlier. now that the accounts were migrated, you need to set up the account in outlook using an Outlook.com alias. You won't be able to send mail from Outlook desktop using a 3rd party address - all mail will go outlook from the outlook.com alias or the 'outlook_ugly' address assigned to the account.
Brian says
I have been reading and watching numerous videos and articles that have indicated that my Office 365 Home (5 user version) will sync the calendars between each of the 5 users. I have spent days on this with no luck. The option does not come up for the share button. Most of the videos appear to have only the Business version that will sync. How can I share the calendars other than using Plaxo? I would like to be able to use the same color and category on all computers so it looks clean. How can I sync calendars in the 5 user Office 365 Home version for the Outlook?
Diane Poremsky says
You can share Outlook.com calendars with other users but they cannot edit it in outlook, only Outlook on the web.
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/sharing-outlook-com-calendars/
Joy says
Hello Diane. This information is quite helpful. Thank you. I just bought a new laptop with Windows 10. I set up a new outlook.com account and added that to the outlook desktop to use for syncing my calendar and contacts. The calendar seems to be syncing fine between the desktop, outlook.com, iphone and ipad- until I delete an entry. If I delete an entry from my ipad or iphonw, this seems to sync with outlook.com but not the desktop. Do you have any ideas why this would be?
Diane Poremsky says
It definitely should be syncing two-way between outlook and the server. Are you looking at the correct calendar on the desktop? (Surprisingly, that is a frequent cause, especially on smartphones.)
Andy says
Hi Diane. As suspected I've now become very frustrated with the whole process of trying to set my Outlook 2010 to work exactly as it had been with the hotmail connector. I've got the latest version of Outlook 2010 running. I have the name@outlook.com as my primary on outlook.com. I have name@tiscali.co.uk as the alias. On Outlook 2010 I've added the name@outlook.com using auto account setup. This has set up a new account called name@outlook.com on the left side of my 2010 screen, however as you know this is not my primary account. I use name@tiscali.co.uk. The old MAPI hotmail connector account was deleted and stupidly I forgot to copy and add all sent emails from the date my account was moved up to today to the new name@outlook.com sent box. This means they are stuck in the old .OST file unless I pay a small fortune to have them converted to PST so they can be re-imported. My name@tiscali.co.uk emails are not getting through. What have I missed? I'm getting send receive errors saying the outlook data file cannot be accessed. Your help and patience much appreciated.
Diane Poremsky says
With the move to the new server and since they disabled Exchange ActiveSync support for Outlook desktop, you need to use an outlook.com address as an alias to log into outlook.com from Outlook.
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-comswitch-account-microsoft-exchange/
Carlo says
Here's an update.
EAS started to work suddenly. I guess it was a connection problem.
My Email, contacts, and calendar in my xxx@mydomaindotcom account in Outlook.com started syncing just like my phone does. Everything is updated now and synchronized between outlook.com, my phone, and my notebook. Thanks.
Carlo says
Hi Diane. I'm just curious why EAS does not work as well with Outlook 2016 as it does in an Android device. I know Microsoft has been changing things every so often to the point that they break things that they don't know matter to users. Anyway, I myself have found myself with this problem of syncing my outlook.com account (xxx@mydomain dot com) to my Outlook 2016 only to find out that what works on my phone doesn't necessarily work on the desktop. My phone is connected via EAS and it gets all...email, contacts, and calendars synchronized. in other words, It currently works well for me. Now comes Outlook 2016 which fails to synchronize my contacts and calendar entries. I'm just not willing to fix my desktop just to break my phone. Any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
ActiveSync was designed for lightweight clients on hand held devices - smartphones now, but ipaq's and similar way back when. They show-horned it into Outlook 2013 to allow syncing with the old outlook.com server. It was better than nothing in thew "rich" desktop client, but because it was designed for faster transfer, lacks a lot of the features supported by outlook. Microsoft Exchange services are much better and now that the accounts are moved to Office 365 infrastructure, a much better option.
EAS support for Outlook was disabled. https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-comswitch-account-microsoft-exchange/
Mike Iannitti says
Diane - I have two PC's that I'm using a Microsoft account with to sync calendar and contacts. One is running Outlook 2010 and the other Outlook 2013. I have survived the account migration to the new server and everything works as expected with one exception. On the PC running 2013, even though I have changed the Microsoft account to the default data file, incoming calendar invitations will not get added to the Microsoft account calendar. I can send outgoing invitations from that calendar (even using my native email address rather than the alias) and those are successful. But when I receive invitations to my native email address it's like 2013 is not seeing that calendar as the "default" and adds them to the calendar that is in the local outlook.pst. The desired behavior works perfectly on the PC w/ 2010 - so I'm wondering if there is a setting I missed or if this is a "feature" / known functionality issue on 2013? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, MIKE
Andy says
Hi Diane. I expect i am one of hundreds of thousands very frustrated Outlook users who have suddenly found that calendar,contacts and emails are not syncing between Desktop/Mobile App Outlook and Outlook.com. I contacted you a couple of years ago to help with syncing my Desktop Outlook 2010 and what was then Hotmail to sync my calendar and also make this sync with my wife's outlook calendar on her Microsoft mobile phone. The changeover to what I believe is Exchange Server happened a couple of weeks ago for my account and since then it has been many hours of calls to the Microsoft helpdesk in the Phillipines to help resolve my issue without success - even when they have been given remote control of my PC. I've just read your instructions below but apologies I am still confused (and I thought I was reasonably tech savvy!). My set up as follows: Outlook Desktop 2010. I have two email accounts set up within Desktop: 1) name@tiscali.co.uk, type: POP/SMTP (send from this account by default). 2) name@tiscali.co.uk (The Outlook.com sync) type:MAPI. The connection to Outlook.com is done using Hotmail connector. The set up was done this way to prevent emails going to the Outlook.com account by default. Outlook 2010 would receive the emails and then sync them once Send/Receive was initiated. The Outlook.com account has 2 emails: 1) name@tiscali.co.uk (the primary), 2) name@outlook.com (the alias). The helpdesk in Phillipines have tried changing the name@outlook.com to my primary address, they've tried to set up dummy email addresses using the manual set up via exchange server in desktop Outlook 2010 but to no avail. I am absolutely disgusted with Microsofts approach to this changeover. They have left customers like me out in the wild with no detailed help. I asked the helpdesk girl to even send me a link to Microsofts instructions to help resolve this - there is none apparently. It would appear I may have to quote that infamous Star Wars line "help me Diane..you are my only hope!"
Diane Poremsky says
i swear I replied to this last night...
Is the outlook.com account setup in Outlook 2010? Any error messages?
You need to have recent updates installed in order to connect to Outlook.com as Exchange. 14.0.69nn is required - if you have 14.0.7000, you have a version that will work - but having the latest version is best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmuRUT8JSmo
Michael says
Sounds like I'm one of those hundreds of thousands of frustrated Outlook users who enjoyed synched diaries until a few months ago.
I've created my alias "myname@outlook.com" but I can't add this as an account to Outlook 2010 14.0.7173.5000. After entering myname@outlook.com the online search brings up the Windows security window to ask for the credentials, again and again. Eventually I give up and Cancel the credentials window and get a message telling me to install Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector. Cancelling that invites me to click Next to use an unencrypted connection. “Problem Connecting to Server” is the next message leading to a manual configuration screen.
My calendar is on outlook.live.com and this synchs OK with my Windows phone but I can’t get Outlook 10 to communicate with the on-line version.
Diane Poremsky says
It sounds like its trying to set up as pop (because of the encrypted message) or can't find the server. I'm on my way to meetings with the product team and will see what they have to say about this error.
Michael says
Diane, would you be able to confirm the name of the server that we should be using? Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
As of now, outlook.office365.com or eas.outlook.com.
Michael says
Maybe I missed it...Prior to my Hotmail being transferred to 365, my Desktop Outlook (2010) emails (and Calendar) were always being synced.
After the transfer to 365, I got my emails working again on my Desktop Outlook (2010), however no Calendar into is being synced.
How to you so this part?
Note, I was using the Outlook Connector, but after the 365 move, I added a new account as POP3 were these instructions.
Diane Poremsky says
POP3 will only download email. You need to use auto account setup and add it as an Exchange account to sync calendar and contacts. You need to have updates installed in order to use Outlook 2010 with office 365 as an exchange account.
Jocelyn says
Hi Diane,
My outlook 2010 was configured as you described in the article with POP (internet provider) and MAPI (outlook connector) accounts using the same email address mostly to synchronize my calendar with my devices. Since October 11th my MAPI account is not working anymore and I cannot connect my Samsung smartphone to the outlook account thru the outlook application. Reading your paper, I am lead to believe it is due to the moving of the outlook accounts to exchange. I communicated with the outlook app assistance and outlook.com assistance and can not get any solution. Can you provide some possibilities to explore to find a solution.
Thanks.
Jocelyn.
Diane Poremsky says
it sounds like the account was moved to the new server. you need to remove the account from outlook and use auto account setup to add it back as exchange. you need to have the latest updates installed to use outlook 2010 with outlook.com.
is your pop3 address set up as a microsoft account and used with the connector? If so, you need to add an outlook.com alias to add the account to outlook 2010.
Paul Minichbauer says
Hi Diane,
I have used your excellent tutorial and my calendars now sync as expected. What I would like to know is how can I get the To Do items and Reminders in my Task List to sync as well. I regularly flag and put reminders on emails to follow up later, but because they are connected to the local Personal folders file they do not get synced.
Any way to do this?
Thanks,
Paul
Diane Poremsky says
Flagged messages will never sync unless you move or copy the message to the outlook.com box. you could use a macro to create a task in outlook.com mailbox when you flag a message. Macro for that is here - https://www.slipstick.com/developer/code-samples/create-task-message-flagged/
If you also use Tasks, the macros at https://www.slipstick.com/developer/copy-new-appointments-to-another-calendar-using-vba/ can be tweaked to move or copy Tasks to the outlook.com task folder. (I have a slightly nicer macro i need to post on the site - it's a little more compact and does both calendar and contacts. I'll add tasks to it before i post it.)
RSD says
I use an external card scanner to scan business cards and then sync with Outlook. If the entries are merged into the Outlook.com folder, the attached images are not visible, but the "Attachments" data field does show "With Attachments" . If I copy the entry into a .pst associated folder, the image is accessible, although not visible until I open the business card view and open the image. Is Outlook.com supposed to allow access to attachments? How About the Outlook desktop app using the Exchange account? I know I was able to see them in my previous employer Exchange server environment. TIA for any help you may offer.
Diane Poremsky says
It sounds like your account is on the old server - it doesn't support attachments in calendar and contacts. When the account moves to the new server, it will be an exchange account and you'll have the attachments back.
Kevin Bryant says
Hi Diane, I posted last night but cannot see my post for some reason. Anyway wondered if you could provide any advice. I sync my calendar and contacts to my mobile devices(iPad, iPhone & Windows Phone) exactly as you describe above using Outlook 2016 with EAS, I do not sync mail through Outlook.com.
My Microsoft ID is @virginmedia.com as is my primary alias. This has worked successfully for several years through several versions of Outlook. However yesterday stopped working and I have lost all my contacts on our mobile phones. My EAS connector is looking for dub409-m.hotmail.com as is my wife's Windows phone both of which cannot connect. I can login to my live account and use other online applications such as onenote, excel and word, however People, Calendars and Mail I cannot access and the error message is along the lines the server with my details is not available. Do you think this is just a server outage or related to the possible migration of my Outlook.com account? Any help appreciated as I am sure you can see our phones are useless without contact details. I have spent three hours on Microsoft's chat service and unfortunately I cannot seem to get across that this is probably an mail server problem not my browser.
Kind Regards,
Kev
Diane Poremsky says
I'm way behind on answering comments. :(
if you log into the account at Outlook.com, what address is in the browser? if it says outlook.live.com, it was moved to the new server - remove the account from the phone and add it back (can choose Exchange when you add it back). If the address contains dub49, then its still on the old server and is probably the result of a glitch.
BTW, if you are having problems logging in, try using an in-private browser session. if its still a problem, do you get any error messages?
chris says
Hi Diane:
I used your original instructions on Outlook 2016 and created the outlook.com using myemail@domain.com as my logon and adding this account to outlook2016 allowed me to sync calendar and contacts without any issue, however, something happened last month (Sep16) and I lost my sync.
I then deleted and re added the outlook.com email account with logon name myemail@domain.com, using manual server settings eas.outlook.com. It added no problem, but didn't sync any of the calendar or contact items.
I have tried creating new .pst profiles and nothing worked. I ended up creating an alias under the same account. myemail@outlook.com and then all the calendar and contact items came over.
but now I get description, outlook_a3fsj32s@outlook.com as the account name. Is there any way to change that account Name or is there a better way to set this up so that I don't have to use the alias? I thought that was the point of this post??
thanks
Diane Poremsky says
Where do you see the funny account/display name? you can set the outlook.com address as the default (in outlook.com options, connected account) and also add a display name (at https://account.microsoft.com/profile#/edit-name)
Pierre de Grenoble says
Hi Diane, just because I am curious: when email is sent on behalf of the account primary alias, is the suffix after "account_" : always the Microsoft account ID? This was my case in former version of the email service "Outlook.com". This behavior seems to have disappear or just change with the new flavor "Outlook Mail": whatever is the accoundt registered address used for sending, I do not have seen an email with From field saying "sent on behalf of" anymore. Neither have my recipients seen it again with the messages I've sent to them!
Chris says
I don't have any other connects accounts. I used my myemail@domain.com as my logon to outlook.com so it is my primary account. I creat d a second outlook.com email. Firstnamelastinitial@outlook.com as a separate account.
Maybe I'm am confused what order I should do this in?
As mentioned, this world before flawlessly but middle last month it stopped, maybe because of server migration?
I can logon to outlook.com with myemail@domain.com but I don't get the calendar and contacts to com. This is on a win10 Machine. I also had set up the notice email and calendar programs. Maybe I shouldn't?
Chris says
I'm getting outlook_94bc***c2a***C52@oultook.com on behalf of name@mydomain.com.
I had set up the outlook.com with username name@mydomain.com and then added as above. is there anyway to change this name to name@mydomain.com so if in error I send from it I wont have a problem?
Thanks
Philip says
Hi. I am using your macro from this post to send meeting requests fromt he default account rather than the outlook.com account. When i double click to view and apointent that i have been invited to and have accepted i get the following Microsoft Visual Basic error "Run-time error '-2147024891 (80070005)': You don't have appropriate permission to perform this operation." When I debug the macro it highlights the "Set m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)" line.
Have you seen this issue before / have any fix?
Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
it's because the sending account can't be changed - you are the first to complain about it. Add this line after the lines that check for appointment:
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.CreationTime < Now() Then Exit Sub End Ifnew items won't have a created time (its technically in 4501) so this will trap existing items.
Philip says
Thanks Diane,
This seemed to work. I no longer get an error.
When i accept appointments the response gets filed in the outlook.com sent items box. Is there a way to have this get filed in the default mail accounts sent folder? Also, if i were to forward a meeting invite, it is sending from the outlook.com account. can this send from the default mail account as well?
Diane Poremsky says
>> Is there a way to have this get filed in the default mail accounts sent folder?
Which account is in the From field? You could use a macro to move, but if the meeting is added to the Outlook.com calendar, it's going to be in that sent folder.
Philip says
OK, any ideas on how to get the forwarded meeting to come from he default account?
Diane Poremsky says
It will come from the account that received it. AFAIK, you can't change it.
Jean Lee says
Jean again. I have a mac. I really want to keep my hotmail address and not move to a gmail account. thanks jean
Jean Lee says
Hi. I have an old hotmail account that I use all the time. I have 'upgraded' it to Outlook but for the life of me cannot sync that calendar with my iphone calendar. The 'old' hotmail syncs but I like the outlook version of hotmail and would like advice on how to sync my outlook hotmail account with my phone. please help.
Diane Poremsky says
Remove the account from iphone then add it back, choosing exchange as the account type. If asked, use easy.outlook.com as the server.
Andrea says
Great and clear instructions. However, if I set my Outlook.com as an Exchange account, my Outlook alias ends up as the "from" address when I reply to any message in my IMAP account (which has nothing to do with Outlook.com). If I create a new message, then the from field contains my IMAP address as expected. The bug does not arise if I set up Outlook.com as EAS, using eas.outlook.com as the server. Is this a known bug?
Diane Poremsky says
Correct, the bug is a problem only with the exchange service. Eas is an option, although it is not as robust. I should find out more information about the bug this week.
Becca says
Is there a way to have tasks automatically send from the "real" account, instead of the outlook.com account? I used the registry key for the email, the macro for sending meeting requests, but it looks like if I assign a task, or forward a task, that request is sent from the Microsoft account instead of the "real" account?
Diane Poremsky says
It should be possible with a macro - I'll look into it.
todd says
Hi, since RS1 update all my contacts from my outlook/ms account are gone from my mobile device lumia950xl. They dont even show up in outlook.com. I am in rage mode right now :-( any advices ?
Diane Poremsky says
Are they in the deleted items folder online? (I'm assuming they definitely were online before.)
DickinSD says
I'm pretty sure I have the kind of problem this article is describing, but I'm unclear as to the precise steps I need to take to resolve it. I have a Lumina 735 Windows 8.1 phone, and Outlook 2007 on my computer. Earlier this year, having followed the instructions in Microsoft KB2459660, I had good calendar sync between the two. Now not!. Back then, I set up a Microsoft account using "rbenton@att.net" as my login (same as my primary email with AT&T). I downloaded and installed Outlook Connector, and created a new account within it using "rbenton@att.net" and the password I use to log into outlook.com. After restarting Outlook, I copied my calendar into the new one that now was there. Now, although I am able to see my calendar at outlook.live.com, and it syncs perfectly, bi-directionally, with the phone, nothing gets through to my computer on Send/Receives. I tried setting the new account to default for Data, but still didn't get the calendar. You mention setting up an alias -- I don't know how to do that. Or whether that's my problem anyway. Any help gratefully appreciated!
Diane Poremsky says
Do you have any error messages? If the account migrated to the new server, you will need to remove the connect account and let auto account setup add it back. See https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-com-migration-status/ for more details.
Scott says
Diane - as always, the best Outlook guidance ... thank you! I recently setup Outlook.com as you described for calendar, contacts, and task sharing. I wanted to confirm - am I able to put additional mail folders (Mail and Post items) in the outlook.com data file and have them sync as well? I was able to create the folder, saw it synchronize up (via checking my iPhone) but when I attempt to add items to the folder I receive a "Sorry, Exchange ActiveSync doesn't support what you're trying to do."
Diane Poremsky says
Correct, if you are using ActiveSync, you can't upload mail to the server. If your account was moved to the new server, you can remove the active sync account and add it back using AutoAccount setup. this will add it as a Microsoft Exchange account, which will support uploading.
Log into outlook.com - is the url outlook.live.com? That is the new server. If you are still on the old server, it should be moved "soon".
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-com-migration-status/
Dave says
Diane-
Thanks for all of your help, I have used your resources several times. I am using Windows 10 and Outlook 2016 on a Dell XPS. I use an I Phone. Until recently I have been using I Cloud to sync calendar and contacts between Outlook and my phone. When it has stopped working previously I have followed some of the tips to log out of I Cloud through the control panel and log back in and it has always started working again for me. Now, for some reason, the Outlook I Cloud Add In will not load properly. I have tried all of the tips to uninstall I Cloud, make sure the Add In is on etc. I Cloud is loaded and seems to be working - the Add In is among the working Add Ins - but when I check the box next to Sync Contacts in the I Cloud Control Panel it will not stay checked. I no longer have a "Refresh" button in Outlook. I finally gave up and found your suggestion to use Hotmail/Outlook.com to sync calendar and contacts and decided to do that - but realized that Hotmail sync does not allow for categories within contacts. I have all of my contacts categorized and don't use the categories on my phone so it was fine to use I Cloud because even though the categories did not show up on my phone, the sync between Outlook and I Cloud did not eliminate the categories. When I first synced between Outlook and Hotmail/Outlook.com - all of the categories were lost on my computer which will not work for me.
2 questions.
1 - Is there a better way to sync contacts between Outlook and I Phone so that categories and notes still appear? (calendar is working fine in either I Cloud or Hotmail/Outlook.com)
2 - if there is not a better method than using I Cloud - do you have any thoughts as to why I Cloud has stopped working and how I might get the add-in to work again?
Thanks again for all of your help with your site and forums - I am truly impressed with how much help you are willing to provide to people.
Diane Poremsky says
If you are using outlook.com, don't use iCloud - sync directly with outlook.com to the phone and to outlook. If your account is on the new server, it will use Microsoft Exchange account type, if its still on the old server, it will use ActiveSync - but once its moved, remove that account and add it back using Auto Account Setup.
Dave says
Diane-
I failed to thank you for your advice on this. I have stopped using I Cloud and now completely use outlook.com. It has been working well Thanks.
Unfortunately - I turned on my laptop this morning and all of the categories for my 1500 contacts are missing. It had been working fine to have the contacts on my PC in categories - and they would update and I could see them on my phone through outlook.com - but it would not effect the category. It appears now as if they category field was deleted when they synced with outlook.com? Any thoughts how I could get them back - they must be stored somewhere?
Thanks
Dave Low
Diane Poremsky says
Unfortunately, I'm not sure if they can be brought back. Open a contact - is the category showing in white color? if the name is there, you can run upgrade to color categories or just repopulate the master list one category at a time.
Do you know if your account was just migrated to the new server? (If so, remove the account from outlook and add it back using autoaccount setup so it's in as exchange Server.)
Richard Bibby says
Hi Diane, if I need to sync a migrated outlook.com calendar to Outlook 2010, should I still be using the connector rather than adding the exchange account? I cannot get the calendar to sync. Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
If the account was migrated, you need to remove the connector account and use auto account setup to add it back as an Exchange account. The connector won't work with the new server.
Richard Bibby says
Hi, I previously used the Outlook connector just to sync my calendar from smartphone to Outlook 2010. When the outlook.com account migrated, I removed & added the outlook account as an Exchange account. The calendar no longer syncs between outlook 2010 & the smartphone via the exchange account. I uninstalled the outlook connector (was following instructions on another site). I don't know how to get the calendar to sync. I'm not too clear following your comments "Using the Outlook Connector with Outlook 2010". I tried re-installing the connector and configuring the account again (in addition to the exchange account for the outlook.com account), but it immediately produces the send/receive errors as I assume it's trying to connect to the old outlook.com server. Is there any way I can achieve a calendar sync between Outlook 2010 and a smartphone?
Diane Poremsky says
The connector does not work with the new server. You need to use auto account setup to add it as an Exchange account.
Does the calendar sync between the server and outlook and between the phone and the server? Add a new event to the calendar on the phone - does it show up in outlook?
Jaime Chiong says
Hi Diane I got an issue with my outlook 2016. I tried to add my outlook.com account in the outlook program then i was able to so. When I check my calendar in outlook.com I have a lot of reminders or schedules plotted but when i try to check it in my outlook program installed in my pc there are not sync. I tried to check my emails and contacts they are working fine its just my calendar is not syncing. i tried to create a new calendar in outlook.com and i was able to do that. I tried to check the newly created calendar to my outlook program it sync. Its just that only plotted schedules will not sync into my calendar in outlook program. One more thing I tried also to create a new schedule on my outlook program into the new created calendar and try to see if it will appear on the outlook.com calendar, it went through. I'm a little bit confused about it why is it not copying all the schedules that i have onto my outlook.com calendar going into my outlook program.
I do really appreciate your time.
Diane Poremsky says
Are "plotted schedules " calendar folders or events on a calendar?
Everything online should sync down.
Kwan says
Hi Diane, Thanks for the updated instructions. I was able to use my outlook.com email/ calendar and sync to my work email id, changed the mail registry when I was on Win7/ Oulook 2013. Since upgrading to Win 10/ Outlook 2013, I can find the Mail sub folder in the REGEDIT directory for: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
DWORD in order to create the new registry. Thus still getting email sent from my outlook on behalf of my work email. Please advise what I need to do. Thanks again!
Diane Poremsky says
If the keys in the path don't exist, create them.
Joff says
Struggling with this new IMAP system for weeks now - ditching my old email for an outlook.com account and no success at accessing calendar from any device (home outlook, work outlook or smart phone) The email is set up as an IMAP/SMTP and the Outlook Connector is set up as MAPI (same email for both). On send/receive the MAPI doesn't sync Mail, is Connecting forever and Contacts are Connected. All I get to my devices is Contacts. Am I missing something with this? Outlook is 2007. Also after ditching my old email I want to move emails & folders over to the new Outlook. I got 1 folder and 1 month (missing some emails) dragged & dropped from the old to new through outlook and now it wont let me move any more ... another issue for another day - calendar is so much more important that is sync home, phone and work. Any help is most appreciated.
Diane Poremsky says
IMAP doesn't support calendar. You need to use the Connector to sync if your account is still on the old server (the connector does mail, calendar, and contacts, no need for imap), but accounts on the new server will be set up as Exchange accounts. If your account was created in March or more recently, it's on the new server for sure. With Outlook 2007, you need to have all updates installed, otherwise it won't connect to the servers.
log into outlook.com - are their appointments on the calendar? Are you showing the calendar on the devices? (Both iOS and Android mail clients let you hide calendars).
Joff says
Your expertise has been essential - thank you soo much. After the run around for 5 weeks I finally have a working email, calendar and contacts by changing the account to exchange for my main email, and imap for the others I don't need calendar or contacts. You are amazing!
Gary Cardinale says
I have been waiting months for my outlook email to change to the Office 365 servers. I even requested to be one of the early adopters. My understanding was that this would be completed by late spring. Now that we are in July, I have not seen anything change with my email account. Yes I do share calendars with other family members...does the delay mean that Microsoft cannot handle shared calendars and I will never be updated? The ability to not use basic features such as contact groups is getting beyond frustrating at this point. At this point perhaps I should be migrating myself to another more robust platform than this EAS account. If you have any update, please share that here. Thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
Shared calendars are the delay - they need to move the accounts all at the same time and do some magic on the backend so the share isn't lost. Your accounts will be among the last to be moved (people who sign into windows phone with the outlook.com address will be last too.)
The accounts will eventually be moved - should be sometime this month, but possibly into August.
Gary Cardinale says
Appreciate the feedback Diane, As an update as of August 2nd I still have not been migrated. They must be way behind in this process since it was supposed to be done last spring.
Diane Poremsky says
It looks like they are behind - although I've heard from a lot of people who were moved recently. They aren't talking about it and hope to be finished by their self-imposed deadline of Aug 31. This is the date they listed if you try to share calendars to with someone on the other server. It was supposed to be a worst case scenario date - time will tell if they miss that deadline too.
Pierre de Grenoble says
Here in Europe (France) the migration plan could be different from the one in USA. I do sign in my W10 Mobile using my Microsoft account and I was moved on the new server on October 3. The server has changed from blu***.mail.live.com to eas.outlook.com on my phone. I am waiting a little bit to move my IMAP Microsoft account to an Exchange on on a pair of laptops.
Diane Poremsky says
Well, the aug deadline came and went - they changed it to mid-2017 but should be done much sooner.
Susan Facile says
Help! I've set up everything, but now my Outlook 2016 shows 2 calendars - the "Calendar" and my "Outlook.com" calendar. When I drag an email to an appt, it puts the appointment on my "Calendar" and not on my "Outlook" calendar. I want to get rid of "Calendar". I thought I saw something from you on how to get rid of that base calendar. I did that and it came back and now I can't figure it out again. I have the outlook calendar set as the default. It syncs with my phone, but my Outlook is not always capturing to the outlook.com calendar. Also, it gives me a message when I invite others that "the meeting is not in the Calendar folder for this account and responses will not be tallied". I did go to registry and set the default to "1", but I guess this just helps mail and not appointments. Most of it is working but I just don't have it all.
Diane Poremsky says
if the outlook.com data file is set as default, outlook will use it when you drag mail to the calendar icon. If you have more than one calendar in the profile and can delete the others, that would be best. But you can only do this if they are in a pst or in an imap account and named 'this computer only'. If you have other accounts in outlook.com or on exchange server, you can't remove their calendar. (Use MFCMapi to delete calendars from a pst file - but make sure the calendar is empty first.)
>> "the meeting is not in the Calendar folder for this account and responses will not be tallied".
If it's the only calendar in the profile, this should go away.
Jen says
Thanks for the great instructions....I feel like I almost have it working, but am just missing something. I am trying replicate the setup I've used for years in a corporate environment where I've used my corporate MS Exchange account as the one repository for my calendar and contacts, which is then synced to my iPhone. I would like to use Outlook 2013 on my home PC and be able to sync my calendar and contacts with my phone.
Thus far, on my home PC, I have set up my yahoo email on Outlook 2013 using IMAP, exported my Exchange contacts and calendar to .pst files and added them to Outlook 2013, and I have added an Outlook.com account to Outlook 2013 using EAS. Finally, I moved my calendar and contact items from the imported .pst files to the Outlook.com calendar. (I am only using my yahoo account for email as you suggest.) The problem is that I only see the calendar and contact items on my PC (on the Outlook.com account in Outlook 2013). The are not syncing online with Outlook.com when I log in with my web browser. I need to fix this in order to be able to then add Outlook.com to my iPhone to get my calendar and contact. What am I missing?
Diane Poremsky says
Was your outlook.com account migrated to the new server? if so, the account should be in outlook as 'microsoft exchange'. if its in as eas, log into outlook.com in a browser and verify the contacts synced up to the server.
Jen says
I was able to get it working as an EAS account. Haven't tried as and Exchange account yet. I had to tweak some things with my primary alias on outlook.com, but now I am good. Thanks so much for this great post!
Nat says
> By mid-2016, all outlook.com accounts will be migrated to Office 365.
Now June 4th, and my account is still not migrated.
Does mid-2016 mean end of June? Is the best way to see if you are migrated by looking at some header text in the browser? Is there a way to be notified when your account is 'migrated'?
Diane Poremsky says
It means any time now :) They originally told me by the end of spring - which ends June 22 - and I've seen reports where they say June 30 for Windows Live Mail users. (Live mail and Windows phone users will be moved last.)
The easiest way to know is to log into outlook.com - the url is different (outlook.live.com) and the banner above the inbox says Outlook Mail. They were sending emails before and after an account was migrated but I didn't get one in every account.
Scott D says
I thought I had Outlook 2016 and Outlook.com (on old server) finally set up correctly to sync my contacts and calendar. Seemed to be syncing properly for a few days, then Wham. Now some of my contacts that I added on computer into Outlook 2106 have disappeared and the contacts in Outlook 2016 (3000+) have been duplicated. What could be going on? Will migration to new server fix all of these odd behaviors I am seeing? Tired of waiting.
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, the migration should fix the problems. Are they duplicated online too? Are you syncing with a smartphone or second computer? That can cause duplicates. What likely happened was something caused either the client (outlook or a smartphone app) or the server to see the contacts as new and add them as new. Oh... did you do any editing in outlook, like add birthdates? That will cause the appearance of duplicates but deleting one will delete both. Don't do anything until the account is moved. (Might want to export the contacts to a pst now for insurance too.)
On the new server (it supports multiple contact folders), if there are no changes you need to verify, you can move them to a new contacts folder then move back to the main one and tell outlook to accept all updates when the duplicate checker kicks in. (make sure its enabled in file, options, people)
Scott D says
I have tried to clean out the online list and start from scratch about 20 times now. I turned off syncing on my PC, and deleted all the contacts on the web site. Log off and log back on and the contacts are there again, at least a portion of them. No rhyme or reason to what will show up each time.
Diane Poremsky says
Any other devices that would be syncing with the server? They different should stay deleted if you delete them online. They are are in outlook too, that copy might sync up when you go online.
Scott D says
I just did experiment and deleted the top contact. It reappears immediately.
Diane Poremsky says
I would make sure i had a good copy of all of the contacts then delete them in both outlook and online and empty the deleted folder. Wait a few minutes. If they haven't come back yet force a resync in outlook. After some time passes, restore the copies you saved.
sun says
Any news on when the migration to Exchange will be complete?
Diane Poremsky says
Last I heard, for most people it will be "before summer" - so most people should be moved over before sometime in early to mid June. Windows Live Mail users, Windows Phone users, and people who share calendars (possibly others - these are just ones I know about) will be among the one moved last - that should be during June.
Paul Roybal says
Diane,
I tried adding the outlook.com account to outlook but when i try to set it as the default data file i get a message that says something about cache mode and points to a .ost file. Any idea what im doing wrong?
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
I'm assuming it's this problem - https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/change-the-default-data-file-from-exchange-to-another-account/
Michael Roberts says
I've been using outlook 2013 to sync with outlook.com for a few months now. Just a few minutes ago every calendar entry in the desktop application disappeared! I looked at a list view and they're all gone.
Most of the appointments appear to be on Outlook.com, although some entries I added via 2013 this morning are not there and 2013 no longer seems to be syncing with outlook.com since a post wipeout test entry hasn't shown up online.
Any idea how this could have happened? Is there a way to recover the recently added (and now missing, but not synced) items?
How can I get 2013 to start syncing again?
David says
Hi,
I have Outlook 2007. Calendar was syncing to Samsung Galaxy S5 until a few days ago. Read your article, so created Microsoft account. Then created @outlook account via Outlook Connector. Shows in list, but 'not available' in Data Files. Old method automatically populated calendar, but not new one. Tried dragging one for trial, shows in new calendar, but not syncing. Server status shows 'Calendar Connecting', but remains that way. Only using for calendar, not email. Have exhausted ideas! Help please!
Bill says
I use Microsoft Outlook for my email through a Comcast.net address. Please elaborate on my need to establish an "alias" with Outlook,com in order to sync my desktop and Samsung Android Outlook calendars and contacts.
Diane Poremsky says
After the account is moved to the new server, you can't configure it in outlook because you need to use auto-account setup, which will set up the comcast address. Go to Outlook.com then to Options > Connected Accounts - click the link at the bottom to manage aliases. You can create an outlook.com address to use to login.
Bill says
I have a Comcast email address. What do you mean that I will have to "add an alias" to my Outlook,com account?
Diane Poremsky says
You need an outlook.com alias on the outlook.com accounts in order to log in using Outlook desktop. Click the link at the bottom of Connected Accounts to add an alias. https://outlook.live.com/owa/?path=/options/connections
chris says
I used outlook 16 primarily as main creation and acceptance device for email and calendar items, however, I need to sync contacts and calendar on the iphone 6
I have done the changes above.
Set up outlook.com with username/password the same as my traditional email address.
joesmith@myemail.com on the outlook.com server.
I added this email account to outlook 16
I changed the default calendar to the new .ost server connected to this account
I migrated all my contacts and calendar items to my new outlook.com account and they are being reflected on my outlook16 computer
I am using my original email server to send and receive email, not using outlook.com account
However, when I received an emailed calendar appointment, it will only show up in my old calendar that is not synced with outlook.com. I understand you can copy them opver, but is there any other way to fix this?
Also, I did the registry update so that if an email is sent from the outlook.com account it still showes a long sequense of characters and then my traditional email address. It will send and receive email fine to the account I want but I thought your fix would make it look like the traditional email account?
Any suggesttions? I have been spending way too much time on this.
Thank you
Diane Poremsky says
Is there a calendar folder in your regular mail account? If so, outlook will always put the meetings in that calendar.
the wacky email address on new meetings is a problem - if you open the new meeting in the calendar, it will be sent using the outlook.com account. if you add your real account to outlook.com as a connected account and set it as default, in some cases, it will use the real address.
Or better yet, use New Item> Meeting from the Inbox in your real account. If you need to see the calendar after you open the meeting form, click the little calendar button next to the Delete X to open it in a new window.
You can dock the little calendar peek to the inbox - select a date to see the appointments for that day and the next 7. (in older versions, the To-Do bar will show only upcoming appointments.)
Chris says
There is a calendar in the outlook already. I guess it is set up when you put a native email account in outlook.
I really don't like that when a calendar invite comes in, it gets booked into the native calendar and not the outlook.com calendar.
When I originate calendar items or invites, they default to the outlook.com calendar in outlook16 which is exactly what I wanted.
I just want to get the external calendar items to go into outlook.com as well.
Is there any way to delete just the calendar side of the native outlook?
Diane Poremsky says
Is this a pop3 or imap account? If you get rid of the other calendar, meeting invites you receive will go on the correct calendar. How it's removed depends on the type of email account you are using.
Chris says
It is set up as a POP account. The email account is all set up in outlook with folders set up etc. So I would hate to have to reset that up?
Diane Poremsky says
The easiest way to to delete the calendar folder using MFCMAPI.
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/delete-outlooks-default-folders/ - use the delete instructions. (I see I have the wrong screenshot there too - i'll fix that.)
Chris says
What about using a rule to redirect the calendar invite to the other account? is that possible? And what would that outlook.com email address be if it was set up with my native email address?
Diane Poremsky says
A rule might work, or you could use a macro to move the meeting to the other calendar... or you can delete the calendar. Deleting the calendar is the easiest - if you ever set that data file as the default data file in a profile, Outlook will add the calendar folder back.
pcorun says
So here is my setup.
- Email account is an IMAP account from work
- Calendar and contacts are set up using outlook.com
- Using outlook 2013
Issues I am having that I need help with:
- When I select to create a meeting from an email it does not recognize my outlook.com calendar and gives me the error "The Calendar Folder cannot be found.". Can this be configured so that an email from my IMAP account will add the meeting with the message text to an event on my outlook.com calendar?
- If I am viewing my outlook.com calendar and create a new meeting, the From email is my outlook.com account, instead of my IMAP account. I have configured the registry key as instructed above, but that does not default the address as expected.
Can you provide me some feedback or possibly some solutions to resolve these couple issues?
Thank you in advance.
Diane Poremsky says
Was your outlook.com mailbox moved to the new server? If it's in your profile as an exchange account, it's going to use the outlook.com address. I need to test some things to see if it can be made to work again. :(
You're using Quick Steps to create the meeting? This is a known issue - the quick step tries to use the calendar folder in the imap data file, which does not exist. You'll need to create the meeting manually.
Janine says
Hi Diane, I am an old Windows Outlook 2007 user, happy as a clam with the way the Contacts section worked in that version. I've just switched from PC to Mac and purchased/installed Office 2016 Home & Business for Mac. VERY disappointed in how my Contacts migrated across, using Export for my old .pst folders.
Major issues: 1) No "File As" or "Full Name" fields, thus many contacts came across totally garbled in the naming and order in which they appear; 2) no formatting of my text came across in the "Notes" section; 3) no ability to see notes at a glance--have to drill down by using a tab; 4) no attached items such as related emails came across into my contacts; and 5) there appears to be zero ability to format the text in the Details section, such as bolding, highlighting, or cross-out.
I have 1300 contacts, so changing the headers manually would be laborious, to say the least. Is there any help for users like me? I am not interested in moving into the "cloud" as the herd is doing. Please advise! Thanks!
p.s. Does Microsoft ever consider giving refunds to folks who purchased a Microsoft download through a third party such as Amazon, if that person agrees to uninstall it fully and never use or re-sell it? I am strongly considering abandoning my efforts to migrate to Mac and going back to PC, in which case I would try to buy an old version of Office that has the functionality I need. Would Office 2010 for Windows work with Windows 10, for example?
Diane Poremsky says
How did you migrate the contacts?
This wasn't the subscription version? The subscriptions include rights to pc or mac.
I believe you can get a refund within 30 days.
John Boisvert says
Diane, you wrote: "You do not need to configure Outlook.com to pull in your other email accounts to use it for Calendar and Contacts. In fact, I do not recommend configuring outlook.com to pull mail from your mailbox - use outlook.com only for calendar and contacts." Is this still so? If so, what the danger in pulling email as well as Calendar and Contacts? Or am I misunderstanding something? I'm in the process of migrating to have my outlook 2016 Windows contacts, calendar, and emails visible and editable on my android devices as well. I was planning to use outlook.com to do that.
Thank you, John
Diane Poremsky says
That is referring to Outlook.com's "connected accounts" - while you could have one account configured in Outlook (outlook.com) and the server collects the mail (every 30 minutes) for up to 5 other pop accounts (comcast, gmail, etc) new mail and replies would always be from the outlook.com account when you used Outlook. If you wanted the mail sent from another account, such as comcast, you needed the account set up in Outlook. (If you used the web interface, you could choose the account.)
Upcoming builds of Outlook 2016 will do a better job at letting you reply with the 'correct' account, but it may still be easier to let Outlook handle the email send/receives and just use Outlook.com for calendar and contacts.
If you plan to switch to the outlook.com account for email (and stop replying from the other accounts), then it's different...
On the Android, add the outlook.com account and your other email accounts - you'll get calendar and contacts and can send and receive mail easily.
Janine says
Correction to my earlier post of today: I meant to say I'm also having trouble with the "Notes" section of Outlook People contacts not coming across with formatting, attachments, etc.--not the "Details" section. In my version, the "Details" section is grayed out and therefore apparently unavailable in my version (the full version but not the 365 version of Outlook 2016). But my biggest and most vexing issue is with the two fields not coming across at all--"Full Name" and "File As," leaving me with very garbled contact headers and indexing.
Janine says
Hi Diane, I am an old Windows Outlook 2007 user, happy as a clam with the way the Contacts section worked in that version. I've just switched from PC to Mac and purchased/installed Office 2016 Home & Business for Mac. VERY disappointed in how my Contacts migrated across, using Export for my old .pst folders. Major issues: No "File As" or "Full Name" fields, thus many contacts came across totally garbled in the naming and order in which they appear; no formatting of my text came across in the "Details" section; no ability to see Details at a glance--have to drill down by using a tab; no attached items such as related emails came across into my contacts; and there appears to be zero ability to format the text in the Details section, such as bolding, highlighting, or cross-out.
In short, I feel like I was sold a Mercedes, as I used to have, and received a Volkswagen (no offense, Volkswagen). More to the point, since I live in Outlook and use my Contacts constantly, I feel like I just had one leg amputated. I have 1300 contacts, so changing them manually would be laborious, to say the least. Is there any help for users like me? I am not interested in moving into the "cloud" as the herd is doing. Please advise! Thanks!
Richard says
Hello,
Have you got the Registry Key For Outlook 2016?
Thanks
Richard
Diane Poremsky says
It's the same as the others, but with a 16 instead. I'll add an updated reg file for it.
Teresa C says
Hello Diane, I just got an Android 6.0. I have a microsoft acount on outlook.com and Windows 10 on a desktop. I can't get past the outlook connector step for adding a new email account. the message reads "A new Microsoft Exchange account cannot be manually configured while Outlook is running. To add a manually configured account, exit Outlook. In Control Panel, open Mail, and then click E-mail Accounts."
I've set up an Outlook.com account through the control panel but I'm still not able to sync my calendar. I was able to sync contacts though. Can you help me please?
Diane Poremsky says
Do you have outlook 2010 or 2007?
That message means the account was moved to the new server and is now an exchange account - you won't use the outlook hotmail connector but need to have outlook 2007 and 2010 fully updated in order to connect with the server.
Alex says
Hi Diane
I've had sync problems with EAS calendar, contacts tasks for a long time but they seemed to have abated. Then I needed to reinstall Windows 10 and reinstall Office 365 and we're back to same hassles. None of the workarounds that seemed to work before are working. Bottom of screen shows "Disconnected". I can get Outlook to connect by Working Offline/Online. but then it claims to have completed and disconnects, when in fact most of the data at Outlook.com has not been downloaded. Any new tricks to try?
Diane Poremsky says
Was your account moved to the new server yet? The problems should go away once its moved.
C. Cooper says
Following up on Bob M. question, I'm having the same problem. I'm running Outlook 2016 on a PC and it is syncing mail and calendar with Outlook.com. However, the contacts that I have in 2016 don't appear in Outlook.com. Only one folder shows under "My Contacts" and that is "Contacts - me@outlook.com". Where am I going wrong?
Diane Poremsky says
Was your outlook.com account migrated to the new server? If so, did you remove the account from outlook and add it back? Export the contacts to a pst file before you remove the account.
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlookcom/outlook-com-migration-status/
Mike D. says
Diane, thanks for the detailed explanation. I used your setup and everything was working well for about a year. About a month ago my Outlook Calendar stopped syncing TO outlook.com. The calendar sync works fine from outlook.com to Outlook. I'm using outlook 2016 (MS Office 365). I see from your comments that sync is "buggy" and that the issue should be fixed when my account is migrated to OWA (it hasn't been). Is there anything that I can do in the interim to get Calendar sync going again?
Diane Poremsky says
No, not really. It's just a waiting game. They are accepting requests now but don't guarantee it will actually work, it depends on constraints. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/outlookpreview/default.aspx
Goodman says
Dear Diane,
I am following your directions to activate the sync between Outlook.com and Outlook 2016. Your directions include "After you set up the account in Outlook, move your appointments and contacts to the Outlook.com data file folders". However, I want to move the other way. I have a new computer so my contacts and calendar items are all online on Outlook.com and I need to get them downloaded into Outlook 2016 on the pc. I have set up everything as you suggest but the calender in Outlook 2016 remains empty while the calendar in Outlook.com has all my items. Do you have suggestions for how to get old calendar (and contacts) from Outlook.com and into Outlook 2016?
I am using the m.hotmail.com server, the status on the calendar is Disconnected, but email syncs.
Setting the default startup folder seems to not work. It always reverts to the Outlook.com inbox when Outlook 2016 starts again no matter what other mailbox folder I select in the Options - Advanced.
Related, the contacts are all on Outlook.com but the Outlook 2016 on the computer has ended up with the contacts in two files, one seems to be the pst file I moved from the previous computer (with lots of email but it had no calendar items) and some are in a Outlook.com file. Any ideas for how to merge these so that the Outlook.com file on the pc is the same as the Outlook.com contact list online?
Thank you very much for your help and a great website. I have relied on your website for all things Outlook.
Ken says
Thanks Dianne for the info on previous post. Next question / request for help.
The outlook.com account I'm using is an active / email receiving account. When I set it up it naturally starting syncing mail as well as contacts / calendars, etc.
Can I disable getting mail in Outlook 2013 from this account and keep the syncing of other activities. Thank you for the help.
Diane Poremsky says
You can create a sync filter on folders to restrict what syncs, but you can't get rid of the inbox and other mail folders. Right click on the inbox, choose Properties, then Synchronization. Set up a filter that will not apply to any mail.
If you make changes in send and receive, calendar and contacts will sync on the send and receive schedule (don't set it to less than 5 minutes) - but it's kind of buggy. It's really better to keep the default settings and use Sync filters.
Ken says
I right clicked on the "Inbox", not the email address, then on properties. A window opens with three tabs, General, Home Page, Auto Archive. No tab has a Synchronization item. Obviously I goofed.
Diane Poremsky says
How is the account added to your profile - as Exchange Server, as Exchange ActiveSync, Outlook connect (MAPI)? If your account was migrated to the new server and you remove it from outlook and add it back as an Exchange server account, you will have the sync tab. If it hasn't been migrated yet, then you can't prevent mail from syncing.
Ken says
I set up as per your instructions. Just checked, Monday AM, and it is set to Exchange ActiveSync. I can live with mail, was hoping for easy fix. Maybe you could help me with a far more serious fix. Maybe they are related. My syncing seems intermittent. Maybe the issues are related. My tasks and Contacts are not syncing. At the bottom of Outlook 2013, which I will call the status area I'm getting a message "This Folder was last updated on 12/18/2015. There is an exclamation point followed by the word Disconnected. Had this last night, try a couple of send receive all and it cleared. Then this morning I made a change in Contacts which did not flow through and the message is back. Any help would be appreciated. I've started searching Google as well.
Diane Poremsky says
That error is fairly common with activesync accounts. Once your account moves to the new server the problem should go away (after you remove and re-add the account.)
Ken says
Thank you. How do I know I've been moved to new server? If I remove account will I loose anything, calendars, contacts, tasks. Thanks again.
Diane Poremsky says
If you log into Outlook.com and the banner over the inbox says "Outlook Mail (preview)" the account was moved. If it still says outlook.com, it's the old server. You won't lose anything - everything on the server will sync back down.
Ken says
Dianne, it appears my new outlook.com is not part of the main send receive structure. I clicked on Send/Receive Groups, which caused a menu to appear. I then double clicked on the inbox for the outlook account and I back to being connected. (FYI... I'm using Two Step Verification" on outlook.com account and have provided it with a unique app password for outlook 2013.
Diane Poremsky says
When you use Exchange, the mailbox syncs as messages arrive - you should se the default send and receive settings. The S/R settings should look like this:
It's recommended to use Send Immediately, but if you like to hold mail for a bit in case you change your mind, you can use a rule to hold mail for 2 minutes.
Ken says
Did some more investigating. My outlook.com account is part of the two Send / Receive groups I have. One call All Accounts and one called "New Send Receive Group". I don't remember ccreating either. Anyway the outlook.com account is there but when I watch progress the outlook.com account is not initiated. The disconnected message stays at the bottom of my screen even if I change something. To click it off I click on send receive groups, then click once on the outlook.com inbox. Boom, every thing is connected. I saw one idea of adding an EAS key to my registry and a dword with the number of minutes. My screen when I go in and "Edit send receive groups looks nothing like your screen. I notice in the example you provided you do not have the box labelled "Included the selected account in this group" checked. My outlook.com is checked in both group profiles.
Don't understand why things are so different. Is your screen shot from Outlook 2016?
Diane Poremsky says
My screenshot is from 2016 but it's very similar to 2013 and 2010 - this is the dialog when you select one of the groups and click on Edit. Those are the default settings for exchange server accounts and it's highly recommended that you use the defaults with exchange.
Ken says
Thanks. I'd like to copy in a screen shot of my edit screen but can't paste into this session. I didn't do anything to alter it and apart from following directions on setting up account I didn't even know it was being created. It is very different.
In reading the web I discovered another work around. I click on work offline, count to 5 and click on it again and I'm connected. The server I'm using for Exchange ActiveSync is eas.outlook.com
Ken says
I want to set the set the default email in Outlook 2013 to always use my default mail account for sending. I followed your registry key information very carefully. I don't have a dword NewItemsUseDeaultSendingAccount. Is it as simple as adding a 32 bit dword with this name and should the Value: 1 be in decimal or hex. Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, it's that simple: if the key or value doesn't exist, you need to add it.
Ken says
As hex or Decimal? Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
Decimal. (When it's 0 or 1 it doesn't matter.)
Bob.M says
I have done the setup for Outlook 2013 Exchange ActiveSync Configuration and all appears to be working correctly. I do have a couple of questions. When I log into Outlook.com I can see all my calendar info but the people list (contact list) is not showing up and outlook.com seems to just stall. I can see the contact list in Outlook 2013 EAS. Should I be able to see the people list in Outlook.com like the calendar.
Lastly when my new Surface Pro 4 arrives and I install Outlook 2013 on it how should I be setting up the email accounts so that my calendar and contacts sync with Outlook.com
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
You should see contacts (people) online if the contacts are in the EAS account's contacts folder in Outlook 2013.
on the new computer, use auto account setup and outlook will find the correct account settings.
Richard says
Sorry, I hope this can be combined with my prior comment from minutes ago.
I'm trying to reestablish synching for calendar and contacts using Outlook 2016 at home and a non-outlook.com email address that is set up on outlook.com for calendar and contacts. If I use the auto-account set up, it only asks for email address and password, which will wrongly point to my non-outlook.com email server. If I use the manual account set up, I am uncertain of the new server settings under OWA.
Diane Poremsky says
use m.hotmail.com if your account is on the old server, eas.outlook.com if its on the new server. If you aren't sure which server you're on, try m.hotmail.com and see if it works.
Richard says
To configure the calendar/contacts synch now that my microsoft account has been migrated to Office 365/OWA, I removed the prior email account in Outlook 2016 that was synching. To add the new version, what is the server address?
Diane Poremsky says
You need to use auto account setup to configure it. Outlook will get the correct server to use.
Richard says
I am currently successfully synching calendar and contacts using outlook 2010 via outlook.com thanks to you. My outlook.com account hasn't yet been migrated to 365/OWA. But I am about to switch to Office 365 on a new home computer, and I'll be wanting to reestablish the synching of calendar and contacts from the new computer with Outlook.com. Does the method for Outlook 2013 above work for Outlook in Office 365?
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, it works for Outlook 2013/2016 - you'll set it up as an EAS account in the new versions (2010 used the outlook connector) but that is the only real change. After you account is moved to the new server, remove it from outlook and add it back - autodiscover will add it as an exchange account.
rajender says
my contacts from outlook 2007 are not syncing with my Hotmail account while from Hotmail the sync to outlook 2007 happens perfectly. Can you help,,, please
Diane Poremsky says
Any messages in the Sync issues folder? (Look for it in the folder list - use Ctrl+6 to open the folder list.)
Move the contacts into a pst then move one or two back into the outlook.com contacts folder and see if they sync - sometimes outlook gets confused if you try to move too many into the folder at once - but if the first ones sync up, try larger blocks of contacts.
schulzamatruda@optonline.net says
Thanks...it's an iPhone that's not syncing, nor is the home Outlook syncing to the Outlook.com any longer (I noticed that when I link to the Outlook.com calendar from my work Office 365, which I've been doing since Sept 2014, it no longer allows me edits...says it's a read-only account). I started this setup in June 2014, and it worked brilliantly (thank you!) up until about March 2015. I may need to start over and go back through all the steps a second round to figure out what the issue is. thanks.
Holly says
This has been a great solution to sync my home computer calendar (Outlook 2010) with a similarly-named outlook.com account (following your directions), and then as well to my iphone smartphone calendar. All has stayed in sync until recently, when I noticed the items are no longer syncing between calendars. Has Microsoft changed the structure now to ofc365, and if so, do you have any recommendations for establishing this sync now? Coordinating a work ofc365 account, my home computer outlook calendar (the family master) and my smartphone calendar adds is becoming a nightmare. thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
Everything should sync, although meetings are buggy. When the outlook.com account moves to Office 365, the sync problems should be solved - I doubt it has moved yet, but log into Outlook.com and see if it's the old outlook.com or Office 365's OWA?
Charles Lacy says
Ok. Not finding much on this other than a few users with the same problem.
Outlook 2010 w/ Outlook Connector. Samsung Galaxy Note 5 w/ Android 4.4. Using a user@live.com address.
Email syncs/pulls fine. Other than the occasional sync error/conflict live.com/exchange has.
Calendars appear to sync fine.
Contacts -- here is the issue.
Outlook live.com = ok
live.com phone = mangled addresses
The phone mangled every contact email address from - contact@somewhere.com - to - Contact Friendly Name "" - so that Outlook no longer sees them as a valid address.
Tested the origin and it is the Android EAS sync process.
Tested on a generic Android tablet running 4.0.x, and it does the same thing.
Add a contact to outlook and it syncs to live.com fine. As soon as the phone syncs to live.com, the address is mangled.
Add a contact to the phone as contact@somwhere.com, it syncs back to live.com as Contact Friendly Name "", and then back down to outlook as the same.
I've looked into using another tool - gsyncit - to sync contacts from outlook to google and then to the phone.
However, I'm running into an issue with outlook and COM add-ins. Working through that for daaaaaays. Thinking of wiping her clean and starting over.
Diane Poremsky says
It's a known issue with Androids. When the outlook.com accounts move over to Office 365 hosting, the problem should be solved.
Stephan says
Diane, just wanted to say thanks, 'cause your post helped me to move my exchange calendar to an outlook.com calendar!
mhowie says
Thanks again, Diane. The tutorial on the .ics calendar was quite helpful. I attempted to save/import but it appeared the process eventually timed out- although my file size was well under the noted 10MB threshold. As a result I have a mish-mash of appointments that made it into my outlook.com web-based calendar.
Next question would be...I would then expect those appointments that did make it to the outlook.com web calendar to then be visible within Outlook when I select the calendar associated with my outlook.com account (i.e., they would sync down to this calendar via EAS). I don't have any appointments within that Outlook calendar so I wonder where that disconnect lies?
Potential good news regarding an Office 365 Exchange. This would hopefully provide the kind of legitimate calendar syncing we need and, quite frankly, should expect from a company such as Microsoft. We will anxiously await!
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, the appointments you uploaded using the ics will eventually sync down to outlook - it's not instant. In most cases, they'll start syncing within 1 hour (or less) but it can take up to 24.
mhowie says
Diane- thanks again for your prompt response. I must say this is disappointing as I played around early this morning and copied/pasted a subset of my appointments to my outlook.com calendar and discovered none of the category information carried over when viewed within Outlook. Is there any way to overcome this apparent limitation?
I just tried saving my primary calendar as an .ics file and when I imported into my calendar at outlook.com only one day's appointments made it and none of them had a description (everything was simply marked as "Busy"). This seems a bit kludgy although I may have done something wrong.
I'm particularly concerned as it seems even if I accept the apparent category limitations and utilize a strategy of copying/pasting appointments to my outlook.com EAS calendar I would not be able to keep an up-to-date .pst file reflecting the ongoing changes (to the .ost)?
Am I correct in my assessment that if one uses EAS to sync one's OL calendar between a desktop and laptop the full feature set offered via using a local .pst file is lost and the ability to keep a copy of the "latest" calendar is lost as it is the .ost file that is being utilized?
I have, for years, made a nightly copy of the active .pst file in case I ever needed to restore.
If my assumptions are correct and Microsoft still doesn't have a way to fully enable the Outlook calendaring experience across devices, are there external solutions you might recommend (aside from a manual process of copying/pasting the latest .pst file into each computer's local drive)?
Hopefully this makes sense and you have a feel for my situation at the moment. Thanks again for answering my questions as I try to sort things out.
Regards.
Diane Poremsky says
Saving to ics: default is one day, busy. You need to change the settings before saving. https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/export-outlook-calendar-outlook-coms-calendar/
Categories: they are per account, so you should see the category on the opened appt but need to add them to the master list for the outlook.com account to see the colors in outlook.
FWIW, rumor is that sometime this year outlook.com will be moving to office 365 Exchange. I believe the rumor is correct, however, i don't have any details (like will everyone get it or only paid subscribers) or when.
mhowie says
Hi Diane. So I've upgraded OL2010 to 2013 and followed your instructions at: https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/2013/imap-accounts-outlook-2013/
Before I unbox my Surface 3- with the intention of having the calendar/tasks/contacts sync between my PC and it using my Microsoft (EAS) account, I'm curious since I set the default data file to my .pst file- will changes to the calendar on my PC get synced to Outlook on the Surface via my personal EAS?
For some reason I'm thinking only the calendar listed under "My Calendars" that is associated with my Outlook.com account- and not my primary one (Personal Folders)- would get synced? Hopefully I am wrong!
Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
Correct, only the calendar in the outlook.com set of folders will sync up, not the personal calendar. To import the calendar you need to save it as an ics file and upload it at outlook.com - just copying appointments to the outlook.com calendar often fails because it can't sync a large # of appointments at once.
mhowie says
I'm a long-time Outlook user (calendar/contacts only) and am thinking of purchasing a Surface 3. I use Outlook 2010 on my PC but realize Outlook 2013 will be installed on the Surface 3 as part of my Office 365 subscription.Would there be any issues in keeping my calendar sync'ed across two versions of Office via a Microsoft Account (outlook.com email address)?
I've not associated my Microsoft account (or any email account, for that matter) with my Outlook 2010 program but assume it is as simple as adding via the normal process and once I've done the same in Outlook 2013 on the Surface 3 my calendar information would begin syncing?
Thanks for the help!
Diane Poremsky says
No, it will sync fine. There are some issues with EAS - but according to a report in the The Verge, outlook.com will be migrating to Office365 Exchange - then you'll have mapi access. Don't know yet if mapi will be enabled for all or only for paid accounts though... or when it will happen. (I tried - no one is talking.)
Yes, its as simple as adding the account to outlook - as long as its an outlook.com/Hotmail address, you can use auto account setup and it'll do the rest.
Alex says
Thank you very much Diane - seems to have taken care of problems.
Alex says
I found this partial solution which ensures that account is connected when Outlook is started, on forum
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-outlook/outlook-2013-starts-up-disconnected/493dc4ab-e017-4013-84e7-675b1cad4bcf
1) in "Send/Receive Groups" settings window your Hotmail (Outlook, Exchange ActiveSync) account MUST be enabled in the "All Accounts" group;
2) the "Schedule an automatic send/receive every X minutes" checkbox MUST be ticked for the "All Accounts" group.
If you put your Hotmail account in any other group it looks like a "Scheduled Send Receive" is doing a Send only, not a Receive, for that account. This setting is used on startup too, so on startup on doesn't do a Receive and thus stays disconnected.
However this does not force sync between Calendar and Outlook .com there are still many calendar events unsynced.
Diane Poremsky says
If you created custom send and receive groups, find and delete the srs file for your profile and let outlook go back to the default send and receive. The srs file is at %appdata%\microsoft\outlook.
Alex says
I've now done that (yes, it's a lot of work) - result is that sync worked for about an hour, then went back to same behavior: sync starts when I click twice on Work Offline, does not start again when I restart Outlook. The Outlook icon in taskbar shows notification "Microsoft Outlook cannot connect to the server"
Alex says
Difficult indeed... Microsoft agent spent an hour with me, with control over my PC, and came up empty...
* Office 2013 update - no change
* Windows updates (even recommended) - no change
* sync error messages all concern the email account rather than outlook.com account and look like this, i.e. nothing to resolve
13:38:36 Synchronizer Version 15.0.4711.1000
13:38:36 Synchronizing Mailbox 'xxx@gmail.com'
13:38:36 Synchronizing Hierarchy
13:38:36 1 folder(s) updated in online store
13:38:50 Synchronizing server changes in folder 'Inbox'
13:38:51 Error synchronizing folder
13:38:51 [800CCC0F-0-0-560]
13:38:51 Canceled
(By the way, syncro version 15.0.4711.1000 is the same as on W8.1 PC which syncs fine).
It's puzzling that once I get it to sync by clicking twice on Work Offline, it continues to sync without problems until I restart Outlook...
Diane Poremsky says
did you remove the account and add it back? That is a frequently suggested 'fix' although it doesn't always work and it's a pita because you need to re-download everything...
Alex says
Hi Diane,
I have 2 PCs sharing an outlook.com email address through EAS for all except emails (which themselves share an email account). On the Win 8.1 PC, calendar sync is immediate; the blue bar at bottom of calendar page always shows "all folders are up to date. Connected". But on the Win 7 PC sync is poor - sometimes works-or not. For example right now its Calendar blue bar shows "This folder was last updated on 4/27/2015. Disconnected" (that was 2 days ago!!). The server settings on 2 PCs are identical. Any suggestions?
Alex says
(if I click on Work Offline button twice - on/off - sync is immediate)
Diane Poremsky says
I hate the disconnected error message. It's difficult to solve because what works for one doesn't work for others. :(
Make sure all updates for windows and office are installed.
Reboot.
Check for sync error messages in the Sync Issues folders. Resolve the errors if possible. (Ctrl+6 to open the folder list to find the sync issues folder.)
Muriel says
Hi Diane, thank you so much for your step by step explanation. I have managed to set up the outlook.com using my yahoo address but then when I go into calendar view list view as you mention there isn't any information to be imported. what did I do wrong ? thank you so much ! Muriel
Diane Poremsky says
How many calendars are in your Outlook profile? Did you import appointments into the outlook.com calendar?
Ky Lunman says
Is there a way to move contacts from desktop to laptop and to keep them mirrored. I have an outlook address on both but unable to make anything work. I have been using Outlook for 15 years but evidently have learned nothing.
Diane Poremsky says
if you are using outlook.com and have it configured using ActiveSync (2013) or the outlook connector (2010 and older) the contacts should sync to the computers if they are in the outlook.com folders. The only other option is to use a 3rd party sync utility or copy the contact yourself.
Edward says
Diane,
Can you clear up some things for me..OK I have been watching your video and have a few questions to make this work.
I am also reading above...Note you said........
"All you need is a Microsoft Account. You can "create a Microsoft Account" for any valid email address;"
1. The "granny@mobilegranny.com" email address..is that the email you gave Microsoft when you created the account at:
This where your link leads...
"https://signup.live.com/signup?uaid=473b967d5276419db745ae9edb533708&lic=1"
or did you add "granny@mobilegranny.com" into the Microsoft Account at the option
"Your email accounts"
2. Did you configure "granny@mobilegranny.com" at the option
"Import email accounts"
3. Did you enable POP at the option
"Connect devices and apps with POP"
Let me explain what I am trying to do...
(2) Computers running windows 7 and Office 2013 pro plus using Outlook 2013
(1) or (2) Samsung note 3 running KitKat
I need them to Sync.. Email and Calendars and Contacts
4. Do I need to install Outlook.com on the mobile devices and sync it with Outlook.com
Account?(I know it will)
5. Will the default Google account sync with Outlook.com to complete what you are doing?
I am just not seeing what you did at the Outlook.com account
Thank-you!!!
Diane Poremsky says
1. That address has it's own microsoft account. It is not added to an existing account and i didn't not create an outlook.com alias for it. (The "Or get a new email address " link switches over to creating a new outlook.com address.)
2. No, I didn't import it. It is an option though.
3. You can if you want - I didn't.
I would set up the pop account on the devices and computers and set up the separate microsoft account/outlook.com on each device using the manual option, using m.hottmail.com as the server name.
4. I would set up the microsoft account/outlook.com on the devices.
5. No, there is no sync between outlook.com and gmail.
David Phelan says
Wow, Diane, thank you so much for this information! It's gotten me almost to where I want to be. I have one snag that I'd like your help with.
I'm using an Android phone (recently upgraded to 5.0.2); Outlook.com is installed on the phone; Outlook 2010 is on my laptop.
I'm using Outlook.com calendars that are connected to Outlook 2010 on the laptop and my calendar app on the phone. Calendar syncing is working great, no problems.
I moved my Outlook 2010 contacts to my Outlook.com account. Changes made to contacts via my laptop or via OneDrive correctly update to the phone. No problem with this.
Here's my problem... I can't make a new contact on the phone and have it appear on Outlook.com. When I make a new contact, I can't select Outlook.com as the owning account. Do you have any idea how to make a new contact on the phone and get it on Outlook.com.
Similarly, I have some contacts currently assigned to my phone account, and I can't get these to Outlook.com either.
Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.
Diane Poremsky says
This is a limitation on the accounts on Android devices - outlook.com contacts are read-only. You can't create new contacts or edit existing. Sorry.
Chris says
Hi Diane
I believe I have followed your instructions for syncing with outlook.com using Outlook 2013. I can create new meetings using the outlook.com .ost file, that works. I receive invitations using my pop email and those land in the pst file associated with the pop email account not the outlook.com .ost file like i had hoped. Should I be able to receive invitations and pick them up on the outlook.com file that uses EAS to sync? What am I missing?
thanks
Diane Poremsky says
When a meeting is received by an account whose data file contains a calendar, the meeting goes on that calendar. While you could fix it by making a new pst for the pop account and setting outlook.com data file as default, meetings sent to other addresses doesn't sync properly to outlook.com when added to the outlook.com calendar. The best fix is to copy it to the outlook.com calendar, choosing the copy as appointment option.
Diana says
Hi Diane, I fear with all my own attempts to sort things out I have made more of a problem - sorry. This said:
a) I am using a LG G3 phone
b) I downloaded the Microsoft outlook.com app but it won't let me sign in saying my password is not correct when this is the password I use - trying to figure this out is where I fear I took down other settings that were correct using this two-step verification which I have now turned off. I know for someone else you suggested the android app but wasn't sure which one - so many.
c) I managed to get my outlook calendar by adding an account through email. However while I can sync from my calendar to my mobile I can not sync new entries from by mobile. I also can am no getting emails from my primary account on my phone or on outlook.com account on my laptop.
I am hoping this makes sense to you and you are able to assist me sorting out the mess I have found myself in. Diana
Diana says
PS Diane the other thing I did in my panic was to add my primary account to the GMail and now I can't delete it on either my phone or find it in my google account info. If I put this to sync I can get my primary emails to the email icon. :( I will stop trying, changing things now! :)
Diane Poremsky says
If you added the account to the gmail account at gmail.com, it's in gmail's settings, under pop and imap accounts.
Diane Poremsky says
B) You need to use the app password if you are using two-factor auth.
C) Are you sure you created the event in the outlook.com calendar? By default you may have a local calendar and one for Outlook.com and the local calendar might be set as default. If you click on the word Calendar as the bottom of the calendar, you can check to see which calendars are showing events on screen.
Diana says
Hi Diane
I am back again...an apologizing in advance for my ignorance...I had outlook.com working perfectly on my android mobile and syncing with my computer with your assistance until today when it was stolen. I had set up my outlook with the same email address as my ISP email. Now as I try to set up outlook on my phone (or alternatively my ISP email) I find I can only have one or the other as the account already exists. I want both but just using outlook for calendar and contacts. I have not done anything to my settings on my computer or outlook..Thanks in advance for your assistance once again. Diana
Diane Poremsky says
Did you choose Outlook.com account type when you tried to set it up? Which phone are you using?
Phil says
Diane, Thank you very much for this tutorial! I copied my long-existing Microsoft Outlook 2013 calendar to connect and sync now with Outlook.com so it may be accessible on my phone. Sadly, it appears, the Android Outlook app does not allow you to edit events. It appears to be view only. I can live with that and work around that through the phone's browser.
However, I went to search my calendar for an old event today (sometimes I take notes on events with the idea of being able to search for them later). It appears that all old, non-recurring events from before the time I copied this calendar are no longer visible, either in the Outlook.com calendar or the local Outlook software calendar. I really need to be able to access those old items if at all possible. Microsoft's chat support suggested setting up a new profile, which I did and was still not able to see old, non-recurring events. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Diane Poremsky says
Can you find them using Instant Search? If yes, reset the view. If not, do you have a backup file? It's not unusual (but also not very common) for a phone to delete old appointments as they age and if they are not in your deleted items folder this may be what happened.
Angus Kitchin says
Hi Dianne,
Thanks for your tutorial. It has worked for me for a bit, but I seem to have hit a snag and I hope you can help resolve it. Everything seems fine, except that sometimes when I create a new appointment in my Outlook 2013 calendar it doesn't sync to the calendar in live.com. It doesn't always happen, and when I create an appointment directly within live.com it more often than not does appear within Outlook. I've checked to make sure that the appointments are being created in the correct calendar (my e-mail address is shown at the bottom of the appointment window when I double-click upon it) and everything seems to be well. If I make a few appointments in quick succession then the first one (maybe) will work but the next one won't. Sometimes the third one. It's almost as if it gets confused, yet it doesn't throw up any synchronisation errors within the 'Folders' section of Outlook. Sometimes when I edit a troublesome appointment within live.com I get a message saying that it cannot complete that request, then I try again and it's fine.
I have tried and tried to find a response on the Internet but every article seems to be relating specifically to synchronisation between live.com and Windows Phone. I do have a Windows Phone (and another Windows 8 machine - 4 methods of connecting to my calendar in all: phone, Outlook, Windows 8 calendar and web browser) but actually once an appointment is within the live.com system it finds its way to the phone just fine.
I do hope you can give me some pointer to get me out of this tiresome situation.
Thanks,
Angus
Diane Poremsky says
>>> If I make a few appointments in quick succession then the first one (maybe) will work but the next one won't.
This is a known-issue with outlook's sync process. They are working on fixing it but i don't have an ETA.
Florian says
Hi Diane,
I am facing similar problems, and my first guess is, if the number of calendar entries at Outlook.com is limited or the number of entries synchronising per day is limited (as you wrote above)?
I am using Outlook 2013 on a desktop PC and a laptop, along with my brand-new WP Lumia 930. I threw away my iPhone since synchronising that with Outlook has become a p.i.t.a. since the last iOs-Updates.
Anyway, I just want to use outlook.com as a cloudbased center to exchange cal entries and contacts between my devices. I do not use my phone nor @outlook.com for my email correspondence, and on desktop and notebook I use my private 'firstnamelastname@mydomain.com'.
Of course it did not work correctly from the beginning but searching through some forums and the (ridicolous) MS support, I could manage to set it up properly, I thought. I tried some test entries on all the devices and webbased outlook.com, and it seemed to work. At least it worked fine with the contacts, but the calendar is not working properly:
I then moved my entries from the old Outlook 2013 cal into the Outlook.com cal by the simple copy/paste method discribed in several posts. There are some weekly repeating entries like tennis, which started back in 2007 and go on until 2030. Outlook then started to synchronise with outlook.com but stopped at March 2014. Newer entries were not copied and trying some test entries did not work anymore. Which leads to the logical conclusion that there might be a limit to the numbers of entries at outlook.com?!?
From what I read above, you recommend importing the dates directly into outlook.com rather than copy/pasting them in Outlook, don't you?
And if the number of entries is limited, how can I keep track of old appointments, which I need to store for legal reasons sometimes, except manually moving them to an archive cal in Outlook 2013? One can set a date to keep old entries at outlook.com, but which settings have a higher priorty if I have different settings at Outlook 2013?
Thanks in advance,
Florian
Diane Poremsky says
To load the calendar the first time, save it as an ics and import into outlook.com. After the bulk import, adding new items through outlook should sync ok (unless you create a bunch of appointments at once.)
The only limit is when adding new items - too many added too quickly might not sync. All old items should remain on the outlook.com calendar until you delete them.
Scott says
Hello Diane, Thanks for sharing such a comprehensive tutorial. Unfortunately I have an issue right out of the gate. When adding an account, using the manual setup, Outlook.com, I can't get passed server settings. I correctly enter all information, including "m.hotmail.com", hit next and I get an error. "The requested operation failed."
I don't know what happened. Any help would be much appreciated!
Diane Poremsky says
This is with Outlook 2013? Try doing a repair of your office install.
Jeremy Mumford says
Diane
I followed your instructions to sync my Windows desktop with my Windows tablet and Windows phone and I have to thank you for helping me through the minefield !!
However I have one problem, I get duplicate calender entries and duplicate emails on my phone. This does not occur with every item but more often than not.
Can you help ? Please bear in mind I am not techy !!!
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
Are new appointments duplicated or just old ones? Are they from this calendar or two different calendars? Which phone do you use? The usual cause is having the account set up twice or syncing using two different methods. I know it's hard to set up duplicate accounts on Apple devices, but it is possible to sync using iTunes and also using outlook.com. If the appointments were ever in the iCloud, you need to turn the iCloud calendar off on the phone.
C.J. says
Duh!
I just saw this:
Attachments are not supported on tasks, appointments, or contacts in outlook.com. At this time, you can add attachments in Outlook 2013 but they are invisible. See Attachments are hidden in Outlook.com for more information. See Create tasks with attachments for possible solutions. The macro at Open and save attachments can access the hidden attachments.
I guess that is the answer. (RTFM!)
thanks,
-cj
C.J. says
Diane,
I have been successfully syncing between my desktop and laptop computers for about 3 months now. But I have a further question about calendar syncing.
I create a new calendar item as New Appointment. I fill out the Subject, Location, Start and End times. I type a sentence into the body, then take a screen shot and paste it into the body as well. The text will sync, but the pasted screen shot does not. If instead I use the Insert | Attach File option, it does not show up either (what I anticipated).
Should I expect a pasted/attached .jpg/file to be synced?
If so, can you suggest some troubleshooting steps to take?
Thanks,
-cj
Diane Poremsky says
As you discovered, attachments are not supported in Outlook.com. The recommended way to use put the file in onedrive and add a link to the appointment.
iamStevenRoberts says
Thank you for the instructions on this page, however I still cant get things to work.
If I add an item to Outlook 2013 it appears online in Outlook.com, and also if I add an item in Oultook.com it also appears in Outlook 2013 on my PC.
However the problem is that all the 5000 items I copied and pasted from my original calendar to the new Outlook 2013 sync calendar do not update the outlook.com online version.
I have even tried other options like exporting the 2013 calendar as a pst then uploading it to the server (after splitting it to files less than 10Mb) but the uploads always fail.
It's driving me insane!!!!
Diane Poremsky says
Outlook won't sync 5000 items - you need to save the calendar as an ics file (File > Save as - make sure you change the options to include all dates) and import it in Outlook.com.
Steps and screenshots are here: https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/export-outlook-calendar-outlook-coms-calendar/
iamStevenRoberts says
Thank you for your reply.
Ah right, they all copy and past to the new sync calendar but nothing syncs to .com. I am sure a tried just a few items with a copy and paste from original calendar to the sync one with a lesser number and they did not sync with outlook.com either.
So when I upload these manually (providing the file is smaller than 10Mb) then if I adjust any will they then sync? Lets say I adjust 50 items with they sync between 2013 and .com one they have all been put there originally?
What is the limit for syncing if it cant do 5000?
Diane Poremsky says
if you import the ics file on outlook.com, the events will sync down to outlook and any edits you make should sync back to the server. The ics method can handle a lot.
If you are copying/pasting into the calendar in outlook, you need to do just one or two at a time - and meetings probably won't sync using this method.
Ron says
Diane, thanks for all the work. I wonder what your contacts at Microsoft are saying about the inability of Outlook to remain in sync with what is on their server. This is not just important, it is essential to an email client, and is probably the most basic thing an email client should be able to do. And this isn't a new problem, but has been going on for years. Isn't someone at Microsoft at least trying to find a solution, and why is it so hard?
Diane Poremsky says
They are working on a solution for Outlook.com. I don't know what the solution is though, but in reading between the lines of what little information I have, I should be great. If they don't screw it up. :)
Jonny Dimsdale says
My phone synced happily with Outlook.com but my desktop would not sync calendar and contacts with Outlook.com. Then suddenly, after 5 days, everything went back to normal!
Diane Poremsky says
Outlook.com has been buggy lately. :)
Jonny Dimsdale says
Yes; I have a POP3 account rather than a Hotmail type account and my emails are coming through fine on both my desktop and my phone. It is only Calendar and Contacts that won't sync. This happened once before about 3 months ago and I struggled to do something for ages and then it came right again - I suspect totally without any assistance from anything I had done!
Diane Poremsky says
Are the calendar and contacts syncing to the phone? I know my account in outlook's been a bit buggy recently. I ended up removing it from outlook and adding it back a couple of days later - and it worked.
Jonny dimsdale says
Dear Diane,
With your help last year, I managed to set up a sync between my Outlook 2013 and my Windows phone which has been working brilliantly. Suddenly, it has ceased to sync the calendar and contacts and there is a message on both saying 'disconnected'. I haven't changed anything. How do I get it to reconnect and why might it have happened?
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using Outlook.com as the middle man? I think there is something wrong with the outlook.com service. My account is not working very good either. I'll check with the product team.
mark weber says
Diane,
I am running Outlook 2013, 64bit.
When I try to run your script to set which account will be sending appointments, I get error message:\
run-time error '91
Object variable or with block variable not set
All other things work fine (pop3 and outlook.com).
Any idea?
Thank you
Diane Poremsky says
What is the account # ?(1 is the default account)
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount <> olNS.Accounts.Item(1)
Tammy Smith says
I'm not able to get the macro that is supposed to copy the meeting requests into the outlook.com calendar in outlook to run in Outlook 2013. I keep getting an "Object variable or with block variable not set". error
I copied the above code and pasted it in "ThisOutlookSession" code box under VbaProject.OTM. I keep getting an error on this line:
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount olNS.Accounts.Item(1) Then...
the comment " ' (1) this is the default account" makes me assume that '1' needs to be replaced with the account name and I assume that the account would be the outlook.com account. I've tried using the ost file name and the account name shown in the account list. I'm I on the right path? Does the account name need to be surrounded by quotes?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
The 1 is the account position on the menu - if you have 3 accounts and want to use the last, you'd use 3.
Are these lines at the very top of ThisOutlookSession:
Private WithEvents m_Inspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Private WithEvents m_Inspector As Outlook.Inspector
Ron says
I have checked the sync issues folder as you suggested, and I have a bunch. This is what the last one says,
13:50:33 Synchronizing server changes in folder 'Deleted Items'
13:50:33 Error Synchronizing Message
Error: 1133
Server Command: DELETE
13:50:33 Server Id: 2F6EAFFC-74CC-11E4-935B-00215AD965A6
13:50:33 Error with Send/Receive.
13:50:33 Synchronizing server changes in folder 'Junk E-mail'
13:50:33 Done
How can I fix this so I don't get sync issues? Having to constantly delete the .ost files and letting them resync is not a good solution. So 2013 is worse than 2010 in syncing?
Diane Poremsky says
Outlook 2013 uses EAS with Outlook.com and its more prone to errors - EAs was designed for light weight clients, not Outlook, and it doesn't really handle it well. Try emptying the junk mail and deleted items folders both in Outlook and online and see if that helps.
Faye says
Hi Diane,
thank you for you fantastic explanations about things I wasn't even aware I needed to know! :) I have used the methods described above a couple of times and everything always worked great - unti now.
I connected Microsoft Exchange Sync account with Android and Outlook 2010 (64bit, Windows 8.1). I don’t use the account to receive, send and sync emails I only use the calendar and task function. Events sync seemlessly. Tasks used to sync alright, suddenly a problem occured. I can create or edit a task on an Android device and in the cloud and it will sync with both, but not with the PC.
There are two task folders in Oultook 2010:
Tasks (This Computer Only): Properties: Location: \\Microsoft Exchange Syn
Tasks: Properties: Location: \\privateemail@sample.com
(I find it odd that the exchange syn folder shows the „This Computer Only“ desciption.)
There is also the „To Do List“ which shows flagged emails and tasks from both task folders.
I couldn't find a way to solve the problem so I removed the account and set it up again (following Microsoft website advice). The problem is not solved though. Directory is set for Microsoft Exchange Syn als default account for Data (private email account for default email account) and the task folder says "This PC Only" and doesn't sync either way.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Diane Poremsky says
This is the problem: Tasks (This Computer Only). Those tasks do not sync up to the server. It sounds more like an IMAP account, not an EAS. Is this an Outlook.com account (includes hotmail, msn addresses)? That is the only thing that uses EAS.
Oh, wait, you are using Outlook 2010 - it uses the Outlook Connector to connect to Outlook.com and it doesn't sync tasks, only calendar and contacts. You need Outlook 2013 to sync tasks.
Ron says
I have several Windows devices running either Outlook 2010 or 2013. I also have 2 Windows Phone with Outlook. I use one Microsoft account and sync all of these with the Outlook connector for the 2010 version or EAS sync for 2013. Mail comes in fine on all devices. However, many times when I delete a message on one machine it does not delete on the others. It seems random, sometimes they delete and sometimes they don’t. I check Outlook.com and it always deletes there, but it seems the devices are unable to sync correctly with Outlook.com. So all my various devices now have emails that have been deleted on other devices. None of them have the same emails. Why does this happen? Is it a bug Microsoft has not fixed? Is there a way to fix it? Can I delete the .ost files and let it resync?
Ron
Diane Poremsky says
You can delete the ost and let them resync. Note that outlook.com syncs on a schedule and it can take a few minutes to an hour for changes to show up. But users have noticed that there are sometimes issues syncing if the computer was asleep or offline - when it's back online, outlook 2013 won't always sync. (2010 seems to be ok.)
Steve Linke says
Don't bother answering the question I just asked, because I figured it out. I was doing the correct thing but just not allowing enough time for a full sync before looking at the calendar in Outlook.Now to figure out why my pst/ost files keep getting corrupted.
Diane Poremsky says
Thanks for the update, I'm sure it will help others who have the same problem!
Steve Linke says
Hi Diane,
I am running Outlook 2010 on Windows 8.1. Some of my pst/ost files keep becoming corrupted, but that is an entirely different issue for which I have not come up with a reason or solution. In any event, I have been able to restore almost everything, except that I lost my "personal" calendar in Outlook 2010. I am pretty sure that I had been syncing it with an Outlook.com account, because my personal calendar appears to be in one of my Outlook.com accounts with all of my latest updates.
I am now trying to re-sync that online Outlook.com personal calendar back with Outlook 2010, but I am very confused. I have a work email and calendar (Exchange account) and several Gmail email accounts in Outlook 2010. My username for the Outlook.com account that contains my calendar is actually one of my Gmail email addresses, which may be increasing my level of confusion on what to do.
It seems like the answer to my problem is in your post, but I can't for the life of me figure out which exact steps I need to take. Could you help?
Steve
Gordon SHaw says
Hi Diane
I am not sure why but I installed a new version of the program I was using and the problem has ceased, it must have been a glitch after 2013 was installed and I made the changes discussed on this blog, just some kind of conflict.
I apologize for using your time and again thank you very much for your assistance.
Diane Poremsky says
Don't worry about my time - your experience may help others. Thanks for the update.
Gordon SHaw says
Yes they stay in the Outbox even though they have "sent" but do not move to sent items folder.
Gordon SHaw says
Yes they are in the Outbox of my outlook.com folder and they list as sent on the email status field, but do not show up in any of the Sent items folders of either outlook.com folder or main email folder.
Diane Poremsky says
so they stay in the outbox?
Gordon SHaw says
Hi Diane,
Outlook 2013, followed your instructions and default mail account and sync all works very well thank you.
The only problem I have is when I send a file to Outlook for emailing from my accounting software the mail goes into the outbox of outlook.com, the mail is sent and retrieved by the receiver with the correct return email address for default mail and not outlook.
But the the email itself does not appear in sent items of either main email or outlook email folders.
Can you shed any light on the phenomenon.
Thank you for your kind assistance.
Diane Poremsky says
Can you find the missing sent items anywhere in outlook?
C.J. says
"outlook has stopped working"
Do you know of any reason why following these instructions should cause Outlook (2010) to "stop working"? I added myname@hotmail.com using the Outlook Hotmail Connector to outlook 2010 on my desktop and laptop. I set its data file as the default on both systems, copied my Outlook calendar and contacts into the hotmail account, and it has been working as advertised.
However, now Outlook "stops working" on a regular basis on both systems.
I have ensured that both are up to date, that the Connector is up to date. I have removed and re-added the hotmail accounts. (note that in addition to the shared myname@hotmail.com on both the desktop and laptop. I also have 2 or 3 other hotmail accounts connected. This is not a new configuration - it was that way before I set the shared data file.
ANYWAY - do you have any ideas? When I get the "Microsoft Office has stopped working" message and I click on 'more details' I find BEX event. When searching that I have found old (from 2010) and unsatisfying suggestions relating to Office 2010. I find newer informatino relative to Office 2013 but do not know if it is applicable
.
Is there any reason that I should use a 'new' outlook.com account instead of an 'old' hotmail.com account?
My fall-back is to reset the default data file back to the outlook (ISP) account and see if the problem persists or goes away.
Finaly, I am running Win 7 64-bit on both systems fully up to date.
Thanks,
-cj
Diane Poremsky says
outlook.com or Hotmail: it doesn't matter. Both use the same servers.
What antivirus do you use? That can cause issues with outlook, especially if it installed an outlook addin. Disable the addin so mail is not scanned.
C.J. says
I may have found the circumstances causing Office to "stop working."
I have 3 accounts: A@hotmail.com, B@hotmail.com, C@hotmail.som
My shared calendar belongs to A.
I used Outlook on my desktop and laptop to access A@hotmail.com and the shared calendar worked just fine. I also added B@hotmail.com and C@hotmail.com and could send/receive email from them as well.
Then I had a "brilliant" idea - for those times in which I accessed B or C via the web, I thought it would be convenient if I could have access to the synced calendar as well. So I web-logged onto A and shared its canendar with B and C. Nice, yes?
However, the next time I accessed B and C through Outlook on my laptop and the desktop, A's shared calendar showed up in the B and C accounts as well. I began getting lots of sync errors (only visible when you do a ctl-6) which provided no useful information (to me) except to indicate that something was wrong.
I finally guessed that I might have some kind of 'circular reference" with the shared calendar. That is, a change in Outlook to the shared calendar gets sent/synced to A@hotmail.com, then with B@hotmail.com, then shows up again in Outlook.
So I unshared the calendar from B and C and now the shared calendar appears only once in Outlook, Since then Outlook has not crashed. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
c.jones says
Diane,
My desktop computer is my main computer/repository. Before I make these changes in Outlook 2010 on my desktop, I have these nagging questions:
When I have set the outlook.com 'not available' data file as the default, my calendar and contact items should be syncing with my outlook.com (web) account, yes?
So what is happening to my emails? Where are they being stored?
Let's say I have these accounts:
A@isp.com, B@gmail.com C@hotmail.com, D@hotmail.com
A has an outlook.pst data file. B has its own .pst file as well.
C and D use the Outlook Connector.
(1) A and B have their data/folders/items stored in their respective .pst files, correct? They could actually be stored in a single .pst file had I set it up that way, correct?
(2) where are the emails (and calendar and contacts, etc) for C and D stored? Are they in .ost files for their respective accounts (for use when offline)?
I follow your instructions and create A2@outlook.com, which also uses the Outlook Connector.
Now I make the A2 datafile the default.
I copy my contacts and calendar items from the A folders to the A2 folders.
(3a) what happens to my A emails the next time the ISP server is contacted and new A emails are downloaded?
(3b) what happens when I create and send an email from account A?
(3c) what happens when I create an email in account A and then save it?
(4) Basically, where are the folders: A.inbox, A.sent, A.drafts?
(4a) are they in the A2.ost?
(4b) are they then synced back to outlook.com?
(4c) or something else?
(5) I found that I can share A2's calendar by doing a web login, go to Calendar, select Share, and indicate C and D. Also, I can make them co-owners so that they have full read/write/update/delete access.
Finally (for now at least, and again I appreciate your patience)
(6) do you know of a procedure or a good application that would provide calendar and contact sync between A2@outlook.com and B@gmail.com?
Thanks again eversomuch.
-c.jones
Diane Poremsky says
>>
When I have set the outlook.com 'not available' data file as the default, my calendar and contact items should be syncing with my outlook.com (web) account, yes?
So what is happening to my emails? Where are they being stored?
>>
Yes, the calendar and contacts at outlook.com will sync to outlook. Email in your outlook.com account will sync. Email in other accounts will download or sync to outlook, in their own folders, not into the default outlook.com.
1. A & B (Isp and gmail) can share a data file IF both are POP3 accounts. If one or both is configured as an imap account, they need their own data files.
2. Each outlook.com/Hotmail account configured as an EAS account (or using Outlook Connector) will have their own calendar and contacts folder.
3. If you create an outlook.com account to "link" with the A account, outlook.com can collect mail from the server for you. The mail will be in outlook.com (and may be left on the isp mail server). When you send mail using this account, it will be sent using the Outlook.com address, not the isp address.
4. folders will in the A2 account's data file and calendar and contacts will sync. You can't add mail to the folders - outlook.com needs to download it - so only sent mail will sync up, along with changes (like read/unread or deleted).
5. There are some utilities that will sync outlook and gmail. see https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync-outlook/using-google-calendar-sync-utility-outlook/#tools for a list.
Gina says
Hi Diane,
Thank you for the always helpful articles, I wish I was at a higher level technically so I could take more advantage of your advice!
I am a little confused so I'm hoping you can help me.
I have a Gmail address with my own domain (google apps) that I check via Outlook. Outlook is where I enter all my appointments and contacts, etc. The only time I sign into Google Apps if it I'm not home. I would like to have the calendar items and contacts I enter into Outlook also be available on Outlook.com since the sync between Outlook/
Google doesn't work any more. Is this what your solution accomplishes? And can any changes be made 2 way?
Also, is that going to change anything in how I do things now in Outlook? I'm confused about forcing the default account - the default account should be the Gmail one I've been using all this time right? Not the new Outlook connector one. Also is there a way to "view" the mail that's in outlook via outlook.com so I can see everything in one place or is that not a good idea (I think you advise against using outlook.com to pull mail.)
Thanks in advance,
Gina
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, this solution will sync your calendar and contacts in Outlook with Outlook.com - it's 2-way sync. You won't set Outlook.com as the default email account, only as the default data file. Your default for email will remain the google account.
While you can configure outlook.com to collect mail from other servers, it's better to keep using google directly, especially if you want to reply with that address. Outlook will reply using the outlook.com address.
Stephen Cohen says
I saved my calendar as an .ics file and was able to import it to outlook.com. It still does not sync with Outlook 2013 on my 2nd computer. Could it be because I have more than 1 outlook.com account? It seems as if the EAS outlook.com account on my 2nd computer is not looking for the correct data file on the server. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
Diane Poremsky says
As long as you are have the same outlook.com account configured in both outlook's, it should sync to that account's calendar folder.
Stephen Cohen says
I put the calendar in outlook.com and there was a lot to sync. I've exported/imported outlook items before as .pst files, but I haven't saved calendar information as an .ics file. Could you please explain how I should do that? Also, I've tried adding new calendar items which don't sync now - do you think that should be solved by my importing an .ics or .pst file first? Thanks again.
Diane Poremsky says
Instructions to save a calendar as an ics file are here: https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/export-outlook-calendar-outlook-coms-calendar/
New calendar items need to be added to the outlook.com calendar - however, there are some bugs that can prevent them from syncing. One of the biggest bugs is adding too many items to the calendar to fast. It seems to stall on the sync if there are too many new appointments.
Stephen Cohen says
Hello. I'm trying to sync my calendar and contacts on 2 computers running Windows 7 and 8.1, both of which have Outlook 2013, and my Android phone. I made an error in setting up the outlook.com EAS accounts originally by only setting the EAS email accounts as defaults, but then went back and set the data files for the EAS accounts as defaults. The contacts seemed to sync, or at least 4,791 out of 5,754 did, but the calendar does not. I get the message on both computers that "all folders are up to date." Do I need to delete the accounts and start all over? I'd be grateful for any light you can shed on my problem. Thank you.
Diane Poremsky says
Was the calendar in Outlook.com or did you move the appointments from a pst file in outlook to the outlook.com calendar? The calendar is notoriously bad at syncing everything when you move appointments in. It's recommended to save the calendar in outlook as an ics then import it at outlook.com to seed it with existing events.
New items created directly in the outlook.com calendar should sync up ok.
Adam Scott says
Hello. I'm losing hope on a solution to my problems. However, let's see if anyone here might help out. I'd like to stop the autosyncing of contacts via my exchange account, or at least stop it on seleted computers. I initially setup the exchage account only to sync calendars.
Then suddenly contacts the began to sync everywhere. This is a problem for me. Is there any way to stop it ? I want to sync calendars but not contacts on select pc's
Diane Poremsky says
You have one option - Sync filters. The folders will show up but be empty and are per data file, so they need to be configured on every computer. Right click on the folder, choose properties then Synchronization tab. Set up a filter that will not apply to anything. Maybe email field of @microsoft.com or @yourdomain.com so only contacts with that address will sync - you could use your own address in the filter actually.
Diane Poremsky says
BTW, I'm assuming by "exchange account" you really do mean an Exchange account, not an Outlook.com Exchange ActiveSync account. You can't set a sync filter on EAS accounts.
. Jones says
Diane,
I did not read all the way through 2years worth; I tried searching for my problem and did not find it.
I have Outlook 2010 running on a Win7 64 bit system.
I have the outlook connector installed.
When I add any name@hotmail.com or name@outlook.com email account, it adds correctly and 'works', by which I mean I can send and receive email. However, when I click on the Data tab, the location column for those email accounts says "not available".
If I create a calendar item via the web interface for name@hotmail it shows up on the calendar in ourlook for that account. But if I create a calendar event in outlook, it does not show up in the web interface.
Can you make any sense of this?
Thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
"Not available" is correct for Outlook Connector accounts (and you can still set it as a default data file). Do you have more than one calendar in Outlook? Are you creating the event in the Outlook Connector calendar? If the connector's data file is not set as default, appointments are only created in it if you have that calendar open.
C.Jones says
Diane,
OK, I think I am making progress.
1. I set the 'not available' outlook.com data file as the default data file in Outlook 2010 on my laptop. Then I found the associated calendar file and added a test appointment. Then I logged into my name@outlook.com account and created a test appointment in the calendar there. After some manual efforts to force syncs, Each appt appeared in both views. (I did the same for the Contacts file)
So, .....is this what I do next:
2. On my desktop computer, in Outlook 2010, I repeat the process. That is, I add the name@outlook.com account to Outlook 2010. then I set its data file as the default. Having done that I should see the two test appointments from above, correct?
From then own changes I make to my calendar or contacts on either the laptop or desktop will be reflected in the other.
If that is correct, then .....
3. What do I do on my Android phone and tablet? Do I use the associated People and Calendar apps and have them sync to the name@outlook.com account?
Thanks once again for your valued assistance.
- c.jones
Diane Poremsky says
#1 - they should sync on their own on a schedule set by Microsoft, but yeah, you need to force a sync when testing.
#2 - Yes. Add it to the other outlook, set the data file as default and changes will sync between Outlook and the server.
#3 - On Android, I recommend setting the account up using the android app, not using the Outlook.com app from Microsoft - contacts aren't editable in the Outlook.com app at this time. Use the mail app to set it up (it will put the account under the corporate accounts in the Settings dialog). The calendar and contacts will then sync to the people and calendar apps.
Jeremy Mumford says
It has taken me a week of searching and using Microsofts supposed 'help' and wizards etc to get to the point where I can sync to my Windows phone from my Windows 7 desktop Outlook.
This is a well written, clear and concise set of instructions and should be applauded. Why Oh why don't Microsoft use this lady ? Why is everything so hard with Microsoft ??
Thanks Diane
John says
Hi Diana.
I am using Outlook 2013 via a university 365 subscription. The outook.com account is the default pst data file. When I add things to my calendar when I am in Outlook 2013, they show up just fine on my outlook.com calendar, and vice versa. However, I get a daily email from the Outlook.com telling me there is nothing on my schedule when, in fact, my schedule is overbooked. :-) How come I get that sort of email? Why isn't outlook.com recognizing those entries and sending them in my daily email? Seems odd, no?
On a separate note, I have seen your postings in various threads and you really are incredibly helpful. If Microsoft isn't already paying you, they certainly should be. Took me four chats with MS the other day to get a resolution that I later saw you provide via one reply to a question. Kudos to you.
Diane Poremsky says
Do you have more than one calendar configured in Outlook.com? Each calendar can have it's own notification settings. In Outlook.com, go to Calendar's Options, then double click on the calendar name at the top.
Are the items you added to the calendar marked Busy? (I don't know if this matters, I'll have to enable daily agenda to check.)
Diana says
Thank you so much Diane I am getting there. However when I go to set the registry key as per your tutorial I do not have the option of Mail. I am using Outlook 14.0. Again Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
You should have the key down to Outlook. If any keys under that don't exist, you need to create then.
Diana says
Hi Diane
I think you may have answered this question but my very limited computer knowledge needs further clarification. I am using outlook 2010 and wanting to set up an outlook.com account so I can access my calendar on my android phone given the sync they provide does not work accurately. I followed your instructions and have an outlook.com profile. However I do note that my calendar is not listed under any of my email addresses like in your tutorial rather a separate category below the email addresses as is my contacts. When I go to set the outlook.com account as my default under data files I have my "real" email address, my outlook.com - microsoft\outlook/outlook.com.pst and then what is set as default outlook data file - documents\outlook files/outlook.pst. I hope this makes sense to you and there i a way for me to set this account up to sync my calendar... Thanks so much it is great to have a forum like this to pose these questions for "dummies" like me
Diane Poremsky says
You are using the outlook connector, so this should be the one you set to default data file: microsoft\outlook\email@outlook.com.pst
If you switch to the folder list (Ctrl+6), you can see which data file each folder is in - where they are in the calendar and contacts navigation pane is less important - you can drag the folders to different groups.
AW says
Hi Diane,
I am using the EAS, and my calendar events are not always syncing? Its picking and choosing which calendar events to sync. I enter them all in outlook 2013 and have to go onto outlook.com to verify they are showing up! I seem to be entering them the same way...so not sure where the problem is? Any ideas?
Diane Poremsky says
There are some issues with syncing some events - microsoft is aware of the problem and is working on it.
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2877849
Mike says
Ok no problem, thank you for your answer though. I don't think the problem has been fixed since I'm still fighting with it. Is there any way to get me in contact with Sam, so that I can ask him please? I don't have access to his email address through this website, maybe you can... thank you so much for your help!
Diane Poremsky says
I'll try to contact him but I make no guarantee that he'll answer.
Mike says
Hi Diane,
Thank you for your very accurate explanations on this website. I'm encountering the exact same problem than Sam described on July 10th 2014, and he apparently did solve it within a few days. Do you know something more about his solution?
Thanks in advance!
Diane Poremsky says
No, I don't know more, sorry. I thought maybe an update was installed and it fixed itself or it was "user error" and he had something not configured correctly.
Robert says
Hello,
Thanks for the info. I have completed most of this, but i noticed that when you added your outlook.com to Outlook, you have a list of folders like calender, contacts, etc showing under your outlook.com account. All those folders do not show up under my outlook.com account and I am not sure how to add them, even in outlook.com. How do you do it?
Diane Poremsky says
Are you in the mail module? Ctrl+6 will put you into the folder list, where you'll see all of the folders in the outlook.com mailbox.
Robert says
Thanks for the reply, now it shows them. I can see all the birthdays & calender items but it is showing my contacts are empty. Shouldn't my contacts from outlook.com be showing? I made the data file for it the default.
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, you should see the contacts that are in outlook.com, as long as they are not linked contacts because you are signed into facebook, linkedin or other services in outlook.com. The linked contacts won't sync to outlook. If you create a contact in outlook, does it sync to outlook.com?
Robert says
I just tested it, and I created a contact in outlook and it does show up on outlook.com. Just not the other way around. Any ideas?
Diane Poremsky says
No, as long as the contact is stored in outlook.com (not there because it's linked from another source), it should sync. If you go to outlook.com and create a new one and it doesn't sync, check the sync issues folder (Ctrl+6 to see the folder list).
naarwebz says
Hello,
I have managed to setup 2 desktops to connect to outlook.com with outlook connector, they are both syncing calendar entries with each within 5 minutes or so (send and receive for quicker sync).
So my entries are showing on 3 places, 2x desktop and online on outlook.com
my question is this:
Can I configure the @outlook.com account (via connector) on another 10 desktops so they all sync with each other? I mean will Mr. Microsoft allow me to do this? Will it work to have 12 desktops setup with 1 @outlook.com account and sync calendars at the same time?
( i used to have google sync and worked great for 40 desktops with 1 account, but Mr. Google decided to take this away from us)
Please advice
thank you
Diane Poremsky says
It will work if they aren't all running at once. I'm not sure if there is a limit to how many systems can be connected at one time. I know with Outlook 2013, it can trigger an error if too many connect at once.
naarwebz says
Hello Diane, thank you for your reply.
Just an update: I have configured the same setup on 15 desktops and the whole day users were adding/sharing calendar entries at the same time and everything worked perfect.
lbob999 says
Hi, I've followed the instructions on setting up Outlook 2010 calendars to sync with outlook.com, but it doesn't seem to be showing the appointments in outlook.com and vice versa? can you help? Thanks
lbob999 says
Actually it has worked but took a good 30 mins before it synced. How can I changed the sync time, or force outlook.com to update with new appt from outlook? Cheers
Diane Poremsky says
Unfortunately you can't change the sync time, but its my experience that appointments and contacts usually sync within minutes. If you need to force a sync, hit send and receive.
Tim says
On your recommendation I switched from using EAS ActiveSync to iCloud to sync my contacts between iCloud, Outlook, iPad, and Android. This all works nicely. So, now I wanted to try adding ACT! into this mix.
ACT! Sync preferences allow me to precisely define which ACT! Contacts to sync, but not which Outlook Contact folder to sync with – it automatically syncs to the default account folder rather than the folder of my choosing. Therefore, I wanted to set my iCloud data file as my default data file so that ACT! will sync with Outlook – and complete my chain of sync locations.
My iCloud account is IMAP, but I don’t need to send email from this account. I’m already using a POP3 account to send email.
When I set iCloud as the default data file, I get a message when Outlook starts: “For best performance, iCloud should not be set as the default data file. You can change this setting in Windows Control Panel under Mail, Data Files.”
If I move my iCloud contacts into Outlook’s default contacts folder, they no longer sync with iCloud.
Two Possible Solutions:
1. Switch to my iCloud email address as my main email address and set it up in Outlook as the default email and default data file.
2. Set up my current non-iCloud email address as an iCloud alias address so that all of my mail that comes through this account will arrive at my iCloud email address. Then set up this iCloud alias address as my default email address and default data file in Outlook.
Is there a better solution that either of these two? Is this just too many sync locations in the chain?
Thank you for your help.
Tim
Diane Poremsky says
The iCloud email account doesn't factor in, only the iCloud calendar and contacts. Does outlook work with the iCloud set as default? If it seems to work ok, and you can send mail from the imap account, use it. If it crashes with the iCloud calendar and contacts file set as default, you have no choice. :) If you are not using the iCloud email account (the imap account) you can remove it from outlook to reduce the confusion.
Mel says
Hi. I am running outlook 2013 and am trying to set up my android phone to sync with Outlook 2013 calendar. I have followed your step by step instructions up until testing the macro. When I hit run, it says Run-time error '91' Object variable or With block variable not set...any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
That usually means the code has an error - I'd guess it's with one of the calendar paths but I'd need to see the code you are using to be sure.
Rodrigo says
I'm also having this problem, with Outlook 2013. The code is supposed to be used as-is shown on the post, right? Or something needs to be edited?
BTW, thanks for your posts, really useful stuff for Outlook users.
Diane Poremsky says
The only change would be with this code: olNS.Accounts.Item(1) - the 1 is the account in the order they are listed in the Account Settings dialog.
What type of email account are you using? I know its kind of buggy with an imap account.
Rodrigo says
POP3. Anyway, I've changed things meanwhile, and decided to stick with iCloud add-in, along with a 3'rd party tool to automatically perform a 2-way sync between outlook default calendar and icloud's calendar. For seamless calendar use/integration between iDevices and Outlook, this seems to be the best way.
thanks.
Scott says
Hi Diane,
I watched your video and my eyes glazed over after about 30 seconds. It assumes that we know what POP accounts and MS accounts are and that we need to somehow link them together for goodness knows what reason. Like most people I am trying to sync my desktop with my cell phone (Contacts and appointments). I know what a POP account is, but have no idea what you mean my MS account.
You refer to a POP account, Is this a Hotmail account or can it be an account from anywhere, such as one of my Comcast accounts? You say that you have already set up a MS account for this email address. What does that mean? My guess is that you added the email address in the account settings of Outlook 2013. But there was already an email by that name set up in Outlook. What are you doing?
Based on what I do understand MS does not have a program which will accomplish this automatically. It might be helpful if you provided an explanation (outline) of just what it is that your system does and how it does it so that we can get a grip on what you are doing in that video.
Diane Poremsky says
A POP account is typically an account from elsewhere - it's usually how Comcast and most other ISP accounts were set up, although this is changing and more are supporting IMAP. The difference between the two is that POP downloads mail in the server's Inbox, IMAP syncs all folders between outlook and the server, including sent mail. Neither account type stores calendar and contacts on the mail server. Look in File, Account Settings -the account type is to the right of the account.
Microsoft account is what was formerly known as Passport or LiveID. Many people use their Hotmail, msn, or outlook.com addresses for the Microsoft account but you can use any email address to create a Microsoft account. If you don't have a Microsoft account (LiveID or Passport for really old folks :)), you can sign up for one using your Comcast address or you can create a new outlook.com address. See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/account/default.aspx for more information.
You can have more than one account of the same name in Outlook - Outlook adds a number to the end to identify it. You need the Microsoft account to sign into Outlook.com so you can sync calendar and contacts to the server and with smartphones.
Aunty Jenny says
thanks for your quick attention! I'm only using MSE on this computer. No other antivirus or anything like that. (Sometimes the computers at work ask for multiple passwords - I'm on leave for a couple of weeks, but I might ask the IT guys there what they do to fix that problem when it comes up there, when I get back.)
Aunty Jenny says
Please help me! I've just upgraded my computer from WinXP to Win7(64 bit). I have reinstalled Office 2007 (including Outlook) on my new computer. On my old computer, on Outlook, I was able to show a number of Hotmail (Outlook.com) calendars - my own, my husband's and a "Family" one we set up. However, I can't figure out how to make them show up on my new computer's Outlook.
I'm not sure whether the following is connected to the problem or the solution: I did install the Outlook Connector program, However, having restarted Outlook, and seeing that I have "jenstosser@hotmail.com" on the list under All Mail Items, if I click on it, I get an error message: "The set of folders cannot be opened. The file C:\Users\Jen\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\jenstosser_hotmail.ost is not an offline folder file." My knowledge level stopped about seven words into that message. The rest of it is gobbledigook to me.
Diane Poremsky says
You need to install the outlook connector and set your account up in it. You shouldn't get that error message. I'd try a new profile - create it in control panel, mail.
Aunty Jenny says
I tried that - twice! The first time I uninstalled Outlook Connector and re-downloaded it and reinstalled it. No change except that now outlook asks for my password 3-4 times for my hotmail account and then changes the name in the hotmail bit from my email address to just "Jen Stosser". The second time I did this, I also rebooted the computer completely after uninstalling Outlook Connector and before reinstalling it. Same difference :-(
Diane Poremsky says
The name change is expected - it pulls that off the server. What firewall and antivirus are you using? The multiple password dialogs make me wonder if something is blocking it.
David says
Diane,
This is absolutely awesome. And after using for a week it looks like you've covered everything. I didn't realized I needed to install the connector so I got the same errors as others. There are a bunch of people who have been looking for this solution for years in order to sync their iPhone with Outlook. Many have used Google Sync but that applet was unsupported, a little buggy and was disabled by Google on Aug 1 2014.
Thanks for taking the time to do this!!!
Dave
Diane Poremsky says
I have the instructions for using selfcert, along with a video tutorial.
https://www.slipstick.com/developer/how-to-use-outlooks-vba-editor/#selfcert
Thomas says
Hi Diane.
I'm sorry but these instructions are a little confusing to me as all I want to do is sync my Microsoft Outlook 2007 calendar with my Android smart phone calendar. I was using Google sync but it no longer works. Also will it be able to do a two way sync? Will I be able to enter a calendar event into my Android phone's calendar and will it auto sync to my Desktop Microsoft Outlook 2007 calendar? I currently have three Gmail email accounts in Outlook 2007, which work great but I really need the calendar to sync with my phone and vice versa.
Thank you in advance and I really appreciate you taking your time to help us all out.
Thomas
Diane Poremsky says
If you use the Outlook Connector in Outlook 2007, it will sync the calendar to Outlook.com and the Android will sync it down. It will be two way and automatic. You currently have the outlook calendar in a pst file - you'll need to keep it in the outlook.com calendar folder.
Link to the connector: https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/microsoft-office-outlook-hotmail-connector-overview-HA010222518.aspx
Thomas says
Hello Diane,
Wow, thanks for the quick response.
Well I reinstalled Microsoft Office 2007 so I can start off with a fresh install of Outlook. I installed the Outlook connector then opened up Outlook 2007 and signed in with my Outlook.com email (so that's the only mail and calendar account I have at the present time). Then I set up my Outlook.com account on my Android smartphone through Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, But there also was a Outlook.com choice, what's that for?
All seems well, but sync seems sluggish and sometimes did not work with calendar across Desktop--Outlook.com--Android, any suggestions? Can I somehow change how fast it syncs/checks for changes?
Also what did you mean when you said:
"You currently have the outlook calendar in a pst file - you'll need to keep it in the outlook.com calendar folder."
Do I still need to do that? How?
Thank you
Thomas
Diane Poremsky says
I recommend using the Exchange Active Sync account, not the outlook.com addin, at least for contacts. You can't edit the outlook.com contacts on the droid, only in outlook - but if you use a corporate account in the default mail app, you can edit them.
To move (or copy) appointments to the outlook.com calendar in Outlook, switch the calendar to a list view then select all (Ctrl+A), copy (Ctrl+C), and paste into the new folder (Ctrl+V).
Agnes says
Hi,
I've an offline PST and I want to sync my PST calendar items to my Hotmail calendar. I used Outlook 2013 to setup an my Hotmail.com, I tried both configured it manually or automatically, The setup was using EAS and I checked the mail server is pointing to m.hotmail.com.
After the setup, I copied my calendar items from my PST to the Hotmail calendar folder, though they seem to appear under Outlook 2013, Those calendar items do not show up in my Hotmail calendar when I check in on the web.
Is this expected? Contacts work fine, but not for calendar. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Agnes
Diane Poremsky says
There is a bug in that moving or copying more than about 5 appointments into the Hotmail calendar at once, prevents the items from syncing. Adding a category to the items will often force a sync. Or save the old calendar as an ics (open it in Outlook, use the File, Save as menu) then import it into the calendar at outlook.com. I have the steps and screenshots here: https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/export-outlook-calendar-outlook-coms-calendar/
Before doing this, you'll probably want to remove the appointments from the local calendar. Switch to a list view of the calendar and add the Modified field to the view. Sort by the modified date - everything imported will have the same date. Select all of them and Delete.
Agnes says
If I export my PST to .ics, then import it back to Outlook.com, the items cannot be 2-way sync anymore, i.e., I can't update in my PST and reflect it back to outlook.com, right?
I also tried just copying 1 item with a category from my PST to my Hotmail calendar, this still does not make it show up in Hotmail calendar, does this work for you?
I don't seem to have an option to force a 2-way sync between my PST and Hotmail calendar, any thoughts?
Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
If you save the calendar as an ics and import it in Outlook.com, then configure the outlook.com account in Outlook, the calendar items will sync back down to the outlook.com calendar folder.
Agnes says
Is this a problem with Outlook 2013 or Hotmail? If I use Outlook 2010, will I still have this problem? Thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
It's a problem with Outlook 2013 only - it's a limitation of the EAS protocol. It'll work fine on Outlook 2010 with the connector, because it uses a different protocol.
For a one time import, you can save the calendar as an ics and import it. Instructions are here: https://www.outlook-tips.net/outlookcom/export-outlook-calendar-outlook-coms-calendar/
JAY says
wow-that's a very good post,can it sync with outlook.com mobile app?
End results I would like to sync my outlook 2007 on my pc to my outlook.com mobile app,inc calender(most important).Thanks Diane.
Diane Poremsky says
If you sync Outlook 2007 with Outlook.com using the Outlook connector, it will sync with the outlook.com app or any smartphone's default mail app.
Jay says
Hi Diane,
I have outlook 2007 also outlook.com and the outlook connector but the outlook.com calendar is empty...
Cant figure out what is wrong,how do I sync both?
If I have this fixed I hope it will fix the sync with my mobile HTC...
Thanks again Diane,
Jay.
Diane Poremsky says
In outlook, create a new appointment in the outlook.com calendar folder. Does it sync up (and over to the HTC)?
Do you copy the appointments from your Outlook Calendar into the Outlook.com calendar folder?
Andy says
A useful post and clearly very popular. I just wanted to point out a couple of issues I came across when trying to sync contacts across two PCs with Outlook 2007 via outlook.com.
First, only a subset of the contact fields are supported. If you just use name, address, phone etc, you'll be fine, but I also use CustomerID and this doesn't get transferred via outlook.com. Exactly which fields are supported may be trial and error. This is a show-stopper for me.
Second, although I didn't configure outlook.com to pull email from my Outlook 2007 email account, I now get all my incoming mail routed to the outlook.com folder (and outlook.com) instead of my personal folders. Also, although outgoing mail does get correctly routed via my outlook 2007 mail account, it saves the sent message into the outlook.com folder. So I'm just pointing out that email is affected by this solution, which I wasn't expecting, but I could probably work with it.
Thanks for the article Diane.
Diane Poremsky says
Yeah, Outlook.com is limited - if you need all fields on all computers, Office 365 Exchange will do it. It's not free, but it's excellent for syncing everywhere and outlook will be identical on all computers. It works best if you own a domain name.
Something is not right - the only way for mail to be delivered to outlook.com folder is to either forward mail from the old account (usually set up on the old account's web access) or configuring outlook.com to connect to the account. You can't use rules to add mail to the Outlook.com/EAS data file.
Andy says
Hmm, I double checked my outlook.com config to make sure I haven't got any references to my other domain and I know I'm not forwarding mail to the outlook.com account as I only created it yesterday. When i look at the mail message in outlook.com it has a note which says "It looks like this message was moved in another program (like Outlook). If you didn't move it yourself, try checking the program's anti-spam settings.". So I checked the spam settings and it isn't that, and I have no rules.
Never mind, it's good to know it doesn't normally work like that and I could probably track it down if I was going to continue with this set up. I think an Exchange server is the way to go now as you suggested.
Thanks.
Derek Duncan says
It seems to be working in an interesting fashion. My challenge is that I have 3 live.com profiles and the calendar items seem to be spread out over all 3. It works amazing though! The calendar and phone update to the other locations within 15 seconds of changing an appointment.
Diane Poremsky says
Yeah -I'm guessing the events go into whichever account you are working in.
Derek Duncan says
Thank you so much for this information. I'm not as tech as the next guy but thanks to your quick click for the register change it helped me get over the hump. After letting everything sync up last night my appointments on Outlook 2013 are not showing up anywhere on outlook.com or on my Windows 8 phone. The calendar name is not event showing up on Outlook.com but oddly enough it IS showing up on the phone. Any idea how to fix that?
Diane Poremsky says
Hmm. I've has a few people say that the calendar is on other devices but not on outlook.com. I'll have to look into it. As for the events not syncing, the calendar stalls when you move a lot of items over to it - select a few and add a category, then repeat. (Use list view) this usually kick starts the sync by making outlook think it was edited.
dave says
Hi, I am using outlook 2007, and set up the new account in outlook using the connector and the same email that i set up in outlook.com. Outlook on my computer shows the new account but i cannot send or email from this new account. both the password and user name and account are correct. Any thoughts on this? Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
Do you get any error messages? Do you have 2 factor authentication enabled on the account? If so, you need to use the app password.
dave says
no i don't have 2 factor authentication enabled. when i send an email from outlook from the new account, it just sits in the outbox. no errors, it is just never sent...
Diane Poremsky says
Was the computer recently updated? I don't know if any updates would block it, but I would remove the account and try again, if it still fails, uninstall the connector and reinstall it.
dave says
Ok, got desktop to sync with outlook.com and outlook.com sycn with android calendar but android calendar won't sync back to outlook.com. Any thoughts?
Diane Poremsky says
Are you creating items on the correct calendar on the android? If you edit an appointment (on the droid) that you made in outlook, does the change sync?
Tim P. says
Diane,
Thank you for this information.
I set up Outlook 2010 to sync with Outlook.com and my Android phone just as you explained and it works great. On the first run, I had contacts already in my phone and the sync resulted in many duplicate contacts which I “joined” with the existing contacts. The new EAS contacts each had an Exchange ActiveSync symbol beside them.
Wanting my contact list to be consistent with as little duplication as possible, I deleted my entire contact list from my phone (after exporting them), so as to start with a clean slate. Now, I have one contact list that matches whether I’m Outlook or on my phone. However, ALL of my contacts on my phone now have that Exchange ActiveSync symbol.
What I have discovered is that…
• When I edit or add a contact in Outlook, it shows up on my Android
• When I edit a contact on my Android, it is reflected in Outlook
• But when I add a completely new contact by hand to my Android phone, it does not have the EAS symbol, and it does not show up in Outlook.
Do you know how to make a hand-entered Android phone contact an EAS contact so that it sync? Thank you.
Diane Poremsky says
Are you adding it to the correct contacts folder set?
Tim P. says
Yes. I currently have two accounts in Outlook: my “real” email and the Outlook.com account – which is set as the default datafile. And syncing works perfectly under three conditions, but not the fourth.
1. An edit to an existing contact in Outlook is reflected on my Android
2. A new contact added to Outlook is reflected on my Android
3. An edit to an existing contact on my Android is reflected in Outlook
4. A new contact added to my Android is NOT reflected in Outlook
The only difference between a hand entered contact on my Android phone and the existing contacts on my Android is that all of the existing contacts have the Exchange ActiveSync symbol whereas a hand entered contact does not. None of the existing contacts were entered by hand into my phone – they were entered into Outlook and synced to my phone – appearing in my phone with the EAS symbol.
It appears that only EAS contacts will sync, and apparently EAS contacts have to originate in Outlook / Outlook.com. I don’t know how to make a hand entered Android contact into an EAS contact so that it will sync. Thank you.
Diane Poremsky says
When you add a contact, at the top is a box with an account listed - you can click it to select another account - you need to have the outlook.com account listed here. Screenshot
Tim P. says
Diane, your screenshot helped me to clarify this and I think I have found the answer.
When I go to add a contact to my phone, there is no box at the top and there is nowhere to indicate that I want this contact to be an EAS contact.
Just to verify this, and look at other Android phones, I went to the AT&T store and explained the issue. Sure enough, on the newer phones you can indicate the type of contact that you are entering, but apparently my phone (Samsung Infuse 4G) is a little out of date and the operating system is a bit behind the new phones.
So, the answer it appears is to either upgrade to a newer phone, or just accept that any contacts I enter manually will need to be re-entered into Outlook later (kinda defeats the purpose).
But before I go one way or the other, do you think it would be worthwhile for me to consider a third party app like Companionlink or something else? I also have an ipad which I would like to sync as well.
Again, thank you for all the work you put into helping people with this.
Diane Poremsky says
Samsung hasn't released an update it? There is no way to move it to the correct account on your phone?
Ipad will sync with outlook.com just fine. But.... If you are only using calendar and contacts at outlook.com, you could sync to iCloud and drop outlook.comn. If you can live with syncing only when home, use iTunes wifi sync and you'll sync directly with calendar and contracts in a pst file. There is an iCloud sync utility in the play store, i haven't used it, but some people said it was nice.
Tim P. says
No update from Samsung unfortunately. When I enter a new contact into Outlook and it is synced to my phone, it is automatically placed into the Group called Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and it cannot be placed into any other groups. But when I enter a contact directly into my phone, the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync account disappears, but I can put them other groups like family, friends, etc.
So it looks like another negative about my current setup is that even with my synced EAS contacts, I can’t put them into additional groups. They’re all in one big EAS group by default.
And yes, I am only interested in syncing contacts and calendar – and would prefer to have a two-way sync over-the-air.
Is the utility you mentioned called “SmoothSync for Cloud?” But even if I get my Android synced with iCloud, how will I get Outlook 2010 synced? Thanks again.
Diane Poremsky says
I'll have to check on the name (and will test it with my iCloud) - iCloud is the conduit - it syncs to iCloud with the app, outlook syncs to iCloud using either iTunes or icloud addin.
Ernesto says
Hi Diane,
Thanks for the post, it's very helpful. However, I've followed all the steps (create a MS account with my real email, install the Outlook connector and configure the account) but when I try to set the Outlook.com Data File as the default I can't because it's "Not available"… The other Data Files's location is shown correctly, but for the Outlook.com account is says "Not available", and thus I can't select it to be the default…
Any ideas on why this happens? And how can I solve it?
Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
If Outlook won't let you set it as default, close the dialog and return to outlook then try again or restart Outlook and try again. The 'not available' part is not a problem, it always says that when you use the connector, but sometimes it errors if the underlying data file doesn't exist when you select it.
Ernesto says
I've restarted Outlook many times. I've even uninstalled the connector and installed it again… I always get the same error when I try to make it the default data file (The selected Outlook data file (.pst) format cannot be used. Outlook data files (.pst) must use the same format as offline Outlook data files (.ost). Select a matching Outlook data file (.pst) or turn off cache mode in the Account Settings).
BTW, I'm using Outlook 2010 connected to my company's exchange server which is the only email account configured. I also have a local .pst where I store all the emails and that's the default data file I'm using now.
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
What version of Outlook created the pst file? It sounds like it is an older ANSI format pst. It needs to be the newer Unicode format.
Are you trying to add an Outlook.com account? The error could be wrong - if so, it's trying to say that you can't set the connector account as the default data file when you have an exchange account in the profile.
Ernesto says
I created the new .pst with the same Outlook (2010 - 32-bit) when I first got my Exchange account (so it was a new .pst to store emails from that account, not an old .pst). Right now the default data file is the .pst not the Exchange Account.
I'm trying to set the Outlook.com account (that I've created with the same email address as the Exchange Account, since I just want to use it to sync the calendar) as the default data file (while the Exchange Account is the default email account as you explain) so the new calendar invites land in the Outlook.com calendar and not in the .pst file.
Diane Poremsky says
When you have Exchange in the profile, it needs to be the default data file. The method on this page is for people with imap and pop3 accounts who need to sync as those accounts don't syncing calendar and contacts. Exchange accounts support EAS natively.
Ernesto says
I see… But today the default data file is the local .pst and not the Exchange Account…
Diane Poremsky says
Sorry, I worded that poorly. The bottom line is you cannot have Outlook.com data file set as default when you have an exchange account in the profile.
Ed M. says
Hi Diane,
Thanks for this post. Everything works, except the macro to send all the new calendar invite via the default email account. When I copy-paste the VBA code above, I get a run-time error:
Method o'SendUsingAccount' of object '_AppointmentItem' failed.
The debugger points to line:
m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)
Ed M. says
P.S. I forgot to mention I'm using Outlook 2013
Diane Poremsky says
Somehow I missed Set - also, the form might open a little faster is you use the .display line.
' (1) this the default account
Set m_Inspector.currentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)
m_Inspector.currentItem.Display
Ed M. says
Perfect! It works now. Thanks Diane!!
Ed M. says
Me again... the updated macro works fine when I create a new invitation and invite others. However, as soon as I open an existing calendar entry (that I created for myself; or an invite someone else sent me; etc.), I get the following error:
"You don't have permission to perform this operation"
My macro settings are set to "Notifications to all macros" - as per the instructions in your post "How to use Outlook’s VBA Editor "
And the above runtime error occurs with calendar entries created both before and after the macro was created.
Diane Poremsky says
knock on wood that this one finally fixes the problems - the error is because the appt owner is set and it wants to set it again. We can fix it with an If Statement:
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount <> olNS.Accounts.Item(2) Then
Set m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(2)
m_Inspector.CurrentItem.Display
End If
it's working here in a quickie test at least. :)
Ed M. says
Hi Diane,
(I tried to post this before but I don’t think it went through; new attempt)
The updated macro works fine to create a new calendar item, but there is a new problem now: every time I open a calendar entry, I get the following runtime error: “you don’t have appropriate permission to perform this operation”
The debugger points to the same line: Set m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)
I would appreciate if you could let me know what I need to change to avoid the error.
Diane Poremsky says
It is here, i hold comments that need answered until I'm ready to answer so I don't lose them. :) I need to test it some more and try to repro. What type of email accounts are in your profile?
Ed M. says
Hi Diane,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - I was away off-line for a few days.
Ok, I've just tested the new macro with the "if" statement - but the one in your post i.e. with (1) as opposed to the one in your reply above with (2). I got the same error; the debugger points to line: "Set m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)"
I use two email accounts: @outlook.com for calendar/contacts synching purpose; and my business email on our company's domain which is hosted by MediaTemple. The latter is the email I used to post this reply.
Diane Poremsky says
The 1 and 2 are for the accounts - 1 is the default, 2 is the second account listed in Account Settings.
Does the error include any hints about what it doesn't like?
Ed M. says
The error message is: "You don't have appropriate permission to perform this operation".
However, contrary to an earlier version of the Macro (see my "August 5, 2014 at 8:54 am" post above), the runtime error occurs doesn't seem to be occurring with calendar entries I created AFTER the new macro was enabled. I am not sure yet what will happen with a calendar invitation I received from someone - as I haven't received an invitation yet.
But at least there is some progress: indeed, with the earlier version, I was getting the runtime error even with entries created after the macro had been enabled.
I hope this helps.
Diane Poremsky says
I had that error message when i was testing it and I thought I posted about it here but don't see it. :( And i forget what caused it.
Ed M. says
P.S. further to my response a few minutes ago - I've done a test creating a calendar entry on: 1) my iPhone; and 2) Outlook Web Access. When I try to open these two entries on Outlook desktop, I still get the runtime error with the same error message.
So, in summary: the only time I don't get the error is with calendar entries created on Outlook desktop after the macro was enable.
Ed M. says
Hi Diane,
I would still like to figure out the proper macro. Any further thoughts on what might cause the macro's error with all calendar entries created outside of Outlook desktop (i.e. in iPhone, OWA, etc.)?
Diane Poremsky says
That is the permissions errors? I'll see if i can repro it - I'm not really sure what is causing it.
Ed M. says
As I said above, the error message is: "You don't have appropriate permission to perform this operation".
I get this error when opening any calendar entries I created outside of Outlook desktop 2013 (i.e. in iPhone, OWA, etc.); as well as calendar entries I created in Outlook desktop before the macro was enabled; as well as calendar entries received from someone else.
The only time I don't get the error is when opening calendar entries created in Outlook desktop 2013 after the macro was enabled.
Matt says
Hi Diane,
I am having the same issue as Ed. When I am using the VBA macro and I go to open an existing appt, I get a run-time error with the "permissions" error that Ed mentioned above. It seems to work fine for newly created appts though. My situation seems to mirror Ed's exactly.
Ed M. says
Yes, this is the same permission error. In my earlier Reply a few days ago, I summarized when the error occurs. Hopefully you can repro it and find what's causing it.
Michael N. says
I am having the same issue. Looks like the VB script kicks back the error Ed M. had in Outlook 2013. For instance when I start outlook, it looks like the script runs fine and the first meeting request is created as from my main e-mail account. If I later double-click on any calendar entry, I get the Error "You don't have appropriate permission..." Then I do not get the error subsequently, but new Meetings are shown from the Outlook.com Calendar-Only Account. Also, any appointments I am invited to by others do not sync with Outlook.com.
Diane Poremsky says
What type of email account is your main account? Is that calendar folder the one that kicks up the permissions error?
Michael N. says
My main e-mail account is a Yahoo Bizmail account. I have removed the calendar item for the Bizmail account as per your instructions above, so the only calendar I have is my Outlook.com calendar. That is the one that is giving me the permissions error. The debugger sends me to the following line in the VB code:
Set m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)
Diane Poremsky says
The yahoo account is your default email account? (default on the account settings, email tab)
Michael N. says
So, my two problems seem to be separate issues. I cleared the 'ThisOutlookSession' code to troubleshoot the issue I was having with meetings I am invited to. I still do not see those meetings on Outlook.com, but they show in my main calendar on Outlook 2013 (desktop). Might it be that the meetings are sent to my main e-mail account, not Outlook.com?
Diane Poremsky says
Meetings sometimes have a problem syncing up to Outlook.com if they were not sent to outlook.com. Which macro are you using?
Michael N. says
I am using the macro you have above for the one problem. For the sync issue from invites happens with no macros also.
Michael N. says
Yes, Yahoo! account is default on email tab. Outlook.com EAS is default on data files tab.
Jamie B says
I have one account in Windows 8.1 setup for my email (user@domain.com). It is set for email only. Now I am trying to add the outlook.com account with the same user@domain.com but Windows tells me the account is already setup. How did you get the two accounts setup using the same email address? Or do I need to create an alias on outlook.com?
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using the manual setup option? use m.hotmail.com as the domain for the Microsoft account.
Alex Xu says
Hi Diane, thanks so much for the macro and it is no longer needed as the tip on using an MS account based on the real email address worked out great. I created a new MS account using my primary pop account, and now meeting invite will be sent out via the outlook_fxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@outlook.com on behalf of my actual email account, outlook.com does a much better sender masking (something only BIS was able to do before and gmail never achieved), meeting invite recipients only see the masked my primary email address with no trace of outlook.com, so response of the invite obviously landed to my primary account properly. The only left issue is how to properly remove calendars from pst files to make the outlook.com account's calendar the only calendar in profile, or, if possible, to trick outlook not seeing other calendars. I reviewed your "how to hide or delete outlook default folders", but you said the deletion isn't permanent, and hidding does not prevent Outlook from using it (the hidden calendar from pst). Other than the methods on your "delete/hide Outlook default folder" article, any alternative to that, and preferably set Outlook to think there is only one Outlook.com account's calendar as I have several PSTs linked in the profile and from time to time also linking other (backup) PSTs over network for period of time, so keep on deleting calendar folders in every each presented PST file isn't convenient, and prone to corrupting PST. Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
Your meeting invites are using the long address? Mine use the one I created on outlook.com. The long address is buried in the header but outlook isn't displaying it. (At least my outlook isn't using it for meetings.)
on hiding folders- I'd use the utility so you can quickly & easily hide and unhide the calendars, but first I would delete the folders using mfcmapi and see if they stay deleted.
Alex Xu says
Hiding calendar folder did not work, but after deleting calendar using mfcmapi, the invite response just worked, now outlook.com's active sync service is working well between my work laptop (office 2013), Android phone (SGS3), iPad, but the home desktop (office 2007 using hotmail connector) is always taking forever connecting to the outlook.com sync server. I am replacing my desktop soon, then will buy a copy of office 2013 for that.
Many thanks! Also confirm you that free Google calendar sync indeed stopped working.
Alex Xu says
Hi Diane, thanks for your quick reply. More issue on this: after sending meeting invite out by manually changing the sender account to my real email address from dropdown instead of using the hotmail account new event defaults to, I received response from the invitee, but the reply will not update the calendar meeting event and the response email has "We couldn't find this meeting in the calendar. It may have been moved or deleted." inserted in the response email, looks like Outlook is trying to locate this event with the calendar of my real email account, not the hotmail one. Not complete deal breaker for me, but kind inconvenient. I think the best way to take advantage of this "over air PIM sync via outlook.com's free Exchange service" is to keep your local default calendar from your real email account, add the MS account, then have an auto sync between your local calendar to the MS exchange calendar, so you can operate your Outlook as usual, the MS account calendar just quietly sits there acting as a clone copy and does over-air sync with MS exchange service. CodeTwo's outlook sync won't sync 2 data files within the same profile, and your vba code for copying/updating between 2 calendars is one-way, couldn't find another 3rd party plugin which can pull this trick so far. I can always run a vm on my laptop to just host another instance of outlook to use CodeTwo's Outlook sync and the VM's outlook will just have the MS account, but this is an excessive workaround. So far I am ok with what it is, it is free, don't know when MS is going to cut the cord... Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
For it to work correctly, you need to have only one calendar - the one in outlook.com. If it's the only calendar, it works good.
Alex Xu says
Thank you Diane, this comes to rescue before Google pulls the plug of free outlook/gmail calendar sync via its own sync tool on August 1. I was able to get all set up between Outlook 2013 and my hotmail account following your very detailed/clear instructions. One question: when creating new event and invite attendees, the invite will be sent from the hotmail account be default, any registry trick to force calendar invite email default to "default email account" to send?
Diane Poremsky says
The registry settings works for email but not for appointments. I'll see if i can get one of my macros to work with meetings (current versions tend to be buggy).
Diane Poremsky says
Not a registry hack, but try this:
Private WithEvents m_Inspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Private WithEvents m_Inspector As Outlook.Inspector
Private Sub Application_Startup()
Set m_Inspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub
Private Sub m_Inspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Outlook.Inspector)
Set m_Inspector = Inspector
End Sub
Private Sub m_Inspector_Activate()
Dim olNS As Outlook.NameSpace
Set olNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
If TypeName(m_Inspector.CurrentItem) <> "AppointmentItem" Then
Exit Sub
End If
' (1) = default email account
m_Inspector.CurrentItem.SendUsingAccount = olNS.Accounts.Item(1)
Set m_Inspector = Nothing
Set olNS = Nothing
End Sub
Diane Poremsky says
BTW, meetings are using the correct Microsoft account address (if you are using a non-ms address). I have a gmail address set up as a Microsoft account. I have it in my test profile and meetings are being sent from the gmail address (email is from longguid@outlook.com on behalf of gmail address). Tested it with a new MS Account (for an AOL address) and the message is sent from the ms account address, even if its not an outlook.com/Hotmail/live/msn address. Responses go to my real inbox, because the ms account uses my real address but the tracking updates automatically.
Justin Locke says
Hi Diane,
Thanks somuch for this post.
I am still not winning and thought you might be able to help.
When I create the new mail account using my MS account in Office 2010, the account I create has no data file associated with it. So I cannot change the default data file.
This is where I get stuck. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks
Justin
Justin Locke says
The location islisted as not available....
Diane Poremsky says
'Not available' is normal for the Outlook.com accounts. If it won't let you select it as the default data file, close and restart Outlook, you'll be able to select it after restarting.
Michael Kay says
All the features in the world won't make up for the lack of access to an email account on Outlook.com. This is Day 10 without email access. It still says "Sorry, there seems to be a problem with Outlook.com right now."
After waiting 24 hours since answering the Escalation Team's last question (which was a repeat question), Escalations responded with "Thanks for the update. We are researching your case further and will get back to you soon." In other words, "we've done nothing so don't call us, we'll call you."
It's now been another 18 hours since their message yesterday... no sense of urgency on their part. I'm surprised Outlook.com is still in business with this level of poor service on paid, Ad-Free accounts.
Diane Poremsky says
So you can't log in either online or via Outlook?
Brad says
As with many people, I've followed the steps in this great article and hit the issue where calendar invites sent to me end up in the local calendar and not the outlook.com calendar. I can't believe Microsoft designed this integration in such a way that it does not just work out of the box, especially with Outlook 2013. The frustrating thing is this functionality works perfectly with the Windows Live Mail client... Tell it your outlook.com account and your calendar and contacts sync straight away with no issues.
Bradley Davidson says
I have a similar problem. If I create the appointment on my own, it appears in the Outlook.com calendar. If I accept a meeting invite by email, it appears in my local Outlook calendar but this never gets to my Outlook.com calendar.
Diane Poremsky says
Yeah, when you have a calendar folder in the data file for an account, meetings go into it, not the default calendar (which is outlook.com's). If you create a new pst file to deliver the mail to, they should go into the outlook.com calendar.
Max says
Thanks very much for this useful article! I have followed all steps, but my Calendar and Task entries in Outlook (desktop) do not sync up to outlook.com - reversely however they do; I created a calendar entry as well as a task for today in outlook.com and they showed up in my Outlook (the task only after having done a send/receive). Sending/receiving mails through the outlook.com also goes fine (although sending, like you warned, with that weird hotmail address "on behalf of" my non-microsoft account).
Have I missed something? I followed the suggested steps:
1. Created the account in outlook.com using my own (non-microsoft) e-mail address, not configured to retrieve emails so it is a "send-only" account, correct?
2. Created a new EAS account in Outlook using the details for the outlook.com account
3. Set the data file for the outlook.com account in Outlook as default (and kept my "own" account as the default mail account)
4. Added the registry key
5. Copied all calendar entries from my main account to the outlook.com account in Outlook
6. Renamed the outlook.com account in Outlook
7. (by way of tip:) Changed the start-up view so Outlook goes immediately to my regular Inbox rather than the new outlook.com inbox.
So, having done all that, I hope correctly, the two accounts are definitely connected but still don't do what I actually wanted namely having my calendar and tasks available online and syncing automatically. I haven't tried copy contacts; I don't really want those online anyway. I restarted Outlook and also logged out and back in on outlook.com, without change (I didn't restart my computer yet - should I?). Any suggestions?
I use Outlook 2013 (Office 365) in Windows 8.1
Thanks!
Max.
Diane Poremsky says
If you create a new appointment or task in Outlook, does it sync up? There are issues with syncing up when you move/copy a lot of items at one time. Adding categories to the items that didn't sync helps some people - Outlook sees the change and syncs it.
Max says
Thanks Diane,
I now see some but not all appointments I created in Outlook; in other words some do sync up but some don't and I can't figure out which and why. First I thought it were the ones that I created in my phone (which I also regularly sync to Outlook on my computer) that don't sync, but that does not happen consistently. The ones I created the past week have all synced up so I'll keep monitoring; maybe it were only the initial ones. Thanks again; also for all your much appreciated work here!
Brian Mansell says
Hi Diane,
Just got Win Phone 8.1 today - it seems to say it is now easy to sync telephone and pc - calendars and people.
What is the real story - no change for people without Exchange Server ?
Keep goinf with EAS ?
Brian
Diane Poremsky says
It doesn't really matter which phone you got, syncing with outlook is best with Exchange accounts, then outlook.com. Anything else needs a utility. If you use gmail, get a utility to sync outlook to gmail; Apple has icloud or itunes; for anything else, companionlink or another utility. If your computer has atheros bluetooth, you might be able to sync contacts.
gcsimpson says
Diane.
How do you have a life and still deal with all of us?? Sorry for using two threads to talk to you, but I've got two issues going. You may have answered this in Don Osvog November 29, 2013 at 7:54 am, but I hate to give up so easily.
My email is at netaddress, (***@usa.net). For some reason my email server refuses to talk to my phone, so I've decided to have usa.net forward all my mail to my outlook.com exchange account, which will sync calendar and contacts and mail; all is well, but I don't like that confusing reply email address when I send out of the exchange account.
If I am going to use the exchange account to receive mail as well as to sync calendar and contacts, then I assume it has to be the default account. What I want to do is force the use of the non-default pop account just for sending mail. Your register key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
DWORD value: NewItemsUseDefaultSendingAccount
Value: 1
seems to me to force use of the exchange default account for sending and I'd like to do the opposite - use the default exchange account for all except sending and force the use of the non-default pop account for sending only.
Is it possible to either 1) force the use of the non-default pop account for sending only, or alternatively 2) get rid of that long string of characters in the reply address and let it show my ***@usa.net as my return address.
Thanks for all you do
Diane Poremsky says
LOL. No, I don't have a life. Actually, I do, that is why I have a boat load of unanswered questions here. Being the lazy type, i answer the easy questions then work my way down the list, interesting or newest first, because that is how they are sorted. (Bad sort order, but it makes me feel like I'm not so far behind.)
1) you can use a macro - https://www.slipstick.com/developer/send-using-default-or-specific-account/ - it'll have to see if that can be pushed into a reply event macro so its automatic for situations where you have only one "real" account.
2) is not possible at this time. Microsoft has decided that all mail sent via their servers will be from a Microsoft owned account. I don't know if they will change this in the future, but its how it works now.
Wallace says
Thanks Diane. Outlook2013 should actually can activesync with Outlook.com but copy Calendar events cannot sync to Outlook.com. Only import ICS from Outlook.com can sync back to Outlook.
Diane Poremsky says
Copied appointments should sync, but adding too many, too fast can be a problem. Copying one or two at a time should work, more than that and they may not sync up.
See https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2877849 the methods and views that works.
Wallace says
I am using Outlook 2013. There is a "Save as" option and it only allows one ICS for each Calendar event.
Diane Poremsky says
Oops, its called Save Calendar (File, Save Calendar), not Save as. No sound because people are sleeping, but here is a quickie video showing how to do it - https://www.screencast.com/t/L50QOgA7d4h5
deven says
I am trying to sync my outlook calendar with my ipad. I followed the directions to go through itunes and sync, but my outlook calendar has the words "this computer only" and the sync won't work. Is the problem with "this computer only"? How do I fix it so I can get my calendar on my ipad? Thank you!
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, that is the problem - itunes needs to sync with a pst (AFAIK). If you have a pst file in your profile, set it as default and move the calendar and contacts to it, otherwise, follow the instructions at https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/2013/imap-accounts-outlook-2013/ to create a pst file and move your calendar and contacts to it.
Wallace says
Outlook.com only import calendar event in ICS file, but Outlook cannot export all Personal folder event into ICS file. I have to save all calendar event into each ICS in order to import into Outlook.com, then it sync back into the Outlook.com folder of the Outlook 2013. Why MS still cannot fix this known issue that copy of calendar events cannot be synchronized to Outlook/Live account?
Diane Poremsky says
What version of Outlook do you use? When you select the calendar folder, then go to File, Save as, is iCalendar one of the options? (It should be for all newer versions of Outlook.)
Herbert says
Diane,
Thanks for your advice. It however did not solve the issue. I started a thread and later found two others on answers.microsoft.com about the problem, but there don't seem to be any solutions available there either.
Herbert says
Diane,
I'm using Outlook 2007 with the Outlook connector to sync my mail and calendar from my outlook.com account to the outlook client.
Since a few days, the caledar sync has stopped to properly sync the attendees of the appointments. The sync between the outlook.com webclient and my Android devices works fine.
2 Examples:
*) Add an appointment with attendees to the web client. Sync. Appointment is synced to outlook client, but without attendees.
*) Add an appointment with attendees to the outlook client. Sync. Appointment is synced to outlook web client, including attendees. Afterwards attendees disappear from outlook client.
The 'standard solution' to delete the account on the outlook client and to add it again afterwards does not help.
Checking with a different outlook installation shows the same problem.
I couldn't find any solution to this on the web.
Do you have any advice?
Thanks,
Herbert
Diane Poremsky says
there seems to be a problem with the servers - one thing you can try is in IE's Tools, Internet Options, Advanced tab. Find the option for check for server certificate revocation and disable it. It's fixed other issues that have cropped up during the last week or so.
Ashton says
Diane
Do you have any workaround ideas for the Outlook.com app that does not allow edit of the phone's Contacts once installed? This Is Unbelievable to me that even after this app is closed the Contacts of the Android phone can not be edited.
This app has some strange limits, that make one wonder "why". Quite senseless limitations.
Diane Poremsky says
Unfortunately, if the app doesn't allow editing, you can't edit. You'll need to find a new app. One option on the android is to set the account up as an Exchange account (might be called "Corporate" on some devices) using m.hotmail.com as the server name. The Touchdown app for Outlook.com may have allow editing, but it is not free.
Manny says
Diane,
I am trying to sync my outlook 2013 calendar to outlook.com acct on my windows phone. The contacts have sync'ed but calendar not so much. I have exported the calendar data and tried to import the data but it fails. On outlook.com, there 1 month calendar data has come through. I have added my outlook.com acct to outlook 2013. Please advise how best to proceed.
Diane Poremsky says
What part of the import fails? The most accurate way to move the calendar from a pst file to outlook.com is by saving it as an ics and importing at Outlook.com. While you can drag the events to the outlook.com calensar in outlook, they won't always sync. if you only have a few you can copy one every at a time.
Bradley Davidson says
I have done this and it works well for new appointments but any appointment that is sent to me and that I accept doesn't appear on my outlook.com calendar but appears in outlook 2013 and looks like it's on the correct calendar. How do I solve this?
Thanks, Bradley
Diane Poremsky says
You'll need to move or copy it to the outlook.com calendar - you can use a macro to watch the calendar folder and copy appointments that land in it.
https://www.slipstick.com/developer/copy-new-appointments-to-another-calendar-using-vba/
Bradley Davidson says
Unfortunately this doesn't resolve the issue. I still have the
appointments that have been sent to me in my local calendar but they don't appear in my Outlook.com calendar.
Diane Poremsky says
Meetings need to be copied to the outlook.com calendar. If the only calendar in Outlook is in Outlook.com, they should be added automatically, but most people have both their original calendar and the outlook.com calendar.
Brian Mansell says
Dear Diane,
I must ask - is this work around ever going to change ?
I put my money on Microsoft - PC´s - tablets - phone - Windows 8.1 - Office 365 pro plus- outlook.com.
Am I missing something - why doesn´t it just work ?
How many people are totally confused ?
Can someone make a simple exploded diagram that shows all these relationships ?
My wife thinks I am mad making all these changes to a standard program that at the end of the day do not work very well. Is Microsoft due to put back some sanity soon ?
Brian
Diane Poremsky says
Microsoft sane? I'm not touching that one. :) Trying to use Outlook.com as a free or cheap sync method is worth about what you pay for it. If your primary account is an Outlook.com account, it works well but when it's not your primary and you are only using it to sync, you may have problems.
The best sync experience is with an Exchange mailbox but it's not free. (I told outlook.com people they needed to sell outlook.com premium accounts hosted on Exchange). I think Companion link does a good job too, but it's not free.
Dave says
Apologies for my slow response... didn't check this email, but will now.
In response to your question, my preference would be to use the old outlook 2003 account as the default account as opposed to the OL.com one.
Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
Unfortunately, I didn't see a way to make it work with Outlook 2003. You can set a delivery location but the way Outlook 2003 handles mail, it will deliver everything to that folder. In the newer versions, you can change the delivery location independent of the default data file.
Tom says
Can I synch my Outlook 2010 CALENDAR ONLY between my desktop (Win 7) and my iPhone 4s?
Diane Poremsky says
Only using iTunes and either USB or wifi sync.
SandyPink says
I tried copying all my calendar items to the EAS folder in Outlook 2013, and the EAS folder is my default calendar. A new appointment syncs to Outlook.com (and then to my phone) but the copied items do not sync. I tried to revise one of these copied items (e.g. expanding the location information) but these revised items do not sync either. Is there any fix to this issue yet?
Diane Poremsky says
No, nothing that is sure fire 100% guaranteed. If Outlook won't upload them, export to a csv and import on outlook.com
Randy Birch says
Hi Di ... I found the same thing ... copied items don't show up. After I copied the emails I had to open each of the copied items, add a space in the body text to set the dirty flag, then save it for it to show immediately in the Hotmail calendar. New items synced both ways instantly.
Matt says
Thanks Diane!
I have two more question regarding your response.
1.). I added outlook.com to Outlook 2013 as an IMAP account. I then had my @Comcast.net account send all new emails to the IMAP email inbox. This now allows my entire email account to sync.
However, I still want my calendar to sync, which IMAP does not do. Thus I left my EAS account active. Is there a way to set the EAS account to only sync the calendar and not everything?
2.). On my Outlook 2007/Windows 7 using the outlook connector. Every time my outlook connector syncs, it reverts my calendar's view back to 1 day at "30 minute" blocks. I always view my calendar in Week, 7 day at "60 minutes" blocks. How can I keep it from changing the view every time it syncs.
Thanks again!
Diane Poremsky says
1. No.
2. I'll have to look into it. What is your default view online?
Rick says
Let me add my thanks Diane for all that you do. This was just the solution I was looking for to keep calendars and contacts synced with my Android. It works beautifully.
I set my Outlook.com calendar (Rick's Calendar) as the default data file and it shows in the taskbar as you indicated above. However, when I receive a meeting request it automatically registers to my original Outlook Calendar (Calendar). I end up having to manually move meetings scheduled this way from the Outlook Calendar to the Outlook.com calendar. Also, changes made by the meeting organizer flow through to the Outlook calendar but not to the Outlook.com calendar.
Can you help?
Diane Poremsky says
Meetings are a problem - i have a macro that can copy them to the outlook.com calendar and can watch for updates.
https://www.slipstick.com/developer/copy-new-appointments-to-another-calendar-using-vba/
Matt says
Diane,
Thanks for all this help! This is wonderful! I have a question I am struggling to work out...
On my laptop (Windows 7 & Outlook 2007), I have my @Comcast.net email account(POP3) download emails. When it does it downloads them into the folder created by the outlook connector. Thus, when I delete that email or move it into another folder, the next sync cycle will move that email to the correct folder. I love this. This is exactly what I want to duplicate to my surface rt, however I am struggling to duplicate.
Surface RT, Windows 8.1, Outlook 2013.
I have my @Comcast.net set up as my default email. I have my outlook.com EAS set up as my default data. On the left side of outlook, the top "folders" is the correctly synced outlook.com files. Below those folders are another set of folders for the @Comcast.net account. However, when I go to download new emails, it will place the emails in the @Comcast.net inbox and not the outlook.com EAS. Thus, not syncing. How can I make my surface/outlook 2013 do exactly what it is correctly doing on my laptop?
I have tried to just copy/paste the new emails up to the EAS inbox, but it won't let me. I have also tried to set the @Comcast.net default inbox to be the EAS inbox, but then I get a send/receive error.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you soo much!
Matt
Diane Poremsky says
You can't deliver email to an EAS account's data file, only mail downloaded by the EAS account is in that folder, it won't upload (import) email. If you want comcast mail available in the EAS account you need to set it up in Outlook.com, to connect the comcast account and have the outlook.com go out and collect the mail from the comcast mailbox. The other option is setting Outlook.com up as an IMAP account and delivering the comcast account to the imap folders.
On the old computer, it sounds like are using the Outlook Connector and delivering the email to the Outlook connector folders.
Christoph says
Hi,
great tutorial, really appreciated!
Have done everything accordingly and the sync works, just the past calendar entries do not.
However, I did not get the last bit working. I ran your registry change program and the keys have been put in correctly, but when I send a meeting request, outlook still wants to send from my Access mail account.
And when I change this to the correct account and send the invitation Outlook will not find the calendar entry when the answer comes in, probably because it looks in the old pst file. I assume it will also try to book an incoming invitation into the old pst file, even though I could not try this yet.
Any idea, what I could do?
Diane Poremsky says
Meetings are tough because Outlook links them to a specific calendar - if the appointment is moved, outlook can't process the responses and changing the address is basically the same thing as moving it. It's not much better when you receive requests - the responses may either be on the wrong calendar or from the wrong account. Unfortunately there isn't a good solution for these problems.
JF says
Hi Diane,
1) I use Office-Outlook 2003 (!) on my PC and I have an Outlook.com account.
2) I've connected Outlook 2003 to Outlook.com with the 'Connector'.
3) I've imported my Outlook 2003 Calendar to the calendar folder under xxxxxxx@outlook.com folders (only the calendar folder from my Outlook 2003 pst file).
4) My problem is that my Outlook.com calendar displays only appointments and events with a full day length like birthdays but it does not display any appointment of a specific period (eg of 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.).
Thank you in advance!
Diane Poremsky says
Try resetting the view - View > Arrange by > Current View > Customize View. Click Reset View.
George Callipolitis says
Sync calendar and contacts using Outlook.com. I'm using Outlook 2013 on tablet running Windows 8.1. I've set up everything as you've outlined, set the Outlook.com account to be the default data file on the Data Files tab, and renamed the Microsoft account. Then reset the registry key for Outlook 2013 to force all new messages to use the default email account, regardless of which data file you are viewing, Everything works perfectly, except when I receive email, 2 copies of each email arrive: 1 goes into the default POP3 email account, and the other goes to the EAS renamed Microsoft Account. Is there please a way to stop this duplication.
Diane Poremsky says
Did you configure outlook.com to collect the email from the pop3 mailbox? disable that feature in outlook.com.
Dave says
Hi Diane, curious if you've had the opportunity to try it on Outlook 2003. Thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
No, I've been swamped. I really need a clone. :) I'll look at it more closely tomorrow- my first attempt ended with one data file for both accounts. Because of the features in 2003 (or lack of them), it's definitely going to be harder to configure. Meetings have always been a problem- and often are sent using the default account.
What type account do you want to be the default?
Brian Mansell says
Again a Little hasty - turned out it was my Groups that refused to move.
Brian
Sean Thompson says
Is there a way to have oulook 2013 sync the to do list with the microsoft account? I have a laptop,surface and a windows phone. I like to add follow ups on my contacts and reminders and i need a way to have them sync between my devices. Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
The to-do list, no. Tasks will sync. Rather than flagging a message, you'll need to create tasks. You can drag messages to the tasks link on the Folder list or you could use a macro to create the task. See https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/rules/create-task-email-rule/ for a macro.
Brian Mansell says
Well how long have I waited to see this info - almost as long as this blogg. Just shows, never give up - keep looking.
I am your new fan in Sweden. Will keep a good look at your bloggs from now on.
Incidently, I have a W 8.1 upgrade - the calenders and contacts moved over themselves ( Possibly synced after a re-start as I have been forced to work in Outlook.com ).
Brian Mansell says
Hi Again, I think I was a little hasty. I cannot select all my Contacts to move over to AES account - it says " AES does not allow this.
How do I start over - get back to zero and start again?
Brian
Diane Poremsky says
Ok. So you can't move Contact Groups. What type of account is AES? I know Outlook.com doesn't support Contact Groups, but all other accounts should.
Adham says
Awsome post, it actually helped me on giving support for the program and more specifically this sync matter!
Trent says
I have everything setup as suggested and things are working great with on exception: new calendar invites come in through my email and are added to the original Outlook calendar where I moved all my events out of.
The only way to get them into my synced outlook.com calendar is to copy them over (and keep both calendars open all the time). I can't find a setting anywhere that will enable meeting invites to be added to the outlook.com calendar which is setup as my default datafile.
Diane Poremsky says
There is no setting to direct meeting invitations. You'll need to use a macro. See Move or Copy new appointments it calendar
Dave says
Using a moto x. Email is just a pop 3 account. Only need contacts/calender. Thanks a ton.
Dave says
Hi Diane, I posted a couple questions on Jan 21st and just wanted to follow-up. Can you kindly let me know if you are going to respond? I fully appreciate that you can't respond to all inquiries so I would just like to know if I should look elsewhere or just sit tight while you work through the queue to get to my questions. Thanks so much. -Dave
Here's the original post:
Hi Diana, very impressive work. Thank you.
I’m working to sync contacts and calendar (not email) from outlook 2003 to my smartphone. I’ve created an outlook.com account, installed outlook connector and the outlook connector calendar/contact are syncing well with the phone.
My questions:
1. B/c I’m using OL 2003 and your tutorial uses a newer OL version, it’s unclear to me how I set up OL 2003 so it uses a single account to 1) send/receive email 2) use contacts and 3) use calendar. Right now I have to go to my original OL 2003 account to send/receive email and the outlook connector account to edit contacts and calendar. I’ve played with making one the default over the other, but it doesn’t seem to change the behavior (eg: calendar event reminders continue to come from my original OL 2003 account even after making the outlook connector account the default and restarting OL 2003). Can you walk me through how to set up one account or the other for all OL 2003 functions?
2. OL 2003 says the outlook connector data file is unavailable. Is that data file on my PC or on Outlook.com? If on my PC, what would it be called and where would it likely be placed? I’ve searched and don’t have a new *.pst file on my PC so presumably it’s on Outlook.com or a different file type.
Thanks!
-Dave
Diane Poremsky says
I try to respond to all comments (and keep them in moderation until I can reply) but I sometimes get so swamped with comments that I run weeks behind. :( I have about 50 waiting for replies right now.... I either need a clone or longer days.
It won't be as smooth on Outlook 2003 - I'll set it up and get the steps for you. It should work pretty much the same, but I will double check. It's been awhile since i used Outlook 2003 with any regularity and I forget exactly what is supported with Outlook.com accounts.
On #2, that is talking about the data file used by the connector. The connector creates the data file - it should have an ost extension and be located in the local appdata folders. Try typing or pasting %localappdata%\microsoft\outlook in the address bar of windows explorer then press Enter. That will open the folder where the ost should be if you use windows 7/8 and i think it works with windowsxp.
tham says
Active sync is activated.
The calendar is imported to outlook.com
I tested by putting fake appointments in both desktop and outlook.com
I had a contact with Microsoft helpdesk who took over my computer and said everything was OK and .... no syncing
tham says
Dear All,
My MSOutlook/MSOffice (2013) desktop (win 7) calendar does not sync with my Calendar on Skydrive.
I tried to find the solution in these postings, tried some out, but I am completely lost by now.
I do not understand why MS makes it so difficult to synchronize between its own products. Does anybody?
Anyway, where can I find a summary, or a step by step "how to" of all these tips, tricks and advises.
My accountsettings for MSOutlook on my desktop are
Email tab: xx.xxx@outlook.com (my live emailadres)
Data files: ...appdatlocalmicrosoftoutlookxx.xxx@outlook.com.ost
RSS feeds none
Sharepoint: none
Internet calendar: none (trying to put the URL of my skydrive calendar here did not work)
Published calendars: none
Addressbook: none
Settings:
name 2014
filename: D:....2014.pst
Mail server: snt405-m.hotmail.com
Logon test to server works perfectly.
On Skydrive: registerd email adress for calendar notifications
xx.xxx@outlook.com
Because I read that one should import an icalendar file first I did, and all the data are there,
but when I change something in the MSOutlook calendar on my desktop computer, nothing changes.
Diane Poremsky says
You should have the Outlook.com account set up as an ActiveSync account. That is the default if Outlook sets up the account for you. If the appointments are in the calendar when you access the calendar from SkyDrive, they should sync down to Outlook. You would only need to import the calendar if it wasn't already in SkyDrive/Outlook.com.
Allison says
I think my question is about the same issue. I followed along, and now my Outlook 2013 has both my EAS and POP3 accounts. EAS is the data default, POP3 the email default.
Calendar appointments added to the EAS Calendar in Outlook 2013 don't sync to the Outlook.com calendar, and vice-versa. When I select the EAS account, server connectivity shows "disconnected from server." Calendar appointments are syncing fine between my smartphone and Outlook.com.
Diane Poremsky says
The problem is definitely with the disconnected from server message. Does it always show disconnected? If it drops to disconnected after a period of inactivity, see https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2781579
Johan-Bastien POLLE says
Hi Diane,
I followed your instructions, very useful! However I have a problem. I have an Outlook adress, I put it in my Outlook 2013. I managed to have my contacts in the Outlook.com contacts, but for the calendar it does not work properly. Some appointments appear, some not... :(
Any idea where it could come from?
Many thanks in advance
Johan
Diane Poremsky says
A lot of people have problems with appointments syncing. Adding categories to the ones that don't sync seems to give appointments a needed kick, but if that fails, I don't have any good solutions. Sorry.
Rochelley says
I figured all of this out by opening Outlook.com on one of my monitors and Outlook 2013 on the other and then played around to see what was causing what. Turns out I had a duplicate of my full contact list in my Hotmail account, which had all the same birthdays that my regular account had. So I was getting the birthday notices from Hotmail x 2, as well as from my regular account x 2.
What I don't understand about Outlook 2013 is that when you add a birthday to an actual contact, it creates a birthday entry in the regular event calendar. But then there is an actual separate Birthday Calendar as well, which the birthdays from the contacts also populates. So if I superimpose the two calendars on top of one another, or look at it in OL.com, there are always at least two birthdays showing. Which would maybe explain the duplicate notifications and in my case, the quadruplicate, because I was getting two notifications from each account - one from the normal calendar, and one from the "birthday" calendar. I think I was able to finally shut off bday notifications in OL.com, so that no notifications come from the "birthday" calendar in either account. Hopefully that will solve the issue.
But I have discovered that when I read a message from my Hotmail account on my PC, it still shows as unread on my two iDevices. But if I read the message on my iDevices, and it hasn't been read yet on the PC, then it updates immediately. So not sure why it is only going one way.
Diane Poremsky says
The annoying birthday calendar is all outlook.com's doing. If you delete the birthday or holiday calendar from outlook.com, it should stay gone.
I'm not sure why the read state isn't syncing - it should. I'll pay more attention to it here and see if i can repro.
Rick says
I followed your article and very useful video to set up an Outlook.com account with my private IMAP email address (on a private domain and server) to sync my calendar and contacts between the Outlook.com App on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Android smart phone and Outlook 2013/Office 365 on my Windows 8 laptop. Everything appears to sync well from Outlook 2013 to the my Samsung phone but the contact(s) and calendar entries I add to my Samsung phone do not sync back to Outlook 2013. When I modify the calendar and contacts online at Outlook.com they sync back to Outlook 2013 on my laptop and visa versa. Is the sync only viable in one direction to the Samsung phone from Outlook.com/Outlook 2013 to my Android phone? And can you also sync tasks as well? Thanks, R
Diane Poremsky says
The sync should be two way. I'll double check on my Android tablet. AFAIk, Tasks won't sync - you need a 3rd party task app. Someone told me Tasks sync with Exchange accounts (in the calendar app), but they don't on my Android tablet - it may depend on the device and if tweaks we made to the app by the hardware manufacturer.
Rochelley says
Hi Diane . . .
I have two separate Outlook.com accounts. One of them is a Hotmail account and is strictly used to receive email from a different address than my primary one that I use 99% of the time.
In the Hotmail account, I have no contacts, and nothing in my calendars. But I get notifications for birthdays to my Hotmail email address . . . and often I get them more than once - up to three times - same message, identical. But in fact, all my birthday information is connected to my primary account with a different email address.
I do not want all those birthday notifications coming to the Hotmail email account, and even though that account is virtually stripped down and has nothing in it, I still get the multiple birthday messages, and multipes of other messages as well. Is Microsoft linking my two accounts somehow because some of my personal information is the same in each account, and the Hotmail account is somehow reading the birthday information from my primary account and "reminding" me on both email addresses? If so, how would I prevent those reminder emails from coming to the Hotmail account?
The other interesting thing is that although my primary Outlook.com account syncs well across all of my devices, the Hotmail account does not recognize when I've read messages on another device. So the messages I've already read are still showing as unread on the other devices. Why would they not be updating when this account is set up with EAS, exactly the same as the other one?
The third issue is that if I sign into either account online, the calendar shows up as "My Name's" Calendar. There is a calendar with the same name showing in Outlook 2013 calendars as well. But it is empty, as is the online version. I do not use that Calendar on either my desktop OL2013, nor in the web OL. I use another one that I presumed was connected to my primary Outlook account, because that is the one that is syncing across all my devices through Outlook.com. How would I get the calendar that I am actually using to show up in the web version of my account? Everything else is syncing across fine . . . contacts, all emails.
Diane Poremsky says
Birthday notices: are you connected to FaceBook, linkedin, or skype in the web interface? If so, that can cause the birthday alerts.
Are all of the devices using ActiveSync or IMAP? Read state (and more) should sync across all devices that are using EAS or IMAP.
Is the calendar you using in one of your hotmail accounts? If you create new appointments at outlook.com, does the appointment sync down?
Dave says
Hi Diane,
Impressive work. Thank you.
I've got Outlook 2003 and am interested in synching only my calendar and contacts (not email) to my smartphone via outlook.com. I've installed the Outlook connector, copied my contacts and calendar into the new outlook connector I've created in Outlook 2003 and the synching is working well.
A few questions:
1. Is there a way to avoid having to jump between my original outlook 2003 account and the new outlook connector account as I shift from sending/receiving emails and working with contacts/calendar events. Or is that the reality of the workaround (that is, send/receive emails and file emails in customized folders in original account and do calendar/contacts work in the new outlook connector account) or can I somehow streamline the two accounts so i only need to spend time in a single outlook 2003 account?
2. Your video demonstration shows how to set the new outlook connector as the default, but that's in a new version of outlook. How do i set the default within outlook 2003? I see how to change the default for email delivery, but per your suggestion I don't want to set that default because I'm not synchronizing outlook. I ask because my outlook connector account is still at the bottom and even though I've moved all the calendar items to the new outlook connector account I still get the notifications from events in my original outlook 2003 account. Similarly when I accept a calendar invite that new calendar event still goes into my original outlook account.
3. The data file for the new connector account says a location of "not available." Where does that get stored, on outlook.com or somewhere locally on my PC? Is the location relocatable?
Thanks so much.
Best,
Dave
Diane Poremsky says
1. No, you can't avoid jumping between folders. It should be fairly seamless if you use the navigation pane - you won't know which data file you are in.
2. Hmmm. It looks like that won't work in Outlook 2003, you can't set default data files separate from the account. If you want the calendar on the to-do bar, you need to set the Outlook.com account as default (and that screws up the your default account for new mail.) I'd probably use a macro or addin to duplicate the pst calendar to outlook.com. Not a perfect solution, but it fixes the sync problem.
Which smartphone? Who is your email provider? There might be a better way to sync calendar and contacts.
3. That message is normal with the connector. It will be created the first time you use the profile.
Jon says
I didn't know how to sync my contacts and calendar from outlook 2010 on my PC to my windows Surface. Thank you very much for this great tutorial !
Shawn Richarz says
Hi Diane,
I have tried to follow your instructions and using my Outlook 2007 I have created the Connector account, copied over my existing appts to the new calendar folder. The status says it all synced and connected but absolutely nothing in my Outlook.com calendar. Not even newly created appts. I'm wondering if I have missed something, perhaps a setting in Outlook.com or is that automatic?
Diane Poremsky says
It should be automatic. Try adding a category to some appointments and see if they sync - sometimes you need to make outlook think the appointment changed so it kick starts the sync.
Philip Minasian says
Hi Diane, Happy New Year!
I've become aware of a problem just recently with my synced contacts that I'm hoping you can offer insight into. I am using outlook.com to sync contacts to, uhmm, yes, an iPhone (iPhone 5). The problem is that (snail mail) addresses are not consistently showing up in the phone's contacts (everything else syncs fine).
The people app in Windows8 syncs fine, all my addresses DO show up there - whether "business", "home" and/or "other", but within the iPhone, sometimes they show up, sometimes not.
I can't really figure out when it flows through and when it doesn't. I have tried deleting all my contacts from my outlook.com folder within outlook, recopying all of them over there and allowing outlook.com (and my iPhone) to resync. I thought that would do it, but it didn't work. Any suggestions??
Diane Poremsky says
Are all addresses in certain address fields affected? IE, mailing address syncs but other addresses do not.
Philip Minasian says
that's the pattern I've been trying to figure out, but it's hard to be sure with so many contacts to check. In my outlook 2013 "source" contacts, I have 3 address field choices: home, business and other. I have contacts for which I have non-empty home and business addresses, both sync fine. Others which have just business addresses, which seem to sync fine (hard to check every case!). At least one with a business and other address that syncs fine. BUT others with just a home addresses, for some contacts it syncs, for others not. And others with both a home address and an "other", neither sync (but not always). So it does seem (again hard to check all instances) related to home addresses, but not exclusively.
Diane Poremsky says
on the ones that don't sync, check the addresses, retype a couple of the addresses and see if it works. There could be a character in the address that is causing problems.
Philip Minasian says
unfortunately that doesn't do the trick
Diane Poremsky says
At this point there is no other fix. I know they are working on some improvements - so hopefully it will be fixed soon.
Magnus says
Hi Diane,
You support to the internet community is amazing. Thanks!
Could you tell us if the sync problem still persists? You mentioned it in July it is now Dec. I too have the sync problem of meeting invites sent TO me does not get synced to outlook.com despite appearing in the correct calendar in outlook 2013. The invites I sent myself appears just fine in both outlook.com and Outlook 2013.
Kind regards
Magnus
Magnus says
Diane,
The support you are giving to the MS users is simply fantastic. I have the same problem as many, i.e. that meeting invites sent to me by others do not sync to outlook.com and to other devices connected to that account. All accounts and datafiles are set correct and meeting invites sent from me sync properly. In previous posts (July 2013) in this "thread" you stated that the error is a "known" bug but it should be rectified my MS in a few weeks. It is now December 2013 and any invites that are sent to me still does not sync to outlook.com despite appearing correctly in the live account calendar on my pc. Could you please shed some more light on this error which happens to be very disturbing?
Diane Poremsky says
AFAIK, yes, it still exists, but i haven't tested for it since July.
Ed S says
Under Email Notifications "Get Reminders for Events and Tasks" and "Get Daily Agenda" are both selected. The problem is when I go to the calendar tile in the Windows 8 metro screen and then type an event into my calendar, in the top left hand corner of the calendar it says "edstar@hotmail.com is unavailable". This used to work correctly and now it doesn't which confounds me because I did create my email account in the Windows mail app using my outlook.com address, so I know it's the same calendar. It just isn't updating the events I add to it and I don't receive the alerts for these events like I used to.
Diane Poremsky says
Does the mail app work? If calendar isn't syncing, mail and People shouldn't sync either.
Ed S says
Hi Diane, I don't know if the calendar events are synced to the outlook.com server. How can I see if they are or aren't? I don't know what my default reminder setting online is? Where can I find this out?
Diane Poremsky says
Go to outlook.com and log into your account. Click on Outlook v to expand the menu and choose the calendar. Click the gear icon on the right and then click Options. The address reminders are sent to is listed on this page. Click on the calendar name and you'll be able to check the reminder settings for that particular calendar.
Ed S says
It looks like the Outlook.com calendar and the calendar in Windows 8 are the same calendar. However, when I add an event to the calendar through my desktop, I do not receive an email alert like I used to in my Outlook emails. This is extremely frustrating so do you have any tips or solutions as the Microsoft community has not been forthcoming with a solution.
Diane Poremsky says
If you created an email account in Windows mail app using your outlook.com address, yes, it is the same calendar. Are the calendar events synced to outlook.com server? What is your default reminder setting online?
Andrew D. says
Hi ...
I have followed the instructions and keep running into the same issue. After adding the Microsoft account to my desktop Outlook (2010), a 0KB .ost file is created and any attempts to access the file result in a message like "C:/ ...... / xxxxx_yyy.ost is not an Outlook file (.ost)" I have tried several times adding the account, deleting it, uninstalling then reinstalling the Connector, etc. No luck. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Andrew
Don Osvog says
Hi Diane, Let me start by saying you are AWESOME! I have a PC on Windows 8.1 and Outlook 2013, an iPhone5 and iPad2. I had been syncing with the iCloud control panel and just discovered I can use Outlook.com to sync everything, including mail. I found your instructions to be life savers and have everything working with one exception. I made the Registry Editor modification you recommended to avoid the lengthy "hotmail ...on behalf of...sender." It appears to be working fine on my default email account, but I have five other email accounts. When I want to send an email on one of my "non-default" accounts, my default email address appears so I use the dropdown box to select the correct sending email address, but it shows "hotmail ...on behalf of...sender" :( Are there any other registry settings that need to be made to resolve this problem or any other ways to fix it?
Also, I was able to copy my calendar and contacts from Outlook 2013 to Outlook.com - thanks to your instructions. I tried to do the same with my mail (the idea being, I would delete my existing email accounts and use only the Outlook.com ones) but I keep getting an error message that says I can't do this. Do you know of any way to accomplish this so I can set up my new Outlook.com accounts with the same emails as in Outlook 2013? The only alternative I can think of is to save the Outlook data files, then delete the accounts. If I need an "archived" email, I could reload the data files, but that doesn't sound like a lot of fun:)
Thanks for your help and Happy Thanksgiving!
Diane Poremsky says
At this time, you can only reply from the default address, when you use Outlook. This may change in the future.
The EAS account type doesn't support uploading. You can add the outlook.com account as an IMAP account and upload the mail. Setting up and Outlook.com IMAP account has the instructions.
Jon says
Hello Diane,
I switched my email service to Microsoft via Office 365 to get shared calendars etc. The problem that I'm having however is that once you delete an email some any device it is removed from all. Is there a fix or I'm I stuck with keeping a huge number of emails on my phone. Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
That is how Exchange works - the mailbox is identical on all computers and devices. You can set the phone to only keep recent messages so you won't have a huge number of messages on the device.
Ed S says
What are the other things I should try first? I'm not using the Win 8 mail app. I'm only using the calendar that came with Win 8. The emai thatl I'm using is outlook.com (which was formerly hotmail). Is this something you can help me with or do you have someone I can reach out to?
Diane Poremsky says
The mail and calendar apps are tied to the same account. Are you using the same account as your windows login? (It may not matter.) Microsoft Answers is probably the best place to look for help with it.
Ed S says
It's been a problem for more than 24 hours. I'm using the calendar that came with Win 8 and my outlook.com email account (formerly known as hotmail email). Are there any other solutions I should try before adding/removing the account? If No, how do I go about removing the account and adding it back.
Diane Poremsky says
The Win 8 mail app is not my area of expertise, so there might be other things to try first. To delete the account, open Mail, go to the Charm bar > Settings > accounts.
Ed S says
I'm running the calendar in Win 8 to sync with my outlook.com email account. When I add items to the calendar they do not show up in my email. This was working in the past and now it's not and I appreciate any help you can provide.
Diane Poremsky says
Did the problem just start? It could be an update, or problems with the server. Give it 24 hours minimum then try removing the account and adding it back.
Ed Starke says
Hi Diane, I'm having problems syncing my Outlook email to my Outlook calendar on my Win 8 desktop (64 bit). When I add items to the calendar they're not transferred to my email. I appreciate your help with this.
Phil Minasian says
Diane, me again. ;-). you are a godsend. i may be pressing my luck here, but I'm setting up my kid's account and decided that for him he'd go totally outlook.com with outlook (in his case outlook 2010). I.e., no other email addresses/ accounts/ data files. I used the hotmail connector setup. Having two problems i cant explain: the items I send from outlook 2010 don't show up in outlook.com's sent box, and outlook 2010 shows as "stuck" in a continual send/receive. I say "stuck" in quotes because it's not hung, it just doesn't seem to finish the send/ receive. guessing the two issues may be related. Advice?
Diane Poremsky says
Do the messages send but don't leave the outbox? I believe the problems are related. Make sure you have all office updates installed then find and delete the data file - it should be in %localappdata%\Microsoft\outlook (type or paste that in the address bar of windows explorer).
Trish A. says
Thank you! Thank You! You have enabled me to successfully blend my Windows / Google / iPhone world!!
Phil Minasian says
diane, one other problem im encountering is on contacts - the outlook 2013 contacts which I copied into the outlook.com contacts folder all had a distinct category assigned (which takes advantage of the update color categories feature in outlook, since I have custom categories) . For some reason after it syncs for a while the category assignments that i can see from within outlook 2013 seem to 'decay'...and it seems random...many (most) lose the category assignment, but some retain it.
Do you know what's going on? Should I assume categories and syncing them for contacts doesn't work in outlook.com??
Thanks again.
Diane Poremsky says
This happens because outlook.com and outlook categories are not in sync. To outlook.com they are used to create contact groups, in outlook they are categories and they aren't really in sync - categories added in Outlook aren't synced up to the server. I had good luck when i set and assigned the categories online, but its a PITA if you need to change or edit a categories.
Phil Minasian says
1. the categorization trick worked perfectly. not sure why either, but thanks!!
2. I did an app delete/ reinstall and it worked fine.
3. Doesn't outlook.com already have the feature you mention so replies can be sent from other addresses? I thought I saw it in outlook.com's various options. Does it not work well?
Thanks again!
Diane Poremsky says
3. Yes, they do - but at this time (or when i last checked a few weeks ago), it only works for mail sent from outlook.com online, not sent from outlook.
Phil Minasian says
Diane, this tremendously helpful, thanks! I have 3 questions.
1. When I copy my source (POP) calendar from list view in outlook 2013 to my new outlook.com calendar 'folder', using select all, everything copies fine, but it does not sync with Outlook.com (none of my events show up there). Oddly if I try to just copy one or two items manually in calendar view within outlook 2013 they all sync fine to outlook.com (and therefore my phone). Why cant i seem to 'select all' and copy and have it work?
2. My people app seems to have hosed up during the long sync. outlook.com's "people" looks fine and fully synced, but my pc's windows 8 people app stuck trying to open. guess I might try to delete the app and reinstall it? Would that be smart?
3. why do you NOT recommend using outlook.com for email sync? I ask because I am on Verizon fios, which has no IMAP or EAS support, and therefore syncs poorly with my phone. So I was toying with using outlook.com but have avoided it given your advice.
Thanks a bunch!
Diane Poremsky says
1. When i had the problem, i added a category to the appointments and they synced. Not sure why outlook doesn't detect the new appointment when its moved in, but the change triggers a sync.
2. I don't know if that is a good idea - I'd probably delete the account and recreate it first.
3. I don't recommend it because you can't reply using the non-Microsoft address. If you aren't overly wedded to the Verizon address, i think it would be better to make an outlook.com account - you can pull the Verizon account into outlook.com and when you reply in Outlook, the reply will use the outlook.com address. If at some point they change the behavior in Outlook, so replies can be sent from other addresses, then you could go back to using the Verizon address.
Chris says
Thanks for the wonderful tutorial. When trying to set Outlook.com as the default data file I get the following error.
Mail Delivery Location- "The .pst you selected does not match the format of your Offline folder file (.ost). To correct this, select a Personal Folders file that supports Unicode or disable the use of offline folders."
Can you offer any suggestion to solve this issue?
Diane Poremsky says
What type of email accounts do you have in your profile?
Randy says
Diane,
I set everything up as described. Afterwards all my calendar invites went to the user@myemail.com calendar even though I have setup the user@outlook.com data file as my default. In looking through the comments a lot closer than I had before I see that you had mentioned that even after we do this we will have to manually move the calendar invites from user@myemail.com to user@outlook.com.
This seems like a very manual process. Is there any automated way of making this happen?
Diane Poremsky says
The only automated way is with a macro or CodeTwo's folder sync utility (which will create dupes).
Brian says
Diane,
I am syncing my Outlook 2013 with a Windows 8 phone via the Outlook.com account as you described. I am getting a problem similar to NILS above whereby reminders are being incorrectly created. I haven't spotted an answer in your threads but I may have missed.
I have tried getting help from the Microsoft community but without any acknowledgement from them. I have a fair amount of investigation into the problem and have described it in this thread
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_365hp-outlook/outlook-reminder-incorrect/e9f9e435-31bf-4f9d-a8e2-f818b6a5f6d9
I would be grateful if you could have a quick look (I'm LittlePaleFace there).
I think a work around might be to copy the appointment template and add code that clears the REMIND BEFORE if the icon is not set but I need help with that and would be grateful if you could point in the right direction.
Regards,
Brian
Diane Poremsky says
I'll take a look at the problem.
Randy says
I looked back in your thread as I should have done and realize the Not Available is normal. But when I receive and invitation it goes to the calendar of the email account that it was received rather than the account associated with the Outlook.com.
Diane Poremsky says
That is expected behavior - Outlook will use the Account's Calendar for meeting requests. You'll need to copy it over.
Randy says
The FOLDER button is what did it. I was looking at the MAIL tree list. I do notice that on the video there is a folder location for the DATA file. However, I have "Not Available". I also have found that the calendar works fine when I do my own scheduling, however when I receive an invitation on e-mail (not outlook.com) it does not go to my outlook.com calendar.
Craig says
Ouch, so i have to keep using iCloud to sync calender between Outlook 2010 and my iPhone? I also get the same error message if I try and make iCloud my default Datafile. So my only way to get calender invites over to iCloud is to copy them. I was hoping outlook connector would be my seamless solution. I guess not!
Diane Poremsky says
Correct, you'll need to copy them over. VBA that can watch for never events and copy them to the iCloud. Copy appointments to another calendar
Randy says
Diane,
Like everyone else I am indebted to all that you do here. I am syncing Outlook 2010 (Outlook Connector) with Outlook.com. I have followed through with all your instructions but I do not get the Calendar and Contacts on the far left tree structure pane, Navigation Pane?.
It works fine and if I use the icons (buttons) at the bottom of the pane I can get to mail / calendars / contacts etc. But I cannot drag the events into this new calendar with the navigation pane because it is not in the tree.
Thanks!!! Randy
Diane Poremsky says
What version of Outlook? If you click the buttons, it opens one of the individual navigation panes. There is also a button for the Folder list, which displays all folders in the profile.
Craig says
Diane, your site is wonderful. I have one problem, i run Outlook 2010 and when I try and make my new outlook connector the default data file, i get the following message:
The selected outlook data file (.pst) format cannot be used. Outlook data files (.pst) must be the same format as offline outlook data files (.ost). Select a matching data file (.pst) or turn off cache mode in account settings.
I access 2 POP3 mailboxes and my Exchange Sever from my work in my Outlook2010. So my outlook connector is new, and I want to set this as my defult data file for the obvious benifits of calendering. However i get this warning message...
Diane Poremsky says
When you have an Exchange account, you'll get this warning. At this time, I'm not aware of anyway to avoid it, unless you use online mode in Exchange. Sorry.
Sumit says
Thanks for the reply Diane. I have managed to setup the sync between my Android device and outlook.com.
However, am still running into 2 basic problems:
# I have copied contacts and calendar into the outlook data file. However, this is not getting synced with outlook.com
# I am getting the same error as what Dan Williams had described above (when trying to make the default data file as the outlook ost file under settings):
"The selected Outlook data file (.pst) format cannot be used. Outlook data files (.pst) must use the same format as offline Outlook data files (.ost). Select a matching Outlook data file (.pst) or turn off cache mode in the Account Settings.The selected Outlook data file (.pst) format cannot be used. Outlook data files (.pst) must use the same format as offline Outlook data files (.ost). Select a matching Outlook data file (.pst) or turn off cache mode in the Account Settings."
As this was setup with EAS, There's no "cache mode" to turn off.
The default email is a POP account.
Pls help.
Sumit says
Hi Diane - thanks for the info, much needed and appreciated!
I have a few queries:
# Using this approach, a new .ost file will be created when adding a Microsoft account. This new .ost data file is to be made as default, which means this will now store all incoming and outgoing mails etc. Is this correct?
# Will using .ost file have any issues/performance/search degradation when compared to a pst?
# Does the ost file have any size limitations?
I am using Outlook 2013.
Thanks again
Diane Poremsky says
The ost will be used for the Outlook.com account, and will store all mail sent to or from the account. It won't be used for other accounts (like POP3).
No, it won't affect performance. The ost is basically a pst, but more secure for offline use. You cannot open the ost in another profile, it works only with the account and profile that created it.
No, there are no special file size limitations - it's the same as a pst, 50 GB in Outlook 2013 and a registry key can change it. The data file size is limited by the mailbox size though - if your mailbox is only 5 GB, the ost is limited to 5 GB also.
Peter says
Hi Diane have just found this blog by chance. I am running Outlook 2010 to access email using POP3 and using iTunes to sync calendar & contacts to 2 iPhones. I now want to change so that I have email, contacts, calendar & notes synchronised real-time between Outlook 2010, 2 x iPhones & a tablet - and I reckon I need to set up either a Yahoo, Gmail or Outlook.com account. Looking at all the reviews Outlook.com seems to be the best option.
The fundamental question is - will Outlook.com provide the flexibility the I need and do I need to set up a new email account? My current one is a webmail account that I forward to my internet service provider.
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
Outlook.com will give you an "all in one account" solution - you'll be able to sync over the air and can stop using iTunes. Gmail and yahoo can sync with the phones but not with outlook.
Outlook.com is a suitable option for many people - an Exchange Online account is a better experience but its not free (as low as $4/mo).
kapamalo says
Thank you so much for this great tutorial! Solved a problem I've been trying to solve for ages! I can now easily sync my iPhone Fantastical app (or Apple Calendar) with my Outlook 2010 (non-Exchange) calendar through Outlook.com! I had tried gSyncIt with a Google Calendar, but it really messed up my Outlook and my computer in general - had to do a full re-install of Windows 7.
One question - why is it not recommended to configure Outlook.com to pull in mail from my main work email account?
Diane Poremsky says
I don't recommend using outlook.com for work accounts because replies will be from outlook.com, not work address. There are also security issues - work may not want your email on outlook.com. If you use Exchange at work, you can sync with devices and access everything through OWA. If you use IMAP, that will sync with the phones.
If its an address you never reply from, then it's a different story.
Brian Hill says
Hi Diane,
I have Outlook 2013 syncing to an Outlook.com account and all works well except for the generation of unwanted reminders for appointments. I noticed that NILS had the same problem above but, unless I missed it, there is no real solution yet.
I have done some testing as follows:-
1) Created an event in Outlook 2013 with reminders set to none
2) When it synced with Outlook.com I viewed the details. The reminder was there so I trashed it. I changed the title so that I could see when it synced with Outlook 2013
3) In Outlook 2013, hold down the Ctrl key while you drag the synced entry to another time, and change the subject to identify it.
4) When it syncs with Outlook.com the details show that the reminder remains deleted
From that test, it seems to me that Outlook 2013 is causing the problem that we see when it first creates the appointment. I think the syncing is working correct but the new Outlook 2013 is at fault.
I would be interested if you could try the test to see if it does the same on your system or if you could point me to some fix.
Regards,
Brian
richard says
can i merge with outlook.pst flies and the archives files using utilities to clean up dulicates?
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, that will work. You need to use the Import command in Outlook and import the entire pst file. In Outlook 2013, it's File, Open & Export, Import and Export, Import from another file, Outlook pst. There are options to replace duplicates or not import duplicates but it may still import a few. Choose the top level folder, and check 'include subfolders', then Import into the same folder - the default pst should be listed. Click Finish. The steps are similar for other versions too.
richard says
yes only one account but many outlook.pst files..
do i need to use 3rd party software or just import..on the import files which one should i choose
Diane Poremsky says
If you don't have duplicates in the pst files, you just need to import them - no other software is needed. File, Open, Import. If you have duplicates, you'll need to use a utility to clean up the duplicates - outlook doesn't have a duplicate checker built in (except for contacts).
chad says
how can i merge all outlook files so that when i open all outlook files it will become one..
whats happening now is there are too many personal folders in my outlook.
Diane Poremsky says
How many email accounts and why type of accounts? If you have one account and the outlook files are the result of moving to new computers, you can Import every thing to one pst. If they are are because you have multiple email accounts, you can only combine them if you are using all POP3 accounts.
Elaina says
Hi Diane-
I have office365 and I'm using the pro version. I synced my 365 exchange/outlook to my iphone, but only appointments set by others (to which I was invited) sync to my phone.. meetings I set do not sync. HELP!
Diane Poremsky says
Are the meetings in the calendar folder that is syncing? (Should be all folders with iphones, but you can turn some off on the iphone.)
richard says
so if i have outlook.com will it be ok?
it will sync everthing.?
Diane Poremsky says
Calendar and contacts will sync, tasks only if you have outlook 2013. Mail will, if you are using outlook.com for email.
Rick says
Have checked the mapi profile, no errors reported, no blocked addresses. I suspended online security (AVG), makes no difference. There are no missing folders in Outlook on my PC or in Outlook via Live.com. I only use Connector to sync my calendar (not email) which worked up until a few weeks back since which time entries made in Outlook on my PC appear in Live. Entries made in Live do not appear on my PC.
Diane Poremsky says
Have you tested a new profile or removing/readding the live/outlook.com account?
If you don't want to remove the account and add it back without knowing it will fix the problem, you can create a test profile to see if it works. Close Outlook, go to Control panel, search for Mail. Open the mail applet and create a new profile with only the live/outlook.com account in it. Choose the option on the dialog to ask which profile then restart Outlook. See if it syncs...
richard says
Hi Diane.
i email some pictures in your fb account.
btw, here's another Q.. how to sync iphone4s or iphone 5 with my outlook in my desktop..
thanks..
Diane Poremsky says
Sync iphone: unless you have outlook.com or exchange mailbox, you need to use icloud or itunes.
Babs says
You are so quick! Thx.
#1- I am trying to sync via Outlook.com. I am not really sure what the kies software is designed to sync - I assumed it was mainly to transfer files, photo's etc. I didn't think it was an option for the calendar.. On the phone, I am using the default calendar that came installed on the Samsung. When I look at the application manager it reads "Calendar Version 4.2.2-1545VRUAME7". I swear I THINK it synched a few times and then stopped.
#2 - That did it! Thx so much :)
#3 - It never really 'freezes", it just doesn't complete the receipt of the last email and it does not send mail from the outbox. I can continue reading emails, and preparing new ones to send. I don't realize they haven't sent until I go to close the program and it tells me that I have mail left to send and do I really want to close? My main email is a cox.net (pop/smtp) but I also do use an old hotmail account as well.
I have given up on trying to figure out a way to get my "Notes" from outlook to sync onto my phone. if you have any words of wisdom there, do tell!
Diane Poremsky says
I know kies can't do contacts, but i thought it did calendars. I don't have an android, so i can't confirm it. I know on the iphone, the outlook.com calendar is separate from the device calendar - i can choose which calendar is add the appointments to and i need to add them to outlook.com calendar if i want them to sync.
If you log into outlook.com, do you see the appt?
Does new mail arrive? Are the unsent messages marked as read? (no longer bold)
Babs says
Thank you again... I ran a scanpst.exe and it seemed to fix the hang-ups in Outlook when I tried to send/received mail. So far, so good!
I am not sure about the kies, am trying to make things work via the Outlook Connector. I can schedule an appt on my PC in Outlook 2007 and within a few minutes, it shows up on outlook.com and then shortly after that it makes it way to my phone. But, when I schedule an appt on my phone, it makes it to the outlook.com but not back to my Outlook 2007 on my desktop.
Diane Poremsky says
If it makes it to outlook.com, it should sync down. If you search in all calendar folders in Outlook, can you find the appointments?
Babs says
I set my new GalaxyS4 to sync with my calendar from Outlook 2007 and am having three issues.
First - my new calendar items sync only one way from my PC to my phone - but wont go the other way. In other words, when I am out and about and set new appointments in my phone, they never get updated to my PC at home. This is driving me CRAZY.
Second - For some reason, each time I open my Outlook 2007, I need to choose a profile. The profiles name is outlook, and there is only the one to choose from. I have selected 'options' and then checked "set as default" but it still requires me to re select it each and every time I open it.
Last- Outlook now gets 'hung up' when pulling my email off the server. Normally with the last email. I have to go to open 'task manager', go to processes, and then close outlook there and re-open. Outgoing mail won't normally send until I go thorough these steps. I actually think this issue started upon my installing kies (a program that was suggested to sync with the Samsung Galaxy 4).
Diane Poremsky says
#1 - Are you syncing via Outlook.com or the kies software? Which calendar are you creating the appointments on, on the phone? On the iPhone I can choose from several calendars. It should be the same on the galaxy.
#2 - if the option in Control panel, Mail is set to always use the selected profile, it should always use it. Screenshots here. Or it's caused by the kies software. (Google apps software has the same problem.)
#3 - If you leave Outlook running, does it come alive again? What type of email account do you use?
Tracy says
I removed all the characters from my mail folders but I still get the same error. My mail is synching fine - it's only my calendar that won't synch. Thank you for your help Diane. This is so frustrating because it's really a pain to have to recreate the profile every few weeks and I haven't been able to figure out what the problem is.
Tracy says
Hi Diane - thank you for your help. I added end dates to my annual recurrences (b-days) but the same error is still occurring during sync. Any other ideas?
Diane Poremsky says
Have you created any new folders lately? The error:
22:45:04 There was an error synchronizing your folder hierarchy. Error : 800cce05.
could mean there is a folder with a "bad" name - anything with non-alphanumeric characters could cause this.
richard says
a folloq up question here if you may..
* but mail in a pst on the other computer won't sync unless you move it into the outlook.com folders (and only if you use outlook 2003/2007/2010).
what do you mean by this..
Diane Poremsky says
Only mail that is in the outlook.com folders sync, not mail that you have stored in a pst file. If mail, calendar, contacts are not in the outlook.com folders, they will not sync to the other computer.
richard says
and which of the two accounts i can delete after i setup my local account and activesync account..
Diane Poremsky says
You need the outlook.com account and any other email accounts you use, left in your profile.
Rick says
We tried disabling AVG security but it made no difference. We still get the same error messages.Help!
Diane Poremsky says
See https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2231628 - make sure all folders exist in outlook and online.
Rick says
Often with MS we are left scratching our heads. Thanks but where is this in Outlook 2010: 1. Open the Microsoft Outlook profile containing the Outlook Hotmail Connector account. ?
Diane Poremsky says
Assuming you have one 1 profile, it's your profile with your outlook.com account. If you have more than one profile, it's the one you use with your outlook.com account. :)
You can check in Outlook by going to File, Account Settings. The outlook.com account should be listed on the Email tab, listed as a MAPI account.
richard says
how about contacts and calendars?
does it takes a whole day?
i cant sync it//
and which of the two accounts i can delete after i setup my local account and activesync account..
Diane Poremsky says
The initial sync can take longer, in my experience, it seems to get stuck on calendar only. When users have problems with contacts, its because they are trying to sync down the contacts they see online but have linked accounts with linkedin, facebook, google. Linked accounts don't sync down. They need to be configured in Outlook.
Martin Klíma says
Diane, you are a lifesaver.
Richard says
when i open it..ip displays in PERSONAL FOLDER..how do i paste it in the default outlook folder direclty like (testing@outlook.com)
Diane Poremsky says
you need to open the data file using File, Open, Outlook Data File. You can change the name of the pst by right clicking on Personal Folders and choosing Properties - click Advanced and you'll be able to change the name in that dialog.
richard says
so how can i sink entirely evertything on two pc's and on outlook.com
i did sent you picture madam.
thankyou.
best regards,
Richard Roy A. Mamaril
Diane Poremsky says
You need to set outlook.com account up on each computer. Note that the outlook.com account only syncs that email account, not contents of any personal folders files.
richard says
then i want my .pst file in outlook 2007 to export here in my desktop..
i copy it and replace but that doesn't seems to work
Diane Poremsky says
Don't paste a pst file over an existing pst, open it using File, Open.
richard says
now i have setup my activesync server..can i remove the other account now?
and when i want to snyc those emails in my current pc to the other pc.will i do the same process as well?
and when i send emails from outlook.com, will it sync ?and vice versa
Diane Poremsky says
If you aren't using the other account, yes, you can remove it. When you send mail from Outlook.com, the sent mail will sync to the outlook.com account in outlook. If you setup the Outlook.com on the other computer, that mail will sync, but mail in a pst on the other computer won't sync unless you move it into the outlook.com folders (and only if you use outlook 2003/2007/2010).
Rick says
Diane, thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly. I do have more than one Outlook calendar and the appointments do not show in those.
Errors I get are:
Task 'Hotmail' reported error (0x8004102A) : 'Error with Send/Receive. There was an error synchronizing your folder hierarchy. Error : 800cce05.'
Task 'Hotmail' reported error (0x800CCE05) : 'Synchronization error.'
Diane Poremsky says
Sorry for taking so long to reply. Did it ever work? What security software and firewall do you use? could it be blocking the url?
Rick says
Hi Diane,
I have Outlook 2010 and Hotmail Connector installed. Calendar worked fine up until a couple of weeks back. Appointments put into Outlook on my PC will appear in Windows Live Calendar and on Lumia 925 but not the other way around ie appointments put in Live will not appear in Outlook on the desktop. Any ideas?
Diane Poremsky says
Ok, so syncing is working in one direction. Do you have more than one outlook.com calendar? Did you use instant search and search in all Outlook calendars? Are there any sync errors for the outlook.com account?
richard says
Hi Ms. Diane.do you have facebook or anything that i can directly talk to you.
thankyou
Diane Poremsky says
Slipstick has a facebook page or you can use outlookforums.com to post questions.
Tracy says
Hi Diane,
I have been having a problem with synching my calendar in Outlook 2007 to Outlook.com. I also have my Windows phone synching to Outlook.com as well. I am using the Outlook Connector. I am guessing that the synching issue started either when I added a calendar entry to my phone (which now shows on outlook.com but won't sync back to Outlook 2007) or when I added recurring calendar entries with no end date. Can you please help? This happened before and I had to uninstall and reinstall the outlook connector but I don't want to have to do that every 2 weeks :-(
The sync log details are as follows:
22:44:40 Synchronizer Version 14.0.6123
22:44:40 Synchronizing Mailbox 'EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED@hotmail.com'
22:44:59
*******************
22:44:59
*Request*
22:44:59 22:44:40:0421
22:44:59 POST
22:44:59 https://
22:44:59 sse.bay02.calendar.live.com
22:44:59 /calendar/sync/feedall.sse?ver=2.0&appid=0259bbef-09a7-470a-9a22-237a599e26ef&ts=2013-08-27T21:04:11Z
22:44:59
22:44:59 X-HTTP-Method-Override: PUT
Cookie:
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=UTF-8
22:44:59 HTTP/1.1 400 FeedAll Error
Set-Cookie: CCN=bay02.calendar.live.com|57|0|1; domain=.calendar.live.com; expires=Sat, 31-Aug-2013 07:44:06 GMT; path=/; HttpOnly
Set-
22:44:59
22:44:59 Bad Request
22:44:59
*******************
22:44:59 Synchronization error.
22:44:59 Folder Collection Sync Key: 0{cf9447d4-5616-474f-8499-d0d29377c31e}6
22:44:59 Message Collection Sync Key: 0{2f46fec9-309a-4f9c-a3d5-3f40e3a911b8}454
22:45:04 Error with Send/Receive.
22:45:04 There was an error synchronizing your folder hierarchy. Error : 800cce05.
22:45:04 Synchronizing server changes in folder 'My Calendar'
22:45:04 Synchronizing server changes in folder 'Contacts'
22:45:05
*******************
22:45:05
*Request*
22:45:05 22:45:04:0265
22:45:05 POST
22:45:05 https://
22:45:05 contacts.msn.com
22:45:05 /ABService/ABService.asmx
*Response*
X-MSNSERVER: BAYCDP9012032
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 05:44:15 GMT
Thank you so much for any help you can give! Tracy
[trimmed so its easier to read]
Diane Poremsky says
Did you add end dates to the recurring events and see if the problems stopped? They can cause problems - I usually recommend no more than 1 yr for frequent recurrences or 10 yrs for b-days.
Mary says
Hi Diane, I have a question regarding an error I have begun receiving over the last two weeks with Outlook Connector. I use Outlook 2007 on my desktop at home which syncs to my email, contacts, and calendar on Outlook.com that I use at work. It has always worked great syncing all the information both ways. Recently though, I receive an "Error in Calendar. Synchronization error." My email and contacts are still syncing just fine, but all of the new appointments I have added to my calendar are not syncing to Outlook.com. It shows all the older appointments I had added up to two weeks ago, but obviously is no longer syncing. Any ideas? Thank you! Mary
Diane Poremsky says
So nothing new is syncing? I know they'd had issues with the service off and on for 2 - 3 weeks, but even so, syncing happened off and on. Have you tried repairing the office install? (You won't lose data.)
Try a new profile with just this account (keep the old profile, we just want to test). Add some appt online and in outlook and see if they are syncing both ways. If it works, open your old profile, export the new appt to a pst file and remove the account from your profile, then add it back. Import the appt that didn't sync up.
Nigel says
Diane,
I find that accepting meetings sent to me by others does not put the meeting in my calendar, but in the old calendar associated with my mailbox. Do I need to delete this using the special folder guide above or is there something else I should be doing?
Nigel
Diane Poremsky says
No, don't delete it - outlook will recreate it. You need to move or copy meetings into the outlook.com folders. You can use VBA, although it might result in duplicates, unless you look only for accepted appointments.
https://www.slipstick.com/developer/copy-new-appointments-to-another-calendar-using-vba/
Dean says
Thank you so much for all your articles, goddess of outlook!
melissa says
Thanks Diane, It did end up syncing but just took a little bit of time. Thank you so much for your original post with instructions as it works! I just need to be patient when adding an appointment from my phone :) Thanks again
melissa says
Hi Diane,
You have sure been busy on this topic. I have followed your instructions and was able to sync my outlook 2013 calendar to my android phone calendar! Thank you. The only problem I am having is if I make or modify an appointment on the phone it does not sync to Outlook on my PC. If I make the appointment in Outlook, it appears straight away on my phone calendar. Is there any way of fixing this?
Diane Poremsky says
They should sync right down, although if the problem is new as of the last 2 weeks or so, it's a problem on the server.
You are looking in the outlook.com calendar folder, correct?
Frank van Niele says
Dear Diane,
I applied the registry key you suggested, mail sent while working in calendar appears nicely in the sent items of my imap account.
However, attachments sent directly from another application or from windows explorer all appear in sent items of outlook.com.
What went wrong?
Diane Poremsky says
nothing went wrong - unfortunately, that is how Outlook works with the file, send to menus. Sorry.
Maggie Kamin says
Thank you for the information. Just to clarify. I do not want to copy my contacts and calendar. I want to be able to use the same way I use on my desktop. I would like to update every time I add a new information on my PC with synchronization. Would that work? Thanks!.
Diane Poremsky says
Unless your account is outlook.com, exchange server, or iCloud your options are limited. you need a conduit to enable the sync - outlook doesn't offer it in it's own.
Frank van Niele says
Dear Diane,
I followed your instructions regarding the registry key for sent items. Sending a mail from Outlook calendar works as you describe.
However, when I send an attachment directly from MS Word (or any other application except Outlook) the mail still appears in sent items of the outlook account, not in my imap account.
Any idea what went wrong?
Diane Poremsky says
I'll have to try and repro it. It's not normal behavior.
maggie says
I have no idea what r u talking about. My email address is info@goterrandsusa.com. my website host is webhost4life. I believe Pop is the answer u r look for. I m not sure.
Diane Poremsky says
POP3 is email only, that's why you only got the email on the other computer. Are you trying to sync calendar and contacts using Outlook.com? Set up the outlook.com account in Outlook, move or copy the appointments and contacts to the outlook.com folders then wait a bit and log into outlook.com - are the items synced up? Set up the account on the other computer and sync.
Maggie Kamin says
Yes. I added the account on both: PC and Surface. Just works for the emails. It would work for contacts and calendar also for hotmail and aol accounts but not for my business email address. Only emails for my business account..
Diane Poremsky says
What type of email account is your business account?
Maggie Kamin says
So far I created a new account but how to I sync with my surface rt? I am sorry but I am not an IT person so I might be missing some steps. Thanks for any help you can give me. Maggie Kamin
Diane Poremsky says
Did you set the account up in the Windows Mail applet? Open the mail app and add the account.
Karen says
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Karen says
Dear Diane,
After spending the better part of today trying to set up and successfully sync calendars between Outlook 2013 and Outlook.com, I am giving up. Your instructions were excellent, but the gaps in Microsoft's functionality for this operation make it not worth the effort and the workarounds are too clumsy for a business activity. I did download the macro for the registry key to make the correct email account the default. Since I am not going to sync with Outlook.com, do I need to remove the key? If so, do you have a macro for that? I am loathe to tinker with the registry in my own.
Its a shame to have to abandon Outlook.com. My goal was to migrate everything away from Gmail, Google Contacts and Google Calendar to Outlook.com and the desktop, but there is no seamless way to do that:-(. I am going to have to bite the bullet and use Companionlink.
I have read every post and reply on this subject and take my hat off to you for your knowledge and professionalism! Your MVP is well deserved.
Thanks much.
Diane Poremsky says
The reg value doesn't need to be removed. I think for work accounts, using Companion Link or other product is better - the other option is to use hosted Exchange. Exchange is a good solution if you own your own domain, although its not free.
Nick Balster says
Thanks Diane. i went online to read about it and it appears it uses a cloud. i am looking for something that would direct connect through an IP address via a wireless phone line or something like that so that my calendar info just goes between my computer and my phone - any ideas for me?
Diane Poremsky says
Offhand, no. Does you phone manufacturer offer anything? One company does, but I forget offhand if its HTC or someone else. Even if it is Samsung, it needs to support your phone. :(
andrew says
I have followed the instructions, however when I copy the calendar, whilst it shows on my machine, it does not appear in windows live. if I go and add a calendar item it appears in both. not sure why my copied calendar is not transferring. I am running windows 7 with outlook 2013
Diane Poremsky says
Do appointments show up if you make a change, like add a category? Also, give it some time - the sync process can be slow. But sometimes the appointments won't sync and adding a category will kick start them.
andrew says
Diane,
thanks for the reply. yes if I add a category it shows. I need to look to see if there is a quick way to do this as it has only worked on the one item I changed. is there a quick way to do this or export onto another machine and try loading it again?
Diane Poremsky says
Use a list view, select all and categorize.
andrew says
thanks some of them worked some of them didn't as usual I think it is the user I will keep trying.
Diane Poremsky says
That's it, blame the user. :) Outlook can be slow to sync everything, so allow at least 24 hours before you stop blaming Outlook.
Nick Balster says
thanks Diane! Oh, i thought i could set up an exchange account or something (i was following one of your utubes on it). But it looks like i will need an app. Will the companion link app connect directly to my computer and allow me to change or put in appointments in outlook 2013 or does it have to go through something like gmail?
Diane Poremsky says
Companion link is a direct sync - they have a trial version (I think) so you can see if it's going to meet your needs and work as desired with your phone.
Nick Balster says
Thanks Diane! i spoke to my IT guys at the university today and it was basically a waste of time. They told me to download another app and on and on....didn't help at all.
So i need to start at the beginning - please forgive me for asking basic question but i would like to be able to download and update my outlook calender from my galaxy 3 phone. My current account at the university is setup as an imap and my data files including my calendar are stored locally on my computer via the directions you sent me last week. It worked great by the way - thank you.
So my question is simple - do you think i can do this without having to go through gmail or an app?
Diane Poremsky says
Without an app or another account? No. You'll need to use a utility (companion link works well) or Outlook.com as the sync account. I'd recommend companion link - its not free but well worth the cost IMHO - but if you want free, then use Outlook.com for calendar and contacts.
Nick says
I tried it again, but it gives me the error "log onto exchange activesync mail server (EAS): The username or password you entered isn't working. Please try typing them again."
Could this be because i don't have a hotmail account? I work for a university so my email is wisc.edu. I guess i just don't understand how this will allow the phone to pull off my calendar information.
please help
thank you!
nick
Diane Poremsky says
The university doesn't use Exchange or Microsoft- or Google- hosted accounts? That would make this somewhat easier...
You need an outlook.com account - if you have a LiveId/Microsoft account for the university address (or any address), you can use that account with Outlook.com. Otherwise, you need to create one.
andrew says
thanks for this I have been able to work my way through this. my only stumbling block is i am convinced I have set up my outlook.com account and copied my calendar which shows on my machine but is not uploaded to outlook.com and hence is not showing on other devices.
Nick Balster says
Dear Diane, Thank you for all your help with outlook 2013.
i am trying to sync my calender on my galaxy 3 smartphone with my outlook 2013 calendar WITHOUT going through google calendar. i followed your directions but have run into two stumbling blocks.
First, how did you know to use m.hotmail.com? Do i use that one for the server name?
Second, do i need to download another calendar onto my galaxy 3 or can i use the one that came with the phone?
Thank you, you are very kind of help for free!
Nick
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, use m.hotmail.com for the server name with Outlook.com accounts. Outlook (and possibly the phone) may change it to m-blu.hotmail.com or something similar, but you'll enter m.hotmail.com.
The calendar app that came with the phone should work.
Isabel Liu says
Yet another thought. Since new entries from either forum show up in the other forum, what if I Import my .pst calendar file as away of getting the previous events into Outlook.com? This seems an odd work-around for something that should be way more smooth and automatic considering these are both Microsoft products and both, confusingly, have the same name. But at this point I’m not too proud.
Isabel Liu says
Thanks for your continuing and prompt attention. A couple of queries on why this might not be working yet, whereas pickup of Contacts to People only worked once I eliminated the Contacts content of my real email account: It seemed to me there needed to be a one-to-one correspondence between Contacts under EAS and People. And that I am only allowed to have one folder named Contacts and one folder named Calendar. I had tried to change the names of such Outlook2013 folders under my real email account and I was not allowed. I am confused on opting in and out of various calendars on Outlook.com. On the People function and conventionally, under Filter settings, you tick (or checkmark) the items you want, in my case Outlook and Skype but not Messenger. On the Calendars function, the help commentary sounds like you tick the calendars you want to filter OUT. The fact that this is called "filter" rather than "view" or "include", and that you see SOMETHING when you first flip to the Calendar function in Outlook.com also is confusing. I experimented back and forth, and have ended up ticking to filter IN all 3 calendars, UK Holidays, Birthday and Isabel Calendar. The first two then showed up among my Outlook2013 EAS folders. (Birthday had always shown up from the outset, even though I never created or opted for it.) Unlike People, there is no Outlook option for the calendars under Outlook.com. When I first attempted this transfer process, since Isabel Calendar was blank, I changed its name on Outlook.com to "Isabel unused Calendar". Then after I got People working, I thought the original Isabel Calendar is the only allowed counterpart to the EAS Calendar folder, so I changed the name back to Isabel Calendar. When it was still blank, I changed the name on Outlook.com to Calendar. And, it remains the case that the one entry in Birthday Calendar (I don't know how it was created, wasn't me mate, I never used Outlook.com before embarking on this attempt) does appear in Outlook2013 EAS, but not on Outlook.com. To add to the confusion, right after I first got this WIN8 laptop and Office 2013 in March, I used it while I went travelling in China and the Birthday Calendar is and its one entry are labelled in Chinese. Yesterday when I tried to change the name on Outlook.com to English "Birthday Calendar", this change was not reflected on Outlook2013 EAS, so I gave up and changed it back to Chinese. Oh and one more thing, when I first got this WIN8 laptop, I started using Skydrive and noticing that Outlook2013 and OneNote were running to Skydrive instead of my hard disk. I didn't change this, but for all my other documents, I work off my harddrive and manually make a backup copy to Skydrive from time to time. While this is labourious, I am nervous about relying on Skydrive as the definitive version of a file as I am often without internet access. Could the above Outlook.com issues be related to interaction with Skydrive?
Isabel Liu says
Dear Diane, Thank you for your prompt response. I re-categorised several appointments in my Outlook2013 EAS calendar, since the categories and colour assignments had been lost in the copying over. So far, nothing in my Outlook.com calendars except as before, only the UK holidays (which I don't mind) and my two test events.
Diane Poremsky says
Hmm. Adding a category usually works to force the sync. It can take some time before they sync up, but there has been plenty of time since your first post, so patience is unlikely to help. :) I'll have to check my notes... oh, any make sure you have the latest updates. There have been some fixes for EAS problems, although I'm not sure this was one of the things that got fixed.
Isabel Liu says
Dear Diane, I do have the latest updates. I sent you to more questions on my original request, more guesses from me on why it might not be working, but I have not heard a response from you. Prior Calendar entries are still NOT appearing on Outlook.com. Anyway, I have purchased and used CompanionLink today and it worked fine to achieve my original and end purpose, to have my full Calendar and Contacts available on my Blackberry Curve 9320. I would have thought that integrated use of MS Outlook, Blackberry and Vodafone Calendar, Contacts and email functions (without a corporate Blackberry Enterprise Server) would be one of the most common uses for these top-name products, and am shocked that it is not automatic, easy or even feasible from these providers. It does make me, a long-time user, wonder about their raison d'etre and whether I was mistaken to re-up my commitment to these products. But thank you for being the lone soul trying to provide concrete assistance to us users for these important functions.
Diane Poremsky says
Sorry, I was on vacation and am trying to get caught up. I missed (or overlooked) the blackberry part - the desktop app didn't work? I know it won't work with outlook connector accounts and I have not tried it with EAS accounts. I made the mistake of trading my BB for a windows Phone. It's a nice smart device but not so hot as a phone. :(
Isabel Liu says
Dear Diane, I have followed your instructions in an attempt to get my Calendar and Contacts from Outlook 2013 on my laptop, which encompass my entire professional and personal life, to Outlook.com and eventually to my new Blackberry Curve 9320. In the Outlook2013 folder list, I now have the second EAS account which I have renamed "EAS Outlookdotcom" alongside my "real" email account (which is a POP3). Within the EAS folder list I have Calendar and Contacts, into which I have copied Calendar entries and Contacts from the corresponding folders within my "real" email account. Also appearing under the EAS Outlookdotcom folders are two calendars that were automatically created in my Outlook.com website, "Birthday Calendar" and “UK Holidays. “Myname Calendar” was also inherently part of Outlook.com, but it is empty and does not reflect anything in my Calendar within my EAS folder in Outlook2013. I noticed you moved, rather than copied, all the Calendar and Contacts entries, so only the EAS folders have content and the original folders are empty. So I then backed up and deleted all my Calendar and Contacts under the “real” email account. All my thousands of contacts now appear under people in Outlook.com. But no calendar entries appear from my Calendar, nor the one entry which was in my Birthday Calendar under Outlook2013 EAS account. As a test I created new events on Outlook.com and on Outlook2013 EAS and each appeared on the other Calendar. How can I get the other events to appear?
Diane Poremsky says
I moved the appointments and contacts to avoid confusion from duplicates... If you don't want the birthday and holiday calendars, you can delete them online. Outlook will create birthday events for new contacts in the main calendar.
Add a category to a few of the appointments - do they sync up now?
Pramod says
Hi Daine,
I request your vetting and advise -
1. I have one outlook account outlook1@abc.com (POP account) since which will not sync contact/calendars on mobile devices, I have created -
2. outlook1@outlook.com and configured as mentioned in the video.
Should I copy all the old mails also from the POP account to outlook.com account ?
On BB10 and Iphone should I need to configure both the account for using mail, contacts and calendars ?
One application called companianlink is not a better solution for achieving this ?
thanks in advance.
Diane Poremsky says
Companionlink is a better solution IMHO, but many users want free and companonlink is not free, or cheap. For those looking for a free solution, outlook.com works well.
I would not copy the email to the outlook.com account. Actually, you can't... but i also would not configure outlook.com to pull in mail from the pop account. The phones can check the pop account directly.
Pramod says
Thanks. But POP account will not pull the contacts and calendars into phones.. for that... what to do ?
Diane Poremsky says
Companionlink will put the calendar and contacts on the phone, or on gmail... and i think it will sync with outlook.com. While it seems silly to use it to sync with outlook.com, it eliminates the need to have 2 sets of folders in outlook.
Otherwise, you need to use outlook.com to sync the calendar and contacts.
Nick Tidmarsh says
An excellent and very helpful article. Thanks very much Diane.
Dave says
Hi Diane,
do you know if outlook.com is going to support exchange activesync version 14?
Diane Poremsky says
No I don't know if it will support EAS14 or, if it will support all of the EAS14 features.
f.dp says
I'm having the problem Dan got (23 June), i.e. pst versus ost. Has there been any progress in this area? Thank you very much
Jim Fischer says
I doubt that the MS people were working over the weekend, but for unknown reasons, it all started working as expected in the last couple of days.
The only thing now missing seems to be the autocomplete for email addresses. It seems that it will see an address once I have sent them a message, but not do it 'automatically'. I have to type the entire address, or select it through the Contact List. Possibly an MRU type function?
Haven't used a clean install of Outlook for over 10 years, previously using Outlook 2003 so I can't remember what it was like as a vanilla product.
On to configure the laptop, then BCM. Thanks for the help!
Jim Fischer says
I doubt the MS people were working over the weekend, and made any updates, or released/installed any patches. However, for some reason it all started working. I don't know if it was something I did or not. I can't pinpoint at what point it started working.
The only thing I do not have now, is autocomplete in the address field when sending an email. It seems that if it sees an address I have already sent since installation, it will autocomplete. If not I have to type in the entire address or select it through the Contact list. Is this through an MRU type list possibly? If so I will just have to wait for it to rebuild.
Jim Fischer says
Yes, the contacts folder is checked to use as address book.
However if you are sick and want to feel immediately better, make a doctors appointment. Somehow it all started working as expected during the weekend.
Diane Poremsky says
LOL. Glad to hear it fixed itself.
Jim Fischer says
What I am trying to achieve, is using a personal imap email, which I have had for about 10 years. I want to use my desktop and laptop Outlook, and have Calendar and Contacts shared on both, or when travelling, be able to use Outlook.com with the same information available. The part I am not getting, is the sync. It seems that if I am online, I can see the information through Outlook.com. However, while travelling or offline for any reason, I lose the benefit of Calendar and Contact. I still have the offline email, synced through my imap account, but that is all.
Am I missing a button for save for offline somewhere? Any help greatly appreciated.
PS, I have left both open for as long as 3 days, Outlook 2013 shows connected, and when I hit F9, it says it is synchronizing, then ALL FOLDERS ARE UP TO DATE.
Diane Poremsky says
Something is definitely wrong - you should have the items previously synced when you are offline. If items are not syncing up to the server, try adding a category. Sometimes when you move appt or contacts into the outlook.com folders, Outlook makes you change the item before it will sync it to the server. If that doesn't solve the problem, verify that the calendar and contacts are online (export to a pst for backup if they are not online) then delete the account and create it.
Jim Fischer says
I believe that I am missing a 'Magic Button' somewhere. I am using Win 7 64 bit, Outlook 2013, Outlook.com with EAS. I find that there is no actual synching going on. When I copy my contacts into the Outlook.com, I can see them through Outlook. However I lose the benefits of using my contacts as my address book. The Contacts (This computer only) list remains empty. So, if I am offline, I lose all of my benefits of Contacts.
The Calendar is the same. I have all of the entries in my Outlook 2013. If I move them into Outlook.com, I can see them, but the Category information is not visible. They too do not sync, I can view and edit them through Outlook 2013. Again, if I work offline, I lose all benefit of a calendar.
Diane Poremsky says
Is the contacts folder marked to use as an address book? To check, right click on the contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook address Book tab.
You should not have calendar or contacts with 'this computer only' designation with an Outlook.com account. You will have it with IMAP accounts though... The calendar should be available offline - it won't be updated, but previously synced items should be available in Outlook.
There is a "known issue" with things not always syncing between outlook and the outlook.com server and Microsoft is working on it.
John Tabor says
Correct, the meeting is in the correct calendar to be synced.
Diane Poremsky says
Unfortunately, you'll need to wait for Microsoft to fix it - there are several sync bugs they are working on. Some things are scheduled to be fixed in the next couple of weeks, but I'm not sure about this problem.
Fabien Lauroua says
Hello,
I can confirm the behavior describe by John. I'm facing exactly the same issue. But anyway thanks for this "step by step", really useful. Just need to wait for he fix.
John Tabor says
No. I've tried various combinations of changing/setting category, start/end time, "show time as", title, location, and reminder. Nothing seems to trigger a sync. The only workaround I've found so far is to manually create a "shadow" entry in my calendar and hope the organizer doesn't change the original.
Diane Poremsky says
The original meeting is added to the outlook.com calendar folder when it's accepted, correct? So it's in the correct folder for syncing on the computer it was accepted on. Or did i misread it?
John Tabor says
Yes, you understand correctly.
John Tabor says
I followed the instructions and can now sync my calendar via Outlook/outlook.com between my Win8 Calendar on multiple devices.
...except meeting invitations sent from others.
Calendar events I create in my default calendar get added and synced (usually within seconds). However, invitations sent from others never get synced despite appearing in the correct calendar file in Outlook. This behavior persists regardless what I do within Outlook to save the meeting.
Config info:
Email account = gmail
Microsoft Account set up with gmail account info
Outlook 2013
. OST for gmail
. Separate OST for Microsoft Account to sync calendar [set as default data file] per your guidance above
Repro steps:
1. Using non-local account (work, web account not linked to Outlook, etc.), create calendar event and add [me@gmail.com] as invitee
2. Observe meeting invitation arrive in Outlook in expected Inbox (me@gmail.com)
3. Observe meeting appear in default calendar (the one set to sync with Outlook.com)
4. Launch Win8 Calendar app
5. Observe meeting does not appear
6. In Outlook, accept meeting
7. Return to Win8 Calendar - still no meeting
8. Go to other device (in my case, a Microsoft Surface Pro also running Outlook 2013)
9. Launch Win8 Calendar
10. Observe no meeting
11. Launch Outlook 2013
12. Observe no meeting
13. Go to Inbox
14. Observe meeting invitation received
Now, since I'm on the Surface, create a new meeting and save it. Within seconds that meeting will appear on my desktop (both Outlook and Win8 Calendar) as well as the Surface.
Any ideas?
Diane Poremsky says
Does it sync if you add a category? There is a bug in the sync process where copied events don't sync. If you make a change after its added to the calendar, it will sync. I'm pretty sure that bug is behind your problems.
Dan Williams says
Diane, I am trying to make the change within the SETTINGS dialog just like you have pictured. That's where I'm getting the error message.
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using a pst created in an earlier version of Outlook? That can result in a similar error. I don't know if it would cause this error.
Do you have more than your internet account and outlook.com in your profile?
When another user other received the error message with Outlook 2010/Outlook Connector, he deleted the accounts and recreated them. We never figured out what caused the error message though.
Dan Williams says
Diane, here's the exact error message:
"The selected Outlook data file (.pst) format cannot be used. Outlook data files (.pst) must use the same format as offline Outlook data files (.ost). Select a matching Outlook data file (.pst) or turn off cache mode in the Account Settings.The selected Outlook data file (.pst) format cannot be used. Outlook data files (.pst) must use the same format as offline Outlook data files (.ost). Select a matching Outlook data file (.pst) or turn off cache mode in the Account Settings."
As this was setup with EAS, There's no "cache mode" to turn off.
The default email is a POP account.
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using the Change Folder button on the email tab? (don't) You want to set the data file as default only - just as i do in the video. (I just created a new profile to verify it works. )
Dan Williams says
POP
Dan Williams says
Yes, I get an error message. I don't have the exact message, but it was saying basically that the default data file needs to be a PST to match the default email file. Something like that.
Diane Poremsky says
I haven't seen that error message previously. What type of email account is the default email account?
Dan Williams says
Diane, I cannot set the Outlook.com's data file as default because its an OST versus a PST. I setup the account using EAS in Outlook 2013. Any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
do you get any error messages when you try? It should work just fine; if it doesn't it's not because its an ost file.
Chris says
How do I get my Outlook 2013 calender to automatically sync to Outlook.com without having to drag the events each time I create a new event? I want to be able to create an event on my calendar and it automatically pop up on the outlook.com calendar. Right now its only a one-way sync (outlook.com to outlook 2013).
Diane Poremsky says
You either need to set the outlook.com data file (not account) as the default and/or use a macro to copy the appointments to the outlook.com calendar.
Christine Nimitz says
I'm just checking, but it still looks like you cannot sync your Outlook calendar thru Outlook & that you must use that Hotmail calendar. If so, I am absolutely baffled as to why that is. I have an outlook.com account, but haven't used it for anything yet. I don't have a HotMail calendar that I know of. I have Office 2010 & I would like to be able to sync my Outlook calendar w/ my Android phone, but absolutely not use Outlook for my email (which is on Yahoo!) And then there are the vast number of steps that you go thru in the article-- seriously, doe MS not think that the difficultly/complexity involved in a commonly -expected task should be addressed?
Diane Poremsky says
Correct, there is no outlook-to-outlook sync. You need to sync using a 3rd party utility if your email account doesn't support calendar and contacts (Outlook.com and Exchange mailboxes support calendar & contacts, POP3 and IMAP do not.)
It's not as hard to set up as it sounds and works pretty good but if your droid includes sync software (some do), that would be better. Or use a sync utility such as companion link - its not free but it works very well and doesn't need the outlook.com account added to outlook. See sync android with outlook for utilities.
FemBB says
Hi Diane,
First of all: THANKS! Works fine!
Hope to hear from you on registering the reaction in the appointment.
Thanks again!
FemBB says
Hi Diane,
I'm working with Office 365 local and a Samsung. All seems to be working but two questions.
1: where in the registry do I have to add the NewItemsUseDefaultSendingAccount setting when using Office 365?
2: when inviting someone for a new appointment the answer from the invitee ends up in the wrong mailbox (same email adress after all) and therefore isn't registered in the appointment.
Thanks in advance!!!
Diane Poremsky says
You'll use the outlook 2013 keys (since it is Outlook 2013 in Office 365) - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
I'll have to check on it - but you'll probably need to record the response yourself.
Jennifer says
I am having trouble changing the registry. when I head to the file path you suggest, I get to options but there is not mail subfolder. I'm here: computer\HKey_Current_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Options. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Diane Poremsky says
That means that you never changed any options that are stored in the key. If a key does not exist, create it.
Gregory says
trying to set up the mail server with EAS in windows 8/ Outlook 2013, using m.hotmail.com, using your exact instructions above but it cant log into my usual email account (verizon.com) using the EXACT same user name (have tried both gpokmd@verizon.net and gpokmd) and the CORRECT password for this account i use every day. just used this password and its works fine !
frustarteing. help :)
Diane Poremsky says
Are you trying to log into the verizon account using EAS? It only works with Hotmail/Outlook.com servers. If your account was issued by Verizon on the Hotmail network, it should work.
Do you get any error messages when you try to log in?
andy says
PART 2.I've gone into my Outlook.com account and checked the emails set up there. There were 3 accounts reading as follows: 1) username (on behalf of username@tiscali.co.uk) - Send Only ; 2) uername (on behalf of username@tiscali.co.uk) - Send and Receive; 3) username@outlook.com - Send and Receive. I don't use the username@outlook.com address for anything,Microsoft seem to have given that to me as an "Alias". I've now deleted number 2, the username@tiscali.co.uk Send&Receive as I'm guseesing that was "pulling in" the duplicate emails. I'm hoping this is OK but I'll have to send/test a few emails first. My concern is though that if I want to use a PC away from my desktop can I now not receive emails on Outlook.com until I run a Send/Receive from my desktop Outlook at home? If this is the case it negates the purpose of being able to pick up emails away from my home desktop PC.
Thanks for your help on this.
Diane Poremsky says
You'll need to either have outlook.com collect the mail or outlook - if you have outlook.com collect, you'll need an account in outlook but can set it up so it is send-only. See Create a send-only pop account
andy says
Hi Diane. Sending this in 2 parts as the Reply box won't let me leave a long message. PART 1
With regards to your first question "Is Outlook.com account in my new profile? - I've checked and I have one Profile called Outlook. Ive went into Mail/General and only the Outlook profile is there with the button checked as "Always use This Profile". Within the Properties/ Account Settings for this I have username@tiscali.co.uk ticked as the primary account POP/SMTP. The other account in there is the username@tiscali.co.uk Outlook.com account MAPI. At the bottom it confirms that the ticked account delivers messages to the following location: username@tiscali.co.uk (Outlook.com) Sync account. In the Data Files Tab the Outlook.Com sync account is ticked. The Location is described as Not Available.
Diane Poremsky says
It will let you add long comments, but you need to tab to find the submit button. That's fine though.
Ok, so you have the outlook.com account set as the delivery location for the POP3 email account and had it pulling in the account online ( "2) username (on behalf of username@tiscali.co.uk) - Send and Receive;" - from the other comment) You can set it to send.
Bill King says
The interesting thing is, I have installed the sync software on 2 machines both pointing to the same Outlook.com account but I am only having an issue with one of the machines. The other is uploading/downloading properly.
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using the Outlook Connector or Outlook 2013? I would remove the data file used by the account and let Outlook rebuild it. In Windows 7 or 8, paste %localappdata%\Microsoft\outlook into the address bar of windows explorer and press enter. The data file should be your@emailaddress.com.ost or something similar.
andy says
Hi Diane. Windows mobile 6.5 uses WMDC but it now seems to be working although when it syncs it seems to be trying to continually find something and can't reach the end of the sync process. I set up a new profile in order to do this using help found here: https://www.pocketpcfaq.com/raj/WM5Profile.html. However my troubles seem to have multiplied..literally! I am now receiving duplicate email messages on both my Outlook and Outlook.Com accounts and worse my contacts have completely dissappeared from my desktop Outlook. They all appear on Outlook.Com but I need them back ..urgently. Has this got something to do with setting up a new profile in order to accommodate my windows 6.5 phone? Really Microsoft need to get their act together - they produce all this stuff and then leave customers to fend for themselves with great help from people like yourself.
Diane Poremsky says
Is the outlook.com account in your new profile?
Are you forwarding mail to outlook.com? If you don't use an outlook.com/Hotmail address for email, don't configure outlook.com to pull in email from another account and don't forward it to outlook.com.
Bill King says
Hi Diane
What you do here is amazing and really appreciated.
I have found the same issue as Karl. I created the new Outlook.com account but the data file shows "not available". I see you say this is the proper behaviour, but when a Send/Receive is happening the process gets hung up on "receiving from Outlook.com". When the account was first set up and a sync performed it worked as it should.
Any thoughts on why this would happen?
Thank you
Bill
Diane Poremsky says
Outlook.com is buggy at times. it could be a message online that outlook doesn't like or a problem with the service. Has anything downloaded?
andy says
Hi Diane (again).
Sorry but I think I've realised what I needed to drag and drop to (not the folder icon but the icons for calendar and contacts). I now seem to be syncing with email,calendar and contacts between my desktop and outlook.com - hoorah!). As with all things though another problem has manifested itself on the back of my actions. My Windows 6.5 phone worked wonderfully by syncing directly to my desktop Outlook via the USB and Windows Mobile Device Center / ActiveSync. Regretably it now says it cannot syncronize with the current Outlook profile on the desktop. Do you have any idea how do I make Windows Device center/ActiveSync recognize the new Outlook
profile?
Diane Poremsky says
Can it sync over the air with Exchange accounts or does it only support using WMDC? I'm assuming it's not working because the outlook.com folder is set as default and it can only sync with a pst.
andy says
Hi Diane
As I'm not a technophobe on these issues I seem to have got so far but stumbling on the final hurdle.
Re:"After you set up the account in Outlook, move your appointments and contacts to the Outlook.com data file folders. Hint: it's easier if you use a List view. Select all, drag and drop."
Sorry, in Outlook 2010 I just don't see this view that allows you to drag and drop.I have my Outlook.co, account as primary at the top and my ISP (user@tiscali.co.uk) below. Unlike the video you showed online (which I realise is Outlook 2013) my user@tiscali.co.uk account has no Calendar sub folder, I have to click on the Calendar button at the bottom to reveal the calendar. After this the view changes and I cannot drag. I've tried to Move To Other folder and highlighted the Calendar folder which appears under Outlook.Com account but it says I don't have the permissions to do this.
Any help appreciated. Thanks.
Heinz says
I used this method with Outlook 2010 - great instructions first of all - however, I have to learn that Tasks are not supported with the connector...a shame:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-outlook/sync-tasks-between-outlook-and-hotmail/467ab654-3d97-4550-ab9e-cb176ccec9fa
Diane Poremsky says
Correct, they are not supported in the connector. They are supported in Outlook 2013 Active Sync.
Greg says
Diane, That would actually be immensely beneficial, if you could get those steps at some point.
Diane Poremsky says
Don't know if you saw the comments I added to the other reply, but you need to go to Settings > Mail, contacts, Calendar and select the outlook.com account. You can turn the modules on and off there. Screenshot
Greg says
Diane, Was wondering if there was a way to sync Outlook 2010 Calendar only, and not Email on an iPhone?
Diane Poremsky says
You can't control it in outlook but can set the phone to only sync the calendar. It's in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > select account. Screenshot is here: https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/config/configuring-smartphones-to-use-eas/
Karl says
Diane,
I was able to transfer the calendar files from outlook.pst to outlook.com and sync them with my android phone. However, when I tried to do the same with contacts, every single contact (and there are hundreds) had the company name associated with the contact changed to "Sussman Selig Ross". Any idea what happened and how I can reverse this mess? Is there a contact backup file anywhere that I can use to restore all my contacts?
Diane Poremsky says
Whoa. I don't recall hearing the happen before. I assume you have one contacts with that company name?
Did you move or copy the contacts to outlook.com? Do you have a backup of your pst? A copy of the contacts with the correct information is the only want to fix it, unfortunately.
Karl says
Hi Diane,
I followed your instructions using Outlook connector with Outlook 2010. Under the Data Files tab I see my original Outlook data file at location C:Users......outlook.pst. However the newly created outlook.com file location states "Not Available" - is this correct or did something go wrong??
Diane Poremsky says
That is the correct behavior for the outlook.com data file. It'll work though.
Ahmed says
Hi, I just recently bought a new laptop that has Office 2013 and Windows 8 installed on it. For some reason, when I installed my work email on Outlook 2013 it didn't sync with my inbox and sent items. The email operates by IMAP.
I was told that this is a bug in the new Office 2013, I find that hard to believe and in really enjoying using Office 2013 and Windows 8 and don't wanna go back to the older versions. Id appreciate it if you could tell me if there's anyway to get this right.
Diane Poremsky says
It's not a bug but its not working right either. Are there any sync errors - the Sync errors folder is in the Folder list (Ctrl+6)
All of the imap folders should be subscribed in Outlook - they will be in a different data file from your other accounts as that is how imap works.
marie says
Hi Diane: this was very helpful, but I can't seem to move my contact distribution lists from my personal folders to the new outlook.com account I created. the calendar moved fine and all of the personal contacts, but I have several contact distribution lists and it comes up and says that it does not support this action when I try to move them into the new contacts? thanks
Diane Poremsky says
Outlook.com does not support Outlook's DL - outlook.com uses categories instead, but you need to set the category in outlook.com online for best results.
mucrick says
Great article!
Outlook 2007 is currently set-up with a yahoo.com email as default. All emails and appointments are scheduled through this account. If I copy all appointments to the new data file in order to sync with Outlook.com, what happens to the "organizer" status for all appointments I created and regularly send updates to others? Will it still be the yahoo.com address? When making new appointments in the new data file, how will the @yahoo.com email address be kept as the owner?
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using POP3 or IMAP with your yahoo account? If the yahoo account is the default account but the outlook.com data file is set as default, everything should work as it does now as Outlook 2007. Outlook 2010 and 2013 would add complexity as they don't have a true default email account.
dan says
Hi,
i followed your method, but it only syncs from outlook to samsung android, it does not sync from android to outlook.
thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
If you are going through Outlook.com and it's set up correctly on the phone, it will sync in both directions. Unfortunately, I don't know an Android device to check, but knowing how it works on iPad and Windows Phone, you need to make sure you are creating the appointments on the correct calendar on the phone.
Perry says
The registry fix is great. One question: Is there a way to enable DefaultSend to apply to Replies as well? It's solved my issue of occasionally emailing from the wrong account; however it still defaults to the 'wrong' account when I reply to a message that landed in that inbox.
Not a showstopper, but I just wondered...
Diane Poremsky says
Replies should always use the account that downloaded original. If you are want to always send using a different account, you can change smtp settings (non-outlook.com accounts) or use VBA.
Graeme Woodhead says
Hi Diane,
Thank you for your response. My User ID at Microsoft is User@Yahoo.com. It seems that Outlook opens up and thinks the extension is incorrect so does nothing. When I then go to Offline to Online again the system actually goes out and finds my account and connects. I am OK with this as it seems to work OK. The only issue I have with my Samsung Galaxy S2 which doesn't have an outlook link to 'tasks' or a reminders which can be used for tasks as in the IPAD. I can't get my tasks on my Galaxy S2.
Diane Poremsky says
Yeah, at least some of the droid models don't include tasks.
Graeme Woodhead says
Hi Diane,
Thank you for your comments. I did use Click to Play to install my MS Office 2013. It was the technician who said Outlook 2007 should be removed. I suspect the only issue was it was offline, even though it said it was online.
I don't know why Outlook opens up offline (even though it doesn't say so). I am only using Outlook to download my Yahoo emails to have them on my disc. I use Yahoo to send and receive email. The main reason for this is that I use Cox Communications as my ISP and there seems to be a conflict with their server. I have 3 accounts setup for mail. use@Cox.net, user@Yahoo.co.uk both POP/SMTP, and User@Yahoo.com using Exchange ActiveSync. The Data files are Archive Directory - Archive.pst, Personal Folders - Outlook.pst, and user@yahoo.com - user@Yahoo.com.ost.
I am happy with 2013 link to 365 line to IPAD but my Samsung Galaxy s2 doesn't seem to have an option for tasks, existing contacts will not sync to 365 and changing apt will not
Diane Poremsky says
Is this correct: "and User@Yahoo.com using Exchange ActiveSync" ? Yahoo only uses POp3 (paid accounts) and IMAP. If that is the offline account, its because the account is not configured correctly.
iusevivotabsonlyontheshootingrangeasatarget says
it still support activesync but outlook2013 DOES NOT SUPPORT ACTIVESYNC
its a lie, MS block any activesyncserver except outlook.com this is just another lie to sell their crap and shit on us but sellit it as rain
Diane Poremsky says
I'm not sure I understand. Outlook 2013 supports activesync, but it needs to be the version found in Exchange 2007 SP2 or higher. Outlook will not connect to Exchange servers using EAS due to EAS putting more strain on the exchange servers and EAS results in a poor experience compared to using an Exchange mailbox as Exchange.
jerry wolfer says
That is where my problem seems to be. The data file is set to outlook.com but it still says location "Not Available". Should it show a outlook.pst file location? again, thanks for great support.
Diane Poremsky says
Does it work? 'not available' is normal for outlook.com data files.
jerry wolfer says
I'm using outlook 2010 on desktop.
So, every time I add a calendar event tothe desktop outlook (user@cox.net) I will also need to copy that calendar event to user@outlook.com ?
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, unless you set the outlook.com data file (data file only, not email account) as default - then only meetings will need ot be copied ot outlook.com calendar folder.
jerry wolfer says
Great help! data files set via control panel worked. I know have two accounts in outlook 1) default user@cox.net and 2) user@outlook.com
I'm still not understanding how Calendar(contacts) work. When I accept a calendar event via my email it goes into the calendar tied to user@cox.net (my default outlook email). How does that calendar event get over to user@outlook.com. Do I copy from user@cox.net outlook calendar to user@outlook.com calendar each time ?
The calendar events copied over from user@cox.net to user@outlook.com synced to my Samsung S3 phone just fine.
Diane Poremsky says
You need to copy it over to outlook.com. Which data file is set as default on the account settings > data files tab?
Which version of outlook do you use?
jerry wolfer says
Diane, What am I doing wrong? Win8 pro, Outlook 2010 POP Cox email
Objective is to sync Samsung S 3 with contacts and calendar
Objective Email synced with user@cox.net
Main account in OUTLOOK 2010 is user@cox.net
Outlook.com account is user@outlook.com different password than user@cox.net
I am able to add account user@outlook.com to OUTLOOK 2010 ok
When I switch to the data files tab user@outlook.com says “Not Available” behind it instead of a location on the Win8 pro computer ?
If I try and set date files to default at user@outlook.com a window just chews on it and never closes. To quit then I have to cancel most likely because of “not available”.
Also, since I’m new at this:Once this works will new contacts and calendar events added in OUTLOOK (name@outlook.com) be synced automatically with user@outlook.com and the Cell Sam S3 ?
Diane Poremsky says
The Not available i the Data Files tab is normal for Outlook.com accounts.
Have you use the outlook.com account in outlook - so the mail is downloaded?
If you still have problems setting it as default, try making the change in Control panel, search for Mail and edit the profile.
Graeme Woodhead says
Hi Diane - It now works.
I opening Outlook 2013 in safe mode but it still showed as disconnected. I did manage to get an escalation with Microsoft and the technician got it working. I had outlook 2007 as well as 2013 so 2007 was uninstalled as you can only 1 outlook on the system as per the technician. THEN the Icon for working offline was clicked twice and Outlook connected. I Find that Outlook when first opened shows disconnected. I have to go to the Menu - Send/Receive - Work Offline. It shows as connected. I click it. It says I am working Offline, then I click again and THEN it connects. Entering Tasks/Calendar items in 365 automatically populate 2013. Entering Tasks/Calendar items in 2013 appears in 365 when it is refreshed.
Thanks for your help.
Diane Poremsky says
Which office suite do you have? The Click 2 run versions (almost everyone has C2R) support 2 outlook's installed. Only one can be used at a time, but the old limitations of only one outlook at a time is no longer accurate.
Outlook should not start in offline mode if it was online when you closed it so it sounds like the problem is not entirely resolved.
Lori says
I'm trying to find a solution again.
I think the issue is that I cannot get the exchange active sync set up. I'm trying to use a gmail.com address and password. I have tried the directions above, using m.hotmail.com and I get an error message saying the server cannot be found OR else my user name and/ or password is incorrect. I can log in on gmail and also at windows live with that account.
Diane Poremsky says
Are you trying to sync directly with gmail or is your Microsoft Account (aka LiveID or passport) a gmail address?
Gmail does not support ActiveSync. You'd need to import your contacts and calendar into Outlook.com to use this method.
Graeme Woodhead says
Thank you for your response.
I downloaded and used the registry file '59 Minute PushDuration'. Unfortunately it still shows as 'Disconnected.
I am using my Yahoo account which is the Yahoo Plus Premium (I pay $30 a year) and that is also the name of my Microsoft account (the one shown for this post). My ISP is Cox Communications and the firewall is Norton 360. I also work as a non-administrator user in the Windows 7 system I am using. Would any of these things effect it?
I have 'Tried' to get Microsoft to run a diagnostic to find out exactly where the connection is breaking but they looked at it for 2 hours (while I was on the phone) and couldn't sort it and then scheduled a callback time which they didn't keep.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Diane Poremsky says
The only thing that might affect it is Norton 360. Have you tested starting outlook in Safe mode?
To open Outlook in Safe mode: Close Outlook then hold Ctrl as you click on the Outlook icon. You'll get a message asking if you want to start in Safe mode. Click Ok.
Graeme Woodhead says
Thank you for your article. It has given me hope that I will be able to use 365 as my one and only central repository for contacts, calendar appointments and tasks.
I configured Outlook 2013 and Outlook 365 (Outlook.com) as suggested and it connected/updated when I did it. After that is has the status 'Disconnected' I have been over the configuration several times and everything seems to be in order. I didn't rename the email address but that shouldn't have any effect.
I redid the configuration setting it up again. The server automatically changes to blu-m.hotmail.com despite me selecting manual setup but it connects OK.
Do you have any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
the server change is normal. Your firewall or a proxy server could be affecting it. See outlook is disconnected for the fix. You'll need to restart outlook.
Ermanno says
The issue is fixed for me now.
Lori says
I have added categories with no success syncing. I have edited appointments and had no success.
Diane Poremsky says
Darn :( It works for some people - we'll have to wait for Microsoft to fix this bug. Sorry.
Lori says
Yes, Office 365 Home Premium. When I set up the outllook.com account it takes my calendar info just fine, but it never updates. I can enter info on my phone or tablet and it never makes it to Outlook 2013, but it is on outlook.com. There are no error messages in the sync folder.
Contacts and mail all sync perfectly.
I have not left it on overnight, but can try that. My sister has the exact same issue.
Diane Poremsky says
do they sync if you add a category (if possible) or edit the appt?
Gerry says
They are in the email as attachments, and once you click on them then you get the shortcut message.
Diane Poremsky says
Do you know what application archived the attachments?
Gerry says
Can you help me with this issue. Here is my problem with archive email attachments. This attachment is now a shortcut and requires that you open the message first before opening the attachment.
Diane Poremsky says
Are the shortcuts embedded or attached? Either way, they should be clickable from the reading pane.
Gerry says
Thank you for the help. my outlook emails will not allow me to pull up attachments from old archive emails that are 3 months and older. How do I fix this issue?
Gerry says
when i change my ms 2010 outlook account, do I have to change my password on my iphone as well. Do they sync at the same time or do I have to change my iphone password everytime?
Diane Poremsky says
You'll need to change it on each device that connects to the account. When you change it, the new password should be saved so you won't have to do it each time you check mail.
James Collett says
Thank you for posting this informatoin. It is a bit confusing - perhaps because you are encompassing several options and configurations, such as different Outlook versions - but I seem to have pulled out the necessary information to make this work. What a relief!
What seems like a relatively sensible approach from Microsoft does seem to have been made rather more complicated than it should be. Plus they have explicitly not provided the option to send your Contacts information down a wire into your phone. Call me Old School, but that's a method I have used for years and it basically worked.
Diane Poremsky says
I'm trying to clean up the page - Microsoft recently made some changes which made one configuration "not feasible" and I need to remove all of that from the page. (Then they'll fix it again. :))
Shadab Khan says
Meeting request sent by others is not copied to the outlook.com calendar.
The meeting requests/appointments created by me are getting copied but with the following error:
https://s23.postimg.org/ujzvdbl23/calendar2.png
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using VBA code to make the copy? I can't repro that specific error using the code here.
Lori says
I'm using Outlook 2013 from Office 365 and can't get it to sync to outlook.com. I've tried most of the suggestions above and a few more. Any ideas?
Diane Poremsky says
As in Home Premium? What happens when you set up the outlook.com account? Does anything sync? Any error messages? (Check the sync errors folder.) Did you try letting it on overnight?
Shadab Khan says
Thanks for your instructions.
The codetwo software froze my outlook program. So I had to uninstall it.
I believe I am doing something wrong with the VBA method, since the macro runs, but I don't see the calendar entries being copied to "outlook online"
:(
Diane Poremsky says
I need to test it. They keep changing things on outlook.com and I noticed once my calendar moved to the new interface that manual copy failed, I had to use Move. That may be happening here. (It may be why codetwo is hanging.)
Diane Poremsky says
I updated the code and it works in my test. I added Save and moved the move command into the With /End with block. The Save fixes the problem where copying into the Hotmail calendar not longer works, you need to move (which didn't work before - wish they'd make up their minds. :)).
With cAppt
.subject = "Copied: " & Item.subject
.Start = Item.Start
.Duration = Item.Duration
.Location = Item.Location
.Body = Item.Body
.Save
.Move CalFolder
End With
Andreas says
Hi,
I am experiencing exactly the same Problem as Nils does and can't get rid of having reminders on my WP8 phone and in Win8 calendar app when creating an entry in outlook 2013. Is there already a solution to it?
Thanks,
Andreas
Ryan Sheldon says
Hi Diane
I have a calendar on outlook and in iCloud
On my phone they both show events ect but I can not seam to merge the 2 2gether on outlook or iCloud desktop
Any ideas
Many thanks
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using outlook.com (hotmail)? If so, set up outlook.com in Outlook and overlay the calendars.
Otherwise, in Outlook, open the Outlook calendar, switch to a list list, select all and drag or use the move to command.
See merge two calendar for more information
Shadab Khan says
Screenshot of my outlook 2007 program in calendar view:
https://s23.postimg.org/9k5w5hnnv/calendar.png
You can see the problem is with entries that are in Exchange Server (or its achive in my pst), but not manually copy pasted to outlook.com, or vice versa: calendar entries in Outlook.com but not manually copy pasted to my exchange server or its archive/pst.
There is no way to sycn these "automagically"?
***
In the contacts view, I have copy pasted, manually, the entire contact list similarly. The contacts show up in the "online" contacts INSIDE outlook 2007 program.
But when I visit the outlook.com website there are no contacts!
Diane Poremsky says
There are ways to sync the appointments (and contacts) from other calendar folders to the Outlook.com com folder, but they do not sync automatically. You need to copy them manually, use VBA to move or copy to another calendar, or use a utility, such as codetwo foldersync.
Shadab Khan says
For the last few days I have been trying very hard to get my Outlook 2007 calender and contacts uploaded and synced with my Outlook.com account. But looks like nothing is happening.
I have Outlook 2007 that fetched emails and calendars from my firm's servers. This is the only way to get the emails and calendar from the exchange server. The exchange server doesn't allow any other access.
There is also a list of my contacts that I have created on Outlook 2007 (but this has nothing to do with the exchange server directory)
My requirement is simple. I want these contacts and the calendar to be visible on the phone. (Perhaps the new Lumias). Now on android, this is very simple, I plug the phone use the phone's program to sync with Outlook 2007. I get the calendar and the contacts from Outlook 2007, similarly if I created a calendar entry on my phone - it gets transferred to Outlook 2007 program. But since the Windows phone does not support the USB connections for Outlook sync (doesn't make sense: why this is not possible!) - I need to use my outlook.com as the "middleman".
I have downloaded the Hotmail outlook connector, and I believe I have set it up rightly.
I can send and receive emails from outlook.com account using the outlook 2007 program.
I can also see the calendar entry created on outlook.com calendar via my outlook 2007 program.
HOWEVER, I am not able to send the calendar from outlook 2007 ==> outlook.com.
Unless I manually copy paste the calendar (inside the outlook 2007 calendar view).
And the contacts ... in spite of the manual copy paste, I am yet to find the contacts on my outlook.com account!
Are these known issues? This will make/break my Lumia purchase.
Diane Poremsky says
You need to move or copy the appointments and contacts to the Outlook.com folders; it's like your Exchange calendar and contacts - anything you want in the server's calendar or contacts needs to be added to the outlook.com folders in Outlook.
For the calendar, using list view (table view) makes it easier to select all and copy to the outlook.com folders. :) Everything you copy into the outlook.com folders should upload - I am aware of issues with Outlook 2013's connections but I'm not aware of issues with the Outlook Connector.
Try this: select all in the Outlook.com contacts and calendar folders and add a category. Do they sync up to outlook.com?
Geoff says
Hi
I have managed to get Contact & Calendar sync working with Outlook 2010 (32 bit) running on Win 7 (64 bit) using Outlook.com.
One oddity though
When Ifstart up Outlook see a send and receive var that appears to complete normally ie I can see new email
However if a box for an overdue appointment appears and I delete the appointment, it triggers a send and receive that gets abouy half way & stops
This hangs Outlook & the only way out is to use task manager to kill the app!!!
AShame the sync won't do taks/appoinments oe will it?
Diane Poremsky says
It should work. I haven't noticed that behavior but will test it. Check the sync errors folder - see if there are any errors that might give us a clue.
Jim says
Hi Diane
I followed your instructions to set up calendar sync between outlook.com and outlook 2013 using activesyc for a non-MS account. It all went through fine. It syncs between computer and phones. Perfect so far....
The issue I have is there is a default calendar in outlook desktop that outlook still puts entries into if I receive a calendar invite and accept. I can't see how to get it to put them into the outlook.com one.
I can copy them over (which is annoying). And then if someone changes the timing of the appointment I have to keep copying the changes across. It gets painful with a busy schedule.
Is there any way to get outlook 2013 to stop using the default calendar and use the outlook.com one instead? Or to get them to sync two-ways to each other?
Thank in advance
Diane Poremsky says
CodeTwo has a sync utility that will sync the two - but it is manual and only two-way, so everything is identical on both. I have not tested it extensively to know how it handles duplicates within each calendar.
Other options:
Use VBA to copy everything to the outlook.com calendar
Set the outlook.com data file as your default data file. If you have only one email account in the profile and use 2010 or 2013, a registry setting can force all mail to be sent through the default email account, so no mail will go through the outlook.com account.
Mark R says
Hi Diane. Been struggling for three days to get my home computer set up again with Outlook 2013 and sync via EAS to Outlook.com I have a clean install of Windows 7 Pro, clean install of Office 2013 Professional Plus. Outlook.com account is set up via EAS and everything is synching (addresses, mail) EXCEPT all my current calendar entries on Outlook.com. The folder structure shows in Outlook and when I did the install there were intially appointments displayed from one of my online calendars but now nothing is showing on desktop. I really need this to work. Any thoughts?
Diane Poremsky says
There is some buggyness in the sync process - it's usually contacts that won't sync though. They should also sync within minutes, but some people reported that it took hours before they synced.
Do they sync if you edit the appointments online?
Bob says
How can I print my "new" outlook calendar while being online. They "upgraded" me to outlook and now there is no print option- tried printing through navigation pane , but it omits times and appointments
Diane Poremsky says
outlook.com aka formerly known as Hotmail? I think the only way is using the browser's print control, as bad as it is.
Alane McKinnon says
OMG, it took me all day but I finally figured out how to get something that works for me. I found a macro online for automatically sending BCC's through Outlook without having to type it in every time. I used my Outlook.com alias as the BCC address in the macro. You can't see it in the outgoing message, but it does work. Then I created two new folders (for the two different POP accounts that I'm sending from) and created a rule for messages that contained specific words in the message header, as all of the messages I am sending from the POP account has a unique Return to:emailaddress.com in the header. After sending from the POP accounts, the messages then come into the Outlook.com exchange acct due to the forwarding I have set up for incoming emails, and the rules pops them into the two folders I set up to contain my SENT items for each account. It's about as slick as I'm going to be able to get it if I don't want the awful hotmail header showing up in my outgoing emails. Problem solved . . . well, sort of. I would love to see Outlook.com do away with that, or work around it somehow, but I don't know if that is going to happen. Thanks for your suggestions, which, by the way, I have seen in many more places than just on your site. You are a wonderful contributor to these issues and very, very helpful.
Diane Poremsky says
Automatically BCC
Alane McKinnon says
I've actually tried to use that hotmail address that shows up on my outgoing emails, and it won't work when I try to use it independently of outlook.com's servers. Since that is the address that is sending mail "on behalf of", I'm curious as to why I can't send something direclty to it? Oh, the mysteries of MS . . . :)
Diane Poremsky says
I didn't try it, but thought it might work. Hmm. The mysteries of MS is right. :)
Nils says
Thanks Diane for your reply. I guess that's the option I was looking for, only it doesn't show in my settings!
If I click on the calendar name the notifications for that calendar are already turned off. However, the 15 minute reminder still appears in events created in outlook, and I still do get a notification on all my devices!
Can you reproduce my problem, or can you create events in Outlook locally and do they appear without reminders in you outlook.com calendar online?
Just wondering if it is a bug in the way the events are synced or something I've set up wrong. I've heard at least from one other person who has the same problem.
Thanks again! Nils
Diane Poremsky says
Apparently, choosing to upgrade the reminders removes that option - I lost it too and have not discovered a way to bring it back.
I set up some appointments to check and forgot to see if the reminder was added back... will do that next.
Darryl Parsons says
Hi Diane,
Never mind. It seems to have all synced up over night. Took a long time though. Is there a way to govern how frequently the sync occurs?
Thanks so much for your help. Now if I can just sync my Samsung Note up I will be rocking :)
Darryl
Diane Poremsky says
Sync should be fairly soon after making changes - measured in minute and seconds, not hours. It can be slow if there were a large number of sync or it's possible there was a problem with the calendar server.
Alane McKinnon says
I am currently sending from my POP3 account, but allowing all incoming mail to be retrieved from POP3 to outlook.com, as I want the incoming email synced on all devices. I would also like Sent items synced, but seems impossible if not sending from the outlook.com account, which has the horrible "on behalf of" in the email header. Is there really no way to copy sent items from POP3 to sent items in outlook.com, or otherwise move them somehow? I was able to do it when using the Outlook Hotmail Connector in OL2007, but as soon as I upgraded to 2013, can no longer. Is there a trick to it, or is it just impossible?
Diane Poremsky says
At this time, there is no way to do it, other than by BCCing your address - the horrible Hotmail address should be unique to your mailbox so you could BCC it and filter mail sent to that address.
Johannes says
Hi Diane,
it would be great if you could help me with the following problem:
I have an outlook.com account and a google account and I connected them so that my google contacts show up in my outlook.com account. I am syncing my outlook.com account with outlook 2010 on my laptop using outlook connector. However, only the original outlook.com contacts are synced with my laptop's outlook 2010, not the google-contacts that show up in my outlook-com contactlist.
Does this not work at all or can I do something to fix this?
Thank you and best regards,
Johannes
Diane Poremsky says
The connected contacts don't sync. Export from google and import into Outlook or outlook.com instead.
Darryl Parsons says
Hi Diane,
I did move my appointments over to the hotmail account as you suggested. They did not sync up to the hotmail account. I tried categorizing them all in blue and that did not work either. New entries in outlook are not even syncing up to the hotmail account. Appointments created online are syncing down to my outlook calendar. Any suggestions? Thanks again in advance.
Darryl
Nils says
Hi Diane,
Thanks again for your reply. But nowhere I see an option to set/cancel a default reminder (although I agree with you that this is what it must be).
In the general calendar options that open when I click the link in your first reply I get the following options:
Calendar options
How you're notified
Turn notifications on or off
Language
Time zone
Time format
First day of your calendar week
Time your calendar day starts
Primary calendar
Edit your reminders and calendar settings
Using HTTPS for extra security
Select when to delete your completed to-dos
Confirmations
Weather
Under "Edit your reminders and calendar settings" there is a list of my calendars and if I click on the main (primary) calendar I get the following options:
Calendar settings for "primary calendar"
Name
Colour
Calendar charm
Description
Sharing
Notifications:
Changes to calendar
Reminders
Daily schedule
Notifications
Behind reminders it only has a link to add one.
I don't see where to disable the default 15 minute reminder I'm looking for...
Thanks again,
Nils
Diane Poremsky says
You don't have Set your reminder time under Time your calendar day starts?
Hmmm. That option is removed if you choose to use the new reminders and I do not see a way to get it back.
Diane Poremsky says
Click on the calendar name in the list on the left. You can turn off the notifications in that dialog - looks like it applies to all reminders though, which is not good.
Pete says
I categorized them as blue and it works perfectly now! Thank you so very much for incredibly speed and useful advice!
Pete says
This is the same (and very frustrating) problem I am having. I simply cant get Outlook to push existing calendar entries to the windows live calendar. It works fine if I create a new entry on my iPhone, Outlook 2013 or in the windows live calendar (they all sync nicely together like I would expect) but somehow it knows if the item has been created in the past.
I have tried deleting all items in my calendar - xxx@hotmail.com folder and then re-pasting them in in the hope it will think they are new entries and sync them to the windows live (hotmail) calendar but there is no fooling it!
Any ideas? Is it simply a microsoft issue that I will have to wait for them to fix or am I doing something wrong?
Diane Poremsky says
Did you try adding a category to the appointments in Outlook? That worked here, even for past appointments. Also note that smartphone can be configured to only sync newer items but outlook & outlook.com (hotmail) should have all.
Diane Poremsky says
At this time I am not aware of any way to avoid the on behalf of stuff. This is an anti-spam measure implemented by Microsoft. What I would do is use two accounts in Outlook - the outlook.com account setup to sync your calendar and contacts and one for email to your real mailbox. Yes, its tow accounts, but email won't have the on behalf of stuff in it.
Nils says
Thank you for your quick reply. I wrote a reply yesterday, but I don't see it here, so I'll try again...
The settings in Outlook.com are as follows:
Under "Turn notifications on or off" the option "Get notifications (reminders, changes to calendars and daily summaries)" is turned off.
If I click on the main (primary) calendar under "Edit your reminders and calendar settings" it says under "Notifications", "You've turned off your calendar notifications (reminders, changes to calendars and daily summaries)." and then a link to "Turn them back on" and an option to add a reminder.
If I create an online event in this calendar, there is no reminder. In the event it says the same ("You've turned off your calendar notifications") with an option to add one.
If I create a local event in Outlook without reminder that is synced to outlook.com online the online event has a reminder 15 minutes before. It still says in the online event that I've turned notifications off, but there is a reminder saying: "Calendars on your PC and mobile Phone" set to "15 minutes before". The local event in Outlook still doesn't have a reminder.
So I'm lost here. No idea what I can do to turn this online reminder off. The problem is that my online calendar is synced again with my tablet an phone, and the reminders are still their on those devices too.
Thanks, Nils
Diane Poremsky says
I took most of yesterday off and don't approve messages that need replies until I'm ready to reply, otherwise I loose track of them.
Notifications stop the notifications, it doesn't prevent reminders being added, only prevents them from going off in the calendar. Below there is an option for default reminder time - default is 15 min. I'm sure that is what is getting set, if its being set by outlook.com. Set it to none and see what happens with new items. If they are still added, check the default reminder time on the devices.
Darryl Parsons says
Hi Diane,
I am looking to Sync my calendar and contacts with a Microsoft Live account. I use Outlook 2010. I have used the Outlook Connector program and have created a new account in Outlook. I have copied my contacts over as prompted. I do not see how to copy my calendar over however. Also, my entries in Outlook are not syncing to the online calendar or conact list. I am sure I am missing something here. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Darryl
Diane Poremsky says
Calendar: you need to use a list view then select all, drag to the Hotmail calendar. Are appointments and contacts created online syncing down?
codingorca says
Outlook Connector provides you the feature to sync your outlook.com calendar with your local Outlook program. However, you will just have that or those additional calendar(s) available locally in your outlook program.
If your intention is to sync your Outlook default calendar to one of your outlook.com calendar, there are some commercial add-ins available to do that.
I developed a small add-in which is syncing one-way from your default calendar to your outlook.com calendar the subject and meeting room. I am using it to have the overview of my calendar on my smartphone (I cannot sync my smartphone directly with my exchange server) and it is working great.
If you want, give it a try:
https://lumiscalendarsync.codeplex.com/
Nils says
Hi,
My problem with syncing my calendar from Outlook 2013 to Outlook.com is that some sort of 'default' reminder is added, even though I believe I've turned all default reminders off.
For appointments where I set a reminder in Outlook 2013, the reminders are correctly synced to Outlook.com. But for appointments/events without reminder in Outlook 2013, a reminder of 15 minutes is added in Outlook.com.
Have I missed something? I've turned of the default reminder in Outlook 2013 (no reminder is displayed in Outlook). I've disabled notifications in Outlook.com/Hotmail calendar, but in the appointment there still appears a reminder of 15 minutes, even though it says "You've turned off your calendar notifications (reminders, changes to calendars and daily summaries)". Where does this reminder come from? And how can I make sure it doesn't appear?
Many thanks,
Nils
Diane Poremsky says
What is your reminder settings in Outlook.com? https://bay04.calendar.live.com/calendar/options.aspx - I think it is picking it up from there.
JD says
Yes, I own my own domain, but not interested in going the 365 route.
I really like my XP system and am slowly warming up to my Win7 laptop when forced to use it... :-). So I'll be hard pressed to convert to a subscription based platform. For some reason, I thought this would be a no-brainer to get an MS based calender online. Silly me! Many thanks for your time.
Diane Poremsky says
Office 365 would be for email (on Exchange server) - only requirement is you need outlook 2007 or newer. (Don't get me started on what I think of the moron who thought office 365 would be a great name for both the client-side software and the server-side services.)
JD says
Diane, thanks for quick reply. This is really turning into a convoluted process. I wanted to avoid using iTunes/icloud for viewing my calender/contacts on iphone, but it seems the MS solution is not so straight forward.
To answer your question, I did not set up the POP account to forward mail to Outlook.com. Does the CodeTwo Addin require me to manually click sync in order for the sync to occur? thanks, jd
Diane Poremsky says
Unfortunately, yes, the codetwo utility is a manual process. I'm not sure if they are going to make an automatic one for outlook.com, in part because the support calls are high for their icloud version - when some users need help with icloud, they call them instead of apple.
Do you own the domain? If so, I highly recommend an Office 365 account. It will work so much better than trying ot make it work with outlook.com.
The Office 365 plans are as low as $4/month, although I recommend the $8 E1 plan (Enterprise tab) for SharePoint, public folders, and the ability to assign multiple addresses to one mailbox. Only mailboxes (email addresses) that need to log in directly are charged a fee - info@, sales@ addresses can be linked to licensed mailboxes at no charge.
JD says
I've read the instructions over and over, and I'm thinking they're not applicable to my situation. I'd like to use outlook.com to manage contacts and calender when away from my PC via a laptop or phone. I cannot use use it for email (for work confidentiality reasons).
In my line of work as a consultant, I often get assigned an email from my clients (eg myname@clientA.com, myname@clientB.com etc). Outlook 2007 is configured for my own company's work email and personal email, as well as, emails setup from my clients. All emails go to a single inbox, all appointments are managed with one calender and I use one set of contacts via a single outlook.pst folder (I assume).
I have set up a MS Live ID equal to my company's email, installed Outlook Connector and have setup the new MS Live ID within Outlook. I set my ISP (pop) account to default, and under Data Files, set the MS Live ID to the default.
When I sent a test message from gmail, it went to my new MS Live ID inbox (not my original Outlook inbox), as well as, to the new online outlook.com email. I'm assuming this worked as intended, but not what I need. Is there a way to simply sync my current Outlook.PST calender and contacts to outlook.com? Sorry for the long message.
Diane Poremsky says
Did you set up the POP account to forward mail to Outlook.com? Keep the POP3 account, do not connect it to Outlook.com, either by forwarding mail or as a connected account. The reason for setting it up with your address is so if you accidentally send mail using the outlook.com address (less likely with Outlook 2007), it will have your 'real' address on it.
You can use a utility to sync the calendar and contacts with the outlook.com folders - CodeTwo foldersync worked well for this the last time I tested it, but you will have duplicates - one in each folder.
Rochelley says
"All you need is a Microsoft Account (LiveID). You can create a Microsoft Account for any valid email address; you do not need to use a Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com address. I recommend using your own address."
I have done as you suggested above and created a Microsoft Account with my own address. However, I had no idea that Outlook.com would only check my POP account once every 30 min. That is a long time to wait for sometimes urgent emails. So that isn't working for me. As a workaround, I had to create an outlook.com alias, and then set my POP account to forward to it. I changed mydomain account in Outlook.com to not receive email, as it is now coming in through the alias account.
Also, they were not forthcoming about the appearance of the outgoing email header. Mine reads something like this . . . hotmail_46a252be29.........@live.com on behalf of My Name . This is horrible and unacceptable. I have read forums until I'm blue in the face and all Microsoft will say is that this has been fixed and they're rolling out the change gradually to all their email servers. It hasn't hit mine yet and apparently this has been going on for several months now.
When I first set up my account, I was using Outlook 2007 with the Outlook Hotmail Connector. I was able to successfully copy all my contacts, incoming emails, calendars, etc. to the Microsoft account folders by pasting. I was also able to select all my Sent Items from the POP account and copy them into the Microsoft account's Sent Folders.
Since then, I have moved up to Outlook 2013. Everything is working as it should, however, I'm trying to find a workaround for the crazy outgoing email header. So I changed my default Send From account to my POP account, and my plan was to then copy the Sent Items from POP to Microsoft by means of a rule. But I can't!!! The new EAS in Outlook 2013 won't let me do it!
By observing what it is that I am trying to accomplish, do you have any other suggestions for fixing it so that my outgoing email address appears as mydomain email address without all the "Hotmail!@$#&*(!}"#$&*@live.com on behalf of" nonsense?
billsit says
Hi Dianne, I set up oulook 2013 just as you described (I think :-)) and and new meetings I add to my calendar syncronise OK, btu all the existing meetings that I copied over do not. I see an icon labeled "copy to my main calendar" if i do this on every meeting, som esynch and some do not - is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?
Diane Poremsky says
I'll need to test it and see if it's a bug or you're missing a step.
Ermanno says
Yeah,... I understand the feeling. I've been waiting for this since months. To work reliably with Outlook.com, the only option is to work on the Web at the moment. I get both the sync bug and the HTML code in Outlook 2013 and Windows Phone 8.
Ermanno says
Hi Diane, thanks so much for your work. Very helpful indeed. As I pointed out already in the Microsoft Forums the Contacts sync bug is going since months. DO you have any idea when this will be resolved?
Thanks.
Ermanno
efmos.com
Diane Poremsky says
No, and at this point if they gave me a new date (they haven't), I wouldn't believe it. I'd wait until I had proof it worked - this bug is proving difficult to fix and they thought they had it fixed in Dec, Jan, and Feb. I'm not going to be fooled again. :) I don't normally get advanced access to updates, so we'll all get the fix about the same time - I'll know when the first guy in the forum says "it's fixed!" :) (My contacts sync but have the ugly HTML in the notes field, so I wouldn't notice if it was fixed.)
ben says
Hi Diane,
I have been struggling with this for a few weeks now and since you have a great knowledge base, Im hoping you can help.
I work in a small organization so implementing a proper exchange server doesnt make sense.
I am trying to use outlook.com to sync contacts and calendars with my mobile device.
I have followed your instructions and it appeared as if everything worked. i set up the account on both the pc and phone, copied all contacts into the new "outlook.com) contacts and calendar as per your instructions.
Everything uploaded and appeared to be okay. but now if i add anything it doesnt seem to make it to outlook.com and therefore the mobile device. it just stays in the outlook.com folder on the PC. same with calendar.
I cant figure out what i could possibly be doing wrong?
Diane Poremsky says
There is a bug in the sync process and contacts sometimes don't sync, but the problem is usually with syncing from online down to outlook. Are there any errors in the sync errors folder?
Robert says
My own research led me to the same understanding re Notes, i.e. that the Apple phone would nor sync Notes but I was unclear about the Windows Phones. Ouch. That was my backup plan. Notes is such a convenient way to tuck away information and as I get older (I retired 15 years ago so you do the Math) I find it a most convenient method to have answers to questions when I am out and about. Your doctor asks about meds you are now taking - out comes the Smartphone, open Notes and there are the answers updated for those changes that took place a few weeks ago. A tool, not a toy!! They don't get it!
Diane Poremsky says
Both apple and windows phone support OneNote - you need to use it with skydrive, but its actually pretty handy. I like it better than notes now that i have a phone that supports it. If only it accepted handwriting on the phone (although it probably would not be readable with a finger as the stylus.)
Robert says
Diane, many thanks for the link. Unbelievable that RIM would not include in its newest smartphone releases the syncing capability that was so fundamental in its earlier offerings. I mean they indicate now that one way sync is being offered shortly and two way link is not too far behind. Who manages these folks? Did they never talk to users about how they use their phones? They pride themselves on offering a tool not a toy - unfortunately it is a tool that does not work to its full potential.
Robert says
Wow, after reading through the series of posts I am wondering if it is going to be worth the effort.to stay with BlackBerry when the Z10 is released in the US. I have been reading that the new BlackBerry Smartphones do not sync Calendar and Contacts with Outlook on a desktop PC. Is this correct?
I have been a BlackBerry user for the past three years and the ability to sync with Microsoft Outlook using BlackBerry Desktop Manager has been a requirement, not just for Calendar and Contacts but also for Notes and Tasks. In scanning the comments I have not been able to identify whether Notes and Tasks will sync using some iteration of Outlook.com. I am not an Enterprise user. Any insights would be appreciated.
Diane Poremsky says
I haven't looked at the specs for the new BB too much and recently had to replace my Storm2. I figured it would be June before Verizon had the new BB and went with Windows Phone instead. Coming from the BB world, it was a huge adjustment - BB was better. (I see Verizon will have it at the end of march - should have switched to my older BB for 2 months. :))
I know the new BB supports ActiveSync, so no more BES for corporate accounts. According to this post on the BB forums, they will be supporting USB sync - https://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-Z10/New-Blackberry-10-Sync-to-Outlook/m-p/2170993#M4314
I don't know yet if it will include Notes - I would expect it to cover Tasks.
I can tell you that Apple and WinPhones do not include Notes. They do include tasks.
Amy says
Thank you Diane for you information. I've been searching for this setup information since I got my Windows 8 PC and phone. I now have the calendars all synching correctly! I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge! (Note, it is on a 'secondary' calendar in outlook 2013 but I'll just use that as my primary when adding/editing items. It was easy to pull them up side by side and drag the appointments over.)
Brad says
I'm creating new appointments.
There's no errors in the sync folder.
I thought the changes/additional appointments would sync with Outlook.com automatically? I've also tried "Ctrl M" but my outlook.com calendar isn't updating. :)
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
The updates are supposed to sync, but apparently it's buggier than I first thought. I'll see what I can find out.
Sam says
Was curious if you had found out anything on this? Mine does this. I can add an item on my phone's calendar, which in turn updates my Outlook.com account, but does not update my Outlook 2013. It also won't update Outlook.com or my phone if I add a new appointment in Outlook 2013.
My Outlook 2013 will occasionally show "Disconnected" but eventually will say "Connected" and say all folder have been updated. No errors in the sync folder.
Any help with this would be great, this is a pretty slick deal so far! Thanks for all the help!
Diane Poremsky says
No, I haven't found anything out yet. What type of phone are you using? Are you adding the appointments to the outlook.com calendar in outlook? If they go into other calendar folders they won't sync.
Sam says
Over the weekend it apparently got it figured out! I'm now able to add appointments both on my phone and desktop and they all sync! Works great, thanks again!
Brad says
Please help... :)
I have my outlook.com set up to sync my desktop Outlook Calendar with it. When I set it up my Outlook Calendar synced fine with Outlook.com but now it won't sync. I have made changes to my Outlook Calendar but it's not updating my Outlook.com calendar...which in turn doesn't update my BlackBerry. Any suggestions?
Thanks :)
Diane Poremsky says
Are you copying appointments into the calendar from other calendars or creating new ones? Yesterday, Jim was told that copying appointments is a "known issue" and may cause sync to fail.
Look in the Sync error folders. Do you have any errors for the calendar?
Joe Miller says
Just thought I'd update this in case others are searching....
Microsoft spent 5 hours yesterday on my calendar issue. Once it hit Tier 3 support, they referred back to a "known issue" with copying calendar items.
Currently I can create new calendar items and sync via EAS but old entries will have to be manually recreated. It was stated that "copying entries from other calendars" is a known issue when syncing. I guess they are working on it....
Diane Poremsky says
I know there are issues with syncing calendars (and contacts) but I hadn't heard (or experienced) problems copying appointments into the EAS calendar. Thanks for the update.
soundslikejoe says
I followed these steps but it's not working for me. I called Microsoft's tech support and they confirmed a problem syncing calendars between Outlook 2013 and Outlook.com.
I have a personal folder with my main calendar. I manually created the EAS account and copied some of the calendar data from one calendar to another. When I sync, Outlook 2013 takes time, as if it's sending the calendar data. Nothing appears on the Live calendar.
Since this is working for the author, I'm curious to know.... Are you using more than one Outlook data file or just the EAS? Are you able to sync multiple calendars? Are you aware of any confirmed bugs or problems with EAS and Outlook.com calendar sync?
Diane Poremsky says
I'm not aware of problems syncing calendars with EAS - there are major problems syncing contacts. I have multiple data files but EAS only syncs the Outlook.com/Hotmail calendar folder. It will not sync the other calendar folders to Hotmail - I need to copy appointments into the Hotmail folder if I want them in Hotmail.
Tracy Miller says
For a new installation of Office 365, I want to link my calendar and contacts to my Windows Phone 7.5. I followed the directions for ActiveSync, but the contacts and calendar are not linking to the Hotmail calendar/contacts. Do I need to install an Outlook connector - that option is not showing up on the new account options? Is there a specific Outlook Connector for 365?
Diane Poremsky says
With Outlook 2013, you need to use the Outlook.com / Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) account type in Outlook. This will sync Hotmail calendar and contacts to Outlook. If you have calendar and contacts in Outlook you want to sync up to Hotmail, they need to be moved or copied to the calendar and contacts folder in the Hotmail data file.
Phil T says
Do you know why the hotmail in-box is 'push' i.e. instant sync, but the Sent Items has to be synced? My work exchange account doesn't have this problem.
The problem with not having push sync on the sent items is that it looks like your sent items have disappeared for a while- its not in the Out box, and it's not the Sent Items.
Diane Poremsky says
I thought they were in Outlook's sent folder, just not pushed up to the server immediately, although maybe that was in Outlook 2010 with the connector. I don't know why EAS doesn't sync the folder immediately, except for the fact that EAS is "talkative" and by limiting it, they prevent connections.
Phil T says
Setup my Outlook 2013 to sync with my hotmail account. Sync is via EAS which works very well. Email gets pushed directly into my in-box. BUT my issue is that the Sent Items box does not get auto updated. So if I send an email from Outlook, it sends ok but doesn't appear in the Sent Items until I either a) send another email (which I presume then prompts a sync) or b) click on send/receive to force an update or c) the auto send receive timer kicks in.
Is there anyway to resolve this- so when I send an email it immediately appears in the Sent Items? I need push update on all folders- how?
Diane Poremsky says
No, you can't force a sync immediately - it should use the Check every xx minutes setting in the send and receive options. Do not set it below 5 min, or 10 min if you have more than 2 or 3 accounts configured.
John says
Great info! A couple questions. I set-up the Outlook.com account merely to allow my wife to sync her Outlook 2007 calendar with her Android phone. so far so good! What is the frequency of sync b/w Outlook 2007 and Outlook.com? Can it be changed? (If so, how?)
Also, Her Yahoo.com email address is the default in Outlook 2007, and she wishes to keep it that way. But we notice that when she sends a calendar invite from the Outlook.com calendar in Outlook 2007 (the calendar now synced with Outlook.com), the from address is her Outlook.com email. How can we change the settings so that the From email address is her Yahoo.com account? And so that any relies are delivered to her Yahoo.com account?
Diane Poremsky says
It should sync up on changes in outlook and sync down at least once per hour.
You can't change the From address - what I recommend is creating a liveid/microsoft account for the yahoo address and use it for syncing, not a Hotmail address.
markvschwartz says
This would all be great if it worked. But it DOESN'T.
It is impossible to synch an Outlook account that is on your desktop PC with a hotmail, msn, or outlook.com account.
Diane Poremsky says
What happened when you tried? (It works, I'm using it.)
Mike says
Thanks. I can handle that. One more question: Calendar entries seem to be syncing in both directions, but Contacts and contact changes made in Outlook 2010 don't seem to be syncing "up" to Outlook.com. Any idea why?
Diane Poremsky says
They *should* sync up - but there are issues with Contacts syncing down in Outlook 2013. I wouldn't be surprised if they broke something trying to fix it. :)
Mike says
OK, I got that done, and everything seems to work, but this method (at least the way I did it) sets up a separate calendar in outlook that syncs with the hotmail calendar. Is there any way to sync my original, main outlook calendar with the hotmail calendar?
Diane Poremsky says
Unfortunately, no. The Hotmail calendar is it's own calendar - it syncs with Outlook, not with other Outlook calendars. You can copy the events in your current calendar into the Hotmail calendar. You can either set the Hotmail data file as default or use VBA to copy new calendar and contacts to the Hotmail calendar.
Mike says
Thanks very much for this info. Using Outlook 2010, once the new account is established using the Connector, will existing Contacts/Calendar Entries sync up to Outlook.com? If so, how long does this take to occur?
Diane Poremsky says
You need to move or copy the appointments and contacts from your pst file into the outlook.com calendar and contacts folders in outlook. For the calendar, use a list view, select all and and move or copy.
02befree says
So you're saying that even though my contacts have been stuck at 1517 for a week or so, that sometime they'll all sync? Like waiting for some kittens to be born? :)
Diane Poremsky says
Since you use the connector, I don't think so. For some reason I was thinking you had Outlook 2013 when i said that. My bad. :(
Since you have 2010, you are OK to copy the contacts from the backup because the connector probably won't sync more. If you ever upgrade to 2013, you'll make a new data file and the ones online will sync down. If you do upgrade, I'd export the contacts (and tasks) to a pst file for backup first.
Sorry about that.
02befree says
Couldn't I import contacts from the backup pst and select something to avoid duplicates?
Diane Poremsky says
When syncing starts working (should be soon), the ones online should sync down and it won't detect duplicates.
02befree says
Using Connector, yes. And you're right - if I even change a letter in a contact, it syncs down on the next Send/Receive. I might just import contacts into Outlook from my PST backup. See any problems with that?
Diane Poremsky says
You'll end up with dupes if you copy them into the Hotmail contacts folder and they are also online, or you could open the backup in outlook until Microsoft fixes it.
02befree says
Some clarification would be good - and you provided that in your first reply. For versions of Outlook prior to 2013, you'd use the Outlook Hotmail Connector method. I've used this for about a year now, and it works quite well. However, I set it up on a new PC recently and everything works well, except my contacts seem limited - only 1518 of my 3100 or so contacts synced with Outlook. Would like to figure that out. Worked fine on my old PC and smartphone. Ideas?
Diane Poremsky says
This is with the connector? I'm not sure what is going on. In the past, Hotmail was limited to 1000. Then the limit was apparently lifted and I'm 90% sure I used the connector to upload 3000 last year, not Outlook 2013.
Following a discussion recently where someone said there is a 1500 limit, I tested it - using Outlook 2013's EAS, I uploaded more than 10,000 before I gave up. But when I later checked the account in 2010, only 1503 synced down. It looks like there is a limit with the connector - but it's not based on a count or we'd all quit at 1500. I didn't test uploading from 2010 - it might be a "sync down" issue.
There is a "sync down" contact bug they are trying to fix - some contacts won't sync down until edited online. AFAIK, it only affects Outlook 2013 - but it's possible it is also affecting 2010. Go online and edit a contact that is not synced down- does it sync?
The smartphone uses EAS, so no limits there. At least none that I've hit.
jess says
Diane, thanks for the quick response. It is very kind of you to offer this support to users out in the cyber world. Still running into the same stumbling blocks. Here are my steps. In control panel I open mail, add new account, manually configure, microsoft exchange which then brings me to the server settings page where I enter m.hotmail.com. (there is also a check in the box where it says use cached exchange mode. Then I put in my email address that I registered for with live/hotmail (which is my personal email). Initially it cycles saying not responding, then after a minute it so a box comes up that asks for the name etc. Then get the same message basically that The Name Cannot Be Resolved. The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.
Diane Poremsky says
If you are using Outlook and a Hotmail/Outlook.com account, you won't use the exchange account type. In Outlook 2013, use "Outlook.com or Exchange ActiveSync service". (In Outlook 2010 or older, use Outlook Connector (needs installed, its under Other).)
Only smartphones would choose Exchange.
jess says
hi, when i follow your directions for using hotmail to sync calendar and contacts only, i run into a stumbling block. I get the error message "The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action"
Any suggestions? Also just want to verify that the user name is your email address.
Diane Poremsky says
That error usually means the account was not setup as the right kind of email account. Go into Control panel, search for Mail and remove the account then add it back. Don't use auto account setup, use the manual option and select the correct account type. (Hotmail connector for 2010 and older, EAS for 2013)