How to Setup Hotmail Push Email via Exchange ActiveSync on Android (with HTC Fix)

Android invasion, Sydney, Australia
Android invasion, Sydney, Australia (Photo credit: Pranav Bhatt)

Windows Live Hotmail has been enabling and supporting push email through Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol. With push email, user can sync email messages, contacts and calendar between mobile device and Windows Live cloud, and any update such as new incoming email in Hotmail will be automatically pushed to the phone for instant notification.

Here’s the guide on how to setup and configure a Hotmail account with push email support on Android mobile phone device, through Exchange ActiveSync service. The guide works perfectly for smartphone running Android 2.2 and above, i.e. Android Gingerbread 2.3 and Android Honeycomb 3.0 or 3.1.

Note that HTC Mail that comes with smartphone such as HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD, and HTC Incredible S has known issue when setting up Hotmail through Exchange protocol. At the final step when adding a Hotmail Exchange account, HTC Mail app will return “Failed to create the account. Please try again later.” error. So far, only HTC Mail is known to have incompatibility issue with and does not work properly with Hotmail via EAS. Other Android mobile phone which comes with stock Android Mail app such as Google Nexus One and Google Nexus S should not facing such error.

To workaround the HTC Mail limitation, download and install the APK below, which is based on stock email app for Android Froyo 2.2:

Original Android Froyo FRG22 Email app 2.2: Mail.apk
Email app 2.2.1 (from CyanogenMod 6.1.1): Email.apk
Email app modified to bypass Exchange security: Email (Bypass Exchange Security).apk
Email app modified to support Exchange 2010 SP1: Email (Exchange 2010 SP1).apk

An alternative for which can be downloaded from Android Market, also for Android 2.2 Froyo phone, isImproved Email, though it’s unofficial app but similar with stock default email app on Android.

How to Setup Hotmail via Exchange for Push Email Support

  1. On Android device, open Email app.
  2. Enter the MSN/Windows Live Hotmail email address and password.
  3. Tap on Manual setup.

4.  Select Exchange as type of account.

5.  Configure the following information for Server settings:

Server: m.hotmail.com
Domain: <leave blank>
Username: <full email address>
Use secure connection (SSL): Enable
Accept all SSL certificates: Enable

In other version of Email app, Domain and Username fields are combined into one as “DomainUsername”. In this case, enter your Windows Live/MSN Hotmail emaill address into the field preceded by a “” (backslash). For example, [email protected]

Tap Next when done.

6.  You can then configure various Account options for the just added Hotmail account. To enable push email, set Email check frequency to Automatic (Push).

Tap Next when done.

Note: If your mobile phone is running on Android version 2.1 or below, do not sync contacts and calendar which is not fully compatible with older versions of Android.

7.  Enter a name for the account, such as Hotmail or Windows Live Hotmail, and tap Done.

New incoming emails will have notification alerts appear in the notification bar and/or through sound alerts.

[Ref: http://gadgets5.com/2011/05/how-to-setup-hotmail-push-email-via-exchange-activesync-on-android-with-htc-fix/]

Map Microsoft OneDrive to access via Windows Explorer

Windows Live SkyDrive provides 25GB of space which you can use to backup your stuff. But using Browser is sometimes not desirable. But you can access your Windows Live SkyDrive storage in Windows Explorer.

1. Visit SkyDrive (http://www.skydrive.com) and login with your Live ID.

2. If you have not used SkyDrive before click on the My Documents folder.

My Documents in Windows Live Skydrive

3. Now look at the address bar. You should find your unique ID there in the URL (http://cid-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.skydrive.live.com – see the screenshot below; it’s in the greyed out area and is unique to you). Copy this ID to the clipboard, as we’ll need it shortly. Use the back button in IE if you don’t see the ID right away.
Unique ID in address bar

4. Now, open your Computer in Windows Explorer (either go Start menu / Computer, or just press WindowsKey +Eto go straight there), and you’ll see “Map Network Drive in the menu. Click that.

Which Network woudl you like to map?

5. In the new dialog box that choose your drive letter using the dropdown. I will be choosing S: for mine (Sky Drive). Now in the Folder field (just below the Drive dropdown) type, \\[email protected]\your_skydrive_id\^2Documents (replacing “your_skydrive_id” with the ID you copied in Step 1). Press Finish  and wait a little while, and you’ll get a logon box… enter your Windows Live ID and press OK.

Connect to docs.live.net

6. You’ll now have mapped your Network Drive, and might notice that you have your Unique ID included in the name. So for security, just right mouse click on the name within Windows Explorer, choose rename from the drop down and call it anything you want.

That’s it! You can now use your Windows Live Skydrive just as your local drive 🙂