We can now synchronize Outlook & Android without a 3rd party app or Exchange Server!

[Redflea]

This is very good news for folks who use Outlook and aren't connected to an Exchange server...having a native ActiveSync option like this available is a great option, and should be pretty popular with folks who have been frustrated in the past w/third-party solutions.

Kudos for the post and the excellent detail/helpful instructions.

 

[RazzMaTazz]

Razz, appreciate the effort so far, but this is by no means as simple as you make it out to be. I already had Outlook Connector setup in Outlook, but I had my Hotmail account setup as a POP3 account, so it wasn't syncing to Windows Live.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm sorry that you had trouble. I didn't realize that you could set up Hotmail as a POP account in Outlook. Outlook 2010 automaticaly creates a MAPI (not POP) account in Outlook for Hotmail or Live Mail. I just added an account to an old PC that's running Outlook 2003. In Outlook 2003, I see that there are options for the account type, and that you must select "Additional Server Types" and then "Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector". I'll edit my original post to include a link for setting up Outlook 2007 & 2003.

I can't figure out how to get Outlook to sync to Windows Live. I copied all my contacts from my default phone book to the newly created Windows Live phonebook, but there's no command or setting in Outlook or in Windows Live to actually cause a sync to happen. Any ideas?

From within Outlook, you can manually force a synchronization with Hotmail/Windows Live (the same way that you would send/receive email) which is to either hit the "Send/Receive" button or to hit "F9" key on your keyboard. You can adjust the Send/Receive settings in Outlook to automatically synchronize at whatever interval you like. I set mine to 5 minutes. The instructions for doing this varies with the version of Outlook so I won't post them here, since people can use "Help" from within Outlook to search on "Send & Receive Settings".

Unfortunately, Windows Live has not synced with my phone and I have no idea why or how to force a sync. Within the contact app I click on Sync SNS, but nothing happens. I have a few contacts in Outlook that are not on my phone and vice versa, so I'll know when it actually does sync. In the settings for the Hotmail account on the phone I have Contacts checked, but I am not syncing my calendar or my e-mail. Does e-mail syncing need to be on for the other items to sync?

I'm not sure what the problem is. There may be some differences between phones, apps, or versions of Android. I'm running Android 2.2 on my LG Optimus. (You need Android 2.2 or newer to syncrhonize contacts & calendar with Hotmail.) I don't have a "Sync SNS" option in my contacts app. Perhaps try this... From the homescreen, hit the settings button and select settings, and go to "Accounts & sync". Your Hotmail/Live account should be there and should say "Sync is ON". From there, if you go into the Hotmail/Live account's settings you should be able to choose to set your "Email check frequency" to "Never". If you go back up to the settings for your Hotmail account, you can independently checkmark the boxes next to "Sync Contacts" and "Sync Calendar". If you remove and then add the checkmark to "Sync Contacts" it will force a synchronization and you should briefly see the circular arrow icon showing that it's synchronizing with the Hotmail/Live servers.

 

[Miami_Son]

I didn't realize that you could set up Hotmail as a POP account in Outlook.

You can if you know how.

From within Outlook, you can manually force a synchronization with Hotmail/Windows Live (the same way that you would send/receive email) which is to either hit the "Send/Receive" button or to hit "F9" key on your keyboard. You can adjust the Send/Receive settings in Outlook to automatically synchronize at whatever interval you like. I set mine to 5 minutes.

So, every time Outlook does a Send/Receive, whether manually or automatically, it will also sync contact and calendar data to Windows Live? I got my one and only sync from Outlook to Windows Live at 1:05 this afternoon (according to Server Report). I have not been able to get another no matter what I try.

I'm not sure what the problem is. There may be some differences between phones, apps, or versions of Android. I'm running Android 2.2 on my LG Optimus. (You need Android 2.2 or newer to syncrhonize contacts & calendar with Hotmail.) I don't have a "Sync SNS" option in my contacts app. Perhaps try this... From the homescreen, hit the settings button and select settings, and go to "Accounts & sync". Your Hotmail/Live account should be there and should say "Sync is ON". From there, if you go into the Hotmail/Live account's settings you should be able to choose to set your "Email check frequency" to "Never". If you go back up to the settings for your Hotmail account, you can independently checkmark the boxes next to "Sync Contacts" and "Sync Calendar". If you remove and then add the checkmark to "Sync Contacts" it will force a synchronization and you should briefly see the circular arrow icon showing that it's synchronizing with the Hotmail/Live servers.

I'm also running Froyo 2.2, albeit on a custom ROM. As a test I put a new contact in Outlook and on the phone to see if it is syncing both ways. I've tried what you said on the phone and although I see the sync circle momentarily, nothing actually gets synced. And no matter what I try I can't get my Outlook or my phone calendars to sync with Windows Live. Right now my calendar is syncing via Outlook to Google, which I have now turned off trying to sort this out. Any help appreciated.

 

[Miami_Son]

OK, signing out of Windows Live and back in got the contact I created on my phone into my contacts in WL, but it did not get it to sync with Outlook on my PC. I closed Outlook and restarted to see if I'd get the same result, but it didn't and now a half hour later the server status still says "Connecting" on all three items. I really need to have contact data flow both ways between PC and phone. The Outlook plug-in for Calendar data has been working flawlessly for me for months, can't understand why M$ can't just do the same for Contact data.

 

[Redflea]

I've got this working on my wife's phone, as far as I can tell (she has a Droid X2).

In the process had to update the Outlook connector plug-in on her PC. I did the following:

1. Removed her Hotmail account from Outlook.
2. Used the Outlook connector plug-in menu to add the account back. At that point I was prompted to update the connector plug-in.
3. Re-added her Hotmail account.

Went to phone:

1. Removed previously added Hotmail account (which had been added as an Email account).
2. Re-Added Hotmail account - but used the "Corporate Sync" account type so the account has ActiveSync support - and used m.hotmail.com as the server when prompted to enter it (phone couldn't get the server name automatically). The instructions here that you posted provide any info required: How to setup Hotmail on Android Phones

After adding the account, I checked settings to ensure that email/contacts/calendar were all checked for syncing, and confirmed in Contacts via the Display option in the menu that the Hotmail account was selected for display.

I looked in Contacts and her Hotmail accounts are appearing there now. She doesn't use the Hotmail calendar at all, but confirmed it's listed in the available calendars, and am able to sync US Holidays from her Hotmail account to the phone. I entered an event on her phone but haven't seen it on her Hotmail account on the PC browser yet (been a minute or so). I'll post back if it shows up or not...

An event entered on the Hotmail calendar on her PC browser showed up on the phone immediately.
If i edit that event the changes show up on the PC immediately.

But events added on the phone calendar don't show up on the calendar on the PC.

Seems the same w/Contacts - added on PC syncs to phone right away, edits sync back. Added on phone doesn't seem to sync back.

My wife can live w/these limitations for now, since she rarely (i.e., never) adds contacts on her phone, but will have to figure out if I have missed a setting or if there is a glitch.

This solves a problem for my wife, as she prefers to use Windows Live Mail w/her hotmail account on her computer, and keep her personal contacts there, so now she has those contacts sync'd to her phone automatically.

Or to put it more succinctly - Suhweet!!

THanks, RazzMaTazz for posting this - perfecto! Take a gold star out of petty cash.

 

[Still.Dead]

RazzMaTazz

The method you discuss doesn't actually allow you to sync Outlook & Android - you're syncing Android with Hotmail, just that Hotmail is viewed inside Outlook.

This is a completly different thing to using an existing corporate email address; what you've detailed is simply copying all your existing Outlook contacts, calendar entries etc. into a new hotmail address - any incoming or outgoing email from the original corporate Outlook email address isn't handled in any way - this is where the demand for Outlook syncing arises.

Your 'solution' is a very neat way for single users to use the extra features provided by Outlook, but remains at the core a Hotmail sync.

What people are looking for is a way to manage existing corporate email on a non-WindowsCE platform. Unfortunately Microsoft (understandably) don't want you to do this...

 

[Still.Dead]

MyPhoneExplorer overwrites (i.e. effectively deletes) all other less commonly used Outlook fields from the contacts on the PC, and therefore irreparably damages the Outlook contacts on the PC!

This only happens if you don't set up the MPE sync paramters correctly before you do your first sync... and to be fair, MPE can't sync what it can't see.

MPE is the best freeware I've come across so far for corporate Outlook users to sync with so far. Yes there are some limitations, but these are minor and there are workarounds.

 

[Miami_Son]

I give up. I've tried everything I can think of to get this to work, but it just refuses. The one and only sync I got was from the phone to Windows Live. I can not get a sync from Outlook to WL or from WL to Outlook or from WL to the phone. When I look at the Outlook Connector status in Outlook it just says "Connecting" and clicking Server Report shows nothing other than a successful login. In looking at the settings on the phone for Corporate under Server Settings, Contacts and Calendar specifically say "Also sync from this account", which makes me think it will only ever sync to WL and not from it. I've tried putting dummy entries in Outlook, WL and on the phone to see which sync and the one I placed on the phone synced to WL, nothing else did. I really wish I still had the simple functionality of Active Sync that I had on my WinMo phone, but Android just does so many other things better that I guess I have to live with this. I was a MPE user, but experienced the same issues of contact info not syncing and having contacts get deleted. I tried and was using Android Manager, but it is a pain in the ass to use and not at all user friendly. Oh well, the search continues...

 

[RazzMaTazz]

Miami_Son: I'm not sure what the problem is. Please make sure that you have the latest version of Outlook Hotmail Connector. This works perfectly for me. I can only imagine the the problem is with Outlook Hotmail Connector or some account setting.

 

[Miami_Son]

Miami_Son: I'm not sure what the problem is. Please make sure that you have the latest version of Outlook Hotmail Connector. This works perfectly for me. I can only imagine the the problem is with Outlook Hotmail Connector or some account setting.

I installed it yesterday when I got the link to your post. Can't get any newer than that, can you?

 

[RazzMaTazz]

An event entered on the Hotmail calendar on her PC browser showed up on the phone immediately.
If i edit that event the changes show up on the PC immediately.

But events added on the phone calendar don't show up on the calendar on the PC.

Seems the same w/Contacts - added on PC syncs to phone right away, edits sync back. Added on phone doesn't seem to sync back.

Contacts and calendar events added to the phone (or edited on the phone) do synchronize back to Outlook through the Hotmail servers. How quickly that happens depends on your synchronization settings in Outlook and on the Android device. I've got Outlook set to sync every 5 minutes but I hit the F9 key if I want it to manually force a synchronization with the Hotmail servers. I've got my Android phone syncrhonization frequency set for "Push" but I'm not sure if that means that it immediately pushes changes to the Hotmail server. In my experiments, phone based changes seem to appear on the Hotmail severs within seconds, at which time they're available to Outlook at the next Outlook-Hotmail synchronization.

 

[RazzMaTazz]

The method you discuss doesn't actually allow you to sync Outlook & Android - you're syncing Android with Hotmail, just that Hotmail is viewed inside Outlook.

I don't understand your point. You view Hotmail contacts, calendar, and email inside of Outlook just like you view Gmail contacts and calendar inside of Outlook, just like you view Yahoo Mail inside Outlook, just like you view corporate Exchange server contacts, calendar, and email inside Outlook. That's what Outlook does. It views stuff on servers. And if you so choose, it automatically downloads and saves a copy on your PC.

This is a completely different thing to using an existing corporate email address

I don't know what you're using for corporate email (POP, IMAP, MAPI, or Exchange Server) but you can still use your corporate email address and retrieve your corporate mail however you're currently doing so. Adding Hotmail as a sync repository for contacts and calendar has nothing to do with how you get your email. IMAP, MAPI, and Exchange Servers synchronize email with Outlook and Android. POP does not. If you're using POP mail in the corporate environment, your IT guy should be shot. Heck, considering all of the free IMAP and MAPI mail services out there, I think it's crazy to use POP for personal use too. I used to use Yahoo mail but I switched to Gmail because Gmail offered IMAP email access, whereas Yahoo only offered POP. Now Yahoo Mail offers IMAP too.

what you've detailed is simply copying all your existing Outlook contacts, calendar entries etc. into a new hotmail address

You're not copying them into a Hotmail address, you're copying them into a Hotmail account, that you've added to Outlook. Once you've done that, you just use that Hotmail account's folders for contacts & calendar, and then everything is synchronized with your Android phone. Similarly, if I join a company and if I want to take my contacts with me to that company, I can also choose to copy my existing contacts to the corporate Exchange Server.

any incoming or outgoing email from the original corporate Outlook email address isn't handled in any way - this is where the demand for Outlook syncing arises.

You can continue to access your corporate email, however you currently access it (POP, IMAP, MAPI, or Exchange Server). And again, since IMAP, MAPI and Exchange servers all synchronize email with client devices, if you're using POP mail in the corporate environment your IT guy should be shot.

Your 'solution' is a very neat way for single users to use the extra features provided by Outlook, but remains at the core a Hotmail sync.

Yes, I was just trying to let people know that (unlike Gmail, Yahoo Mail, et al) people can use Hotmail to synchronize contacts and calendar between Outlook and Android devices. People like me want to be able to do that, automatically, for free.

What people are looking for is a way to manage existing corporate email on a non-WindowsCE platform. Unfortunately Microsoft (understandably) don't want you to do this...

I don't know what you mean by "corporate email" but Microsoft Exchange Servers (which are the ubiquitous gold standard in the corporate environment) synchronize email, contacts, & calendar with Android. Microsoft loves selling Outlook & Exchange Servers. Microsoft is not the problem. Google is. Google wants Google Apps to replace Microsoft Office, and they want access to all of your valuable contacts information so they're not interested in helping people synchronize their Outlook contacts with their phone.

MPE is the best freeware I've come across so far for corporate Outlook users to sync with so far. Yes there are some limitations, but these are minor and there are workarounds.

I'm confused. You don't want to use Hotmail servers as a seamless, automatic synchronization intermediary for contacts and calendar, but you're willing to manually invoke MyPhoneExplorer as an intermediary.

 

[RazzMaTazz]

Miami_Son: In the bottom status bar of Outlook, I see "Connected to Windows Live Hotmail" not "Connecting". Obviously your Outlook is not connecting with Windows Live account. Please make sure that you have the right username & password. As Redflea mentions above, you may need to delete the Hotmail account, restart Outlook (if not the whole PC), and then in Outlook, recreate the Hotmail account, being careful to create it as a "MAPI" account or an "Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector" account (depending on which version of Outlook you use).

When you create contacts or calendar events on the phone, be sure to create them under the Hotmail account.

 

[Miami_Son]

Miami_Son: In the bottom status bar of Outlook, I see "Connected to Windows Live Hotmail" not "Connecting". Obviously you Outlook is not connecting with Windows Live account. Please make sure that you have the right username & password. As Redflea mentions above, you may need to delete the Hotmail account, restart Outlook (if not the whole PC), and then in Outlook, recreate the Hotmail account, being careful to create it as a "MAPI" account or an "Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector" account (depending on which version of Outlook you use).

When you create contacts or calendar events on the phone, be sure to create them under the Hotmail account.

RAZZ, I've done all that several times. In the bottom right in Outlook 2007 it shows Windows Live whenever I'm in a Hotmail account. You have to click on Server Status to see if you are Connecting or Connected for Mail, Calendar and Contacts. The 2 times it actually said Connected no data was synced. And you are confusing the issue with your terminology. There is no Sync command in Outlook 2007. There is only Send/Receive. Is that what you click to initiate a sync? I have mine set to do that every 15 minutes. No joy. And on the phone there is no Hotmail Account, it is referred to as Corporate and there are no synchronization settings for Contacts and Calendar beyond turning them on or off. Only the Mail lets you set how often it will sync. That's why I asked you earlier if Mail has to be set to sync for everything else to work. I do not want to sync my Hotmail mailbox to my phone, only Calendar and Contacts. How exactly do you create a Calendar event or Contact under the Hotmail account? I open up my default Calendar and my default Contact apps and see no choice of one or the other. The Contacts on the phone that came from WL have the Corporate logo to their right, but creating a new one doesn't ask me where I want it created.

And people prefer MPE because it is a local sync connection via USB. Some businesses do not allow their Exchange clients to sync over the web, via wifi or Bluetooth due to privacy and security concerns.

 

[Still.Dead]

I'm confused.

I would certainly say you are - either that or enjoy flogging a dead horse.

You obviously refuse to listen to, or are misunderstanding what people are telling you.

Let's try and make it a little simpler:

Let's say I work for a company called BigCorp.

Let's say that BigCorp has issued me with a corporate (company) email address of company.rep@bigcorp.com

All the staff in BigCorp and all the customers of BigCorp use this email address to contact me, and this is the address I use for official BigCorp company business.

Let's also say that the IT guys in BigCorp, either for budgetary considerations or because they're luddites, don't use MS Exchange, just a vanilla MS Outlook implementation.

How then do I use the company.rep@bigcorp.com email address from my Android device?

 

[Still.Dead]

Some businesses do not allow their Exchange clients to sync over the web, via wifi or Bluetooth due to privacy and security concerns.

Thank you Miami_Son.

And by the way, RazzMaTazz - no-one but you has mentioned POP email in a corporate environment.

And I do realise the difference between viewing a hotmail Live account from within Outlook and handling a 'native' Outlook mail / calendar entry etc., for there is a difference.

The simplest way to illustrate this (as you don't seem to 'get' it) is in the case of junk email;

If I receive junk email in Outlook that is sent 'natively' to my 'corporate' Outlook address, I can handle the 'acceptance' of mail that is incorrectly labelled as junk from within Outlook itself.

If I receive mail that is incorrectly labelled as junk sent to the Hotmail/Live address, when I try to mark the email as 'not junk', Outlook will open a separate Explorer window, go to Hotmail (or Live) on the web and make me make the correction there, NOT from within Outlook.

This demonstrates what I said initially; that Outlook is allowing you to 'view' Hotmail / Live email, but is not handling it 'natively'

I can draw pictures if you like...

 

[RazzMaTazz]

RAZZ, I've done all that several times. In the bottom right in Outlook 2007 it shows Windows Live whenever I'm in a Hotmail account. You have to click on Server Status to see if you are Connecting or Connected for Mail, Calendar and Contacts. The 2 times it actually said Connected no data was synced. And you are confusing the issue with your terminology. There is no Sync command in Outlook 2007. There is only Send/Receive. Is that what you click to initiate a sync?

The Hotmail account on your phone should show up as a "Corporate" account, like you said. From Outlook's perspective "synchronization" is the same as "Send/Receive" (or hitting the F9 button) so yes, that's what you click to manually initiate a "sync".

When you do a Send/Receive and "View Send/Receive Progress", may I assume that you get send/receive errors for the Hotmail account, but not your other accounts?

Only the Mail lets you set how often it will sync. That's why I asked you earlier if Mail has to be set to sync for everything else to work. I do not want to sync my Hotmail mailbox to my phone, only Calendar and Contacts.

I just ran an experiment for you. I set the "Email check frequency" to "Never" and then edited a contact on my phone. Without manually synchronizing the contacts from my phone, the edited contact synchronized to Hotmail (and Outlook) within about 2 minutes. (I didn't stay on top of it or time it, so it may have happened faster.) So it is possible to synchronize Hotmail contacts and/or calendar without synchronizing Hotmail email. It may be worth noting that after I did this, (under "Account & Sync settings") the Hotmail account still indicates the green circular sync icon and displays "Sync is ON".

How exactly do you create a Calendar event or Contact under the Hotmail account? I open up my default Calendar and my default Contact apps and see no choice of one or the other. The Contacts on the phone that came from WL have the Corporate logo to their right, but creating a new one doesn't ask me where I want it created.

Since I've added 3 email accounts on my stock Android 2.2 LG Optimus, when I go into the stock "Contacts" app, hit the "settings" button and select "New contact", a screen appears that says...
"Create contact under account:"
My_Name@gmail.com
My_Name2@gmail.com
My_Name@Hotmail.com
(Of course, I wrote "My_Name" here instead of my real email address.) I then select My_Name@Hotmail.com in order to create an automatically-synchronized "Hotmail" contact. Doing so puts me in the standard contact creation/editing screen for this new "Corporate Contact".

If you are syncing & viewing multiple calendars (and you don't have to sync multiple calendars per the instructions in my original post) then when you create a calendar event you should see an option inside the event for "Calendar:" with a drop-down arrow/menu for the calendar account. (E.g. Your Gmail account and Hotmail account). You simply select the account/calendar for which you want to create the "event". If you don't sync & view multiple calendars, then you won't likely have the option to select from multiple calendars. If I only enable one calendar/account then on my stock calendar app, then I still see the "Calendar" option/drop-down menu, but it only offers one "choice" of calendars.

And people prefer MPE because it is a local sync connection via USB. Some businesses do not allow their Exchange clients to sync over the web, via wifi or Bluetooth due to privacy and security concerns.

I see. It's unfortunate that some IT departments implement such stupid policies. I've worked for a few high-tech companies big and small, including some companies with world-class cyber-security (even including a defense contractor) and they all allowed remote synchronization of Exchange clients over WiFi, etc.

 

[greenrobotics]

What about the Funambol sync portal?

 

[RazzMaTazz]

I'm confused.

I would certainly say you are - either that or enjoy flogging a dead horse.

You obviously refuse to listen to, or are misunderstanding what people are telling you.

you don't seem to 'get' it

I can draw pictures if you like...

Wow! I'm trying to help people, for free, and you're being incredibly rude (to put it nicely).

I'm sure it's quite clear to you what you mean, but it's not clear to me because you failed to mention ANY of the details about your corporate email system! I don't know if you're using POP, IMAP, Exchange, or something else. (So I guessed at POP based on the sparse information you provided.) I don't know what policies your IT department has implemented. You still haven't told me any of that stuff. But for some reason you insult me as though I'm an idiot for not knowing the details of your particular corporate IT environment. Wow!

If you can't remotely access email or your IT department puts unusual restrictions on your remote access, bummer for you and your coworkers. If the Hotmail solution doesn't work for you, too bad. If you read my original post, you'll see that I proposed the Hotmail solution primarily as a free way to synchronize contacts and calendar without an Exchange server, not as a way to overcome the limitations imposed by every conceivable corporate IT system. I've worked for several high-tech companies here in Silicon Valley, big & small, including a defense contractor, all of whom had world-class cyber-security and extremely valuable, crown-jewel-intellectual property on their servers, and all of whom enabled remote email access, usually through an Exchange Server. I dare say that's the norm. But I guess since you have such limited technical knowledge and experience, you think everybody is supposed to know what you mean when you write "corporate email". And that's fine. I can understand that you have limited technical knowledge but I can't understand your rudeness.

 

[Still.Dead]

Wow! I'm trying to help people, for free, and you're being incredibly rude (to put it nicely).

.

Unbelievable!

You should go back and re-read all of your replies to others on this thread; your patronising, arrogant attitude (as well as your inaccuracies) are what prompted me to join this forum in the first place; any rudeness on my part is simply a reflection of your own attitude.

You go on about your employment 'experience' as though you're unique - personally I've had nearly twenty years in the IT sector, so I don't need lessons from you. Your replies to others are condescending and unhelpful.
Frankly, I 'dumbed things down' as I thought you were a schoolkid based on the nature of your replies; you're making an awful lot of assumptions about my 'technical abilities' and the lack thereof - can't you see your pride is your downfall - you need to eat a whole lot of humble pie...

Your inability to understand the difference between 'corporate' and 'private' email implementations highlights your own limitations, not mine. Your assertions that defense companies allow effectively unfettered external access to their servers is completely at odds to my own personal experience.

Your 'solution' is nothing of the sort; it does not address cross-platform mail syncing, which is what people are searching for; you chide others for using MPE as an intermediary, but cannot grasp the idea that using your soon-to-be-patented method is itself using an intermediary, in this case Hotmail... Ironic, really.

I look forward to hearing your next unbalanced tirade...

 

[Still.Dead]

I proposed the Hotmail solution primarily as a free way to synchronize contacts and calendar.

Your thread title doesn't say this; it states: "We can now synchronize Outlook & Android without a 3rd party app or Exchange Server". The implication is that your method will fully sync Outlook.

It has, unfortunately, misled an awful lot of people, I would suggest you alter the title to clearly describe what you are offering.

 

[tboned]

Razz:

Thanks for posting the info that you did. Ignore all the haters.

Quick question: No matter how many times and in different ways I add the Hotmail account to Outlook 2010, the new account never shows its own unique calendar and contacts. There's inbox and such, but no contacts/calendar.

In my current .pst I have several email accounts all feeding into it, so I only have one "inbox", showing emails from several accounts. Do you think that having my Outlook setup like this is causing the problem? I *really* like your solution here, but I'm stuck. Have you seen this behavior (no calendar/contacts) in your testing?

 

[Redflea]

Contacts and calendar events added to the phone (or edited on the phone) do synchronize back to Outlook through the Hotmail servers. How quickly that happens depends on your synchronization settings in Outlook and on the Android device. I've got Outlook set to sync every 5 minutes but I hit the F9 key if I want it to manually force a synchronization with the Hotmail servers. I've got my Android phone syncrhonization frequency set for "Push" but I'm not sure if that means that it immediately pushes changes to the Hotmail server. In my experiments, phone based changes seem to appear on the Hotmail severs within seconds, at which time they're available to Outlook at the next Outlook-Hotmail synchronization.

Thanks...my settings were set to Push sync, and I was looking at the Hotmail calendar on the web - it never picked up the events I added that night, just checked and they still aren't there...

As noted, sync from the Hotmail calendar to the phone was almost immediate.

 

[Redflea]

<snip>

How exactly do you create a Calendar event or Contact under the Hotmail account? I open up my default Calendar and my default Contact apps and see no choice of one or the other. The Contacts on the phone that came from WL have the Corporate logo to their right, but creating a new one doesn't ask me where I want it created.

<snip>

Check Settings>Contact Storage for the setting that controls where new contacts are created - if you've set one of them as the default you won't get prompted...I haven't set a default and am prompted every time I create a contact if I want it in any of my Gmail/Hotmail/Exchange accounts...

 

[Marvintheparanoid]

You can also use the grouping ability with this method:

By default, MSN creates 'Friends', 'Favorites' and 'Other Contacts' and you can choose which of these are displayed on your phone.

You can create additional groups in the MSN webpage and add/remove contacts from that group.

As the final bonus, you can also create/manage these groups from within Outlook - each group is a Distribution List and you add/remove members to populate this group.

Very nice.