Gmail or Outlook

[FredW3]

Outlook.com and Hotmail/Live all support activesync...for free. Set up your email as though it is "Exchange" and it'll work perfectly.

Is there a version I am not finding?
Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 is the latest sync software release for Windows Mobile-powered devices. ActiveSync provides a great synchronization experience with Windows?-powered PCs and Microsoft Outlook right out of the box. Note: Microsoft ActiveSync works only with Windows XP SP2 or earlier.

 

[squire777]

One thing I always find funny is how some people act as if gmail is more legit and more professional than hotmail /live mail /outlook mail. They are all web-based email and the difference between them isn't much these days.

 

[Laura Knotek]

One thing I always find funny is how some people act as if gmail is more legit and more professional than hotmail /live mail /outlook mail. They are all web-based email and the difference between them isn't much these days.

The only reason I prefer Gmail is because it uses IMAP, not POP3. I run Linux in addition to Windows. Hotmail/Outlook only supports POP3 in the Evolution client; that is a deal-breaker for me.

Any other IMAP option other than Gmail would not be free.

 

[unstoppablekem]

Also, there are issues with gmail on wp8. So I suggest outlook.

 

[jwinch2]

Is there a version I am not finding?
Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 is the latest sync software release for Windows Mobile-powered devices. ActiveSync provides a great synchronization experience with Windows?-powered PCs and Microsoft Outlook right out of the box. Note: Microsoft ActiveSync works only with Windows XP SP2 or earlier.

Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector overview - Outlook - Office.com

Try that. It works perfectly for me. I am running Windows 7 and WP8, and I use Outlook.com as my e-mail client. My wife is running the same thing, albeit the 64 bit version of Windows 7 and she uses hotmail.com as her e-mail client. It syncs our e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, etc. with zero issues to date. I find it far easier, once it is set up, then gmail, etc. on my android device ever was.

 

[Talderon]

I made the switch the day I started at Microsoft when I got early access to it.

Back then, I was using Android and found it to be quite easy to take out GMail and use Outlook.com mail exclusively.

Now that I am on WP8, I an even more happy that I made the switch. Microsoft has done things in such a way that they would PREFER you to use outlook.com, but, they don't take anything away if you don't.

Love it!

 

[thatotherdude24]

Also, there are issues with gmail on wp8. So I suggest outlook.

I noticed this also! When I delete an email from my gmail account it goes to my 'all mail' folder and not trash. I can't figure out how to fix it, it's kind of annoying.

 

[brmiller1976]

Remember that, in general, Google will ensure that any service it offers "breaks" on Microsoft software and hardware, as an effort to try and bring people (and their valuable personal data) into the Google ecosystem to be resold to advertisers.

Gmail will never be completely usable on Microsoft platforms.

 

[FredW3]

I am using hotmail connector, but all it is doing is displaying my live.com calendar with my outlook calendar. I am wanting to have my outlook calendar update my live.com calendar. Currently, I am able to copy the appointments to my live.com calendar, but would rather not have to manually copy and manually sent/recieve to live.com.

I am looking at a product called companionlink that looks like it can do this, but I was hoping Microsoft would offer this functionality.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I noticed this also! When I delete an email from my gmail account it goes to my 'all mail' folder and not trash. I can't figure out how to fix it, it's kind of annoying.

This works for me on Windows Phone 7.5. I don't have a Windows Phone 8, so I cannot say if it works or not. How to really REALLY delete Google Gmail emails on Windows Phone 7

 

[theprawn]

To change the delete behavior to actually delete, go here: http://m.google.com/sync

 

[jwinch2]

I am using hotmail connector, but all it is doing is displaying my live.com calendar with my outlook calendar. I am wanting to have my outlook calendar update my live.com calendar. Currently, I am able to copy the appointments to my live.com calendar, but would rather not have to manually copy and manually sent/recieve to live.com.

I am looking at a product called companionlink that looks like it can do this, but I was hoping Microsoft would offer this functionality.

You can already do this without companion link. In fact, I used companion link with android, and this is far far easier and more functional. Here's how to make it happen.

Within outlook in your calendar tab, you should see multiple calendars now that you have them linked to your outlook.com account. It should look something like:

Birthday Calendar
Calendar (This is the calendar for your desktop outlook that you have been using)
Fred's Calendar (this is the calendar from outlook.com/hotmail.com/live.com)
US Holidays

You need to copy all of your information from the native outlook calendar (labeled "Calendar"), to the one designated for your .com calendar (Fred's Calendar). This can easily be done from within the desktop outlook client by clicking on calendar and then going to the "view" tab in the ribbon at the top of the screen. From there, select "change view", and then choose "list". Copy all of your appointments from the "Calendar" just like you would an excel spreadsheet and then paste them in "Your name Calendar", which should also be in the "list" view setting. Once that is done, you can change your view setting back to "calendar"

Then, from now on, un-check the box for the native desktop outlook (calendar) and check the one for the hotmail/live/outlook.com calendar (Fred's Calendar), and you are good to go. The old calendar will stay there, it will just be hidden from view. After that, just treat Fred's Calendar the same way you did your other calendar within outlook. Add all future new appointments to that calendar.

If you ever switch, just do the reverse and you will have all of your appointments back in the native desktop client calendar and can go from there.

This process should take less than 5 minutes and you will be good to go.

NOTE: It may take a couple of hours for all of your appointments to be synced between your desktop outlook, your live.com calendar, and your Windows Phone, particularly if you have many of them. Don't panic and don't think that something went wrong when appointments start showing up in your phone sporadically. Give it several hours to overnight to sync. I freaked out when I did this and thought it didn't work which caused me to have to go through the process again. Then the same thing happened and I just left it alone overnight and in the morning, everything was synced perfectly.

After that, it become a process of minutes when adding or deleting one or two appointments. Since my initial set up where I was trying to sync several years worth of appointments, I have had no problem at all and things sync very quickly.

I hope this helps! PM me if you have problems.

 

[Talderon]

Remember that, in general, Google will ensure that any service it offers "breaks" on Microsoft software and hardware, as an effort to try and bring people (and their valuable personal data) into the Google ecosystem to be resold to advertisers.

Gmail will never be completely usable on Microsoft platforms.

Microsoft on their Windows 8 OS (x86/x64/ARM(RT)) and Windows Phone 8 OS was developed for compliance to standards (this helps keep them out of court).

Google, however, have (kind of) admittedly tweaked their IMAP[SUP]2[/SUP] protocols to "add enhanced mail and calendar" experience for Android and their other services. Due to these tweaks, issues come up when using applications that are developed to compliancy to the published standards. This is why other Android Mail apps tend to have issues when using IMAP and Google Mail services.

You can't blame this one on Microsoft. They work to the standards and Google lets everyone blame the Windows Phone platform without saying a thing to bring people back to Android.

Here is one of many SOURCES.

This appears to be tied to Google?s non-standard implementation of IMAP[SUP]2[/SUP] and may depend on which method you use to set up Gmail. In other words, seeing as this problem just popped up, Google may have altered something on their backend in the last 48 hours resulting in these stability issues.

On Windows Phone 8 when you set up a Google Mail account you are offered two options: ?Email only? or ?Email, contacts and calendar?. That latter option is the push-IMAP2 version while ?Email only? is POP and will give you just 15-minute sync periods.

Although we have not yet verified we?re going to bet that the issue is due to Google?s ever-changing IMAP[SUP]2[/SUP] settings, which are having a severely negative impact on Windows Phone. Because of that we recommend users perhaps forgo the ?Email, contacts and calendar? option and just use ?Email only? as POP tends to be more stable.

This is one of the MANY reasons I switched to Outlook.com. I RELY in my phone and MS Outlook 2013 to work to manage all of my email. If Google is going to pull this crap to make sure the user experience is bad for their services on other platforms, I want no more part of them.

Thanks!

 

[brmiller1976]

At a previous employer, they switched to Google Docs for Business (including e-mail and calendar) because Google promised "100% compatible Microsoft Exchange services."

They NEVER delivered. Mail and calendar was a DISASTER. Using their "exchange compatible solution" with Outlook required bridging software (no joke) and didn't work at all on Macs. Phantom invitations, disappearing appointments, and the inability to accept an invitation from Windows Phones and iPhones was the norm. The ability to create an invitation from a mobile device vanished altogether outside of Android, and one could never be certain if his acceptance was received by the inviter or not. Worse, changes to appointments often never reached the user.

People who sent invitations from Outlook would end up sending empty e-mails with no details or ability to respond to anyone using "Exchange services" on their mobile devices (or anyone not using Outlook).

Those of us who rely on their calendars and mobile devices to stay connected and organized were completely screwed. It got so bad that entire parts of the company were simply unable to function at anything more than half speed.

When tech support inquiries came in complaining about all the lost functionality, Google responded with a "it should work" style message. Later, they recommended to our IT guy that we just switch everyone on Windows Outlook to the web and ban Windows Phones from our enterprise and mandate Android or iOS. Needless to say, this recommendation went very poorly... but alas, by that time the "migration" had been completed and the entire company wasn't about to go through another painful migration.

EVERYONE hated it -- even a lot of the Google fans. One of my recommendations in my exit interview prior to taking my new job was to fire Google and go back to a proper Exchange system due to all the stress and lost productivity it caused.

Google's mantra to "don't be evil" is more a rhetorical flourish than a belief or way of doing business.

 

[paulm187]

Outlook.com kicks ass, I've still got a Gmail account but that's because Google force you to create one if you had an android. I'm glad MS doesn't do that.

 

[Alistar Evans]

If someone is into webdesign or seo than gmail is like entry key for them for google and they can not quit it, outlook( hotmail) inother hand is good for personal use.

 

[phonegeeks]

I ditched Gmail for Outlook. I always thought that Gmail looked terrible despite its features. I only used it because Hotmail had become too slow and cumbersome with ads and whatnot. With Outlook, Microsoft has gone for a clean look which I love. All features likes Sweep etc have been carried over from Hotmail to Outlook so the transition was smooth. Now I only use Gmail for work and keep the Outlook ID for everything else.

 

[jfa1]

I switched to live mail when I got the 920. I am going to keep the email on live.com, but I may go back to gmail for the calendar. I can not find a decent free way to sync Outlook and live calendars. Google offers free software to sync, and it is a real shame that Google interfaces with Microsoft Outlook better than Microsoft.

If you import you calendar4 into9 outlook (I use 2007) in your out5look Calendar4 it will show a checked box for y calendar xxx@msn.com and everythging that I put in the calendar shows up on the phone. tasks do not work in the same way.

 

[Rudiepoo1]

New 920 owner and I've made the switch over to Outlook primarily as well. I love the new interface and everything sync's nicely to the 920.

 

[cedarlog]

[h=1]Outlook[/h]