My struggle with Outlook.com, WP and Windows 8.1

[brunoadduarte]

So I have an Outlook.com account. This account was created long ago in the golden days of MSN Messenger and later, WLM. However, this account was created with the old .NET Passport or whatever the hell it was called and I created it with my GMail address. This account went on to become my MS account therefore encompassing all my MS services, and to this day the e-mail address on it is said GMail a nothing else.

For the sake of simplicity I had been using my calendar and e-mail on GMail itself and the old WLM account was just a place-holder. Then came Windows 8, WP and MS accounts...

This is my setup right now:

- I get e-mail on the GMail account, but the MS account is set to not get or send anything. This is because a while ago, Outlook.com would only check GMail every half hour for new e-mail and that didn't do me;
- The calendar is on the MS account. This is because Windows 8.1 calendar doesn't get GMail calendars (I honestly don't understand why they didn't get it to work by now if they managed it on WP);
- My contacts are on both accounts

Therefore I have two accounts with the same e-mail on the phone and on my PC. I wanted to simplify this... On the PC I use the stock e-mail and calendar apps and on the phone I use Cal and the stock e-mail.

Solution 1 - I get a calendar app for Win8.1 that supports GMail calendars and move the calendars to GMail. Problem with this... There are about five calendar apps in the store and they all SUCK and are ****-ugly.

Solution 2 - I set the MS account to receive my e-mail from Gmail and bare with the half hour checks, which sucks... A lot;

Solution 3 - I move everything to Gmail, use Office's Outlook and be done with it. Problem is if I ever get a Windows tablet, I'll have the same problem all over again (my view of tablet usage implies the simplicity of the Metro apps for the most of it, hence the problem). Not to mention the lack of the live tiles for e-mail and calendar on the Start Screen

So... What should I do?

 

[Chris_Kez]

Is there a way to just forward your Gmail directly to Outlook? That is, have Gmail *push* as soon as mail arrives, rather than waiting for Outlook to *pull* every 30 minutes or whatever. I'm not a Gmail user myself, though. Perhaps this is not an option or it breaks some key functionality.

 

[realwarder]

Pretty sure you can forward emails from Gmail in the options

 

[Noahma]

For the calendar aspect, you can export all your calendar data and then import it into the outlook calendar. And then continue using outlooks calendar instead of the Gmail one. I did it and have not looked back.

 

[brunoadduarte]

Is there a way to just forward your Gmail directly to Outlook? That is, have Gmail *push* as soon as mail arrives, rather than waiting for Outlook to *pull* every 30 minutes or whatever. I'm not a Gmail user myself, though. Perhaps this is not an option or it breaks some key functionality.

I can do that, but I'd need an alias tied to the MS account with an outlook.com address to be able to forward the Gmail content to that address. Sadly, I don't want to do that.

For the calendar aspect, you can export all your calendar data and then import it into the outlook calendar. And then continue using outlooks calendar instead of the Gmail one. I did it and have not looked back.

But that's what I do. I get e-mail on Gmail, but my calendar is on the MS account... What I want is to find a way to simplify this (everything on just one side) and have it working on WP and Windows.

 

[realwarder]

Reading you first post, not sure why you don't simply add two accounts.

Your primary phone account can be your Gmail named live.com passport which you can then check to sync calendars. Then add a second google email one for your Gmail.

 

[RichardBurt]

Are both gmail accounts the same email address?

 

[brunoadduarte]

Reading you first post, not sure why you don't simply add two accounts.

Your primary phone account can be your Gmail named live.com passport which you can then check to sync calendars. Then add a second google email one for your Gmail.

I'm thinking I didn't make myself properly clear.

On the phone, I have the Gmail set-up to recieve e-mail. I also have the MS account which also uses the Gmail address but only gets the calendar automatically. However, I don't use the stock calendar app on the phone, I use Cal. But the phone is not the problem, because whether my e-mails+calendars are only on Gmail or only on the MS account, the phone can handle it.

The problem is the PC because I can't have everything on just one place, since the calendar on Win8.1 doesn't support Gmail calendars if I get everything on Gmail. And if I get everything on the MS account, Outlook.com won't get the e-mail from Google as soon as I get it on Gmail (or at least it didn't).

 

[Peter Kraaijestein]

You have made wrong choices in the past, start with MS and stat with MS.

 

[brunoadduarte]

You have made wrong choices in the past, start with MS and stat with MS.

Sorry, but that doesn't help at all.

 

[realwarder]

I'm thinking I didn't make myself properly clear.

On the phone, I have the Gmail set-up to recieve e-mail. I also have the MS account which also uses the Gmail address but only gets the calendar automatically. However, I don't use the stock calendar app on the phone, I use Cal. But the phone is not the problem, because whether my e-mails+calendars are only on Gmail or only on the MS account, the phone can handle it.

The problem is the PC because I can't have everything on just one place, since the calendar on Win8.1 doesn't support Gmail calendars if I get everything on Gmail. And if I get everything on the MS account, Outlook.com won't get the e-mail from Google as soon as I get it on Gmail (or at least it didn't).

If you enable forwarding from gmail to outlook.com and add an alias in outlook.com then email will basically appear at the same time. This is how I used to use Outlook.com with gmail.

In fact, since the phone (and Windows) also then connect to Outlook.com as an ActiveSync account that runs as a push account which is great - Google accounts other than the business are pull from Windows otherwise.

So... forward the email to your Outlook.com account and just read email/calendar from there.

 

[brunoadduarte]

If you enable forwarding from gmail to outlook.com and add an alias in outlook.com then email will basically appear at the same time. This is how I used to use Outlook.com with gmail.

In fact, since the phone (and Windows) also then connect to Outlook.com as an ActiveSync account that runs as a push account which is great - Google accounts other than the business are pull from Windows otherwise.

So... forward the email to your Outlook.com account and just read email/calendar from there.

Thanks but that's what I didn't want to do.

Oh well, I guess I'm stuck this way. Thanks a lot for trying to help guys :smile:

 

[RichardBurt]

If your outlook.com and gmail.com email addresses are the same then the only way around this problem would be by messing about with the mx records at googles end.

Unless you use google apps with your gmail account then there is *no* way that you will be able to resolve this issue.

 

[Chris_Kez]

Thanks but that's what I didn't want to do.

Oh well, I guess I'm stuck this way. Thanks a lot for trying to help guys :smile:

Not to be impolite, but I have to ask why you don't want to just forward Gmail to Outlook. It sounds like this would solve your problem.

 

[brunoadduarte]

Not to be impolite, but I have to ask why you don't want to just forward Gmail to Outlook. It sounds like this would solve your problem.

Fair question.

Because that would mean having to have another alias (which I really don't want to create as I already have enough e-mail addresses, each with its specific use) and bear with the "on behalf of" stuff. It's a way around it but it's not clean IMO, in the way that I don't want that presented to the person receiving my e-mails.

 

[HerronScott]

Fair question.

Because that would mean having to have another alias (which I really don't want to create as I already have enough e-mail addresses, each with its specific use) and bear with the "on behalf of" stuff. It's a way around it but it's not clean IMO, in the way that I don't want that presented to the person receiving my e-mails.

Would you get that on behalf of in this case though since your Outlook.com primary is the same Gmail e-mail address? It's certainly worth testing.

Scott

 

[rfulton]

I understand your pain. I have an ISP email account for over 12 years, and I would hate to give up. I use Outlook on my PC. I have a 365 subscription and I have a WP8 phone. Because of my 365 account I have unlimited chat and remote support from Microsoft, and they helped me with the more complex aspects of the email migration. Since I do not have access to Exchange server services; I was advised to utilize ActiveSync via Outlook.com with 2 factor authentication. I was able to combine contacts, calendars, between devices and keep them in Sync. I elected to have my ISP forward mail to outlook.com and then have outlook on my PC display both my outlook.com and email addresses. I am not sure if I will ever completely give up the out email address. I am very satisfied with the end result. So far I see no downside to this arrangement. good luck