Accessing Hotmail with Thunderbird

22 Nov 2003

Not too long ago I got an email from a reader of this weblog that he needed help setting up Thunderbird to read his emails. In the end, it turned out that he was given the wrong email account information by his ISP, so I didn’t provide any real assistance. As it is, he was pretty impressed (“enamored” was the word he used) with Thunderbird – always nice to see a convert. Except for one problem: it can’t access Hotmail accounts.

For that matter, Outlook Express and Outlook seem to be the only email clients that can access Microsoft’s Hotmail via its web service. And as it turns out, I have a Hotmail account too and used to access it in Outlook Express. We both needed a solution, excepting logging on to the Hotmail website to check for emails. What is so troublesome in logging on to the website? For one thing, the Hotmail website doesn’t really work in non-IE browsers. There is IE-only scripting involved in several portions, including the rich text editing and the adding of email recipients from a drop-down. And it bugs me terribly that the MSN Messenger application starts running whenever I log into the Hotmail website (it’s true – when you close the IE window for Hotmail, MSN Messenger exits).

I did the smartest (or should I say “only”) thing possible and Googled for a solution – it turned up this FAQ entry. Great news, then, since Hotmail Popper is a free application that really works just fine. One word of caution though: make absolutely sure you change your email account settings for the Hotmail account to “Leave messages on server” if you really want to do so before downloading any emails. If you’re using Thunderbird, go to Tools -> Account Settings and select your Hotmail account. Under Server Settings, check the box that says “Leave messages on server” and the box that says “Until I delete or move them from Inbox”, as shown in the screenshot below.

41 Responses to Accessing Hotmail with Thunderbird

Eric

August 3rd, 2004 at 5am

I would think the obvious solution is to not use Hotmail!

Who wants to use that Microsoft bed of Spam anyway?

Bloodflame

August 14th, 2004 at 7am

I really haven’t used Hotmail in so long since I don’t like it too much. However, my ISP is Sympatico High-Speed, and now that Sympatico and MSN are partnered, the email servers have changed. For some reason though, I’ve never been able to connect to the new email servers. In order to check my email, I’ve had to login from the Hotmail site. Being a Thunderbird user though, I needed a way to check my Sympatico mail through Thunderbird. I imagine some other people might be wondering how to do this, so I’m just confirming that Hotmail Popper works for .NET enabled Sympatico email addresses.

Giacomino

July 29th, 2004 at 4am

It is not true that only Outlook and Outlook express are the only ones able to access Hotmail accounts.
Entourage and Mail also work.

S. M. Mahbub Murshed

July 22nd, 2004 at 2am

I am tired of HotmailPopper. Can’t get it working with thunderbird 0.7.2

I got the following log entry.

2004-07-21 23:14:28 - PopSession::Server – +OK Ready when you are
2004-07-21 23:14:28 - PopSession::Client – CAPA
2004-07-21 23:14:28 - PopSession::Server – -ERR Don’t understand that command
2004-07-21 23:14:28 - PopSession::Client – USER udvranto@hotmail.com
2004-07-21 23:14:28 - PopSession::Server – +OK Present
2004-07-21 23:14:28 - PopSession::Client – PASS ****
2004-07-21 23:14:51 - Hotmail::AppendList::catch::bk – bk::Xml::FindNextNode – Error finding node – –
2004-07-21 23:14:51 - PopServer::SessionWorker::catch::bk – bk::Xml::FindNextNode – Error finding node -

perevera

July 21st, 2004 at 7am

Right, Matt.

Now, which is the alternative you propose? I need an email which can be read in HTML form and from Thunderbird.

Also, I have a problem with the Firewall in my corporate intranet: I think it is barrying the port used by Hotpop to access the Hotmail (which is the same as for the MSN, right?). So if I get rid of Hotmail I possibly could overcome this problem.

Worst of all, if I change my personal email address I should warn a lot of people and companies, since I am using Hotmail for years now, but this is a price I am willing to pay.

So, please, what is your advice? To use Yahoo? Incridimail? I don’t know other than Hotmail, that’s why I am asking.

Thanks.

matt doherty

July 20th, 2004 at 4am

I think all of you should just toss hotmail from your life (Microsoft) period. And you should be set free!

kirk

July 18th, 2004 at 6pm

I was having the same problem, but seem to have solved it. (In case it’s relevant, I overrode Thunderbird defaults to have separate outgoing servers for my two email accounts, and the non-hotmail account is my default server.)

I enabled “Opera compatability mode” under the Options menu that’s available by right-clicking the Hotmail Popper icon in the status bar. (I’m using Hotmail Popper version 3.0.2.)

That seems to have done it. I can now send mail with my hotmail account as the From address, tho I still can’t send mail to my hotmail account from either of my accounts. I’m guessing this might be a complication of having two outbound servers.

Now my only problem is that all of my Hotmail folders are dumped together into my inbox, rather than being replicated in Thunderbird.

Ant0n1z

July 11th, 2004 at 4am

I also can receive Yahoo mail using YahooPoPs 0.4.6 with
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7.2 (20040707)
I had to change the pop port to 111 so I could get my mails from Hotmail and Yahoo at the same time.

Mike

May 25th, 2004 at 3pm

I have the same problem. I recieve my emails just fine but can’t send any through thunderbird. I also seem to have issues sending aol emails now. Very odd.

It works fine for me….Using Hotmail Popper 3.0.2
and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7.2 (20040707)

John Blaze

May 12th, 2004 at 11pm

Why bother with Hotmail Popper…. just use hotwayd!!! It’s open source. http://hotwayd.sourceforge.net/

Teddy

May 24th, 2004 at 10pm

Actually I am using MrPostman. But I now have trouble sending emails from Thunderbird. It seems that I have to change my SMTP, but I dont know how. I can only choose out of default server or 127.0.0.1.
So for now, I am getting mails with Thunderbird, but I have to compose them in the hotmail site. It is a hassle, but unfortunately I have no other way.
Can anyone help me out?

Cheah Chu Yeow

April 20th, 2004 at 7pm

Hmm… I don’t use Hotmail Popper anymore nor do I check my Hotmail account regularly, so I can’t provide much help.

Did you check the “When sending messages, automatically” ” Place a copy in:” the “Sent” folder on your Hotmail account?

Or perhaps it is a limitation on Hotmail Popper’s part enforced by the restrictions of Hotmail.

April 20th, 2004 at 6pm

Mmmm…

It seems like the deletion of messages actually works fine.

So the only real problem I have is that outgoing messages are not being stored in the “Sent Messages” folder on the Hotmail account.

I am sorry!

In my previous post, the first problem was due to a bad configuration of Hotpop: a Proxy Server was configured while there is no one to use.

But the other two problems remain the same, even if I have the following options checked in the Thunderbird account configuration:

* Leave messages on server

and

* Until I delete of move them from Inbox

Thank you!

I am experiencing a lot of trouble when using Hotmail Popper 3.0.0.

Sometimes outgoing mails cannot be sent, the following show up in the log file:

2004-04-20 10:58:39 - SmtpSession::Server – 220 127.0.0.1 SMTP ready to roll
2004-04-20 10:58:39 - SmtpSession::Client – EHLO hotmail.com
2004-04-20 10:58:39 - SmtpSession::Server – 250-127.0.0.1
2004-04-20 10:58:39 - SmtpSession::Server – 250 AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
2004-04-20 10:58:39 - SmtpSession::Client – AUTH PLAIN AHBlcmV2ZXJhQGhvdG1haWwuY29tAHNpbnNvbnRl
2004-04-20 10:58:39 - Hotmail::MakeRequest::catch – PROPFIND http://services.msn.com/svcs/hotmail/httpmail.asp
2004-04-20 10:58:39 - Hotmail::Login::catch::bk – bkw::Socket::GetAddress – Error in host lookup – perevera@hotmail.com (11004) –
2004-04-20 10:58:39 - SmtpServer::SmtpWorker::catch::bk – bkw::Socket::GetAddress – Error in host lookup – perevera@hotmail.com (11004)

Moreover, the mails in the Hotmail account and in Thunderbird are not shyncronized in the right way:

* Messages are not deleted from Hotmail “Inbox” when I delete them from Thunderbird “Inbox”

* Outgoing messages are not stored in the Hotmail “Sent Mail”

I guess I have some misunderstanding in the configuration of Thunderbird account or Hotmail Popper options.

kynan

April 6th, 2004 at 8pm

An excellent alternative is MrPostman.
MrPostman is a Java program that allows you to access Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and other webmail services directly from your favorite mail client (which is of course Thunderbird). Because it is Java based, MrPostman will work on any platform.
It takes a little setting up but it is worth it. Check out the MrPostman Wiki for help.
The only problem I currently have with it is that it doesn’t seem to delete mail from the server as requested (when removed from Inbox), I am working on this at the moment and I’ll let you know if it’s just me screwing it up.

Airwalker

April 5th, 2004 at 12pm

Just search up the old version on google… “Hotmail Popper 2.1.1″ There are luckily a few sites still up with the freeware version discussed in this blog.

Roman

February 5th, 2004 at 7pm

Two comments:
1. Hotmail Popper doesn’t seem to be free anymore.
2. Hotmail does work with non-IE browsers, at least, with Mozilla based ones.

Ric

February 27th, 2004 at 9pm

hi, no, hotmail popper isnt free anymore, but just type 99999999997 in the purchase window ;)

it also runs fine through the wine emulator (at least it does on SuSE 8.2), but as a warning, it looks like it doesnt work on a lan connection, unless i just have to configure port forwarding on my router (whcih would prolly prevent other machines from using smtp/pop).

Trey

February 5th, 2004 at 9am

Is there a way to access Hotmail in Thunderbird for Linux? Hotmail Popper does not have a linux version right now. Any good alternatives?

February 5th, 2004 at 10am

Trey, you can take a look at Gotmail.

Gotmail should work on any *nix operating system that has Perl 5 and curl installed.

dmelshof

October 12th, 2004 at 12am

I’m using YahooPOPS to access Yahoo in Thunderbird and I can’t get Thunderbird to delete messages on the server. Every time I press Get Mail, the new mail pops up, but so do old ones I have supposedly deleted. Any help would be great.

October 19th, 2004 at 9am

I have the same problem as dmelshof: YahooPOP’s is not deleting the mails on the server when I move or delete them from Thunderbird.

I have been changing all the values in the configuration of both Thunderbird and YahooPOP’s but no way.

skinner

October 25th, 2004 at 10pm

There is a “new” version of Yahoopops that will take care of the not-deleting problem. It’s a fix someone wrote and posted on the discussion board over at yahoopops.sourceforge.net

Go grab it and just replace exe in the program files folder.

Wayne

October 26th, 2004 at 10am

Hi, does anyone have a solution for using hotmail popper behind firewall? Thanks bunch

Zak

December 14th, 2004 at 10am

Could anyone tell me how they setup Thunderbird to access their hotmail email?

Chris

January 30th, 2005 at 6am

Ok anyone who wants a Gmail account i have 6or7 invites mail me at chris37879@hotmail.com and im giving em out strictly on first come first serve basis in the message i need your name and current email addy. Gmail can be checked through Thunderbird if you google search Check Gmail through outlook or thunder bird (your choice but a good proggy is PopGoesThe Gmail one word no space)

gregory

April 12th, 2005 at 3am

help!!!
I have been converted completely to thunderbird: BUT I now go to work at a new office location(a client). While I am there, I cannot send email via ANY SMTP server(well i tried 3). I can send fine through Outlook Express or Outlook or through webmail interfaces.

This problem is frustrating.

Please let me know if you have any ideas.

Sandeep

April 13th, 2005 at 12am

Webmail from mozdev works great for hotmail and yahoo….worth trying

http://webmail.mozdev.org/

Dan

April 25th, 2005 at 8pm

You want an alternative?
If you dont have Gmail which is accessible through Thunderbird very easily, email me and Ill send you an invite.
ustudios@gmail.com

Graham

July 31st, 2005 at 9am

Why does Thunderbird send a CAPA request to pop server before authentication ?
What does the CAPA request want to do ?

cheers
Graham

john

August 31st, 2005 at 4pm

I have some problems setting up Thunderbird.what should I put in the *server settings – Server name: ? e.g. (pop.hotmail.com) and I don’t know what to insert in *Outgoing server (SMTP) – Server name….

thanks for help!…

Krenare

April 30th, 2006 at 8pm

Hi there,

THeme :Access a hotmail Account with Mozilla Thunderbird via hotpop.

I configured hotmail popper :

Adress :127.0.0.1
POP port: 110
SMTP port: 25
timeout: 120 sec
Delay: 10 ms
….
Port :0
…
….

but I didn’t know how to config in Mozilla thunderbird:

what should I write to Server Name?????

I’m waiting for your reply…

Jasbir

July 13th, 2006 at 6pm

I am using thunderbird version 1.5 I would like to access my hotmail account in thunderbird, but i don’t know the configuration for setting up the pop mail account for hotmail. currently i m accessing, yahoo, gmail and inmail24 in thunderbird. if anybody can help me i will be much obliged.

geoff

November 12th, 2006 at 1am

I can send messages using Thunderbird via hotmail popper, but I cannot receive my messages. Any ideas?
Thaks

Caity

January 22nd, 2007 at 8am

I have the close to same problem as Geoff. I can send messages from my hotmail account via Thunderbird just fine using MrPostman, but I can’t receive any. I can’t get Hotmail Popper because it isn’t free anymore… any ideas?

Sorry! Scratch that last part- I got Hotmail Popper free from a link provided somewhere above, but I’m still having the same problem as before…