20 June 2012

Issues with Mail for Exchange (MfE) for Hotmail

Mail for Exchange Nokia N9
MfE (Mail for Exchange) is a mobile solution which allows secure synchronization of email, calendar and contact data between Microsoft exchange servers and Nokia devices.
Unfortunately a lot of users reported recently that they started have problems to synchronize their Hotmail account with MfE - the N9 is also affected.

The problem is Microsoft made and seems to affect various devices of different brands.



As recent events prove: It's never save to deal with Microsoft or rely on their products. Same applies to the MfE for Hotmail problem. Some N9 users face the desperate message "Invalid host address for Mail for Exchange server" when they try to synchronize their email, calendar or contacts.

Apparently Microsoft switched some of their exchange serves and moved some accounts - those are the ones facing the problem.

Sadly so far there is no satisfying solution to get MfE working again. In an official Nokia discussion forum, Nokia gave following possibilities:


1. Visit following thread at Microsoft Answers and tell them your issue. Microsoft should be able to help you once you give them your account details - at least that's what they say:
"Please post the account (Windows Live ID) that you are having issues with (synchronization) so that we can check it and investigate your concern further.
Don't worry about it being posted here - it's masked automatically by the system for security purposes. Only you and we moderators can see it. "

2. Use two different Hotmail accounts:
  • One for MfE synching (Contacts, Calendars)
  • A second one for your mails (set up as normal email account) 

Unfortunately we can't give more help, since nobody of us is using MfE with Hotmail/Windows Live. It's a pity that especially Nokia and Microsoft, which pretend to be in a cooperation can't help their users. Hopefully Microsoft sorts their Hotmail issues out as fast as possible.


Who is using MfE for Hotmail? Does it work for you?