E mail problems, help pleasefrom someone who knows

[woodsieboy]

I have a hotmail e mail address that I have used mainly for work for years,and use it through outlook, then this morning it is fine on my HP desktop, but my HP chromebook has changed to outlook 365 and I cannot access or use my e mail at all, it looks as if I need to pay for it, but when I enter my e mail address it tells me the account is already being used.So would it make any difference if I changed browser, or can I changef rom outlook but keep my hotmail account, if so how do I do it, or is there an easy way to keep my hotmail account on both devices please? i need to access e mails from chromebook when out and about so would like a quick fix if possible.

 

[Jcloughie]

Microsoft, and others, continually try to get your business and will try to surreptitiously tempt you, particularly after updating. I think the charge will be for Outlook 365. But standard Outlook is free for home users. So I suggest you just refuse the 365.

Some explanation here.

Possibly you previously accepted a 365 free trial which has expired.

John

 

[Woodentop]

Hotmail servers are forever being changes by M$! I don't know what the server used to be but it was initially (I think) live.com, then became outlook.com, and now it is office365.com
You need to look at your desktop incoming and outgoing server addresses. They may be something like
imap-mail.live.com and smtp.live.com. Note down the desktop settings including port numbers etc, then go to your chromebook and make sure the settings there are the same. If they are not note down what they are and then change them to be the same as your desktop.
Sorting out such issues can be a nightmare even when you know what you are doing!
Incidentally they could be pop or pop3 instead of imap. The difference is that with imap your mail, in and out, stays on the server and replicates them on all equipments that you use, be that desktop, laptop, chromebook, tablet or phone. With pop or pop3 the mails are downloaded onto your machine or uploaded to the server but they are NOT replicated on the other devices automatically. It does however mean that once downloaded a mail can be deleted off the server as it is yours now.

 

[otherclive]

Hotmail gives you the facility to recover deleted emails if you can gain access to your account.

 

[Ukdave2002]

It sounds to me as if you have a different 365 account on the Chromebook to the one that your Hotmail account is associated to.
Sign out of 365 on the chromebook, and resign in using the MS credentials used on your HP.

Or don’t use 365 on the Chromebook at all, use whatever browser (I suspect Chrome!) is available, type in Office.com and then select the MS option that lets you sign in to your existing account, this will log you into the right 365 account.

You don’t need to know server types as you are not using a local mail app.

if you are getting the message “account already exists” it means you are trying to create an account rather than login to one.

 

[woodsieboy]

Many thanks to those of you who have replied, I think UK Dave is closest to what has happened except that I have never had nor want 365, it turns out that a small note on 365 screen allows you to sign in to existing account, and bypasses all the 365 guff that I was getting on start up. Also I now have a g mail account on the chromebook that defaults to my original hotmail account, giving me the option to use the g mail account as well , should I so choose, the advantage being that I suspect I will not get as much email nonsnse as I currently do , from everyone who has had access to the hotmail over the years. I get increasingly frustrated by companies who seem to think they know better than me when it comes to my life. It seems to have crept in with ever more technology,I could have easily been sucked in to paying for the new Outlook 365, which I didn't want, if it hadn't been for my inbuilt suspicion and the support from members on this forum. Once again many thanks .

 

[Ukdave2002]

I realise this comment wont be popular! but why do so many folk just expect anything on the internet to be free?

If you only have a mail account, it needs to be stored somewhere, you expect to access it 24x 7 someone somewhere has to pay for the physical disks and the network connection.

Why do we continually knock commercial organisations like Microsoft who give away the cheaper options ? would you do it in your own line of work ?

 

[RogerL]

I realise this comment wont be popular! but why do so many folk just expect anything on the internet to be free?

If you only have a mail account, it needs to be stored somewhere, you expect to access it 24x 7 someone somewhere has to pay for the physical disks and the network connection.

Why do we continually knock commercial organisations like Microsoft who give away the cheaper options ? would you do it in your own line of work ?

Much of the internet is funded by advertisers - that's why so much data about surfing and buying patterns is collected by cookies - those who provide "free" internet facilities don't do it for altruistic reasons, they do it to make money out of advertisers, etc.