Import hotmail folders to Mail

hpham1 wrote:

I finally got hotmail to work with my mac!

Go to system preferences > mail, contacts & calendars > add exchange account. I couldn't add an account with exchange via Mail.

Hotmail is not an Exchange account, how does this work (it doesn't work for me)

What are you using for a server address?

HI there

I Have just made this work on my new iPad with a bit of fiddling( including deleting the hotmail accounts from my iPad and starting from scratch ) and I did make it work. Post again if you are still having trouble.

Hello, I have tried the instructions from alexisyancy and am not able to get wildows live mail to export the folders. I completed all 7 steps and nothing was imported into mail except one e mail and I have 20+ folders. So, I went back to my flash drive to look at the files and it did not list out any folders within the files for export. So, I tried again and still no luck. Seems like something is "off" with the export feature in windows live mail. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong? Thank you for any help.

Scheherazade wrote:

HI there

I Have just made this work on my new iPad with a bit of fiddling( including deleting the hotmail accounts from my iPad and starting from scratch ) and I did make it work. Post again if you are still having trouble.

Not on an iPad (different mail system) on a Mac please.

No, no no.... I haven't read ALL of the comments so I don't know if it has already been said. But I initally came on here to solve my problem, and ended up solving it myself.

To get the same folders from hotmail on your 'mail' app on your mac (I did it on my macbook pro 13-inch, Late 2011 OS X Lion 10.7.5), you have to go into 'Mailbox>New Smart Mailbox>(Name your mailbox - equivalent of your hotmail folder)>then change the conditions to the same as the rules set on the folders in Hotmail.

I put mine as any recipient that contains 'ac.uk' in their address gets sent to this mailbox so that I can receive my univerity emails separately. Then all of a sudden everything is in it.

This may be time consuming if you have LOADS of folders, but it worked for me.

🙂

I just did what you said and managed to import my folders. However, the problem is that they will of course not synchronise with any other devices anymore. So, if, on my Mac I move a message from my Hotmail Inbox into one of my imported hotmail folders, this message will NOT be in the same folder on my iPad (which for some reason sychronises beautifully with Hotmail) or if I happen to be on another computer and access Windows via the web-application there. It is a work-around if you are desperate to move your "old" hotmail folders to your new mac but that's it. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me as I use several devices and need to have them all synchronised. Unless I have missed here something??

That does not synchronize the mailboxes, which is what the OP wants.

So has anyone figured out how to synchronize the folders? Or a workaround? This issue alone is preventing me from loving my Mac.😐 I also need to have it all synchronized across my MBP, iPhone and iPad..

I have tried pretty much everything for the last 2 weeks to synchronise my hotmail-folders but have resigned to the fact that it will just not work. So, to get around it, I have opened a GMail (Google Mail) account, this synchronises beautifully not only email folders but also my calendar, contacts etc. Then, on the Mac, where I managed to at least import my Hotmail folders, I have created exactly the same folders I have in Hotmail under my Gmail account. Then copied the content over, folder by folder and here they are, sitting beautifully under my Gmail, same old thing, just different email account! Then I set-up a rule within Hotmail to forward all my hotmail emails to Gmail and then you can set-up within your Mac Mail preferences if you want to reply from GMail or Hotmail, etc. Once I am happy with this I will send out an email to all my contacts that they should start using my Gmail from now on. So, all in all that works ok so far, I am migrating everything over to Gmail but will leave my Hotmail active for the time-being, for the odd email that might still come in from people who don't know my new Gmail yet (but which automatically goes into my new Gmail account, as I have set-up the rules there...)

The tricky thing was moving my Hotmail contacts to Gmail in exactly the same format. That needs fiddeling with the export excel sheet, otherwise you loose some data. But thats another story and there is pleny to help on the web too. All in all, I think that is the best solution to get around the problem.

Lo

It works. Thank you. Apple mail has created a folder "import" in which i have found the folders transfered from my hotmail account.

Xavier

After importing these folders, will they synchronise with my mac each time I automatically receive an email in them?

No, they will not.

Has any one found how to do this? Seems strange Apple make it work for iOS devices but not on the Mac.

Toomz wrote:

Has any one found how to do this? Seems strange Apple make it work for iOS devices but not on the Mac.

Nothing to do with Apple, Microsoft decided that Hotmail is a POP system on Macs and PC's but support ActivSync on mobile devices. POP does not sync folders, complain to Microsoft.

Tried so many different ways to get around it but in the end, I changed my email to gmail. Total pain.