Leopard, Apple Mail, and Hotmail : How I got everything to work together with FreePOPs
Being able to check my mail has always been a simple task with Apple Mail. All of my accounts: Gmail, Hotmail, work, and school have always worked without a hitch. However, as Leopard users around the world are aware, Hotmail no longer works with the infamous HTTPMail plugin for Mail.
The creator of HTTPMail is aware of the incompatibility and is working on a fix (see this link). Unfortunately, that doesn't help everybody out until the fix is released.
After doing some research (inspired by a friend who swore there was a solution), I came across FreePOPs, which allows for POP3 access, which is what Hotmail uses. Intrigued, I did some more research and found that many people were having success (and many not) using MacFreePOPs, a wrapper for Freepops. Of course, I decided to give it a try.
After installing MacFreePOPs, I was presented with the following screen (which got me a little giddy).
I clicked extra options and plug-ins and quickly realized the potential of this program: there are quite a few POP3 mail servers supported by FreePOPs (note: additional servers are added through lua scripts -- of which I have no experience, but the scripts are pretty easy to follow). I clicked on hotmail.com to read through whatever information FreePOPs had for me and was amazed at the domain support: msn. webtv, charter, compaq.net, passport to name a few. I didn't realize there were so many variation to hotmail! Happy to see my msn account there, I laboured forward.
The instructions are pretty simple: there's a box at the bottom of the window that tells you what to do. So follow it I did.
Before continuing, you must be made aware of some limitations. FreePOPs is not able to use the Hotmail servers for outgoing mail. Unfortunately, this is not easily remedied. The solution, however, is to set Apple Mail to use another SMTP server (I chose GMail) for outgoing messages...
The second limitation is folder management. I did go through the LUA file (the configuration for the Hotmail settings for FreePOP) and noticed a flag for FOLDER. You can change this option to another folder other than the INBOX, but I don't see a way to manage all folders (to experiment yourself, just click Show Plug-ins Folder in the Plug-ins tab).
The third, of which I didn't notice until restarting my system: FreePOPs only retrieves the NEW messages from your inbox, thus the older messages do not appear. I will work on a solution and post it later (if possible).
Here are the steps I took to link my account:
- Stop the freepopsd service (if it is running)
- Click MacFreePOPs (available when you open up the Extra Options), and set your options. See the following figure for my selections.
- Select the freepopsd servicetab and select of the address and change it to 127.0.0.1 -- I had to do this because the default of 127.0.0.0 wasn't working for me.
- Now start the service by pressing Start freepopsd service
- Open up Apple Mail, go to Mail, Preferences, and then click on the + to create a new account.
- Enter your email address and password, and press Continue.
- At the Incoming Mail Server screen, ensure that POP is the account type, and the incoming mail server is set to 127.0.0.1 .IMPORTANT: ensure you put the complete email address in the user name (ie. if your email address is donkey@msn.com then enter donkey@msn.com). Put in your password and press Continue.
- If you get the following error, then start up MacFreePOPs and press Continue.
- At Incoming Mail Security Leave the default settings and press Continue. I haven't tested it with SSL selected, but I know it works not selected [editor: after examining the LUA file, it appears that support for SSL is NOT enabled].
- At Outgoing Mail Server you need to select a server that has been previously defined. Make sure to choose one that you know works. Don't worry about user authentication -- it should just auto-populate when you select a server. Press Continue when you're ready. At this point, Mail will try to create a connection. If you get the following screen, you're almost in business!
- Select Take account online and press Create.
- At the preferences screen, select the Advanced tab and ensure the Port is set to 2000.
- Close the Preferences window by pressing the red circle (and of course, save any changes).
- At this point, FreePOPs should be working. If it isn't, then it may be a result of two issues: 1) your account is too old 2) your Today Options are not set correctly.
- Fire up your browser and login to your Hotmail account. On the far right side of the screen (at least with my layout) you will see Options. Press this and then select More Options. You will be presented with the following screen.
Now press Today Page settings and select Show me the Today page after I sign in. Press Save.
- Go back to Mail and Get new mail by right clicking and choosing the proper option. If by chance your account is offline, then bring it online first.
- Watch the bottom left corner of the screen: if you see the following activity, then you're golden! Congratulations!
Certainly, this will not work for all people -- variations such as the age of your account (ie. newer accounts have different server settings? than older accounts), and the type of errors reported by FreePOPs will vary. I realize this tutorial is not exhaustive, but if you find yourself getting stuck, refer to the forums at FreePOPs for some help, or leave a comment -- I'll help if I can.
Please post any useful tips for other readers in the comments below! Happy Hotmailing!
Note: I had a friend review this tutorial (and follow it step-by-step). He was able to successfully get FreePOPs to work.
Bonus tip
This may seem trivial to some, but for OS X newbies it may prove useful: you can have MacFreePOPs start automatically at login by- Starting MacFreePOPs
- Right click on the icon in the dock
- Select Open at Login
Update:In testing, I had the oldest Hotmail address (circa 2001) out of my own circle of friends. However, a reader (see comments below) has a Hotmail account from 1997-1998 and is not able to implement the tutorial successfully. If anyone has been able to figure out how (or why) to do this, could they please comment/msg me? -sk
Thanks so much. I've had
Thanks so much. I've had very few problems switching to a Mac for the first time, but when I saw all the capabilities Mail had I was dying for a way to make it compatible with my hotmail account. Your article is by far the most easy to follow, and it answered all my questions. Thanks again, Melissa.
Thanks! Works great for me.
Thanks! Works great for me. My hotmail account is from before 1998.
I managed to get this
I managed to get this working with a bit of fiddling on my mac with leopard but when it first started importing my mail it said there were 44 incoming messages, now it only shows 9 from my live.co.uk account and i don't get why.
The 44 messages should range in date from 27th Jan through to today. The 9 that are showing are the first 9 from 27th Jan.....
Any ideas???
You don't need to do this
You don't need to do this anymore.
The HTTPMail plugin for Apple Mail now supports Leopard.
http://blog.danielparnell.com/?p=48
Hey this does not work for
Hey this does not work for me.... followed instructions and my mail isn't coming thru it say:
There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Check the settings for account “Hotmail via FreePOPs 0.2.5” or try again.
The server error encountered was: POP user name “MY USER NAME” unrecognized.
what could this be I think I set my hotmail account up in 2001
Works as described!! my 3
Works as described!! my 3 hotmail accounts all in my macbook !!! yeeeeeeeeheeeeeeeeeeee!! :D
So, to send mail... if I
So, to send mail... if I only have a hotmail account, I have to open a Gmail one? I know that in step 10 you say that a list should appear, but it doesn't on mine, so I don't know what to do...HELP... ANYONE?
So should I create a gmail
So should I create a gmail account to be able to send mail?
With my hotmail wont work?
Ok, whilst the application
Ok, whilst the application works after i've installed it and gone through the process mentioned above... when i shut down my laptop and restart, I have to go through the whole installation process again. how come? any solution to that? i'm fairly new to mac so perhaps i'm doing something wrong? any help would be greatly appreciated. lorissimo
Did you drag macfreepops
Did you drag macfreepops into your applications folder? I am fairly new to macs too, and thats something that took my a while to figure out. Right now is macfreepops on your desktop and it icon looks like its a disk drive or something like that? Just open it up off your desktop, and the actual application should be inside the disk image thing on your desktop. Drag the actual application into your applications folder. It should work from there with the settings that you have already applied. If not, try setting it up again. Your also going to either want to put macfreepops onto your dock and right click it to open at login, or just start it up every time your going to check your mail.
****Another thing I noticed about macfreepops is that it has a bug, and every once in a while it tends to take over your cpu usage and will end up using all of our processor(s). So I've started shutting macfreepops down after I initially check my mail and noticed that you only need to initially start up macfreepops one time when your computer first starts up, then you can shut it down. Your hotmail or whatever your using should still be received as long as you haven't shut down your computer since the last time you ran macfreepops.
good luck
I just wanted to say: thank
I just wanted to say: thank you very much! this posting has proven very useful, the software works and I'm very happy! thank you! lorissimo
I started my Hotmail account
I started my Hotmail account in early 1997. I have never been able to get hotmail with a mail client. I've tried a host of workarounds including several previous versions of freepops and nothing has ever gotten me around the web log-in for hotmail. Until today. For some reason it worked! I can't tell you what is different today vs. past. I did make sure that I was not logged in to hotmail with safari. Used the latest Firefox. Made sure I was using the full version of hotmail live. I did save the "Today' page preference as per your suggestion. The only difference is i'm actually NOT using MacFreePOPs. I'm just using FreePOPs, the mac version. The only difference I can tell you is that in the past I had an Airport Extreme as a gateway/router. Now there is a Xserve as a gateway/homeserver. I really doubt it has anything to do with the success. I would bet the new version 0.2.6 is the reason for success. But I thought I would add my success to update your RED section at the bottom of your post.
mac free pops does not work
mac free pops does not work i followed given instructions above to a tee and it will not work does any one else have something i can use to get my hotmail
Unfortunately this hasnt
Unfortunately this hasnt worked for me. Im also running Leopard on a Macbook - Mail v.3.1
My hotmail account is pretty old I guess but it was converted to windows live recently (it appears to be free for me now for some reason)
Anyway when I select 'Get Mail' after taking it online I get the following message:
There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Check the settings for account “Hotmail” or try again.
The server error encountered was: The connection to the server “127.0.0.1” on port 2000 timed out.
Sometimes it suggests I take the account online again which I do (it somehow times out - but then the next time I just get the above error message.
Theres also a little error looking icon - ! in a triangle next to that account name.
I am suffering from the
I am suffering from the exact same problem - did you manage to find a fix for it yet, please help.
I'm not really sure whats
I'm not really sure whats going on with this app. It started taking over my cpu like all the time. So I shut it off and had it not start up automatically when I start up leopard and now I can get my hotmail without even using it. Mail just gets my mail from hotmail with no problems now using no macfreepops.
Thank you. Much appreciated
Thank you. Much appreciated
ARGH! lol...had it working
ARGH! lol...had it working perfectly, was retrieving messages, and the suddendly started asking for my password again, havnt been able to get it going again since then :(
That happened to me a couple
That happened to me a couple weeks ago. I just logged onto hotmail and messed with the classical and full mode and kept entering the password and it started working again. I hope it will do the same for you!
i cant find more options on
i cant find more options on my hotmailaccount. there is only options. so i cant find the today page settings.
can anyone help me?
i only can find options but
i only can find options but not more options at my hotmailaccount.
is my account too old?
Is anyone else having the
Is anyone else having the problem that macfreepops will randomly take over about 98% of your processor and it will keep running like this until you force quit it? This has happened only about three times in about a month. THis morning i woke up to my laptop overheating at almost 200 degrees (F). Just wondering if there is a quick fix or anything. Thanks!
Yeah, it's happened to me on
Yeah, it's happened to me on more than one occasion -- I never did find a fix...
I've been looking into
I've been looking into finding a way to limit the max cpu usage of a program to fix this problem, but I haven't been able to find anything yet. I did however find what the problem probably is from an article on macworld.com
This is a quote of the article:
"...You should also be aware of a type of bug known as a memory leak. Applications usually ask the system for a certain amount of memory for any given task and then give it back when they’re done with it. But sometimes, due to a programming error, an application keeps taking memory and not returning any, so that by doing nothing more than staying open, it constantly chews up more and more RAM..."
found at:
http://www.macworld.com/2006/05/secrets/tcomaintain/index.php?pf=1
So I'm guessing macfreepops has some programming error that makes it do this, so an update could easily fix this.
So if i understand
So if i understand correctly, i can receive my emails from hotmail, but when my emails are sent, they will be using a different server like gmail, or aol? so when the recipient responds to that, it will be sent to my gmail account right?
Exactly. Until someone can
Exactly. Until someone can come up with a way to get FreePOPs to use Microsoft's servers for outgoing messages, this is the only way to send messages.
everything set up well, but
everything set up well, but for some reason i can't get the gmail server to receive email properly?
This works for me but every
This works for me but every time I shut down the computer the program doesn't start on its own, I have to go into and start it.
I have tried your instructions on how to get it to start on login but no luck
Any suggestions
Perhaps try it with (any)
Perhaps try it with (any) other program first -- just to make sure there isn't some other system problem.
To do this, open up any program. Once the icon is visible in the dock, right click on the icon and select Open at Login. If after rebooting that program starts automatically then there's definitely nothing wrong with your startup scripts. Repeat these steps with MacFreePOPs.
If for some reason this doesn't work, let me know and I'll dig a little deeper. One thing that I found (over time) that I dislike about MacFreePOPs is how long it takes for that and Apple Mail to start up at login. Maybe you're having a similar experience?
this is absolutely
this is absolutely brilliant!!!
thanks a .. BAZILLION!!!!
lol
all the best!
I tryed and tryed again to
I tryed and tryed again to get this work... and at the end, when i had completed all the steps it keeps say to me :
The POP server "127.0.0.1" refused the password of the username : gabin_trial@hotmail.com
and when i try to put my password, it dont take it.
Thanks for sharing this wonderfull solution.
I had the same message pop
I had the same message pop up that said the password I was using was wrong and asked me to enter the correct one. I decided to mess around with the options in hotmail for a while, and I finally got it to work. Unfortunately I'm really not sure what I did to make it work.
I did switch from the classic and the full version of hotmail a couple of times and tried to run mail, ...it now works in both modes however.
I also changed the reply to address as another email address i have (my @mac.com address).
And another thing i changed was I got rid of all my mail filters, but I really don't think this had anything to do with it.
So I suggest trying this stuff and maybe messing around with some other options if you can't get it to work. Good Luck!
Thank you so much! I simply
Thank you so much! I simply opened firefox, switched to the full version and now it runs great! (Maybe they should edit the original tutorial to include this suggestion.
I spent a good hour trying
I spent a good hour trying to troubleshoot this for the previous reader, but didn't think about the classic/full version options. Thanks for the input.
-sk
SAME!!
SAME!!
I'm having this same
I'm having this same problem... any suggestions?
Thnx bro!
Thnx bro!
Hi there, how old does your
Hi there,
how old does your hotmail account have to be not to work with this?
I'm not 100% sure -- I
I'm not 100% sure -- I signed up with an MSN account when XP first came out in 2001. I asked around, but nobody seems to have an account from before 2001 for me to test it with.
Hmmm well i have had my
Hmmm well i have had my account since 1997-1998 and tried to get my hotmail working on the leopard mail via your instructions and no luck!
My hotmail account is from
My hotmail account is from early 1999, and I had no trouble getting this to work.
Ah, I'm so sorry to hear
Ah, I'm so sorry to hear that -- I'll add an update to my article commenting on that. Thanks (and sorry).
-sk
I need a Outgoing Mail
I need a Outgoing Mail Server!!
Can you please help mee?
everything works perfect, but i can't send mails
:(
help
Absolutely! You need to
Absolutely! You need to have another email account that you know works with Mail. I use GMail.
In the tutorial, step 10 outlines how to do it. If for some reason you missed the step, open up Mail, go to Preferences, click your Hotmail account. On the right, under the tab Account Information you should see an option for Outgoing Mail Server. Just select one from the dropdown that you know works (like GMail)! I keep the use only this server selected so I always have a server selected.
Hope that helps!
-sk
Thanks for the help... Got
Thanks for the help... Got it working from your page when I couldn't get macfreepops to work by myself...
I sure appreciate it.
Thanks for the tips :)
Thanks for the tips :)
Thanks for the feedback --
Thanks for the feedback -- my hope is that blog proves useful to newbies (and oldies). It's good to see my first real "article" is being well received.
I'm a new mac user but am
I'm a new mac user but am versed with UNIX OS's such as Solaris. I'm very surprised that although there are a few hurdles to jump with transitioning from Windows to Mac, blogs and articles like yours are invaluable. Thank you!
Worked great for me!
Worked great for me! Followed your directions exactly. Had it up and running in 4 minutes flat.
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