Forwarding Hotmail-Windows Live Mail

13 September 2008 by Gavin Holt, 4 Comments

I was recently asked by a friend how he could forward his Hotmail email address to a new one that he can get on his phone. After much head scratching and cursing Microsoft I found the answer. To do this you must login to the Hotmail/Windows Live Mail web site.

Once you have logged into the account that you wish to forward, its a relatively simple process, In fact it can be put into 3 simple steps!(Pictures provided to make it even simpler).

  1. Once logged into the web site, click the options link (found on the right hand side of the shiny blue bar)

    forward_wlm_1

  2. Once in the options page, under the ‘Manage your account’ heading find ‘Forward mail to another e-mail account’

    forward_wlm_2

  3. On the next page, select the second option ("Forward e-mail to another address") and enter the new email address where you would like to receive your hotmail.Press enter and your done!

    forward_wlm_3

A few warnings,

  1. No mail will be saved to your Hotmail account, it will go straight to your new account and wont be accessible via any Hotmail interface.
  2. You MUST visit your Hotmail account once ever 120 days else it will be closed and your mail will stop forwarding.

Remember, you can "un-forward" you email at anytime by following steps 1 & 2 and then selecting the "Don’t forward" option

If anyone has any guides on how to do this with other providers or even a way to access the original Hotmail address from a mobile then comment or Contact Me.

4 Responses to “Forwarding Hotmail-Windows Live Mail”

  1. Mysidia 2 November 2008 at 12:34 AM #

    This does not work for me.
    The following error message is displayed, when I attempt to choose ‘forward your e-mail to another address’ and enter an address that is not a hotmail.com address:

    ” Warning You’re only able to forward mail to a custom domain or an e-mail address that ends in hotmail.com, msn.com, or live.com. Please try again. “

  2. Gavin Holt 2 November 2008 at 7:01 PM #

    Hi Mysidia,

    First of all, thanks for reading my blog.
    Im really sorry this hasn;t worked for you, it seems the hotmail have changed the game and you can no longer forward to a domain outside the microsoft ring unless you buy the $20 a year service.

    Ill edit the blog entry so that others see this

    Thanks for telling me!!

  3. Phil 15 March 2009 at 2:46 PM #

    I use a bit of software called GetMail to do the trick. You can get hold of it here:
    http://download.cnet.com/GetMail-For-Hotmail/3000-2369_4-10325774.html

  4. Grant 28 April 2009 at 2:58 AM #

    I’ve found that you can achieve this in the reverse order using GMail as a step in between.. I was looking in to this for my iphone because GMail supports IMAPI, Hotmail didn’t so I’m finally making the switch.

    Here are some instructions:

    http://www.childofthemachine.com/blog/2009/04/making-the-switch-hotmail-to-gmail/


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