Where have my People Gone?

[Sin]

Outlook.com is not required. Any Live account will be equivalent. Microsoft is push everyone to outlook.com as part of their rebranding of Hotmail. If your data is showing up on Outlook.com, then it will sync to your Windows 8 machines (Mail, Calendar, & People apps).
Most of the list is applications not services, which makes things a bit confusing. Outlook is an application, Outlook.com is a service (re-branded Hotmail), Mail app is currently the only email application available for Windows RT (hoping for a Windows RT version of Outlook in the future), Windows Live Mail is an application, and Outlook Express is an application.All of the applications listed are Microsoft Email application that have not been updated to run on Windows RT. This has nothing to do with the email service.

 

[Richard Jones]

Thank you, Sin. That's much clearer.

Opening outlook.com shows only the e-mails but not any contacts (very similare to my Surface Mail app in fact). Would downloading/using outlook.com help in these circumstances?

If not, it seems that I am not going to be able to see my contacts under People on the Surface. It also suggests that, although I can see and reply to e-mails which are copied to/from the PC, these will not be synchronised in the sense that the deletion of an e-mail on one will not also be made on the other. All of this would be so irritating.

You've already gone to a lot of trouble and have certainly cleared some of my confusion. I I am really very grateful.

Regards,

Richard

 

[Sin]

Do you see your calendar and contacts anywhere besides your old PC running Windows Live Mail 2011? My guess is no, but I want to ensure I'm looking at this right.

Despite Microsoft re-branding Hotmail to Outlook.com, it is not the same as Outlook. Outlook is an application similar to Windows Live Mail 2011 that you have been using only more feature rich. Outlook.com is a web service that combines email, calendar, and contacts.

If your calendar and contacts are only on Windows Live Mail 2011, one solution would be to create a Live account (@outlook.com, @Hotmail.com, @live.com, etc.) and use that to connect your calendar and contacts. You can export your calendar and contacts from Windows Live Mail 2011 as csv files and then import them into your new Live account on outlook.com.

As for your email syncing between devices, if your connecting via IMAP or exchange then they will sync, if you use POP3, it will not update. Microsoft has draped support for POP3 in the new Mail app in Windows 8 / RT, so there is no issue there, but Windows Live Mail 2011 does support POP3 and if that is being used it will download email from the server, but will not update the server.

Hope this help clarify a bit.

 

[Richard Jones]

Thank you so much Sin. That really is a most helpful explanation.

The only other place I see my contacts is on my Android phone which is fully synched with Windows LiveMail on my PC.

I shall certainly try what you suggest with outlook.com but one question. You suggest opening a Live account @outlook.com but I should really like to keep my current e-mail address (@virginmedia.com). Is this possible? If so, I shall use your copying as csv files idea.

Best Wishes,

Richard

 

[Richard Jones]

Hi Sin,

With a bit of trial and error I finally got my contacts to open under the People tile on the Surface. I had to sign in to outlook.com on my PC and then went to the contacts list on Windows Live Mail where I used the Export tab and used .csv to save to My Documents. I then opened outlook.com and imported this file and this led to my People app. being populated with my contacts.

Thank you so much for your hgelp. It really is very much appreciated.

Best wishes from a much happier,

Richard

 

[Richard Jones]

Sorry to have to tell you that my joy was misplaced!

I have now found that, although all the contact names were transferred, only some of the accompanying details for each contact came with them. It was not consistent in that for some I had the e-mail address, for others the telephone number and for others only the home/work address. On only two (and these just happened to be the only ones I tried and so led to my premature elation) did all the details come across properly.

After so much time spent in trying to overcome this issue, I have finally been forced to resort to a manual input of all the information into People in outlook.com and, fortunately, these also appear on my Surface. A laborious process but at least things now seem to be as they should be.

Regards,

Richard

 

[Sin]

Glad you have your contacts on your Surface. Hope they all stay up to date and synced. Sorry you have had so much trouble. This should be simpler, but unfortunately is not that seamless.