hotmail problems

February 24, 2005 4:20 AM

Ok, so for the past ~4 days, I haven't been able to get any of my hotmail mail. I can see the mail in my inbox, but when I click on the sender's name (which is how you retrieve mail), nothing happens. I tried using different computers, including a nice new mac, and the problem remains. Have any other Mefites had any such problems, or know anything about this, etc.?

I read somewhere online that this has been happening to many people, and that it's somehow related to MSN increasing mailbox sizes without the necessary systems in place. By the way, I have a free account.

posted by clockzero to Technology (15 answers total)

No, I use my hotmail account every day and it has been working fine.
posted by fixedgear at 4:23 AM on February 24, 2005

I had numerous error messages trying to log in last night. Basically they said hang up and try again later. It seems fine today.
posted by SteveInMaine at 5:35 AM on February 24, 2005

I haven't had that specific problem, but yesterday, all the e-mail in my Hotmail inbox suddenly disappeared and the message "No Messages in Inbox" was displayed. Nice. They re-appeared in about 15 minutes. A few months ago, mail to my Hotmail account started "disappearing." No bouncebacks, no error messages. The messages just weren't arriving. I contacted Hotmail and they said they knew about the problem and were working to fix it. I'd ditch it, but it's been my main address for many years and is in approximately 7.2 billion databases.
posted by Otis at 5:37 AM on February 24, 2005

My hotmail account has been acting funky too. I was unable to use outlook express , and had to login on their site. Now it seems, that they have launched a new service...called Microsoft Office Outlook Live. Only $59.95 !!!!, but as a valued customer, I can get it for an introductory price of only $44.95 !!! What a deal...No thanks. Guess I'll have to find another option.
posted by lobstah at 5:54 AM on February 24, 2005

PS
Evidently I can still use my free Hotmail account, but I suspect the problems will continue. Could it be viral marketing?
posted by lobstah at 6:03 AM on February 24, 2005

an answer
posted by NinjaPirate at 6:24 AM on February 24, 2005

My hotmail account has been acting up as well.

I'm 100% certain that it's because of the "upgrades" that lobster mentioned.

My email is in my profile if you want a Gmail invite- I only use Hotmail as a SPAM trap these days, and you can hook outlook express up to Gmail. It's slick.
posted by fake at 6:50 AM on February 24, 2005

Kinda OT: I got a strange email from Hotmail staff yesterday saying that new acccounts would no longer be able to access Hotmail with Outlook. I don't use Outlook, but I thought it strange that MS would disconnect two of their products like that.
posted by mischief at 7:19 AM on February 24, 2005

I've got a number of invites for gmail; although it's still in beta, I've not had a single problem with it (and I can download my messages through POP.) Email's in my profile, if anyone is interested.
posted by docgonzo at 7:46 AM on February 24, 2005

For the past week or two, I have to authenticate every time I login to Hotmail through the web. Even if I hit another site and then return within seconds, I get a password prompt. I have the "sign me in automatically" box checked. It happens on every one of my computers, so I'm guessing it's an account problem rather than a cookie problem. Are other people seeing this behavior?
posted by willnot at 8:08 AM on February 24, 2005

I too have about 50 invites for g-mail, if anyone's looking. E-mail in profile.
posted by stray at 8:43 AM on February 24, 2005

I've had this same problem -- refreshing the page fixes it for me. That said, now is probably the time to switch to gmail.
posted by rockstar at 11:00 AM on February 24, 2005

Thanks for the commiseration and advice, everyone.
posted by clockzero at 3:09 PM on February 24, 2005

Too many have my hotmail address (more than my address books combined) to make the switch to gmail worth the hassle.
posted by mischief at 3:20 PM on February 24, 2005

I haven't been able to log in to hotmail in a couple weeks. Getting the error:
You have made too many unsuccessful sign-in attempts with an incorrect password for:

this despite the fact I've waited days between attempted logins and I've only attempted to login once. I was thinking they were trying to get rid of all us pre microsoft takeover hotmail people for some reason. But I suppose it could be a faulty cluster.
posted by Mitheral at 8:23 PM on February 24, 2005