[architxt]

I've just discovered - after migrating over various email accounts from Gmail to Outlook.com - that Outlook.com only checks POP mail every 30 minutes. I can't click a button and trigger it to check.

This is extraordinary. I appreciate that this isn't a business product, but having to wait 30 minutes for POP email is too long for personal use too. Imagine getting to the airport and realising you don't have your e-ticket and asking your partner to email it through, and waiting up to 30 mins to receive it.

This has put me off comitting to Win 8 and Win Phone 8 as I had planned to.

Is there a workaround for this? I actually like the interface very much and would love to stick to the plan.

[Zeroplanetz]

I've just discovered - after migrating over various email accounts from Gmail to Outlook.com - that Outlook.com only checks POP mail every 30 minutes. I can't click a button and trigger it to check.

This is extraordinary. I appreciate that this isn't a business product, but having to wait 30 minutes for POP email is too long for personal use too. Imagine getting to the airport and realising you don't have your e-ticket and asking your partner to email it through, and waiting up to 30 mins to receive it.

This has put me off comitting to Win 8 and Win Phone 8 as I had planned to.

Is there a workaround for this? I actually like the interface very much and would love to stick to the plan.

i don't know the differences between email types but i have yahoo and Hotmail and they both have a sync button when you open them up if you can't wait 30 mins. Or say for the ticket thing what about uploading to skydrive or box? Isn't that instant?

[Noob1ee]

There is a refresh button which triggers the sync as zeroplanetz pointed out.

[Andygoes]

What POP3 email provider are you trying to use? Windows 8 Mail app doesn't support POP3 accounts at all, so everything would have to be routed through Outlook or Gmail. In case you weren't aware, Outlook.com is also an email service that works very nicely with Win8, WP8, iOS and Android for IMAP and/or Exchange Active Sync depending on the device. Email messages to your @outlook.com address will show up within seconds.

[TechAbstract]

"There is a refresh button which triggers the sync as zeroplanetz pointed out."

That's if you didn't port Gmail to Outlook.com and just add Gmail account to WP by itself. Outlook.com is almost instantly with emails from your Outlook.com but it takes forever to retrieve other POP email accounts within outlook.com. I added all my POP email accounts to outlook.com to save battery, since I only need one account to sync instead of four email accounts, but other email accounts take long to come in Outlook.com like OP said.

[Andygoes]

"There is a refresh button which triggers the sync as zeroplanetz pointed out."

That's if you didn't port Gmail to Outlook.com and just add Gmail account to WP by itself. Outlook.com is almost instantly with emails from your Outlook.com but it takes forever to retrieve other POP email accounts within outlook.com. I added all my POP email accounts to outlook.com to save battery, since I only need one account to sync instead of four email accounts, but other email accounts take long to come in Outlook.com like OP said.

Alternatively you could have set them up on your phone instead of outlook.com and then set the refresh intervals independently to help preserve battery.

[TechAbstract]

That's what I had before I ported them to Outlook.com. They used more battery life on WP8

[Andygoes]

Well, if each account is configured individually on the phone then you can set them to push, refresh every 15/30/60 minutes, or only manually. If all your accounts were set up for that final option then it wouldn't kill any of your battery because they would never contact the server until you told them to.

[architxt]

Alternatively you could have set them up on your phone instead of outlook.com and then set the refresh intervals independently to help preserve battery.

Does this mean that POP retrieval on a WP is quicker than outlook.com's 30 minutes? I don't own a WP yet...

And that if you sync on your WP and then go to outlook.com to check mail, the latest batch will be there too? If so, I one can always trigger POP retrieval using one's WP phone.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

[conanheath]

I don't know what you're talking about. I can have almost instant messaging with all of my accounts on phone, RT, computer. Gmail, hotmail, live and Outlook. I have set up for push and you can always refresh for absolute up to the minute emails.

[TechAbstract]

Does this mean that POP retrieval on a WP is quicker than outlook.com's 30 minutes? I don't own a WP yet...

And that if you sync on your WP and then go to outlook.com to check mail, the latest batch will be there too? If so, I one can always trigger POP retrieval using one's WP phone.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Still long on WP8. It seems to be the same 30 mins like you said. It's instantly if you didn't migrate your POP email accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, Godaddy, etc) to Outlook.com

[rdubmu]

Outlook.com and currently Gmail offer EAS support. You can also set it up "as items arrive" instead of every 15, 30...ect...
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro

[TechAbstract]

Microsoft needs to change that 30 mins interval. I guess your best bet is don't use outlook.com to check your gmail.

[architxt]

I don't know what you're talking about. I can have almost instant messaging with all of my accounts on phone, RT, computer. Gmail, hotmail, live and Outlook. I have set up for push and you can always refresh for absolute up to the minute emails.

• Outlook.com automatically checks your other account for new messages every 30 minutes, and can receive up to 60 messages at a time. The remaining messages will be included in the next automatic refresh.
• The maximum size of an email message, including attachments, is 25 MB.
• You can add up to 13 POP accounts to Outlook.com.

From: Send and receive email from other accounts in Outlook.com - Microsoft Windows Help

[architxt]

Microsoft needs to change that 30 mins interval. I guess your best bet is don't use outlook.com to check your gmail.

I'm planning to migrate over to as many Microsoft products as possible, email being one of the key ones. And then get myself a Windows Phone :)

I could switch back to Gmail, yes, but I like the outlook.com web interface. And save myself the hassle of switching back too.

[architxt]

Outlook.com and currently Gmail offer EAS support. You can also set it up "as items arrive" instead of every 15, 30...ect...
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro

Are Google discontinuing EAS support soon?

If not, can if I have all my POP account accessible via Google... can I then use Outlook.com to access the same?

[LazySunday]

Its the same thing with gmail as well... if you link you other email like yahoo to gmail, it checks once in an hour, but you can force check it... This is one of the pending request at outlook.com

[gapost]

Its the same thing with gmail as well... if you link you other email like yahoo to gmail, it checks once in an hour, but you can force check it... This is one of the pending request at outlook.com

That's not really true. GMail "learns" how much mail you are getting from your pop account and will adjust the time it checks your pop account. I have seen is much less than 30, usually around 12 min.

I don't have pop accounts linked to my outlook.com, but if it's 30 minutes, that is another example of the immaturity of Outlook.com. It has a lot of potential, but MS needs to beef up some features.

[LazySunday]

That's not really true. GMail "learns" how much mail you are getting from your pop account and will adjust the time it checks your pop account. I have seen is much less than 30, usually around 12 min.

I agree with you. But, I noticed that if you don't keep on pressing the sync button, it establishes a comfort zone at around one check per hour...

[ninny1176]

I actually forward my GMail to Outlook and have always gotten my mail instantly (or within a minute or 2). I used the Outlook.com to "pull" my existing mail in (that part takes forever, so be patient) and then setup GMail's forward option to push incoming mail to Outlook.com - this has been working great for me.

[gapost]

I actually forward my GMail to Outlook and have always gotten my mail instantly (or within a minute or 2). I used the Outlook.com to "pull" my existing mail in (that part takes forever, so be patient) and then setup GMail's forward option to push incoming mail to Outlook.com - this has been working great for me.

Again, that only works as fast as gmail pulls in your email. If you need to have your pop email on your phone, of course, you can set it up as a separate account, but the quickest it will check is every 15 minutes and that will use extra battery life. If your pop email has imap, you can set up an external imap server to push your email to your phone almost immediately. I'm sure there are others, but I use nuevasync.com and it does a very good job with imap email, almost instant response. Yes, it costs $30/year and yes, you shouldn't have to pay for this functionality because it "should" be built into Windows phone. But it isn't so for now, that is the best option.

[Zeroplanetz]

I have three emails on my phone individually and all set for different times. My battery lasts all day for me and I'm a medium to heavy user I would say. Now once a week I do soft rest my phone because there's leaks somewhere so if I don't then I end up with like 5hours of life. But when I do I go to bed with around 50% battery life. Best option for the battery issue I've found.

[architxt]

Quick question...

When I get my Lumia 920 and set up Mail to access my Outlook.com account, will I also get mail from the POP accounts I set up via Outlook.com? Will mail be always synced between outlook.com and mail on my Lumia.

Cheers,

Lawrence

[gapost]

Quick question...

When I get my Lumia 920 and set up Mail to access my Outlook.com account, will I also get mail from the POP accounts I set up via Outlook.com? Will mail be always synced between outlook.com and mail on my Lumia.

Cheers,

Lawrence

Quick answer, yes

[architxt]

Thanks.

On Microsoft's support forums they have said this about the WP8 Mail app:

• The Mail app will not let you create, rename, or delete folders.
• The Mail app and the phone will only be able to send using the outlook.com address.

The second point is a concern.

I'm going to set up a dummy POP mail and a test outlook.com account and head over to a shop to test all this on a Lumia.