While it’s been exciting to track the #NewHotmailHere sightings and from what we can tell from the comments on Twitter and here on this blog, most of you are pretty excited about the new Hotmail. For some, however, things aren’t going so well.
On the Windows Live Solution Center, there are some 650 responses at the time of this posting to the forum post “Issues With New Windows Live Hotmail”. While some complaints are about confusion with the new look, etc., which probably can be expected with any change of any kind, a number of far more serious problems are being reported.
Scanning the forum posts, there seem to be problems on a number of fronts: using certain older browsers, using Qwest, ActiveX issues, along with some more general problems with performance and certain features not working. Some people are using Mac OS X 10.4 and can’t upgrade to the recommended Safari 4.x (sorry don’t know much about Macs or why this isn’t possible), but others seem to be using more current browsers and are still having problems, here’s a quick sampling:
- “I can now barely log in, cant delete any messages, cant compose messages, signing out takes forever. I do not want social networking message options, or ultra rich test clipboards to type emails on i just want to be able to check my email and send messages.”
- “the exact issue is ever since the upgraded, when i sign in to my hotmail account I see that I have messages and can see who they are from, but cant view them. Mycomuter hangs up or says NOt Responding.”
- “I see the following message above my Inbox/email: “We can’t connect to Windows Live Hotmail from Qwest right now. Please try again later”
I use Windows Internet Explorer 7 & 8.” - “Was using IE8. Dowloaded Safari to see if there would be a difference, but although it allowed me to access my hotmail, it works ever so slowly, and is still doing some very weird things like flickering of icons, and sporadic access to different hotmail folders. Methinks this is a Hotmail problem rather than a browser problem. Smooooth move!”
A number of posters have mentioned a problem with Hotmail from Qwest, apparently they are not able to get to their email, no matter what browser.
Responses from Microsoft personnel seem to be few and far between, but one workaround concerning ActiveX was posted:
For Browser freeze issues in IE, please try these steps and let us know if that helped or not:
In IE go to Tools > Internet Options > Security > Custom Level… >
Deactivate ActiveX objects.
Log back into Hotmail inbox – then go back and set the security to Default level.
For customers who arent able to access their emails at all in any of the browsers/computer, please try accessing your emails using a mail client as a workaround till we fix these issues for you.
For instructions, go here:
http://windowslivehelp.com/solution.aspx?solutionid=a485233f-206d-491e-941b-118e45a7cf1b
Older browsers seem to be a big problem, with a Microsoft poster offering a suggestion for the older Safari issue:
yes we fully support Safari 4.x. You could also try downloading the newest version of Firefox, which we also support. Sorry you haven’t had a great experience with the new Hotmail so far, but it should be much better once you get upgraded.
Of course at least some of the forum posters are resorting to their own workarounds, by switching to Yahoo! or Gmail. Someone even started a Facebook Group, “I Hate the New Hotmail”, albeit currently with only 77 members. Still 650 responses to just one thread on the support forums (which aren’t all that easy to find – we have a link on our Wiki page if you’re looking for it) and over 30,000 views since just last Thursday are some fairly sobering numbers. Are you having problems with the new Hotmail? Have you been able to fix them? Are you using the support forums? Let us know in the comments.
(via a comment from User55, hope you get your issues resolved soon)