Your iPhone is supposed to keep your Hotmail inbox fresh and up to date. But sometimes, new emails stop showing up. You tap refresh, wait a few seconds, tap again, and still nothing. It feels like your phone and your email account have stopped talking to each other.
This issue is more common than you might think, and the good part is that you can usually fix it yourself. In this post, you’ll learn what causes this syncing problem and the exact steps to get your Hotmail working smoothly on your iPhone again.
What Happens When Your iPhone Stops Syncing Hotmail
When everything works the way it should, your iPhone regularly checks your Hotmail server for new messages. Every few minutes, or even instantly with push notifications, fresh emails land in your inbox. You see them, read them, reply, and move on with your day. That’s the normal flow.
But when syncing breaks down, that connection between your iPhone and Hotmail gets interrupted. Your phone might show old emails but refuse to pull in anything new. Or it might fail to send emails you’ve written. Sometimes, the Mail app throws up an error message. Other times, it just sits there doing nothing at all.
Leaving this unfixed can cause real problems. You could miss important messages from work, family, or your bank. Sent emails might get stuck in your outbox for hours or days. If you use your Hotmail for two factor authentication codes or password resets, you won’t receive those either. And the longer the issue drags on, the more emails pile up on the server without reaching your phone.
The syncing problem can show up in a few different ways:
- New emails missing entirely: Your inbox looks the same as it did yesterday, even though you know people have sent you messages.
- Emails arriving late: Messages show up hours after they were sent, sometimes in batches.
- Unable to send: Emails you compose get stuck and never leave your phone.
- Error messages: You see alerts like “Cannot Get Mail” or “The connection to the server failed.”
iPhone Not Syncing Hotmail: Common Causes
Before you start fixing things, it helps to know what went wrong in the first place. Here are the most frequent reasons your iPhone and Hotmail stop syncing properly.
1. Poor or Unstable Internet Connection
Your iPhone needs a steady internet connection to communicate with Hotmail’s servers. If your Wi-Fi signal is weak or your cellular data keeps cutting out, syncing fails. This happens a lot when you’re moving between areas with different signal strengths, like walking through a large building or riding on public transport.
Even if your phone shows Wi-Fi bars, the actual connection might be slow or unreliable. Some public Wi-Fi networks also block certain types of traffic, which can prevent your email from syncing.
2. Incorrect Account Settings
Hotmail (now part of Outlook.com) uses specific server settings to connect with email apps. If these settings get changed or corrupted somehow, your iPhone can’t reach the Hotmail servers correctly. This sometimes happens after a software update or if you accidentally modified something in your account settings.
The wrong incoming or outgoing server address, an incorrect port number, or a disabled SSL setting can all break the sync. Your phone essentially loses the address it needs to pick up and deliver your mail.
You might not even realize a setting changed. It can happen silently in the background, leaving you puzzled about why things stopped working.
3. Outdated Password or Expired Credentials
If you recently changed your Hotmail password on another device or through a web browser, your iPhone might still be using the old one. The server rejects the outdated password, and syncing stops cold.
Microsoft also sometimes requires you to re-authenticate your account for security reasons. If you have two step verification enabled and haven’t updated your app password, that can block syncing too.
4. Fetch Settings Turned Off or Set Incorrectly
Your iPhone has settings that control how often it checks for new email. These are called Fetch settings. If Fetch is turned off or set to “Manual,” your phone won’t automatically look for new messages. You’d have to open the Mail app and pull down to refresh every single time.
Some people accidentally change these settings while trying to save battery life. Others don’t realize the settings exist at all. Either way, the result is the same: emails sitting on the server, waiting for you to manually request them.
5. Software Glitches or Bugs
Sometimes the problem has nothing to do with settings or passwords. The Mail app itself can develop glitches. A recent iOS update might have introduced a bug. Or the app’s temporary data could have become corrupted.
These software hiccups are frustrating because there’s no obvious cause. Everything looks correct, but syncing still fails. Fortunately, most software related issues have simple fixes.
iPhone Not Syncing Hotmail: How to Fix
Now that you know what might be causing the trouble, let’s walk through the solutions. Start with the first fix and work your way down. Most people solve their syncing issues within the first few steps.
1. Check Your Internet Connection
This sounds basic, but it’s worth doing first. Open Safari or another browser on your iPhone and try loading a website. If the page won’t load or takes forever, your internet connection is the issue, not your email settings.
Try these quick steps:
- Toggle Airplane Mode on and off. This resets your network connections.
- Switch from Wi-Fi to cellular data, or vice versa, to see if one works better.
- Move closer to your Wi-Fi router if you’re far away from it.
- Restart your router by unplugging it for 30 seconds and plugging it back in.
Once your internet is stable, open the Mail app and try to refresh your inbox.
2. Remove and Re-add Your Hotmail Account
This fix works surprisingly often. Removing the account and adding it fresh forces your iPhone to establish a brand new connection with Hotmail’s servers. It also clears out any corrupted settings hiding in the background.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Tap Mail, then tap Accounts.
- Select your Hotmail or Outlook account from the list.
- Tap Delete Account and confirm.
After the account is gone, add it back:
- Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Add Account.
- Choose Outlook.com (this covers Hotmail, Live, and MSN accounts).
- Enter your email address and password.
- Follow the prompts to complete the setup.
Give your phone a minute to sync. Your emails should start appearing again.
3. Update Your Password
If you changed your Hotmail password recently and forgot to update it on your iPhone, this is your fix. Your phone keeps trying to log in with old credentials that no longer work.
Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts and tap on your Hotmail account. Look for an option to update or re-enter your password. Type in the current password you use to log into Hotmail on the web.
For accounts with two step verification, you might need to generate an app password from your Microsoft account security settings online. Use that special password instead of your regular one.
4. Adjust Your Fetch and Notification Settings
Your iPhone might not be checking for new mail often enough. Let’s fix that.
Open Settings and tap Mail. Then tap Accounts and select Fetch New Data at the bottom of the screen. Make sure the toggle for Push is turned on if available. For Hotmail, you’ll likely need to use Fetch since Microsoft doesn’t always support Push for third party apps.
Under your Hotmail account in this same screen, select a Fetch schedule. Choosing Every 15 Minutes strikes a good balance between getting timely emails and preserving battery life. You can also choose Automatically to let your iPhone decide based on your usage patterns.
Tap Done and exit Settings. Your phone should now check for new Hotmail messages on a regular schedule.
5. Restart Your iPhone
A simple restart can clear out temporary glitches affecting the Mail app. It’s a classic fix because it actually works.
To restart most iPhones, press and hold the side button along with either volume button until the power off slider appears. Drag the slider to turn off your phone. Wait about 30 seconds, then press and hold the side button again until you see the Apple logo.
Once your phone boots back up, open the Mail app and check if syncing resumes. This often clears up issues that other fixes miss.
6. Update iOS
Apple releases software updates that fix bugs and improve compatibility with email services. If you’re running an older version of iOS, updating might solve your syncing troubles.
Go to Settings > General > Software Update. If an update is available, tap Download and Install. Make sure your phone is connected to Wi-Fi and has enough battery life, or plug it in while the update installs.
After the update completes, check your Hotmail sync again.
7. Contact Apple Support or Microsoft Support
If none of the fixes above work, the problem might be something deeper. There could be an issue with your Microsoft account that requires their team to look into. Or your iPhone might have a hardware related problem affecting its ability to connect to servers.
Reach out to Apple Support through their website, the Apple Support app, or by visiting an Apple Store. For account specific issues on the Hotmail side, contact Microsoft Support through their help pages. They can check if something is wrong with your account or if there’s a service outage affecting email delivery.
Wrapping Up
Getting your Hotmail to sync with your iPhone again usually takes just a few minutes. Most of the time, a quick settings adjustment or removing and re-adding the account does the trick. The key is to work through each solution calmly rather than jumping around randomly.
Your email should be easy and reliable. With the steps above, you can get back to receiving messages the moment they arrive, without the stress of wondering what you might be missing.