HTC One M8 no longer works on My wife's hotmail account

[roveer]

Wife brought me her HTC One (Windows phone) M8 and said hotmail was no longer synch'ng.  Look at the email+accounts and it gives an error 80070057.

Tried everything including wiping phone.  Still gives 80070057.  If I try my hotmail account (which seems to be different than hers) it works.

Her's uses a server eas.hotmail.com

Mine used a server bay503-mail.hotmail.com or something like that.

If I place my account as the main "Microsoft account" which is the primary account and then add her's as a second account both accounts sync.

When I look at the account settings, when her's shows up as the 2nd account there is an additional line under the server that gives a checkbox (which is checked) saying account requires SSL.  When I add her account as Microsoft account that does NOT show up.  Seems strange.

Anyway.  I've been on support with MS for over and hour and they don't seem to have an idea why this is happening.

Strangely, it seems to have happened right around the time VZ discontinued Visual Voicemail for this device.  Coincidence?

In any event, I need to get this fixed.  The phone is only 2 years old.

[Ann154]

Is her account associated with a company exchange server? Have you tried manually adding her email address as the primary account?

[roveer]

Not associated with anything at work.  Just a plain old hotmail account.  I just wiped the phone and entered my information as the main "microsoft account" and it sync'd the email right away.  No error messages.  I then went back and added an account and put in my wifes information and it added and sync'd the account without issue.

This has something to do with her hotmail account being set up as the main Microsoft account.  I have 2 different HTC One M8 phones and have tried this on both (wiping the phone each time) and I get the same exact result.  So it's not one flaky phone.  I've changed her password just in case to see if it had something to do with that.

Utterly frustrting.

[deloused]

The detailed information you included when trying to troubleshoot that is good. They made 3 iterations of Hotmail. From the information you included yours is a 'microsoft' one, but hers is 'exchange'. Have you tried setting up her account in the settings as 'exchange' instead?

[roveer]

I don't have that opportunity.  When you set the phone up it asks for your microsoft account.  It does not give you the opportunity to pick an email system.  It's asking for your microsoft login information.  I'm putting in the same info that she's been using since she got this phone.

Here's one big thing I've noticed.  From a PC when I log into my hotmail account and click on the gear and select options I get a screen full of options.  If I do the same thing using my wife's account (from the PC) do click the gear and select options I get a very different screen full of options.  Different look, different options

Understand, same website, hotmail.com.  Both our email accounts are @hotmail.com.  Remember her email worked up till about a week ago.  Nothing changed on her phone.  Not a thing.  Now error 80070057.

Spent an hour on the chat with MS Support.  They thought it was a connectivity issue.  Clearly not when I have tried same on 2 different phones, and when adding her account as a 2nd account it works.  Not connectivity.

Something about her account being used as the primary "microsoft account" is not working or not passing proper info to the email part of the phone.  Something broke in the past 2 week.

[roveer]

Another significant observation.

When I wipe the phone and set it up with my microsoft account and then go into settings email+accounts and look at the account the server that is used for my me@hotmail.com (me substituted for my actual id), the server shows as bay403-m.hotmail.com

When I set up the account using my wife's credentials and do the same inspection the server that is listed is eas.outlook.com

Very different.

Something has broken that is not allowing my wife's version of hotmail or outlook or whatever you call it to not work on this phone.  I'm wondering why I'm the only one having this problem.  The phone is only 2 years old and people do still use hotmail or outlook or whatever you call it.

[Ann154]

Give this a try and report back the results. https://www.msoutlook.info/question/reset-eas-sync-partnership

[Ann154]

There was also this that may or may not apply. https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/outlookcommigrationinfo.htm

[roveer]

Tried that days ago and numerous times.  Interestingly the profiles seem to return after a day or two. 

[deloused]

Thanks for the additional information and clarification. With all the different names and changes it can be confusing.

For the initial set-up, the Microsoft ID & password is for application and file syncing, but will only be able to access the email, calendar and contacts with that ID if it is also a Microsoft owned product. For example, at the Microsoft ID login/registration page you can set it up with any name acceptable with the designed parameters, including emailaddy, my phone number or a nickname.

If the ID & password do match an account owned by Microsoft like yours is, that would be the same and saves a step in the email setup process. Your Hotmail account is owned by Microsoft, (formerly the msn service as indicated by your server name) so that is why it works as such.

If I setup the Microsoft ID name as an account not owned by them such as my Gmail or any other type of name it will still work with the Microsoft ID for apps and files, but then I would have to setup the account in settings to sync the email and calendar. Your wife's account is an exchange type, as indicated by the server name EAS (exchange active sync) formerly outlook, and is not owned by Microsoft, they license that access still and don't have access rights to setup email thru the micro ID. So after the initial setup the email setup would still need to be done under the device settings.

In addition to the former MSN & outlook updates and moves they also now have windows/live/and office 365 and most other email account types pointing to 'hotmail'.

[roveer]

So I understand what you are saying but I am not sure how to go forward.

Prior to last week (literally) this all worked using the exact credentials that I have been trying.  What happened for this to suddenly break?

If I user her MS ID credentials to set the phone up I'm left with an instance of email on the phone that keeps trying to sync and issuing a 80070057 error.

Additionally, the phone will not allow me to add an exchange account using her credentials because it says that an account with those credentials already exists.

So what broke?

What are my choices?  Create a dummy MS ID just to get the phone activated then add a 2nd mailbox to the phone using her credentials?  I don't understand why this suddenly broke a week ago. 

Aarrggg

[deloused · Accepted solution]

They're still updating server and feature settings, so that's likely what caused it to stop working with the former setup/settings.

I was playing around in my Microsoft ID account, (my user name matches mg Gmail address) to try and find an option to adjust settings, but didn't find one. Yours/hers may look a bit different and have slightly different options since they were originally setup with Hotmail addresses, and I'd like to think that Microsoft employees would have additional admin access to change or correct such an issue, but I know you already called them for a while and I domt enjoy that either. Registering with a brand new ID (such as your wife's phone number or something easy to remember) as you suggested would stop that other error message, and then the email itself with her old Hotmail address could be added in settings, and also changed in the future more easily if needed. Personally I'd go with that.

[roveer]

So, I registered a new hotmail id and installed it on the phone.  Worked just fine.  Guess what...  Server address is eas.outlook.com.  More confused as ever.

I'm in the process of adding her hotmail account as a second account.

My reason for wanting to get the original setup working was for the Backup Assistant Plus which is a verizon utility and seems to be tagged to the phone number.  It refuses to work in this setup saying it's having trouble with the email.  This is basically a crippled configuration.  I'm in the weeds here, but seeing as I've spent 20+ hours on this I have to just get it working and move forward.  She'll have no text, phone setting or contact backup as a result of the BA+ not working.

Freak'n technology.

[deloused]

That sure is a pain! Under settings-> backup assistant does it allow you to use it there with her phone number after the initial setup?

[roveer]

Jury still out.  Seems like it might be working but keeps giving a message about trying to restore.  Hopefully that will eventually stop.  3am.  Technology sucks...