I needed to set up the full sync between a Mac OS X computer and an Outlook.com (ex. Hotmail) account that would include syncing not only Mail and Notes, but also Calendars, Contacts and Reminders. Unlike iPhones/iOS, that Mac Desktop didn't offer an easy option to link your Outlook.com account. The only option that is obvious by default is to use a traditional mail setup, which seems to be relying on IMAP and offers the Mail and Notes sync only.
But thankfully, there is a way to make it work, and it's fast and does not require any customisations.
As
this Stackexchange comment suggests, the workaround is to use the not-so-obvious Exchange servers that, as it turns out, Hotmail/Outlook.com does have. However, the server provided in the comment (
https://m.hotmail.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx) seems to no longer work. The good news is
this Stackoverflow answer has an updated address, which is
https://outlook.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx
So here's what you do to set it up:
- Go to Settings → Internet Accounts
- You should see a list of available sync methods on the right. If you don't, click on a + at the bottom left corner
- Choose Exchange, but don't enter your credentials yet because there's a trick: if you enter your correct credentials, the system will try to look up the settings automatically. It will attempt to establish a connection to some Exchange server that it knows, which will not work.
- Here's a workaround: enter an e-mail address within a non-existent domain name, or
example.com even. The system will fail to look up what it thinks are the Hotmail's exchange servers, and will prompt you to enter the addresses yourself, and that's exactly what we need. So for the name type your name, type your actual password, but instead of your e-mail type john@example.com and click Sign In.
- The system will attempt to sign in and fail, prompting us to enter the Internal URL and External URL values. Put
https://outlook.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx into both inputs and click Sign In again.
- Choose what you need to have synced
