It seems like Microsoft's account management is a complete mess. I have several account related questions about consolidating Mircosoft's services, which was supposedly the whole point of this generation of 'cloud sync' products (both hardware and software)
that have been in the works for nearly 5 years now. Yet, it is nearly (or completely) impossible to consolidate accounts into one cohesive usable network of cloud services. So here is my list of consolidation questions regarding the following microsoft products.
(You may think this question should be posted for other product forums, but that is the point of the question. Are the products unified or a complete train wreck?:
HARDWARE (my Mhone 8, Surface, Windows8 PC, Windows7 PC)
SOFTWARE AND SERVICES ("Microsoft Account", Outlook.com, Office 365 home, Office 365 small business, and live domains)
Question 1 - Is it possible to point custom domains' mail server records to an Office 365 home account (which, it is unclear if this is the same as a Microsoft account, but I'll get to that)? And by this, I mean the MX server settings, NOT just individual
pop, imap, etc. settings.
Also, if this is done, will the mail settings be controllable like any other mail server (e.g. manage ALL email boxes, accounts, listservs, alias, and catchall settings). [note: your competition 'Google' does this seamlessly]
I currently have had to set up and manage a ridiculous setup of piled together Microsoft Accounts and services that have lots of quirks involved: I have a live.domains account (free service), to where I have my domains' mx records pointed. I have an outlook.com
account, and it is unclear if the two are related, because if I am logged into one, I still have to login to the other, despite the fact that my login and password are the same for both. If they are related, you should simply put a 'domain manager' button
in the outlook.com interface for accounts that manage domains. Yes, it's a simple user capability issue -- an if, then statement should do the trick. I'll do it for you if you need it done quickly.
Question 2 - Can I receive mail from other email address that are manage by the same live.domains account into the same outlook.com account box (e.g. receive both *** Email address is removed for privacy ***, and *** Email address is removed for privacy ***, and *** Email address is removed for privacy ***, etc.). Currently, it is possible to put
in pop3 and smtp settings for completely unrelated email accounts (e.g. pop.gmail.com), by going to 'more mail settings -- your email accounts' from the Outlook.com mail interface, and filling in the mail server settings. However,
if you try to put in pop3.live.com, to add another email account, you get the following message: "It looks like you're trying to add another Outlook account. Try linking your Outlook accounts together to make switching between them fast and easy." The hilarious
thing about this is that over a month ago, "linking outlook accounts" was discontinued, and when I submitted a service request to fix this, I got no response. Try it. Click on the link above that was cut and pasted from Outlook.com; is is now a broken
link.
Question3 - What email client should I use, and what email account settings should I enter? Does Office 365 home have a web mail client like Office 365 small business? I am really confused about what user account settings, email client, etc to use on
my various microsoft devices. First, there is a mail app on my windows phone 8 that works pretty well when I connect using my 'microsoft account' (nice job phone 8). Likewise, there is a mail app on my surface, and my windows 8 PC. All of these mail apps function
very differently from Outlook.com. Some functions are better, and some are worse. That's all fine. I don't mind having two options for checking email, but from a usability standpoint, it seems a bit ridiculous to have completely different GUIs.
However, I now have Outlook (desktop version) also, since I am now paying for an Office 365 subscription. So, here is the question. Is Outlook desktop version supposed to improve my email experience or complicate it? (rhetorical question). I supposedly have
Outlook on my phone8 (I think) with my Office 365 subscription (according to my office 365 account management area), but I can't find it. I also have Outlook desktop on my Surface and Windows 8 PC. I know this, because every time I click on an <a href="mailto:...
hyperlink in a browser, the "Welcome to Outlook" setup wizard opens, rather than the Mail App or Outlook.com, that I already have setup. I suppose this is a built in nag screen behavior, purposely include by the MS Office 365 team, so that users switch to
Outlook Desktop (nice job competing against your own other products; why don't you compete against Google and Apple by making things usable, instead of competing against yourself).
So, why haven't I just setup Outlook desktop to prevent that nag screen? Because it doesn't work with the live mail servers. I used the wizard and typed in my Microsoft Account email, username, and password. The setup failed (on all devices). I'm confused,
is MS Outlook Desktop compatible with Microsoft's Services? I then tried to set it up using manual mail settings, rather than my MICROSOFT ACCOUNT (i.e. pop3.live.com and smtp.live.com). No luck. Perhaps live.com has block Outlook desktop mail client in an
effort to maintain its market share.
Question 4 - I signed up for an Office 365 small business account to see if that would improve things. That only made it worse. Now I just have another account that is semi-related to my Microsoft Account. I don't even know what I am logged in as right
now, while I type on this forum. However, when I tried to point my domain's mx records to my Office 365 business account, I found out that it is not possible to manage multiple email accounts from an office 365 business account without paying for each additional
email account that is added. Why would anybody pay for this? Perhaps more importantly, why does Microsoft offer a more flexible service that is free (live.domains.com)? Office 365 team, if you want to compete against live.domains.com you should try to make
your product better than theirs, especially since theirs is free. Although, I'm not quite sure why you wouldn't just merge that service with yours since you own each other. I'm trying really hard to like you more than Google, and have recommended (defended)
you to everyone I know over the last several years, but you are really making it difficult.
Also, do you read feedback and questions? I've probably written an entire book of feedback on your various hard to find feedback and customer service forms, and have never received a response, either in the form of action or words.
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