Syncing Outlook 2003 hotmail with Blackberry

First I apologize if this has been answered before. I have a client that has a paid Windows Live Hotmail account set-up in outlook 2003 using the outlook connector.

I am trying to find a solution to sync the contacts, calendar, and task to his blackberry. Apparently you cannot use the Blackberry desktop software with unless the data is stored in a .pst file.

My question is there any easy way to set-up 2 way sync with a blackberry device and his current outlook configuration. Hopefully without needing to reconfigure outlook.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

No. At least not with Hotmail. I don't believe RIM has added calendar and contact sync support for Hotmail yet. GMail is the only other free service they do this with.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

jnicholes, I am in the same boat here...

Although you can sync Blackberry desktop with Outlook, it will only sync contents of the Outlook .pst file. That means using the Windows Live Connector in Outlook will not work, since this data is not stored in the .pst. There are other OTA connectors for Outlook and Blackberry but it's the same situation -- only the .pst file contents.

If your client has OS 5, he can sync his Windows Live Contacts. Unfortunately there is no 2-way sync right now for calendar and tasks. There are work arounds for 1-way sync of the calendar, but not tasks.

The upcoming "wave 4" upgrade to Hotmail, due later this year, might resolve the calendar problem... They are adding full support for Exchange ActiveSync, which includes syncing of calendar and contacts with mobile devices. The doesn't necessarily mean it will work on Blackberry though.

A simple work-around that RIM could implement is allowing the Blackberry to subscribe to ics/webcal calendars, because you can share Windows Live Calendar this way. There does not appear to be any third party apps to subscribe to internet calendars.

My "work-around" right now is using Best Buy's free mIQ service. It allows me to create/edit/delete contacts and calendar, and sync OTA. You cannot currently import your calendar, but it's a quick and easy way to add info to your Blackberry.

I'm in a similar situation, and haven't really resolved it. I know you can sync your hotmail (website) calendar, contacts and email with Outlook, and can sync Outlook (using DM) with your BB, but I haven't quite gotten that all to work yet. I think theoretically you should be able to use this to keep everything in sync, or maybe I'm just beating my head against a wall :)

Problem solved! Exchange ActiveSync support for Hotmail is finally here. If your Blackberry supports MS Exchange, you can now get full native sync of mail, contacts, and calendar. Just setup your Hotmail account as exchange account (server: m.hotmail.com).