How to store Hotmail or MSN Web-based e-mail accounts offline in Office Outlook 2003 and in Outlook 2002

This article describes how to turn-on (enable) the offline storage of Hotmail Web based e-mail accounts or MSN, the Microsoft Network, Web based e-mail accounts in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and in Microsoft Outlook 2002. The steps in this article are intended for use after you have configured Outlook to view your Hotmail or MSN e-mail accounts.

NOTE If you do not turn-on the offline storage of your Hotmail or MSN Web based e-mail account in Outlook, Outlook may try to initialize a connection to the Internet when you try to view the Web based e-mail account while you are not connected to the Internet. This may occur each time that you click a different e-mail item because Outlook is trying to download the text in the body of the e-mail item.

In Office Outlook 2003 and in Outlook 2002, you can store a copy of your Hotmail e-mail account or your MSN e-mail account locally, and read and compose your e-mail messages while you are offline. To do this, use the following method after your have configured your Hotmail e-mail account or your MSN e-mail account in Outlook.

How to download a local copy of your Hotmail or MSN e-mail account

1. Start Office Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2002.
2. On the Tools menu, click Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
   
   NOTE In Office Outlook 2003, on the Tools menu, click Send/Receive, click Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
3. For each Hotmail or MSN e-mail account, use the following steps:
   1. Double-click the All Accounts group name (or the name of another Send/Receive group that you use when you work offline).
   2. Verify that the Include account in this send/receive group check box is selected.
   3. In the Check folders to include in send/receive box, click to select each check box to the left of all the folders that are listed except for the Outbox folder, if it exists.
   4. Click to select the Download complete item including attachments check box, and then click OK.
4. Click Close.
5. Click Send and Receive to verify that all of the tasks complete successfully. This step requires that you are connected to the Internet.
6. On the Outlook menu bar, click File, and then click Work Offline. This configures Outlook to work offline and use a local copy of your e-mail messages when you view your Hotmail or MSN e-mail account.

After you have configured Outlook to download a local copy of your Hotmail or MSN e-mail account, click Send/Receive to send or receive e-mail messages.

If you click Send/Receive, Outlook dials the Internet, sends any e-mail messages that you composed offline, downloads local copies of any e-mail messages on the Hotmail or MSN server, and then disconnects from the Internet under the default settings.

NOTE Issues may occur when you send and receive Hotmail or MSN e-mail messages if your account is near or over its size limit. View your Hotmail or MSN e-mail account on their Web sites to verify your current mailbox size. It is possible to purchase more storage space if required.

You may receive a timeout error message when you send or receive e-mail messages. This issue may occur if you have too many e-mail messages in some of your folders (specifically, this occurs if you have too many e-mail messages in your Deleted Items or Trash Can folders). You can avoid this issue by emptying these folders on the Hotmail or MSN Web sites.

For more information about how to configure MSN and Hotmail with Outlook 2002 and Office Outlook 2003, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: