Since the introduction of Windows Live for Windows Mobile in mid-2008, Microsoft has been dealing with a range of problems reported by end-users revolving around the Hotmail component of the package. However, the Redmond company has yet to resolve all the issues involving poor synchronization between Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Mobile devices, although steps forward have been made. In this regard, it is now pointing the finger at Windows Live Messenger for making push mail perform inconsistently. Users who have opted for the “As items arrive” in the “Sync schedule” email synchronization settings and who are also signed into Messenger with specific statuses can be impacted by sync failures.

“If you are signed in to Windows Live Messenger on your PC and your status is 'Online' or 'In a call,' you could see interruption of push mail working on your device,” a member of the Windows Live for Windows Mobile team explained.

“The workaround is to have Messenger on your PC in any state other than 'Online' or 'In a call.' Luckily, by default, PC Messenger changes your state to 'Away' in lots of common scenarios, such as being inactive for a certain time period, locking your computer, or when the screen saver is activated. This means that most of you will continue to receive push hotmail on your Windows Mobile device when you are away from your PCs.”

At the same time, the Redmond company informed that push email could fail to be made available on Windows Mobile devices in the eventuality in which users were signed into Windows Live Messenger on their mobile phones. In this case, the workaround implies that they will have to opt for either remaining signed into the instant messaging client on their phone or receive push email. Signing out of the application will allow the delivery process associated with Windows Live Hotmail items to work without any issues.

“Rest assured we are working hard to have a fix implemented on our servers to permanently solve this issue and we’ll be sure to update you when the fix is rolled out. Thanks for your patience while we work this out, and we apologize for the inconvenience caused by this issue. Please do let us know if you have any issues using Windows Live for Windows Mobile,” the Windows Live for Windows Mobile team representative added.