Status on bug in appointments with attendees from accounts using hotmail.com, live.com and outlook.com?

It generally takes a lot longer to investigate and even longer to fix bugs. The Microsoft people in this forum are not the ones who work on the product team and they aren't always told the status of a bug but it doesn't mean its not being worked on or investigated.

Whether or when it will be fixed depends on the root cause.  A lot depends on the number of support calls - if most people aren't using outlook.com for meetings and those who do don't call and open a support case, it might not be fixed. 

Hi Diane,

Thank you, I really appreciate your observations and thoughts, and fully agree except…

…it only takes around 5 minutes to repeat the steps to reproduce the issue, so I minimum expected Microsoft to return with a brief update within a week or so - just something like:

 "I was able to reproduce the issue at my end. We will consider a fix for future releases."

This is sufficient for me to rule out that the issue is due to my setup or usage pattern. Then I can decide to live with it or find an alternative until a fix is prioritized and released in months or years from now - if ever.

May be it is just a matter of words and cultures. I guess you are politely telling me that "we are investigating" has the same meaning to you, so now I know where I stand :-)

Time to move on and try Exchange Online. My initial impressions are good and some of your Exchange articles really helped me get started. Thanks a lot!

To wrap up, these are my primary lessons learned by this calendar issue and the duplicate/vanishing contact issue:

outlook.com is a "free personal email" aimed at receiving mails, such as Facebook updates and delivery notifications from internet shopping. It is typically accessed by web or App. Think Hotmail, and you will get the right sense of the true functionality of outlook.com. 
 
With this understanding it is easy to see that it is a mistake to use Outlook 2013 together with outlook.com to "stay connected" by sending mails to contacts or arranging meetings - even if this is just to be used for simple coordination with family and friends. This may seem feasible based on the advertised features, the shared use of the outlook name and the built-in connector, but the real life issues makes the experience comparable to the poor integration between Outlook 2013 and iCloud.
 
In short: If you paid to use Outlook 2013 instead of the Windows Live Mail or the Windows Apps, then chances are that your needs will require data to be stored in a local pst file or Exchange Online. Do not use outlook.com.

Feel free to use, rewrite or cite anywhere you like. There is no need to let others fall into the same trap :)

Thanks again!

Kind regards, Ole

Your 'primary lessons' are spot on - outlook.com *is* Hotmail in a new dress. The big problem is that EAS is not a good protocol for a full-featured desktop client. They are working on fixing the problems but I don't have an ETA (or know what the fix will be).

As for Exchange online, it is a much better option and you should not have any of the problems you had with outlook.com. Plus, since it's a business grade account, if there are problems they usually get fixed within a few months.

I think, that outlook.com and Exchange online are based on the same Software ;-)

So if EAS is not a good protocol then this protocol will also fail on Exchange Online.

I'm just evaluating for my Company and for my customers to use Office365 inkl. Synchronisation with Android Tablets and Handys - before the Hardware is later switched to Windows 10, the upcoming Surface Pro 4 and new Windows Phones.... but i think it is today better not to recommend Microsoft.... and it seems Gooogle Mail and Calendar are syncing today better....

Outlook.com uses EAS to sync with outlook. It was designed to sync PDAs (yes, that long ago!) with Exchange. Because it was designed for smartphones, it doesn't support all Outlook/Exchange features.

Outlook uses MAPI to sync with Exchange - it's a much more robust protocol and fully supports all Outlook/Exchange features.

but i think it is today better not to recommend Microsoft.... and it seems Gooogle Mail and Calendar are syncing today better....

Depends what you are syncing with. Calendar and contacts will not sync with Outlook - you'd need to use a sync utility. Gmail calendar and contacts won't sync with windows phone or the windows calendar and contacts app. Exchange will work great with all 3 phone/tablet systems and with Outlook. OWA's not bad either.

However i liked the Vision of Office365 and Outlook.com - also because of OneDrive...

(copied from your almost identical post in this thread)

If you also like OneDrive, then Office 365 Business Essentials will give you both Exchange Online, 1TB OneDrive and some extras. This is what I have changed to and it is definitively more robust and well supported (business grade).

It is the exact same price as Google Apps for Work.

If you main work platform is based on Androids then Google might be the best choice. If Office is your main work platform then one of the Office 365 Business Plans is your best choice.

In essence: If you are a company and you already invested in Office 365 (business grade productivity) then the best way to get full benefit is by using a (paid) business grade mail/calendar service – whichever fits best to your needs. Just stay clear of the free alternatives (outlook.com, Gmail, iCloud, … ), they might well end up costing you more in lost profit :) 

Hi Ole,

thanks for your tip in the direction of Business products.

I have looked yesterday 4 hours!!!!!!! into the specifications of Office 365 Business - including looking in forums regarding Problems and so on - i think Microsoft should explain this line better or let me say clearer what each product really is doing.

I'm looking into Office Solutions for Business and for homes because today you can not really differ between working hours and private hours - so a Business worker also want to use calender and Office may be on the way or at home - and also the Family is using from time to time calenders, mails and here and there word / excel. So i thought in mixing up plans for Business and Home.

Office Home (5 users) seems to be useless because calender/mail/contacts are not working properly.

So i take your plan for 5 users i have to pay 25$ per month for having contacts/calender - may be working.

However i have then the Problem that i have on the private side no Office (WinWord etc.) so i could also buy a home licence for 9$ per month ending up in 34$ per month.

But the private Office 365 is not compatible with the Business productline ;-) so u can't mix these Services. As example sharing and so on.

That meens - and other users have seen exact the same, that they are buying at least Office 365 Business which includes the Office products for 5 Computers and 5 Tablets/Phones. Later on they are realizing that Calenders and Email is not included ;-)

So they are upgrading to Office 365 Business Premium for 12.50$ her we have Office Products and Email/Calenders for 5 Computers and 5 Tablets/Phones. They are thinking, that the could use These licences by Splitting them between Home use and Business use - like the Office Home Product.

But this is completly wrong because the Business-line is per User ;-) Question: Which Person has 5 Computers and 5 Phones/Tablets? While Windows Tablets are from licence Point Computers ;-)

So u end up if you are in Business and you have a Family in 5 Business Premium licenses a 12,50$ = 62,5 $ per month - for just having Email, Contacts, Calenders which may be are working?

Mixing Home and Business  Office is not possible because a Business-Calender can't be shared to externel (Read yes, but write and edit no). Also it is complicate because of your Logins regarding OneDrive - when do you Login in wehre with your tablet/pc/phone - where is OneNote and WinWord then storing the documents?

These are all Problems and for me not a solution which i can give my customers. Additional to this i think, that a Company is not willing to add private Household members to there IT-Department.

So, we have the last Scenario: For Business i have an Office Business account and for private also - but in this Scenario sharing between two accounts is not possible.

From Pricing Point of view - Microsoft should think about the Problem and should create a new Business Product with 5 licenses (Users) and a moderate price - eg like the 1 Licence is for 5 Users and all following licences are for 1 user.

So, as far i see no solution in working arround the bugs with in the whole Microsoft solution which should competing against google and Apple/Samsung.

There is a big hope, that Microsoft is using in the future also mapi/html for the private line - let's wait.

If i'm wrong with my view - please correct me - it is not easy to understand all Services and licences Microsoft has.

Because of the outlook.com Problems described in an other thread i followed Dianes and Oles device to try Outlook 365 Business because this is a very robust product and is using the Exchange mapi protocoll instead of active sync.

Here you can read my tests i have done and the results i have got

Summary: Also Office365 Business has many bugs with Synchronisation but here u are paying for the bugs.

Summary: Also Office365 Business has many bugs with Synchronisation but here u are paying for the bugs.

Please update the summary in above post to reflect the new conclusion in the linked post :-)

Added on March 22, due to Thorsten's missing update:

Thorsten did not find any bugs in Office 365 Business as stated in the above summary.

Thorsten quickly acknowledged that the experienced problems were due to a combination of human and technical issues with an Android App – not Exchange Online or Office 365 Business Essentials. Check Thorsten's linked post for details.