How to Delete Hotmail Messages from Your Motorola Droid 2 and the Hotmail Server

Praise be to the Phone Gods for developing the Droid 2. If you own this phone, like me, then you're probably wowed by its capabilities (and still trying to figure out what all its capabilities are). But if you have Hotmail, you're probably frustrated by the fact that when you delete emails from your phone, they remain in your Hotmail inbox.

It becomes tedious -- and time-consuming -- to have to sift through all of your emails twice. And in this fast-paced society, where time could be better spent sipping coffee at Starbucks while stalking people on Facebook, who really wants to waste precious moments deleting email a second time?

So if you want to know how to delete emails from your Droid 2 AND your Hotmail inbox simultaneously -- all from your phone -- then read on.

There are actually TWO ways to do this, both of which I have tried with success.

The FIRST is to sync your phone with your Hotmail account, which can be done directly from your phone. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to the "messaging" shortcut on your phone. This is in your list of applications, and is simply titled "Messaging," with a mailbox icon.
2. Once in "messaging," tap the menu button (bottom left hand corner of the phone) and click on "Manage accounts."
3. Once in the account management screen, tap on the "Corporate Sync" choice.
4. On the corporate sync page, under "Username," enter your e-mail address (for example, yourname@hotmail.com). 5. In the "password" field, enter your e-mail password.
6. You will have the option to sync your calendar, contacts and email. Check off whichever ones you want to sync (definitely include email; I've chosen all three).
7. Under "Email address" type your e-mail address again.
8. Under "Server" enter "m.hotmail.com".
9. Under Account name, give your account whatever name you like (such as MyHotmail).
10. Check off "Use secure connection" and "Verify Certificate."
11. Under "Sync messages for:" select how long you want to sync messages for. You can do it for a period of time, or if you always want to sync your accounts, choose "all."
12. Then touch "OK" at the bottom to save your choices. And voila! Your accounts will be synced.

From this point on, you can access your e-mail by going back into the messaging shortcut and into your corporate sync account, or by going directly through the "e-mail" shortcut in your applications, as long as you've set that up.

From Setup to Successfully Deleting and Moving Messages

Now, as an IMPORTANT NOTE: When you check your email and want to delete an email from both your phone and the Hotmail server, clicking on the trash can visible at the bottom of the screen will NOT delete the message from the Hotmail server; it will delete it ONLY from your phone. You may have different results, but I have tested this out several times, and clicking only on the trash can icon DOES NOT delete the message from your Hotmail inbox.

If you want to delete a message from both your phone and the Hotmail server, or if you want to move the message to a Hotmail folder you have set up, do the following:

When the message is selected, or when you are actually in the message, click on the menu icon and then select "move." That will bring up all of your folders, including the trash folder. If you want to delete the message, click on the "trash" folder. If you want to save it in one of the folders you've set up, move it to that folder. And that's it! Note that the message does not always move or delete immediately; it will sometimes take about 15 minutes, but it WILL happen.

Again, I've tested this out several times, and moving the message -- whether to the trash can or to another folder -- always works! Simply opening the message and then clicking on the trash can visible at the bottom of the screen, however, does NOT.

The Second Option

There is an alternative to the previous approach. Instead of syncing your phone to your Hotmail account, you can actually download an application from the market called "Hot Email." You will find it if you search under "hotmail app" or simply type in "Hot Email" in the market. This application, once downloaded, brings you right to your Hotmail inbox; it's as if you typed in "www.hotmail.com" and then input your username and password and accessed your email.

This method is definitely useful; you are essentially bypassing the Droid 2 e-mail interface and going right into your Hotmail inbox. The only drawback is that when you get new e-mails, you will NOT get a notification.

Personally, I think the Hot Email app is a good backup to have on your phone, as it lets you know whether your accounts are actually synced, and whether the messages you are moving or deleting from your phone are actually getting move or deleted in your Hotmail inbox. All you have to do is move or delete messages in your synced account, and then check in "Hot Email" and see if they were actually moved or deleted.

In Conclusion...

These are the two methods that worked for me. I originally got the Hot Email app and used that for a couple of days, then figured out how to sync my accounts, and now just use Hot Email as a "backup" of sorts. No more logging into my Hotmail inbox at night and having to go through all of my emails a second time. Plenty of time left in the day to sharpen my Facebook stalking skills and pretend to do work at Starbucks. Thanks, corporate sync/Hot Email!

If you have questions about any of this, please message me or leave a comment. Good luck!