[Updated 22/12/09]Windows Live problem - SOLVED

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Hi Guys,

I've a got a slight problem with my phone. I don't know if any of you recall but a little while ago some Windows Live IDs and passwords were exposed. As a precaution I changed my password etc. Ever since then I have not been able to sign into Windows Live from my mobile device.

Does anyone here know what the issue maybe and have any clues to the solution?

Any help will be much appreciated.

TIA

Syphon.

Edited December 22, 2009 by Syphon Filter

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

I presume you have tried changing your password again?

I wonder if the old password is still affecting the login somewhere on the device which means it could be a regisrty bug?

A bit drastic but a hard reset should confirm this.

From what I understand this has happened to a few people, does not help the problem but at least it means you are not alone.

[Guest Syphon Filter]

I've flashed and reflashed several ROMs and hard reset many times (not because of this issue though) since this has started happening so it's definitely not a setting that's being held somewhere on the device.

Any other ideas?

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

Only other thing I can think of offhand is to try contacting the Live department, I've heard of strange replies from them though which only means some of the personel there could do with some more formal training regarding Windows mobile and Live.

If I get time and I remember tomorrow (night shift atm so memory not too good during the day) I'll see if I can dig out some other ideas or things to try.

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Only other thing I can think of offhand is to try contacting the Live department, I've heard of strange replies from them though which only means some of the personel there could do with some more formal training regarding Windows mobile and Live.

If I get time and I remember tomorrow (night shift atm so memory not too good during the day) I'll see if I can dig out some other ideas or things to try.

That would be much appreciated mate, it's becoming a bit of pain not benig to retrieve hotmail and sigin into messenger on the move!!

Cheers.

[Guest Syphon Filter]

awarner,

any news on this one?

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

Sorry for the late reply, I did say nightshift and memory are a problem, plus had a lot of Scout end of year AGN work to sort out.

Have you downloaded the latest version of Live for Windows Mobile? if not this can be found here

http://wl.windowsmobile.com. This can be directly downloaded from your phone browser.

It appears that the old version that people also used in WM5 no longer works which means only WM6 devices can now use Live, so much for backward compatability :/

So if you have not upgraded then this should hopefully be the reason from your problems.

If it does not work (fingers crossed it does) below is a work around for you.

Hotmail/Live mail can be accessed via POP with the settings available here:

http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/setti...ail-client.aspx

Not a perfect solution as it will not allow the use of other Hotmail/Live services like IM or contacts sync, but at least you can still pull your email.

For IM there is the one and only Palringo which is all you need for IM anyway ;)

http://www.palringo.com/en/gb/

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Sorry for the late reply, I did say nightshift and memory are a problem, plus had a lot of Scout end of year AGN work to sort out.

Have you downloaded the latest version of Live for Windows Mobile? if not this can be found here

http://wl.windowsmobile.com. This can be directly downloaded from your phone browser.

It appears that the old version that people also used in WM5 no longer works which means only WM6 devices can now use Live, so much for backward compatability :/

So if you have not upgraded then this should hopefully be the reason from your problems.

If it does not work (fingers crossed it does) below is a work around for you.

Hotmail/Live mail can be accessed via POP with the settings available here:

http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/setti...ail-client.aspx

Not a perfect solution as it will not allow the use of other Hotmail/Live services like IM or contacts sync, but at least you can still pull your email.

For IM there is the one and only Palringo which is all you need for IM anyway ;)

http://www.palringo.com/en/gb/

Cheers mate! I will give that a shot a little bit later on (when I get home).

Thanks again and I will be sure to report back.

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

Any news?

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Sorry I meant to reply the other day. Something weird is going on.

I installed the new Windows Live but I am still unable to sign in with my actual account details. I signed up for a new (test) account on MSN/Live (via my laptop) and that account worked perfectly!!!

Something odd is going on with my actual account. I can sign in from any PC but not Windows Live Mobile. I have not tried Palringo or POP yet for my needs as I really would like to just get WLM working. I can't figure it out!!

Really banging my head against a wall here. I might try changing my password again to see if that fixes it. Maybe the change has not propogated out to all the severs or something weird??

[Guest Syphon Filter]

SOLVED:

Ok, this one definitely falls into the "user error" category!!!!

So, when I changed my password using my laptop I just typed it into the appropriate text box and again in the "confirmation" box. Signed into messenger via my laptop and my hotmail account via a browser and it just worked. Cool.

Tried exactly the same thing on my mobile and no go. Weird.

So I tried all your suggestions above (barring using POP and Palringo) and still no go. Starting to get annoyed now.

Today I changed my password to something simple and short, to make 100% sure that I am not typing it in incorrectly etc. Try via my laptop & browser, all is sweet. Try from my mobile and it works! Ok getting somewhere now!!

Change my password BACK to what it wanted it to be and once again it broke via the mobile!! Ok this is starting to do my nut now. Anyway, to cut a long story short, when you change your password it tells you that the minimum length is 6 characters but no mention of a maximum, the text box just stops taking characters without letting you know. Same with the confirmation box. MSN Messenger and the Hotmail sign-in page (I assume all Live ID sign-in pages) only take a maximum of 16 characters, so even though I was typing in 19, only the first 16 ever got taken. This being the case all computer/browser based things worked just fine. The Windows Live Mobile client actually takes as many characters as you type in!! So a full 19 character password would never authenticate properly!!

Shortened my password and now it's working!!

So that leaves 3 questions IMO:

1. Why, in this day and age of having to protect our IDs from theft etc, do MS impose a 16 character limit?

2. If they are going to impose this limit, why not tell you somewhere on the page where you can change your password or even automatically warn you when you're typing it in and reach the 16 char limit?

3. If all Live ID based apps and websites only take 16 characters, why is the WLM client different?!

EDIT:

I've updated the title and subtitle of this post so that if anyone has trouble in the future becauseo of this issue they will hopefully be able to find this topic nice and fast.

Edited December 22, 2009 by Syphon Filter

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

Password size was not one thing that crossed my mind.

Nice find

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Password size was not one thing that crossed my mind.

Nice find

Yeah crazy!! I only picked up on it today because I touch-typed my password into the password-change text boxes today. I was like "hang on, that's stopped accepting characters". That's when it dawned on me.