Home / Answers / Hotmail vacation reply missing
Why is the Hotmail vacation reply missing from my account? I only appear to have the first three options. What do you do if under the ‘Manage your account’ heading, there is no option saying “Send automated vacation replies”? Is it a problem with my computer?
Paul Sullivan
Firstly, there is nothing wrong with your computer; this should put a lot of your fears to rest. However, if the Hotmail vacation reply is missing, there is definitely something amiss with your email account.
Sometimes the Windows Live staff disables the vacation auto-replay on certain Hotmail email accounts which means that this feature will not be available. You would also not be able to make changes to any vacation auto-reply message that has been set up but this of no consequence because no emails will be sent while the functionality is inactive.
The vacation reply feature is located under “Options” -> “More Options” -> “Send automated vacation replies“. Though it has been noted by some users that this option is sometimes missing, please note that not all Windows Live Hotmail email accounts are affected. However, there is a possibility that the vacation auto-reply can be turned off for everyone.
One solution to have a vacation reply running even though it’s missing on your Hotmail account is to set up it up in an email program such as Outlook Express. Using the Hotmail POP settings, you can add the account in an email client and configure an auto-reply. However, please note, the email program (client) needs to be running to send the automated replies. Read Outlook Express vacation reply to know more.
FYI, free Hotmail pop access has been allowed which lets you set up and configure your Windows Live email account in any program as long as it supports the Port Office Protocol. Windows 7 users can employ Windows Live Mail program that is generally preinstalled on the operating system. Refer the following links:
By the way, I understand that leaving a computer on with an email client running is not a good solution. So I tried adding Hotmail email account to Gmail (was successful) thinking that I could then take advantage of the equivalent functionality found in the latter free email service (Gmail vacation autoresponder). But that little experiment of mine failed! The idea was good but it didn’t work.
A related article is how to send a vacation auto-reply from your Hotmail email account.
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I do not have an “automated vacation reply” on my settings for the first time since I used Hotmail. I will switch my service to another email, unless this can be corrected.
I have also recently lost the “automated vacation reply” on my settings for the first time since I used Hotmail. I will also have to switch my service to another email, unless someone from Hotmail can tell me how this can be corrected.
Thanks
Yes, I too don’t have an “automated vacation reply” on my settings.
I don’t know if I have ever had “automated vacation reply”. But I will going into the hospital in a week and would like to stop all my emails from coming.
Hey Victoria, I’m not sure why you would like to stop all incoming messages when you can collect and place them in a separate folder using Hotmail filters. Anyway, if you do want the account to stop receiving email, why don’t you close it? The Hotmail account will not be taken down immediately… it remains in an “inactive state” till about 90 days which gives you ample time to return and “activate” it again. However, remember to take a backup of all messages and contacts data.
Hmmm. Maybe that’s not the best of solutions but there is little you can do when the vacation reply autoresponder is not working.
The post says: “Sometimes the Windows Live staff disables the vacation auto-replay on certain Hotmail email accounts which means that this feature will not be available”, but does not say why, or how to get that reversed, or how to talk to Hotmail to get it fixed. Anybody got any ideas? It has happened to me too, and I’m not clever enought to understand the suggested work-arounds.
Exactly – I’m not a computer nerd so I’ve no idea what all this is going on about.
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