Confused about Exchange access

[wellsws]

Hi there. I'm trying to figure out the exchange access for iPhone. I tried setting it up but it could not verify my server. It may be an issue for my IT to figure out but I'm wondering if I have to buy the "corporate" plan from AT&T in order to access my company email. Can't I just set up an exchange account without having to buy more data? It's very confusing to me. They (Apple) make it seem like all you have to do is put in some info and "bam" you have exchange on iPhone. No mention that I could find of paying more for it. Can anyone explain how this works? And if I don't have to pay extra, what type of things should I look for with our exchange server to make sure it works. I tried the web access address as the server and also using OMA, but neither worked.

Thanks,

 

[wellsws]

Round 2

Okay, got Exchange working. The only weird thing happening now is that all but 1 of my calendar event on my PC somehow got deleted after the first sync. Not a good thing, but not "end of the world" bad for me. Anyway, now it won't show new events on my iPhone. Also, I can't access the "global contact" on my exchange server. This is where my company keeps the addresses for employees. Any thoughts?

 

[ubersalad]

Okay, got Exchange working. The only weird thing happening now is that all but 1 of my calendar event on my PC somehow got deleted after the first sync. Not a good thing, but not "end of the world" bad for me. Anyway, now it won't show new events on my iPhone. Also, I can't access the "global contact" on my exchange server. This is where my company keeps the addresses for employees. Any thoughts?

I am also hoping to sync public calender as well...perhaps someone can answer that.

 

[clayj]

Okay, got Exchange working. The only weird thing happening now is that all but 1 of my calendar event on my PC somehow got deleted after the first sync. Not a good thing, but not "end of the world" bad for me. Anyway, now it won't show new events on my iPhone. Also, I can't access the "global contact" on my exchange server. This is where my company keeps the addresses for employees. Any thoughts?

Sorry, you can only sync the Contacts and Calendar folders (NOT subfolders, just those two folders) of the mailbox you are syncing. You can't pull the GAL, and you can't pull from Public Folders.

 

[Nova Bandit]

You can't pull the GAL

That's not entirely true.

I am connected to our companies Exchange 2003 server, and when I begin typing a name in the TO: field for an email, it searches names from our GAL as I'm typing.

But I don't know of a way to browse the GAL.

 

[clayj]

That's not entirely true.

I am connected to our companies Exchange 2003 server, and when I begin typing a name in the TO: field for an email, it searches names from our GAL as I'm typing.

But I don't know of a way to browse the GAL.

Ah, well, that's different.

But he specifically asked about having "contacts" from the GAL being available as contacts on his iPhone. That you can't do.

 

[wellsws]

True. I just tried it and it does look for contacts as you type their name. Okay, so that much will work, but I'm still having calendar issues. I just lost everything again. I created a new event on my PC and checked my iPhone. Nothing shows up. If someone sends me a meeting invite, it will show up, but then in the meeting invite area, if you delete the invite, it deletes the event too.

 

[Nova Bandit]

True. I just tried it and it does look for contacts as you type their name. Okay, so that much will work, but I'm still having calendar issues. I just lost everything again. I created a new event on my PC and checked my iPhone. Nothing shows up. If someone sends me a meeting invite, it will show up, but then in the meeting invite area, if you delete the invite, it deletes the event too.

Did you delete the invite before accepting, declining, or maybe-ing the request?

 

[mrJnC]

Another aspect of the current Exchange implementation... the iPhone can't invite attendees to meetings it creates in the calendar, nor can it reply with a message to an invitation.

There's a thread on the Apple support page on this:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1604266&tstart=0

 

[braingarble]

Iphone exchange information

i know as soon as you create a exchange account your lose you local contacts and calendar. anybody know of any way of backing these up? I know you can export to google/yahoo prior to exchange sync, but it is not flawless, and possibly could be a security violation. import works fine, but it is only as accurate as the export. After exchange sync you can turn off the sync of calender/contacts/mail. I am trying to roll this out to a sales force and i know this is going to be a problem. Everyone may know this, but i have found you can create a sub directory under contacts and copy other lists to it. Similiar to how you can fool the blackberry. any help would be appreciated!

 

[wellsws]

Calendar and contacts

I still haven't tracked down a solution to getting my contacts and calendars. Here's what I know. As mentioned, my calendar got zapped after I created my account on my iPhone. After that, I received a couple meeting invites, which I was able to accept and see in my calendar on my iPhone and in Outlook. I created a calendar event in outlook that has not shown up on my iPhone. I also tried creating an event on the iPhone which did show up in my outlook. Then I deleted it in outlook and checked the iPhone. It deleted it as well. So, it would seem that creating an event in outlook is the issue and won't copy to my iPhone. Still can't figure out why. I also copied all the people in my global address list to my personal address book in outlook. This has also not yet shown up on my iPhone. Email, however, is working flawlessly. Here is a list of things I tried:

1. turn the phone off then on.
2. turn push off for the exchange account and went to fetch
3. turned off the calendar and contacts in exchange settings, then back on.

Nothing seems to work. It's weird. Any thoughts?

 

[mntentman]

Reason for Exchange wiping out MobileMe?

i know as soon as you create a exchange account your lose you local contacts and calendar. anybody know of any way of backing these up? I know you can export to google/yahoo prior to exchange sync, but it is not flawless, and possibly could be a security violation. import works fine, but it is only as accurate as the export. After exchange sync you can turn off the sync of calender/contacts/mail. I am trying to roll this out to a sales force and i know this is going to be a problem. Everyone may know this, but i have found you can create a sub directory under contacts and copy other lists to it. Similiar to how you can fool the blackberry. any help would be appreciated!

I picked this up from iphoneblog... can anyone confirm that the sync issues (mobileme, local contacts being wiped out) is only with those who do not have paid subscriptions?

Synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange
My next question I asked my self was, “If I used Microsoft Exchange at work, could I also use MobileMe with that too?”. The answer is yes. MobileMe and your Exchange information can live on the same device, but only if you are a paid subscriber of the MobileMe service. If you are not and try to synchronize your personal iCal data and Address Book information, Exchange will win that rock-paper-scissors battle and wipe them out, leaving the Exchange information only.

 

[wellsws]

Interesting. I do have a MobileMe account and so far, it's working fine.

 

[mntentman]

So you have both Exchange and MobileMe cals, contacts, etc., and both are coexisting peacefully?

 

[wellsws]

Exchange and MobileMe

For the most, both are on my iPhone and working. My previous post outlines the issues I'm having. The calendar and contacts from MobileMe are working with no problems as is email. It remains to be Exchange contacts and calendar.

 

[rdstoll]

Hi there. I'm trying to figure out the exchange access for iPhone. I tried setting it up but it could not verify my server. It may be an issue for my IT to figure out but I'm wondering if I have to buy the "corporate" plan from AT&T in order to access my company email. Can't I just set up an exchange account without having to buy more data? It's very confusing to me. They (Apple) make it seem like all you have to do is put in some info and "bam" you have exchange on iPhone. No mention that I could find of paying more for it. Can anyone explain how this works? And if I don't have to pay extra, what type of things should I look for with our exchange server to make sure it works. I tried the web access address as the server and also using OMA, but neither worked.

Thanks,

So did you have to get the $45 corporate plan for it to work, or how did you end up fixing this problem? I'm having the same issue...

 

[wellsws]

No. I didn't upgrade my data plan for business. However, I'm beginning to wonder if some of the problems I'm having are due to not upgrading. I'm searching for a setup guide on getting mail, contacts and calendar from exchange to work properly on iPhone. The info I've seen doesn't address the problems I'm having (see earlier posts). I discovered a new issue this morning. Apparently, I received some emails to my exchange account early this morning before I made it to the office. However, my iPhone did not show them. It wasn't until I logged into my computer and opened Outlook that my iPhone got the messages. I'm wondering now if I have to be logged in and have Outlook open for my iPhone to receive emails. I'm still not getting contacts or calendar events made from Outlook. There has to be a setting somewhere that is preventing this from working. I'm the not the IT guy in my office, so I don't know how the server is set up. My IT tried a couple things the other day and asked me to try setting up the exchange account on my iPhone and it worked for the most part. But these other issues are popping up more and more which is really counter-productive to the whole idea of having my work email on my phone.

 

[rdstoll]

No. I didn't upgrade my data plan for business. However, I'm beginning to wonder if some of the problems I'm having are due to not upgrading. I'm searching for a setup guide on getting mail, contacts and calendar from exchange to work properly on iPhone. The info I've seen doesn't address the problems I'm having (see earlier posts). I discovered a new issue this morning. Apparently, I received some emails to my exchange account early this morning before I made it to the office. However, my iPhone did not show them. It wasn't until I logged into my computer and opened Outlook that my iPhone got the messages. I'm wondering now if I have to be logged in and have Outlook open for my iPhone to receive emails. I'm still not getting contacts or calendar events made from Outlook. There has to be a setting somewhere that is preventing this from working. I'm the not the IT guy in my office, so I don't know how the server is set up. My IT tried a couple things the other day and asked me to try setting up the exchange account on my iPhone and it worked for the most part. But these other issues are popping up more and more which is really counter-productive to the whole idea of having my work email on my phone.

Thanks for the clarification....I haven't even been able to get anything to work so I imagine there are some settings on the server itself that IT would need to modify first. I have to say from past experience this whole idea that Exchange was now a true 'push' server has been way overstated (very typical of MSFT). Maybe it's different now but we tried it a year ago and it was a joke and ended up going to Blackberry anyway.

 

[braingarble]

business plan and contacts

I have exchange working fine, and DO NOT have the business plan.... The only way i have found to get contacts and calendar backup is to export to third party ie. google/yahoo. Ical for calendar. I did this prior to exchange account creation. The following things i found.

1. Export does not export every column google does it better than yahoo.
2. ical export imported near flawless, i lost some dates with multiple events, i think this was due to overlapping event times. Nevertheless, I am mostly satisfied with this import
3. if you have .mac/mobileme account you can backup your contacts there. Supposedly, you can export them into a VCARD format, but it seems that is not functioning just yet. The contacts i exported look good on the mobileme site from the export.
4. exchange will not let you tag email accounts ie Home, office, beach house. They simply are tagged "email".
5. You can turn off calendar/mail/contacts sync with exchange and make them local. On the server side you can specify defaults for these. However, in exchange 2003 you can only do this on the individual phone level, not on the group level.
6. no cell service means.....no contacts and no calendar. these are no longer local.

keep in mind that you will only be notified on new mail if its in INBOX, rules that move mail on receive will not show as new mail. you can see these still, but you have to look in these folders. This is not a iphone problem, this is with every mobile device.

Hope this helps

 

[pw1500]

I was just wondering, before I e-mail my company's IT Department, if I can find out my Exchange Server's address so I can use Exchange on my iPhone. Any help would be much appreciated. on outlook it reads as something like UKHJKM26 Should that not be a server address??

Sorry if im being dumb.

Thanks.

 

[clayj]

I was just wondering, before I e-mail my company's IT Department, if I can find out my Exchange Server's address so I can use Exchange on my iPhone. Any help would be much appreciated. on outlook it reads as something like UKHJKM26 Should that not be a server address??

Sorry if im being dumb.

Thanks.

The address is typically the first part of the URL when you use Outlook Web Access. So if you log in to OWA and your browser's URL is

https://www.yourdomainname.com/exchange/

then your ActiveSync address would be

http://www.yourdomainname.com

You don't need to specify the "http://", and you don't need to include "exchange" or anything beyond that.