Exchange - Deleting Messages?

[EdH]

I have the iPhone talking to Exchange 2003 via IMAP, seems ok. The
only issue I have is if I delete an item from the iPhone, it still
shows up in the inbox on desktop PCs (HTTP/RPC).

If I look in the 'Deleted Items' folder (or any other I selected from
the iPhone as my trash folder) on a desktop PC I do see the message
there, but it is also STILL in the inbox - almost like it is copying
instead of moving.

I also tried this from a generic IMAP client (Thunderbird) and it
seems to have the same behavior.

Is anyone else seeing this behavior? Any suggestions?

Thanks,
-Ed

 

[mjones]

Same

Yes - I am having the exact issue. Amazingly enough a friend of mine is on the same shared exchange server and we have the same settings in our phone - and his deletes off the server - mine just marks messages as read on the mac when deleted on the iphone!

 

[EdH]

Wow that is unusual.

Two theories I have - can you let me know if if this is the case for either you or your co-worker?

1) Leaving Outlook running on 2 or more PCs all the time (Home and work)
2) A LARGE number of folders under the main INBOX (I have several hundred)

Thanks,
-Ed

 

[mjones]

hmm

Yes - multiple computer accessing the exchange server. But doing more tests - IF you run the Apple Mail app - it DOES show messages as deleted. if you run Entourage (or access from OWA ) it does not.

And yes - lots of folders in root - but with the INBOX as the folder path prefix - it does not see them.

 

[EdH]

FWIW - I spent 8+ hours searching the web and tweaking iPhone and Exchange server settings trying to get this to work as well as my email did in ActiveSync did on my WinMobile phone. No Joy

I wound up writing a service that manages my Exchange Inbox via IMAP. It clears out the deleted items, and does some other housekeeping(moving to correct folders, setting flags, etc..) that does not work well with iPhone/IMAP/Exchange combo. I basically have 100% of the mail functionality I had with Win Mobile and ActiveSync now.

 

[mjones]

service

thanks for the note - what did you write that service in?

 

[EdH]

thanks for the note - what did you write that service in?

It is a .Net C# windows service and uses the Rebex IMAP component to do the IMAP manipulation.

 

[jjuhnke]

For the Record

I would like to go on record stating I too have this issue and have found that thunderbird shares it with the iPhone. OWC (simple) works on Mobile Safari, but I do hate deleting messages twice.

Active Sync PLEASE?

 

[board2death]

same issue here
driving me crazy as well
Multiple machines also
We have a bes server as well

Yes - multiple computer accessing the exchange server. But doing more tests - IF you run the Apple Mail app - it DOES show messages as deleted. if you run Entourage (or access from OWA ) it does not.

And yes - lots of folders in root - but with the INBOX as the folder path prefix - it does not see them.

 

[jjuhnke]

Here's what my support guys found

The iPhone is only "marking items for deletion" and not actually deleting the messages. Outlook and OWA do not look at the IMAP "marked for deletion" flag on messages and that is why the still appear. Your iPhone and Thunderbird should have an option to purge delete messages.

Check out the following blog for some information on how various IMAP mail clients implement deleting messages.
http://www.shahine.com/omar/PermaLink,guid,e0618c84-76f3-4dcb-a304-aef89162e5ea.aspx


Here's a quick list:
Outlook Express and Windows Mail (vista) purges deleted items when you leave the folder.

Thunderbird purges deleted items when you right-click a folder and 'compact.'
(deleting a message executes a copy to trash command and then marks the original item for deletion)

Outlook purges deleted items when you click edit > purge deleted messages.

iPhone purges deleted items.... unknown -- If it doesn't, that is a design limitation of the client, not an issue with exchange.


Hope that helps someone. Sounds like Apple's got a "feature" to resolve.

 

[ahwman]

Would you make this service available to us?

Ed, I am interested in utilizing the service you wrote for Exchange Server. Would you be willing to make it available?

FWIW - I spent 8+ hours searching the web and tweaking iPhone and Exchange server settings trying to get this to work as well as my email did in ActiveSync did on my WinMobile phone. No Joy

I wound up writing a service that manages my Exchange Inbox via IMAP. It clears out the deleted items, and does some other housekeeping(moving to correct folders, setting flags, etc..) that does not work well with iPhone/IMAP/Exchange combo. I basically have 100% of the mail functionality I had with Win Mobile and ActiveSync now.

 

[walker4bc]

I have the same problem

I have the same problem as well. For the record, I have an extremely large OST file with many (hundreds) of sub-folders and many layers/levels. I also tend to run multiple copies of Outlook on different machines, but not all the time. Do you have reason to believe it could be the depth or number of sub-folders?

 

[AlphonseElric]

Service

It is a .Net C# windows service and uses the Rebex IMAP component to do the IMAP manipulation.

i realize i am a bit late to the party, but i would also be interested in your service. i have tried all of the fixes i could find on the google and nothing works. i have iPhone 1.1.1 running against exchange 2007 with all patches up to date.

TIA

 

[chameleon]

Same problem here, and it's damned annoying.

I have a Gmail setup using IMAP, and it deletes email properly. My Exchange configuration does not.

The question is, who's at fault here? The iPhone or Exchange? Who needs to update their software to make this work properly?

In other words, who do we bug?