Exchange Active Sync Message Format Problem

vivhero · #1 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 07:34 PM

Hi,

I just set my HTC Hero to sync with our Exchange Server 2003. Everything works fine except the Message Format under Mail settings is grayed out to Plain Text and thus, I'm not able to get any html formatted emails (no image, table etc). HTC support page shows I should be able to choose html message format, but I'm not.

http://www.htc.com/www/howto.aspx?p_id=283&id=38&f=t

Has anyone else experienced this problem? How do I fix it (any server side setting or anything else on Hero)?

Thanks,
-vivek

safewithyou247 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 09:10 PM

Yeah, I know this one sucks. Based on my testing the HTML format only works when you sync it with an Exchange 2007 server. When you sync with 2003 you are limited to the old fashioned Plain Text.

To fix this.......well, lets just get real. The android integration with Exchange isn't the best. There is no way to fix the issue by syncing with an Exchange 2003 server. You would have to upgrade your server to 2007. Which I dont think is realistic or your company would have done it already.

I have a few other issues for you. Try to get someones phone number from the public directory on Exchange. If you can, let me know how its done. I cant seem to find a way.

Also, have someone send you a canceled meeting notice. Let me know if you can delete it from your calendar from the message. If you can....again...please let me know how.

I am all for Android and all (which should be apparent in the fact that I still own one) but I dont think it is in the class of business OS as WM, Apple or Palm Pre.

Sorry, to be the downer.

lrosenman · #3 (**permalink**) 10-24-2009, 12:00 AM

Does your meeting and contact complaint above apply to Exchange 2007 as well?

If so, that's a bummer for me

(I'm on a TP, eligible for an upgrade in January, and am thinking about a Hero or TP2).

We just converted to Exchange 2007 from 2003, and that is a nice upgrade for the TP Exchange client. The HTML vs Plain text thing applies to generic Windows Mobile as well, BTW.

RootWind · #4 (**permalink**) 10-24-2009, 09:31 AM

The only Exchange app that supports (or should I say adds support for) HTML for Exchange 2003 is Touchdown.

Also tried Moxier, but it's also plain-text for 2003.

safewithyou247 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-24-2009, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lrosenman

Does your meeting and contact complaint above apply to Exchange 2007 as well?

That's a good questions. I have not tried yet, but I will let you know.

One other thing that I have found to be lacking, is if I reply from my phone to an email in Exchange it does not show up as a reply on my desktop Exchange client. This was particularly confusing the other day when I was trying to verify that I had in fact sent something.

nickos · #6 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009, 09:23 AM

Quote:

One other thing that I have found to be lacking, is if I reply from my phone to an email in Exchange it does not show up as a reply on my desktop Exchange client. This was particularly confusing the other day when I was trying to verify that I had in fact sent something.

Seriously ? I can live without meeting cancellation automation but are you saying that sent items cannot be synchronized ?

Now this is a basic feature, if the Hero can't support it then this disqualifies it for business use in my opinion. Can anybody confirm ? I have one on the way.

RootWind · #7 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickos

Seriously ? I can live without meeting cancellation automation but are you saying that sent items cannot be synchronized ?

Now this is a basic feature, if the Hero can't support it then this disqualifies it for business use in my opinion. Can anybody confirm ? I have one on the way.

I just tried sending an e-mail from my phone, and it synced to my Sent folder on my desktop. So it works for me (Exchange 2003).

safewithyou247 · #8 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009, 01:18 PM

No, I am not saying that the Hero does not sync the sent items. I ma just used to when I reply to a message the icon changing to an envelope with a reply arrow on it. This is what I am referring too.

Also I have noticed that when you read an item on your Hero, Outlook does not display it as read.

This is very confusing over the weekend when I read like 50 emails and then come back to the office and they are not marked as read.

vivhero · #9 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by safewithyou247

Yeah, I know this one sucks. Based on my testing the HTML format only works when you sync it with an Exchange 2007 server. When you sync with 2003 you are limited to the old fashioned Plain Text.

To fix this.......well, lets just get real. The android integration with Exchange isn't the best. There is no way to fix the issue by syncing with an Exchange 2003 server. You would have to upgrade your server to 2007. Which I dont think is realistic or your company would have done it already.

I have a few other issues for you. Try to get someones phone number from the public directory on Exchange. If you can, let me know how its done. I cant seem to find a way.

Also, have someone send you a canceled meeting notice. Let me know if you can delete it from your calendar from the message. If you can....again...please let me know how.

I am all for Android and all (which should be apparent in the fact that I still own one) but I dont think it is in the class of business OS as WM, Apple or Palm Pre.

Sorry, to be the downer.

I just tried the two things you mentioned,

1) Canceled meeting issue - looks like a problem to me
2) The outlook sync with Hero does seem to have problem - both ways actually. I read my mail on Outlook and it took almost 30 min in order for it show in Hero that I've read it, same goes if I read on Hero - there is definitely a lag in terms of syncing (my setting is to sync every 5 min).

I guess Android still has some catching to do in terms of good integration with Exchange - I hope 2.0 fixes these problems (or does that has to come from HTC?).

RootWind · #10 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009, 06:03 PM

Well Android has no exchange support before 2.0. The exchange support is all HTC. Which is why the Samsung Moment's Exchange support is just them packaging the Moxier Mail app from Android Market.

Well it looks like the HTC mail app only has push updates for new e-mail. For things like marking e-mails as read being synced, you need to press the refresh button manually it looks like.