Exchange in WP8 vs. iOS

[iamtim]

Is this really that much of a big deal? I mean, it's only a problem when you delete items and you now know how the app works (it syncs manually, "as items arrive", or on a timed basis), so you can work accordingly; you know that if you delete something on your phone, it won't delete on the server until you sync it manually, new items arrive, or it does a scheduled check.

So... what issue remains other than, "it doesn't work like iOS or Android"?

 

[tcman88]

I work for vzw marketing so I get a lot of encrypted attachments and ios devices were never able to open them also on the iPad I have a problem where my exchange times out...my IT department tells me there is nothing they can do and I should get a android tablet (Verizon loves google)

 

[TripsG]

@iamtim...No, nothing is that big of a deal. As I stated, I love the phone and the ecosystem, I just get flummoxed when something I use easily dozens of times a day works a certain way on one device but not on a different device. Obviously there are many things that one could consider different (how to launch the camera for instance), I was just hoping that something as seemingly simple as syncing would work as good or better on the device inherent to the ecosystem as opposed to someone else's device.

Mostly I was making sure I didn't have my head firmly planted in my rectal orifice as opposed to the designers just doing it differently. It's all good. I'm a fan and hopefully haven't come off whiny. This seems to be a problem others have experienced and I'm glad it was discussed and it seems no solution is readily available short of me doing it manually, which I will continue to do.

 

[iamtim]

You totally didn't come off as whiny at all, no issue there. I probably came off a little harder than I intended; my point was more, "ok, we've figured this one out, it's working as designed, it's just a different design than we're used to" than anything else.

It is an... interesting design choice, for sure.

 

[eruptflail]

It's okay, because if you use Hotmail IOS doesn't delete emails you delete at all... So that will be a breath of fresh air when I switch to WP... So pros and cons...

 

[manicottiK]

I believe that MS coded the phone app to not force a sync on delete because people often delete a bunch of mail at once and doing the sync upon each deletion is inefficient (extra battery, extra cellular data usage, etc). As noted above, the sync happens on its own after several minutes or if you do a manual sync.

Microsoft should set it up to sync live if on WiFi and within one minute (or some selectable time) if on cellular data.

 

[nicooke]

I actually asked the guys at Nuevasync back in the days before Google enabled Exchange about this. Apparently this is actually correct behaviour, as per the MS recommended way of doing Activesync. It is the iPhone which actually does it differently.

 

[iamtim]

Interesting. Do you know if that's documented somewhere?

 

[gravage]

So they STILL haven't fixed Exchange sync? I was really hoping they would with WP8. Very disappointing. Looks like I'll be passing up this version of Windows Phone. Really disappointed in Microsoft. They can't even seem to implement their own technology correctly.

Regardless of what people say in its defense, there is NO excuse for this. Conserve battery life? How are Android and iOS (and even WebOS) able to sync changes back immediately with no major impact on battery? This is the way it's intended to work? Please! No one would honestly prefer it to work this way.

I'm glad that some of you can live with this, but I'm a power user. I switch back and forth between devices and computers all day long. If I delete an e-mail off of my phone, I need it to not be on my tablet when I start using it. Nothing is more annoying than seeing "new e-mails" that I have already read or deleted. The Surface's e-mail client works perfectly. Why couldn't they get it right in WP8?

 

[rkgriffin]

I am an Exchange admin and get a few hundred emails a day on several accounts. Yes it sucks having deletes don't update right away but it really isn't hard to deal with. You just hit the sync button when done doing anything. It takes a fraction of a second and I don't even have to think about it anymore. Muscle memory by now. You can't be that much of a power user if you can't hit the button that replaces the delete key as soon as you hit it. It is almost like a double tap.

 

[ousooner314]

I agree that it's a simple workaround, but it's a workaround nonetheless. From a usability standpoint, it's not user-friendly to have to remember to sync after each operation on the device (especially when we know this can be done automatically). I've owned my Focus for just under 2 years, and there are times I forget to sync after deleting (or moving) emails on my device. It's annoying to get back to my Outlook (or OWA) to see the same emails unread in my Inbox. In this day and age, this should be unacceptable.

 

[gravage]

I am an Exchange admin and get a few hundred emails a day on several accounts. Yes it sucks having deletes don't update right away but it really isn't hard to deal with. You just hit the sync button when done doing anything. It takes a fraction of a second and I don't even have to think about it anymore. Muscle memory by now. You can't be that much of a power user if you can't hit the button that replaces the delete key as soon as you hit it. It is almost like a double tap.

I could say that you can't be that much of a power user if you have the time/fortitude to hit the sync button EVERY time you make changes to your e-mail account.

I didn't say it wasn't doable. I said there's no excuse for it. This is Microsoft: Inventor of Activesync. They should have the best implementation of that technology, not the worst. And I'm sorry, but Smartphones are about making our lives easier, not harder. I have had dozens of smartphones, none of which required me to manually hit a sync button on my exchange account every time I made changes. Well, except the Lumia 900, but that's why that phone is sitting in a drawer collecting dust now.

 

[lostOzone]

Hi,
I have another question. Has any of you been able to activate the text messages sync with Exchange 2010 ActiveSync? Is there a checkbox along with calendar, contacts, e-mail and tasks? I've seen the backup to Outlook.com. But I don't care about Outlook.com I want everything on my Exchange 2010 account.

 

[iamtim]

Sorry to drudge this thread up again, but I just discovered something interesting... an EAS bug on the iOS side, showing that it's not all perfect, peachy-keen happy love over there.

For what it's worth, I've been using my iPhone 4S as my primary phone instead of my Lumia 820. (I love my 820 and carry with my in my laptop bag, but I require certain apps which are only available - or only work - on iOS. But that's an issue for another thread.) So I'm sitting at work and a spam message comes into my Outlook (and thus my iPhone as well). On Outlook, I right-click it, point to Junk, and select Block Sender; this moves the email to my Junk E-mail folder. From there, I right-click the Junk E-mail folder, select Empty Folder, and the email is gone. A few minutes later, I pick up my iPhone and the spam message is at the top of my email, unread. I pull down to refresh, but it remains. I check Outlook, it's not there. So I swipe over the email on my iPhone and the Delete button comes up, which I tap, and the message is deleted on my iPhone... but, suddenly, the message shows up in the Deleted Items folder on Outlook again. After I've already junked it and deleted it once in Outlook, my iPhone brought it back from the dead.

Must be a glitch, right?

Well, about an hour later I received another spam message. So I try it again, using the same steps: junk it on Outlook, empty Junk Email folder, check iPhone... the message is still there. Swipe delete it on the iPhone, it shows back up in the Deleted Items folder on Outlook.

So, yeah, as far as I can tell, this is a reproducible error using Exchange Server 2010, Outlook 2010, and an iPhone 4S running iOS 6.0.1 syncing my Exchange account. At some point I'll put my SIM back into my 820 and see if the same issue shows up on WP8 and report back here.

 

[lostOzone]

To answer my own question. There is no SMS Sync with Exchange 2010 on WP8 for now
Now about the junk thing. Can't you just move it to the junk folder instead of deleting the email?

 

[mclark2112]

Regardless of what people say in its defense, there is NO excuse for this. Conserve battery life? How are Android and iOS (and even WebOS) able to sync changes back immediately with no major impact on battery? This is the way it's intended to work? Please! No one would honestly prefer it to work this way.

THIS!! You would think that MS would be the standard bearer for perfect syncing... Does annoy me, but now I hit sync after deleting.. At least I know know.

 

[TripsG]

THIS!! You would think that MS would be the standard bearer for perfect syncing... Does annoy me, but now I hit sync after deleting.. At least I know know.

\

Thank the good lord I have a thumb that can do this...and I still find this the single most annoying thing about the phone and it's ecosystem...but I digress...