I managed to get ALL of my Exchange folders

[edmartin]

My IT guys were able to get my iPhone talking to our Exchange 2003 Server via IMAP earlier in the week - they had to turn on the IMAP service and open the appropriate port(s). Problem was, I was only seeing my inbox. If my path prefix was set to "INBOX", I saw the inbox plus any sub-folders under inbox. If the prefix path was set to "/", I saw only the inbox - no subfolders under inbox and no other folders at all.

After testing and surfing, I finally found a solution. This may or may not work for you but as I sit here now, I have full access to ALL of my Exchange folders. AND, it also solved the issue of items sent from my iPhone not going into my Sent Items on the server side and deleted not going into the server Deleted Items. [Still no solution to the riddle of items deleted from my inbox still leaving a copy in my server inbox).

I deleted all of my mail accounts on the iPhone. Just to be sure, I powered off the iPhone and then back on (I've been a Windows guy for too long, I guess - reboots are a way of life on the other side). I then set up a new IMAP account (not Exchange - I set it up as IMAP under Settings/Mail/Add Account/Other) using all of the same setting as my old account (which was set up as Exchange instead of Other). I did not change anything under Advanced. Presto! I checked my Exchange account and I had every folder - all of my private folders and even all of the Public folders on the Exchange server.

To solve the problem of making sure I got my Sent & Deleted Items to go into the appropriate Exchange folders, I went into Advanced mail settings on the iPhone and changed the default location of Sent & Deleted to their respective counterparts on the Exchange server.

 

[twindc23]

Being a network administrator for a state agency, Imap and Pop3 access are denied/turned off in our networks. Openning those protocols are highly risky and prone to hacks. Just FYI.

 

[iphone_austin]

Hi,

Same experience here. Setting up "Exchange" account with my exchange server I could only see my Inbox. Setting up an "IMAP" account with my exchange server, i can access ALL folders on the exchange server.

good tip also on going into advance settings and "remapping" where the drafts/trash/etc folders point to so they point to the existing folders on your exchange server.

It's still half baked....
I can't figure out how to get the iPHone to sync all folders. instead it only syncs the Inbox automatically (every 15 minutes in my case), and the other folders only sync when I manually tap on them to view them.
I can't figure out how to get emails to delete on the SERVER when I delete them on my iPhone. I've tried deleting an email and then immediately syncing, but the email is still in my inbox.

My IT guys were able to get my iPhone talking to our Exchange 2003 Server via IMAP earlier in the week - they had to turn on the IMAP service and open the appropriate port(s). Problem was, I was only seeing my inbox. If my path prefix was set to "INBOX", I saw the inbox plus any sub-folders under inbox. If the prefix path was set to "/", I saw only the inbox - no subfolders under inbox and no other folders at all.

After testing and surfing, I finally found a solution. This may or may not work for you but as I sit here now, I have full access to ALL of my Exchange folders. AND, it also solved the issue of items sent from my iPhone not going into my Sent Items on the server side and deleted not going into the server Deleted Items. [Still no solution to the riddle of items deleted from my inbox still leaving a copy in my server inbox).

I deleted all of my mail accounts on the iPhone. Just to be sure, I powered off the iPhone and then back on (I've been a Windows guy for too long, I guess - reboots are a way of life on the other side). I then set up a new IMAP account (not Exchange - I set it up as IMAP under Settings/Mail/Add Account/Other) using all of the same setting as my old account (which was set up as Exchange instead of Other). I did not change anything under Advanced. Presto! I checked my Exchange account and I had every folder - all of my private folders and even all of the Public folders on the Exchange server.

To solve the problem of making sure I got my Sent & Deleted Items to go into the appropriate Exchange folders, I went into Advanced mail settings on the iPhone and changed the default location of Sent & Deleted to their respective counterparts on the Exchange server.

 

[edmartin]

Being a network administrator for a state agency, Imap and Pop3 access are denied/turned off in our networks. Openning those protocols are highly risky and prone to hacks. Just FYI.

Yes, that has been cleary documented on this & other forums. But there are many people (and IT departments) who have made the decision to use IMAP in light of the security risks and a number of posts about people not being able to get access to folders. Just trying to assist those people.

 

[edmartin]

Hi,

Same experience here. Setting up "Exchange" account with my exchange server I could only see my Inbox. Setting up an "IMAP" account with my exchange server, i can access ALL folders on the exchange server.

good tip also on going into advance settings and "remapping" where the drafts/trash/etc folders point to so they point to the existing folders on your exchange server.

It's still half baked....
I can't figure out how to get the iPHone to sync all folders. instead it only syncs the Inbox automatically (every 15 minutes in my case), and the other folders only sync when I manually tap on them to view them.
I can't figure out how to get emails to delete on the SERVER when I delete them on my iPhone. I've tried deleting an email and then immediately syncing, but the email is still in my inbox.

Yup it is half-baked; I'm having the same lingering issues that you describe. But at least I'm a little more baked now than I was yesterday (not sure if that sounds exactly right!).

I hope the rumors of Apple licensing/implementing Activesync-type technology from Microsoft are true so we can have a fully baked (and secure) solution!

 

[prolix21]

i've opened imap to our exchange and through just using the 'exchange' account option on the iPhone i could see all my folders/etc. the only downside is the sync thing, that it only checks for mail on the folder you're currently active on. hopefully a better exchange option will come along shortly.

i'm the sr sys admin for our data center, so i just opened this port up on our own private exchange servers for me to test with. i definitely won't be opening this up on any of the other exchange clusters, definitely a huge security issue. i'd like to see Good come out with a iPhone client. we use a mix of good/bes in our data center for end-users, but I think Good messaging would be a nice fit for the iPhone. would definitely open up the enterprise market for Apple/att and bring a lot of functionality to end-users. plus Apple and motorola have an existing relationship, seems to make sense to me.

 

[iphone_austin]

good replies.

not sure why some of us aren't seeing all folders when using the exchange option, but from my perspective, the "IMAP" and "EXCHANGE" options are really the same option. they both open up an IMAP connection to an email server.

since exchange now supports Push Email directly, I'm hoping Apple will include the client code in the next iPhone update to enable this on the iPhone. seems like a win/win for Apple and MS. Makes the iPhone much more palatable to businesss users and gives MS some nice marketing bullets for their nascent Exchange Direct Push technology.

hope i'm not setting myself up for disappointment, but i'm fully expecting at least 1 corporate push email solution to be enabled on or by the date AT&T starts allowing the iPhone to be added to businesss accounts. ie-accounts that are billed to a company not an individual.

of course, i'm hoping for this as my exchange server has this feature enabled. i'm sure if i had a blackberry or good server as my push email solution i'd want one of those instead.

 

[jbaraga]

Being a network administrator for a state agency, Imap and Pop3 access are denied/turned off in our networks. Openning those protocols are highly risky and prone to hacks. Just FYI.

I never quite bought into the whole "risky & prone to hacks" argument.

My Moto Q was synced to my company's Exchange Server. Let's assume for a minute that I dropped my phone somewhere, and some random person picked it up. They would have immediate access to all my e-mails, contacts, appointments, and would be able to send e-mails as me to anyone they wanted.

IMAP gives no access to contacts, calendar, anything. Just e-mail. In theory, I understand how opening up certain ports to enable IMAP can make a mail server more vulnerable, but how is that any less risky than having people walk around with all that info in a device that could easily get into anyone's hands? There comes a point where productivity wins out over paranoia.

 

[raremage]

I never quite bought into the whole "risky & prone to hacks" argument.

My Moto Q was synced to my company's Exchange Server. Let's assume for a minute that I dropped my phone somewhere, and some random person picked it up. They would have immediate access to all my e-mails, contacts, appointments, and would be able to send e-mails as me to anyone they wanted.

IMAP gives no access to contacts, calendar, anything. Just e-mail. In theory, I understand how opening up certain ports to enable IMAP can make a mail server more vulnerable, but how is that any less risky than having people walk around with all that info in a device that could easily get into anyone's hands? There comes a point where productivity wins out over paranoia.

My personal opinin is that any pinhole adds risk - you need to watch them, understand the traffic profile that should or should not be hitting those ports, monitor for anomalies, and you should be fine.

Having said that, there is a big difference between using an SSL connection for RPC/HTTP or OWA access, and using a phone communicating with IMAP - especially if you have Exchange 2007 - where you can remotely manage the phone quite effectively, including a remote wipe function if the device is lost.

obviously this function doesn't exist for iPhone, but rumors are circulating that Apple has already licensed Exchange Activesync from Microsoft - it would be awfuly nice if it were implemented via a soft update!