Exchange Sync Problems

[BrotherNov]

The following is a problem I occasionally encounter. More importantly, my boss and the guy who must remain impressed with the iphone if i want to keep it has this problem very frequently.

Messages that are read on his desktop don't show up as read on the iphone. Not all of them, but many of them, and it happens consistently. He's getting pi$$ed about it, and will move us to blackberries if I can't fix it. Any ideas?

 

[flyingember]

you're connecting to Exchange using Outlook on the desktop and connecting to an exchange server, not via imap or pop or anything like that? same on the iphone?

is it just a single exchange server or do you have a cluster with a scheduled replication period?

does the same problem happen with deleted messages? i.e. it takes the same amount of time for the message to delete on the desktop?

does this happen everywhere outside and inside the corporate network? do you have an internal wifi connection you can see if it happens on?

do you have an ISA server?
What's your firewall's http keepalive settings?
are their any security appliances on the network that slows other stuff down?

this could be an exchange issue, firewall issue, security appliance issue, etc and blackberries will have the same problem. tell him before you spend money and switch that you want to find out where the problem actually is.

 

[applejosh]

Well, if it's anything like the Exchange ActiveSync on my WinMo phone, then it may be because of push. If you can, please try this. Setup the account to pull rather than push (set it to 15 minutes). See if after that 15 minute period (where it fetches again) if messages that were unread on the iphone at the first pull and have subsequently been read on the desktop are now marked as read. My WinMo phone will not update the "read" flag on the device unless some event occurs (eg. a full sync).

 

[BrotherNov]

Thanks for the quick responses!

We connect to our exchange server directly via either the desktop or the iphone, and it's just a single exchange server. We're a prewtty small company (30 people). The problem does occasionally manifest with deleted messages; a message deleted on the server from the desktop will not get deleted from the iphone. However, it's not consistent/predictable. Most of the time a message read or deleted from the desktop will appear as such on the iphone immediatly. I'll have to call out IT consultants and ask them the technical questions about the firewll and server.

I'll ask him to switch from push to 15 minutes. It would be fantastic if that fixes the problem.

 

[flyingember]

Sounds like you have an exchange server problem somewhere.

what version is it?