jamie.shaw

Q: Enabling Push Mail on iOS 9 devices.

Is it possible to enable push mail for iOS devices configured to an OS X Server 5 Mac?  On all the devices currently configured to my home server, the Push settings available for this particular account are "Fetch" and "Manual".

 

I have all the relevant APNS ports open on my firewall and an active certificate for APNS on the server.  I'm sure prior to OS X Server 5 there wasn't an issue.

 

For the record, all devices are set up using the built in "OS X Server" option in iOS 9 for Mail, Contacts and Calendars.

Mac mini, OS X Server, OS X Yosemite (10.10) DP5

Posted on Dec 23, 2015 5:25 AM

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Q: Enabling Push Mail on iOS 9 devices.

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  • by FromOZ,Solvedanswer

    FromOZ FromOZ Dec 28, 2015 2:53 AM in response to jamie.shaw
    Level 3 (545 points)
    Dec 28, 2015 2:53 AM in response to jamie.shaw

    Hi. Yes it works on OS X Server 5, I recently moved from Mavericks + Server 3 to El Capitan + Server 5 (Server 5.0.15) via clean install. I didn't even consider upgrading the machine, I put an SSD drive in my Mac mini to replace the HDD, virtualised the old server while installing the new one and set things up new.

     

    It definitely works. On the client side — various iPhones & iPads — I didn't need to do anything as they were configured for push with old server. Without knowing or getting into your setup if I could share the standard setup and mention some specific points relevant to upgrading/migrating.

     

    You don't need to open incoming ports on your firewall for the APN service (as far as I am aware) it doesn't work that way, of course you need outgoing ports open from your Internal (private IP address) LAN to the Internet. I am assuming you have though incoming ports open for secure IMAP (993) and SMTP Submission (587). The Push Mail setup doesn't actually 'push' mail to mobile devices, it tells them mail is there and they have to go get it.

     

    Again, not knowing your exact setup, I will share with you mine which is working and which is combination of new server + existing client devices.

     

    You have turned on APN in OS X server? If you click 'Edit Apple ID...'

    SS1.png

    You will see this (all my specific information has been sanitised) I don't use my personal Apple ID for this, I made a dedicated 'system' Apple ID, but that is not strictly a requirement obviously. Now it may be that because you did an upgrade (new OS X Server) that you need to refresh your APN certificates. I am pretty sure that these certificates are installation specific. Obviously, in my case, I needed to redo them as I had a totally new server. Anyway, to check yours click on 'Manage your certificates' this will take you to the Apple Push Certificates Portal website.

    SS2.png

     

    Log in and check your certificates.

    SS3.png

    If things continue to not work and IF you wanted to reset everything you can.

     

    1. Turn off APN on your server.
    2. Open Keychain Access on your server
    3. Select the System keychain and Category 'Certificates'
    4. Find all certificates APSP:(long identifier), there should be five. If you have more than five, i.e. double set, then that will be part of your problem, the certificates you have on your server must match the ones on the Apple Push Certificates Portal website.
    5. Delete all the certificates
    6. Reboot the server — just in case...
    7. Go to the Apple portal and revoke the set of certificates.
    8. Open Server app
    9. Turn on Apple Push Notifications (APN) again. Enter your Apple ID.
    10. Click on 'Manage your certificates' log onto Portal, check certificates
    11. Open Keychain Access on your server - check that you have new certificates and that their expiration date match that on the Portal
    12. Go to a mobile client and check. You may need to touch turning off|on push settings and editing account settings to get them to 'refresh'.

     

    I can advise that it does work though where my situation was somewhat like yours changed server and existing mobile clients.

  • by jamie.shaw,

    jamie.shaw jamie.shaw Dec 28, 2015 2:58 AM in response to FromOZ
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Dec 28, 2015 2:58 AM in response to FromOZ

    Hi,

     

    Thank you for your help and advise, it did fix my issue ... somewhat.

     

    I ran through all your steps in hopes of finding a fix.  Even after completing them all, I removed the OS X Server account from my own personal iPhone and re-added in hopes that this might pull down the latest push availability from the server.  Unfortunately, when checking the 'push' settings under Mail, Contacts and Calendars, my server still only lists "fetch" and "manual".

     

    However, and this is where things get bizarre, email is being pushed.  I thought I'd run a test on push notifications by seeing if sending a test alert from my server would display an notification on my MacBook – it did. At the same time, my iPhone got the email version of the test alert, immediately.  I tried again, it got it again, and a third time. So the email is definitely being pushed, but for whatever intents and purposes, "push" isn't available as an option for OS X Server accounts under the Push menu of Mail, Contacts and Calendars – or at least not in my scenario.

     

    Thanks again for the help – I may as well consider this issue closed.

  • by FromOZ,

    FromOZ FromOZ Dec 28, 2015 3:16 AM in response to jamie.shaw
    Level 3 (545 points)
    Dec 28, 2015 3:16 AM in response to jamie.shaw

    Unfortunately, when checking the 'push' settings under Mail, Contacts and Calendars, my server still only lists "fetch" and "manual".

     

    Hi - just for sake of completeness (for anyone having similar problems & referring to this post in future) can I confirm a couple of points with you — and again not knowing your setup these may be obvious questions, but need to check/confirm:

     

    On your iOS mobile devices under

     

    Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data

     

    Do you have the 'Push' selector at the top selected / turned on?

     

    For my mobile devices I turn on the overall 'Push' setting and then for the various accounts I choose between Push | Fetch | Manual. But for push to work on a specific account (i.e. OS X Server mail account) the overall 'Push' setting has to be turned on.

     

    Did you reboot your iOS device afterwards? Failing that making any difference I have read that sometimes to flush out settings one needs to choose to reset network settings under — Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. But that is a reasonably drastic step requiring things to be reentered.

  • by jamie.shaw,

    jamie.shaw jamie.shaw Dec 28, 2015 3:23 AM in response to FromOZ
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Dec 28, 2015 3:23 AM in response to FromOZ

    Hi,

     

    I can confirm that the "Push" option is toggled, and that both my iCloud and work Exchange account both list "Push" as an option alongside their individual "Fetch" and "Manual" options.  I have tried resetting the devices to no avail.

     

    I will not proceed with a network setting reset, as I do not think this is necessary.  Push email is working, however, the option detailing that it is enabled does not. At this stage, the phrase "If it aint broke..." has come into play.

     

    Many thanks for all your help.

     

    Regards,

    Jamie