My simple question is where do I set which folders in exchange that I want to sync? Is it configuable? I use to do this in Active sync for my old Win Mobile devices.
Hopefully Apple will include it in a firmware update in the near future.
You might want to provide feedback on
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html and ask for this "feature"
You are incorrect. Subfolders sync in real time after you access then. For example if I have subfolder1 and click on it, it will then retrieve anything in that folder for the sync period of time. My iPhone currently sync for the past 3 days so any new items in subfolder1 over the past 3 days gets downloaded on demand.
you misunderstand. I want to limit the sub-folders. I only want to sync a select few. You can do that in the windows active sync. You can do it on a blackberry as well.
I'm aware of the fact that a folder synchronises once you access it, but this is not the push functionality provided by activesync that is being discussed here.
Syncing real-time = pull; being able to indicate which folders (like the inbox) should
automatically be 'notified' of new messages = push...
The disadvantage of the first method is that you don't know you have new messages until you access the folder whereas the second method shows you at a glance.
As a practical example: I have 50+ sub-folders under my inbox to which messages get moved automatically based on inbox-rules. This would mean that if I want to know if any new messages arrived in one of the folders other than the inbox, I would have to access
each folder manually. This is imho not very efficient ...
It is missing, and i for one, don't like the fact that a sync is kicked off when i enter a folder or subfolder. What if i just want to see what is in there and not sync.....
There are a lot of ActiveSync features that were not implemented. Maybe, with enough requests, we will see some of them added.
First this assumes that you have one machine from which you primarily check your email during the day. This, I assume is most people, if it is not you, then you will have to copy the rules to your other machines. Hey, I said it was a "crude workaround," not a fix.
For the folders where you want to know when an email arrives at the time it arrives (and only those folders) I only have a handful of those myself. In outlook (on the primary machine you use all day), in the Rule Section, Change the Rule. Add a condition to the rule, it's the last one, it says "and on this machine only.."
The effect of doing this is that the client routes the message, not the server. So that when you are plugged in with your PC, with outlook open, outlook will route it to the folder as you would normally expect. But when you are not plugged in with your machine with outlook open, the messages will stay in your inbox, just until you open outlook on your primary machine again-this will cause the message to be routed. (yes if you use a desktop or leave your laptop in your office you will have to CLOSE OUTLOOK so that it doesn't route the message immediately)
I think this is the best thing until Apple can catch up with RIM and support exchange properly.
*Now my rant*
I like everyone else had this issue with my iPhone. I hold Apple to be vastly Superior to RIM, so why RIM could figure out how to implement exchange functionality properly, but Apple couldn't is beyond me. Apple should fix this if they plan to be a serious contender for business folks. I also have tons of rules that I had configured to place my mail in to specific folders. I like my rules, and I like my folders. I don't like categories as much. Make it work for me; don't tell me that the way I'm doing it is some how wrong. Software is supposed to work for people, not people for software.
jlbtech wrote:
... so why RIM could figure out how to implement exchange functionality properly, but Apple couldn't is beyond me.
Because to use a BlackBerry, the IT department needs to install a new server (BES) and use an administrative level account with full MAPI rights to all the mailboxes on the Exchange server.
The Apple solution is to use the existing Exchange ActiveSync protocol that Windows Mobile uses. The time-to-market decisions that Apple made perhaps left some features missing or incomplete.
Apple had created a very nice product and it is clear that the full feature set with ActiveSync isn't there yet. But I appreciate the fact that Apple was able to deliver HTML emails to the iPhone from Exchange 2003 all the while Microsoft was proporting that capability was availble only in Exchange 2007 with Windows Mobile 6.
RIMs and Apple's approach are completely different, but I'm sure that they will continue to leapfrog features and capabilities.
The only thing that matters is what features work. HTML is a positive, definitely. Failing to sync folders is a negative, a feature that RIM has that Apple doesn't. A former developer, I have a hard time believing that this one feature would derail their time to market at all, let alone significantly.
The iPhone is vastly superior to the Black Berry in almost every other area, except perhaps battery life, which is fairly manageable, although I don't know what I would do on a long flight.
I absolutely agree with jlbtech. Having been an avid Blackberry user, the blackberry is superior to the iphone in this regard. Folder redirection was key on the "BB" and it is really frustrating when you get a message that's affected by a rule that not only does it not tell you that you have a message but it doesn't populate the folder immediately. I would have to access each folder one at a time to populate it. BAD!
Please fix this! You will lose the business community fast!
The workaround should help you. It seems to be good enough for me, for the most part. For the folders that are almost completely noise, you can simply leave those rules to execute server side. When I'm on the go I only really want something if it is important.
The problem with Apple's approach is that I actually put things in folders automatically, BECAUSE THEY ARE MORE IMPORTANT, not less. I am speculating that this feature is as simple as telling activesync/exchange server or whatever abstraction it is using which folders you care to be notified about, and handling that notification data. Compared with all of the other major features of the iPhone this is trivial. I would guess this would take a reasonably competent developer with domain specific knowledge two days. But let's give him two weeks. At the end of the day you are alienating business users, who by the way don't have time to try out stuff that doesn't work and only tried out the iphone because of the cool factor -which won't work as well the second time, and will eventually be forgotten about when the business user decides it is isn't worth it. How many business users will make this decision and decline to switch to an iPhone? What will this do to its reputation? My employer, for example, lends out iPod touch units so folks can try before they buy, so Apple, because of this may never see these customers. I have IT professionals tell me that it is not the best for business email. They're right. And it's too bad. It should be. It is certainly capable, hardware wise. The amount it would cost to pay that developer is trivial when put in this context.
Don't get me wrong, I am rooting for the iPhone, an adopter, a fan even. I want good things for it and Apple; I want it to be a dominant platform that is good for Apple and myself, being an adopter. But unfortunately Apple seems to be screwing the pooch here, in my opinion.
In the end, time will tell, perhaps there is no reason to care about these "business users" and their fandango "rules" and "folders" perhaps teenagers and early twenty somethings are a sufficiently sized market. Perhaps.
I don't recall my Windows Mobile device notifying me of email that was sent to a folder due to a server-based rule. So is that a limitation of ActiveSync?
I too am pulling for the iPhone. I think that the other features and capabilities are far better than any other phone/pda I have used. The technology in the screen alone is just incredible. But again i agree that unless they make some changes, which should be relatively simple, they will lose the more tech savvy business user who uses Outlook for more than just sending and receiving email.
Sorry to bring this topic back after so long, but it STILL appears to be unsolved. There are some folders that I simply don't want to be notified about unless I manually check them. The suggested workaround doesn't work for me.
