Snow Leopard with Exchange support not working

I've read through this thread but haven't seen the exact problem I'm having mentioned. I can log into my work VPN and connect to Exchange 2007 with no problem. I get the address book, calendars, mail. It's great.

However, I can't connect without my VPN. Previously I had Entourage set up to use SSL port 443 and it would connect to my company's Exchange web access. I've tried to do the same with SN Mail (using the External Server field, which seemed intuitive) but it won't connect. Is this just something that works with Entourage but not SN Mail, or is there something I'm missing in the configuration.

< Edited by Host >

The iPhone and Snow Leopard use TOTALLY DIFFERENT methods to connect to Exchange. So no, it's not reasonable to expect Snow will work, just because the iPhone does.

The server side must have Exchange 2007 SP1 with Update Rollup 1 or later. If not, you are SOL. It's as simple as that; Exchange 2003 on the server side is a total no-go for Snow. Though it will work with iPhone.

I ran into same issue as many of you. One thing i noticed, was that if i turned off my "mail" sync with MobileMe (in my System Preferences/MobileMe Settings), that my Exchange account would start to sync again.

I have three accounts in my inbox. an exchange account (work) and two pop accounts (gmail and me.com).


I don't know if that was the end all solution, but it seemed to help.

Good luck

Hi, finished reading this thread. I didn't find my problem, so I'll ask. Upgraded to SL, connected to my Exchange 2007 server. Mail and Address Book works fine. However, I do not get any info in my iCal. When I try to sync, I get a message that - "The account "Outlook Data" currently can’t be refreshed." Any ideas? I would think that since mail and contact lists work, the calendar should also, but no luck.

Hi Sean,

Thanks for this response. I went into the Exchange setup this morning, and saw no mention of EWS. I wonder if that means we have it installed? Geez, I don't know. This is quickly getting over my head!

I read lots of post on this thread and i'm also frustrated that my iphone sync with no issue when 10.6 fails miserably.

Active Sync is NOT only for MOBILE DEVICES. In addition to the ActiveSync desktop sync software bundled with Windows, Microsoft also uses the ActiveSync name to refer to the push messaging component of Exchange Server, which relays messages to mobile devices (we don't need the push part for Mail).

This being clarified, why can't I simply use my OWA address to configure Mail ?
This is the only configuration required in Entourage, which makes it really easy.
Usually Apple handles this much better... and this is why there is so much frustration around this topic.

With regard to the conversation between Dermot and htech sean:

I too am an NHS user in the UK. When attempting to access the server from outside our workplaces, Entourage did not work until EWS version of Entourage was introduced. It must be using EWS to access our server, and works flawlessly. Our server, then, must have EWS enabled. Which is why we have been expecting Mail.app to work, just as Entourage EWS does. Mail.app crashes when trying to autodiscover settings. It doesn't report an error message, it just crashes.

This is odd behaviour, and if the problem was simply a server configuration issue, surely the application would just report an error during setup.

Has anyone else encountered this problem, other than users of the NHS system in the UK?

Sigh, I just wish I could figure out the whole EWS thing... 🙂

I have Snow Leopard working great with Exchange support. I just entered in my exchange e-mail address in Mail, and it set everything up automatically. I've got e-mail, contacts, calendars all working just fine.

I did find that off-campus (I'm in a university situation) I did have to make one small change to the automatic configuration. I don't know if this will help anyone, but if you are getting Exchange support locally but not remotely, it could be worth looking carefully at the "external web server" entry in Mail. In my situation, this field was populated by Mail with webmail.(forestname).edu rather than webmail.(localname).edu.

In other words, double-check that the external web server address is the same one that you use to reach Outlook Web Access (OWA) through a web browser. Also, double-check that if you see https in the URL of OWA after you have successfully signed in, you need to have SSL checked in the advanced settings.

Yeah, I got mine working too. I thought that I had the right "external server" but was wrong. I fixed that and everything worked. I can now do my corporate email, calendar, & global address book without using the VPN. Pretty awesome, indeed.

If the settings are correct on the server side and the server meets the minimum requirements everything will work flawlessly. After our tech guys at work swore up and down that everything was set up correctly I asked them to check EWS. To everyone's surprise but mine, EWS was not set up correctly. After EWS was enabled, SL Mail kicked in automatically and works flawlessly. Before blaming Apple perhaps everyone should just take a deep breath, read the fine print and then talk to your IT guys about how they have implemented Exchange. If you're not willing to spend time to figure things out on your own you shouldn't be an early adopter.

Mail works with Exchange server 2007 on my Mac.

Downside is that it only fetches new mails when the app is launched. It does not fetch new mail when clicking on the Get Mail button, nor when its supposed to automatically fetch every minute.

This is really an embarrasing bug Apple. Please fix fast.

We're trying to get Snow Leopard to work with Exchange too. The server has all the necessary updates. Entourage (web services edition) can connect just fine. Try to set up Mail, and it does autodiscover the settings, but then claims that "the server must be updated to SP1 Rollup 4" (or whatever the minimum is). The settings for the account in Mail match what is shown in Entourage. We're at a loss as to why Mail is not working.

If anyone has some specific settings or tweaks for the Exchange server, please pass them along!

using exhange management shell
use this command
Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity “casserver\EWS (Default Web Site)” -InternalURL https://casserver.shudnow.net/EWS/Exchange.asmx -ExternalURL https://webmail.shudnow.net/EWS/Exchange.asmx -BasicAuthentication:$true

replace casserver with the name of your exchange server
replace https://casserver.shudnow.net with internal url
replace https://webmail.shudnow.net/EWS/Exchange.asmx with external url

I had autodiscover and everything working except mail without vpn. although iphones and outlook clients could connect without any problems.
So if you have the same setup with everything else working do what i suggested.

Then restart the application pool named MSExchangeServicesAppool or restart the iis with iisreset from a command prompt or restart the server.

My company is upgrading to Exchange 2007 this weekend, so in the interests of trying to summarise where we are at with this (and also understanding what needs to be switched on):

- You need Exchange 2007 SP1 Rollup 4 minimum (although SP2 was released recently, and we assume it will also work fine)
- You need to download and install Exchange Web Services (EWS) separately from the MS website, and install it and "switch it on".
- You also need to turn on Autodiscover.

There has been some recent mention of users changing the "External Web Server" address (see Doctor Phil and redleg101) - bear this in mind if it works inside the corporate environment, but not outside.

Is that it? Is there anything else that needs to be installed/switched on/prayed for for Snow Leopard and Exchange 2007 to work together?

(In closing - can we leave iPhone out now please, whilst I might agree that it should be that easy, the truth is we are trying to get SL and Exchange talking in this thread)