Exchange 2010/Outlook 2011 woes

Question

Exchange 2010/Outlook 2011 woes

A cautionary tale for anyone thinking of upgrading to an Exchange 2010 server. I have been working successfully with Mail/iCal/Address Book on an Exchange 2007 for over a year. My hosted exchange provider offered a free upgrade to Exchange 2010, and I decided to purchase Office 2011 to use Outlook. Big mistake. Now I am stuck with the following issues:

1. Mail has an incompatibility with Exchange 2010 - sent messages lack a "From:" field in the raw message source (see http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12591913)

2. My hosted Exchange provider also has a Blackberry Enterprise server. But when you file sent messages in Outlook 2011, they fail to appear in the corresponding Blackberry subfolders - they disappear from the main message list and then do not appear in the subfolder. Received messages file with no problems - sent ones don't. Very weird, and very annoying. Sent messages filed in subfolders via Outlook Web Access appear properly on the BB handheld.

3. Time zones in Outlook 2011 conflict with the Exchange server. Adding an appointment via the Blackberry, the appointment initially appears in the correct place, then a few seconds later, jumps an hour forward. Quitting Outlook on the desktop machine solves the problem... Outlook has Sydney as GMT+11, which is incorrect. It is GMT+10, but with an extra hour for daylight saving in summer. The server settings, as displayed on Outlook Web Access, correctly show Sydney as GMT+10.

As a result, I am now stuck using Outlook web access as my only reliable mail/calendar application, with all the limitations that that entails (no recall of previously used email addresses for example). And I will now have to wait for either a new version of Outlook, or a new version of Mail...

Any other users experiencing any of these issues?

Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Nov 22, 2010 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 28, 2010 9:40 AM in response to Simon Turnill

I'm in the middle of a PC -> Mac migration and have hit a lot of snags with Exchange 2010.

All clients are running 10.6.4. Mail and Contacts seem to be working properly. iCal however is very problematic. When attempting to add shared calendars through the delegation tabs of Account Settings I am able to find the accounts, add them to the delegate list, but the client is not able to grab any calendar data.

I've got another issue which is Outlook 2011 font sizes being way to small for my older users, and the inability to separate shared calendars by color. In the past admin assistants were able to separate all the calendars of the attorneys they support by color and in columns, using Exchange 2007 for PC. Now the only way to distinguish between calendars is by selecting the calendar you want to see from the calendar list on the left, causing the calendar events to highlight with a darker shade of the default gray all shared calendars are assigned.

The fonts are a whole separate issue which I've researched exhaustively and found nothing to indicate that there is any way to fix this currently. The older users have on their own gone about decreasing their screen resolution and increasing the default font size at the system level.

Is there any support avenue within MS to or Apple to help with this? Apple has been useless, I've tapped into the Apple Consultants Network and they too are unaware of how to resolve these issues. Does MS have a support vein for Outlook 2011 users on an Exchange 2010 server?

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Answer 2

Nov 28, 2010 11:19 PM in response to Simon Turnill

Hi Simon:

I am sorry for your trouble with your Exchange Server. If you are hosting with GoDaddy please keep in mind that you are not getting the best out of your exchange server even the 2010 edition. There seems to be a corruption in your database. You can definitely fix it but I suggest that you move to another hosting provider. Try CloudWire www.cloudwire.org or contact me and I can help you get the best email system.

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Answer 3

Dec 1, 2010 5:28 AM in response to Simon Turnill

I have the same problem but with an Exchange 2007 hosted server (by Microsoft no less 🙂 )

Received email have a time stamp from the Pacific time zone when in fact it is sent from West Europe. I can live with that... Worse with meeting invitations...

I did not have this problem with the same server and Entourage. iPhone and iPad are fine also. So I think it's my new Outlook 2011...

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Answer 4

Dec 1, 2010 6:14 AM in response to andreas999

Try to change the Time Zone on your Outlook web app, this should fix it. Who is your exchange hosting provider?

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Answer 5

Dec 1, 2010 11:58 AM in response to petrochik

A couple of updates on the original post.

Point 1 - although on Mail itself sent messages appear without a "From:" field, when received by the message recipient, they have proper headers (having passed through the SMTP server), so I am using Mail at present without any significant problems.

Point 3 (appointments jumping an hour forward) was a known issue with the BES in the Sydney NSW timezone - a patch has fixed it (see http://www.blackberryforums.com.au/forums/general-bes-discussion/10899-calendar- appointments-time-errors.html).

@Andreas: with my hosted Exchange provider, read receipts are always stamped GMT - 5 (US EST), rather than GMT + 10. Meeting appointments are fine, as they are stamped with the correct timezone.

@petrochik: I have checked the time zone settings in Outlook, and Outlook Web Access (which plugs directly into the Exchange server), and they are all set correctly. My hosting is with Exchange My Mail, which has been pretty good for the last 18 months. I don't really want to go through the hassle of migrating again (yet) unless I really have to. But I agree that these issues may be a result of a hosting incompatibility which may be solved by an alternative provider. I may sign up for a trial period to investigate these issues further...

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Answer 6

Dec 1, 2010 3:07 PM in response to petrochik

The time zone in OWA is correct. I changed it to something else and will change it back later to see if it makes a difference.

My Exchange host is BPOS (Bussiness Productivity Online Suite or something) hosted by Microsoft, soon to be changed to Office 365 (I think)

/Andreas

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Answer 7

Dec 3, 2010 9:19 PM in response to andreas999

Andreas, check in three areas. a) OWA-which you did. b) Outlook c) Time zone on your computer.

Is it experienced by all users? How many users? Does the OWA time the emails correctly? If time stamps on OWA emails are fine then we should be looking at local Software for now- Outlook. Then I wonder if it is a server bug. Microsoft has been so new in the Cloud Exchange Market.

Visit www.cloudwire.org, the have a really good knowledge base on these stuff.

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Answer 8

Dec 17, 2010 11:44 AM in response to Simon Turnill

Simon:

I suggest that you try CloudWire's 30-Day risk free. It's going to help you a lot. www.cloudwire.org

Did you manage to fix the issue?

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Answer 9

Jan 4, 2011 10:09 AM in response to petrochik

I'm experiencing the same issue, using Hostway hosted Exchange. Only the 2 mac users have the timezone problem where meetings seen by other (windows) users appear in Central (UTC-600) when all users are operating in EST (UTC-500).

Messages sent from OWA or a MS Outlook 2007 on windows have the correct time stamp. However, messages forwarded or replied via Entourage 2008 wse or Outlook 2011 show a time stamp of -600.

I've gone over every time and date option in OSX and Outlook and cannot discern where the problem lies. After nearly an hour of tests with the tech at hostway it has been determined it is a local client issue but I've yet to find any resolution.

Any input is appreciated.

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Answer 10

Feb 12, 2011 6:29 PM in response to Simon Turnill

I changed jobs and have to migrate from and Entourage '08/Exchange Server platform to an Outlook '11/Exchange Server platform.

We cannot get my previous calendar data up to the new server by export/import, drag & drop, or other method. When importing .olm file, it creates a local calendar with no option to direct where the data maps to?.. Any help? Very frustrating.

"New" Microsoft Support options suck as I do not speak Punjabi, and their call-back feature ($99) is a joke.

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Answer 11

RonChong

Level 1

0 points

Apr 5, 2011 4:23 AM in response to A4Paterson

Have you solved this problem yet? I also have the same problem.
Messages forwarded or replied via Any Email client through Exchange Server 2010 show different time stamp of 8 hrs behind on recipients email who is on another Exchange server.

If you reply or forward to the people on the same exchange server, no problem. I think it has to do with the time stamp compatibility of a new server to the old server.

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