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Anybody else having trouble with Microsoft Office 365 on Mac OS X 10.8.2?

I've set up two separate Office 365 accounts for two separate clients and configured multiple users in each account. All users are on Mac OS X 10.8.2, and I configured each account the "Mail, Contacts & Calendars" module in System Preferences. The set up process worked flawlessly.


Additionally I've set up each user on at least iOS 6 device (most have both an iPhone and an iPad, however). Again, I set it up using "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" in Settings.


There are a fair number of problems that all users are having with Office 365, but the most disruptive one is with mail. Users report that they can see some, but not all, email messages on their various devices. Testing indicates that if a message is initially received on one device, it cannot be viewed on others. For example, if a message is first received on a desktop Mac, it is not visible or accessible on an iOS device; conversely, if a message is first received on an iOS device, it is not viewable or accessible on a desktop Mac.


Are there any other people out there using Office 365 with Macs and iOS devices having problems? Conversely, are there any other people not having problems?


Also, I'm wondering if is aware of a way to "force" either mail client to sync with an Exchange server

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 22, 2012 8:06 AM

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47 replies

Oct 22, 2012 12:34 PM in response to Andrew Robulack

I've been testing this this morning and it seems related to how an Exchange account gets set up.


If I set up the Office 365 account as an Exchange account in System Preferences using the "Mail, Contacts & Calendars" tab, I have problems with Mail syncing with the Exchange server. However, if I set up the account directly in Mail's preferences under "Accounts", there doesn't seem to be any problem.


Interestingly, when I set it in Mail I'm given the option to also set up Calendar and Contacts – but not Notes. When setting up an Exchange account in System Preferences, Notes is an option offered for syncing. I'm not sure if that's related to the problem at all, but it's an interesting differences worth noting.


This isn't conclusive, but it's a pattern I'm starting to see develop in my testing.

Oct 22, 2012 1:41 PM in response to Andrew Robulack

I've just done a bit more testing. It does seem to be related to the way the account gets configured on the Mac OS X device.


In System Preferences, when you set up an Exchange account using "Mail, Contacts & Calendars", there is the option to sync "Notes". (This option is not available on iOS devices). If this "Notes" option is selected, the account's mail seems to experience difficulty syncing. If the "Notes" option is unselected, the mail does not seem to experience difficulty.


I haven't tested this thoroughly, but I'll continue to look at it. It doesn't explain, of course, why iOS devices experience difficulty.

Oct 24, 2012 5:55 AM in response to Andrew Robulack

So, according to Microsoft Support, there's a simple answer to this question: Microsoft's Office 365 hosted Exchange service is not compatible with Apple's Exchange client software, i.e. Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Notes. This apparently applies to both Mac OS X and iOS.


That's what Microsoft Support has told me straight-out now.


If anyone else has had any success using Mail, Calendar, and Contacts with Office 365, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Oct 24, 2012 12:58 PM in response to Andrew Robulack

I too have been having trouble with office 365. I used to have an dedicated exchange 2007 server which has worked great but last week moved premises and needed to move to a hosted service. Since moving to exchange online have had outgoing mail stuck in draft folders, connections to the mail server being dropped.


I think that s lot of the problem is due to the implementation of the autodiscover exchange settings. I think when mountain lion's mail app initially connects, it looks up the ip address for the server. Sometime later, that ip address may have changed as there are many ip addresses related to the server autodiscover.mydomain.com.


When that address changed (probably due to load balancing) mail.app doesn't know where to look and drops the connection.


I have given up with the exchange online service and temporarily gone back to my own old server and will look for another provider who can supply a fixed address for the mail server.


Hope that helps, but i may be wrong. There seems to be a lot of exchange issues with mountain lion although 10.8.2 seemed to fix many.


RIchard

Nov 30, 2012 9:12 AM in response to Andrew Robulack

Just to add my two bits to this thread. I too am having nothing but difficulty in accessing Office 365 email using Mail on my MacBook Pro (OSX 10.8.2). What has me most confused was the ease at which I set up the very same access to mail and calendar on my iPhone and my iPad, both currently running iOS6. Why am I able to acces through iOS6, but not OSX? Up until now, I have been very happy not using Office for Mac....I don't want to have to start, nor should I have to!

Nov 30, 2012 12:13 PM in response to Andrew Robulack

Sig & Csound1;


I don't understand your posts, assuming you read the entire thread. The issues isn't a Microsoft one, and has been narrowed down to only an issue for OS X. Further information for both of you...as I have spent quite a lot of time trying to fix this problem from both sides, Microsoft's position is basically "yes, there is a problem, but we don't know what it is" and Apple's position is "____________________" (silence).


I am able to access the mail on Office 365 from OSX by setting it up as POP3, but there isn't any reasonable explanation why I cannot set up as Exchange (as is the case with iOS).

Nov 30, 2012 3:04 PM in response to Csound1

Apparently you don't get at all what I am saying. I'll break it down for you:


But first, a little background for you....I have the following Apple devices in my household:

Airport Extreme

Airport Express (x2)

MacBook Pro

iBook

iPhone 3G

iPhone 4

iPhone 4S

iPhone 5

New iPad

iPod (x3)

Apple TV

.....those are just the items CURRENTLY in use.....the list would be much longer if I were to include the items I no longer have.


I have the following Windows devices:

one crappy laptop that my wife uses for her work because the necessary software CURRENTLY only works on Windows.


So, now that you understand where I stand with regards to Apple vs. Microcrap, you might have a more unclouded mind to see what my point is. Nevertheless, I am not trying to suggest "that Apple should alter OSX simply to handle Microsoft's incompetence.", I am indicating that by any reasonable standards, it appears to be an Apple issue, regardless of where the "incompetence" lies. From Microsoft's side, there isn't a problem with their product. The problem solely lies on Apple's side, and solely with OSX. Given that it cannot be set up in Thunderbird either on OSX, and that the ONLY available set-up options from OSX (Mail or Thunderbird) are POP3 or IMAP (keeping in mind that Exchange was set up on iOS), then it has to be Apple’s issue.


That all said....if MS and Apple could get along and figure out how to share calendar invites between Mail users and Outlook users I wouldn’t even need to worry about this issue, as the email in question is only being used to schedule meetings with Outlook users....but that's another *yet unanswered" thread.

Anybody else having trouble with Microsoft Office 365 on Mac OS X 10.8.2?

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