Why does the Exchange ActiveSync payload say its for "iOS only" but installs on OS X?

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Why does the Exchange ActiveSync payload say its for "iOS only" but installs on OS X?

I am new to Exchange and I have recently enrolled my organization in Office 365. In Profile Manager, there are two connection options for Exchange payloads (ActiveSync and Web Services). ActiveSync says its for iOS only and Web Services says its for OS X only. My organization is made up of all Apple OS X and iOS devices so my assumption is to install them both.

What is the difference between ActiveSync and Web Services?

Why does ActiveSync say "iOS only" but when I look at my Profiles preference in System Preferences on my Mac, it says the iOS only payload is installed?

Do I need the Web Services payload if ActiveSync installs on both iOS and OS X?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.0.x)

Posted on Aug 21, 2015 5:40 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 25, 2015 2:46 AM in response to unclonghorn

An Exchange Server supports multiple email protocols but not all clients can use all those protocols. Here is the list of protocols.

POP3
IMAP4
EAS - Exchange Active Sync
EWS - Exchange Web Services
MAPI

An iOS device potentially could use POP3, IMAP4, or EAS. The first two options only support email and do not support contacts or calendars which is the main but not exclusive reason why you would use EAS for iOS devices. Mac OS X using either Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook for Mac potentially could use POP3, IMAP4, or EWS. OS X does not support EAS. Again of these POP3 and IMAP4 only support email and do not support contacts or calendars so Mac users would typically use EWS.

A long time ago i.e. 2001, Outlook for Mac did have a limited support for MAPI but all subsequent versions of Outlook for Mac have dropped this and as mentioned only support EWS. These days MAPI is only for Outlook on Windows.

So yes EAS only applies to iOS devices and EWS only applies to Mac devices.

Note: A 'real' Exchange server does not support CardDav or CalDav.

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