Activesync and Exchange nightmares

[oliver1]

I have an O2 XDA mini S running Windows mobile 5.0.
I have spent about 12 hours trying to configure it, and am having a complete nightmare. Am completly stuck and hoping someone can help me.
I have put in all the settings on the XDA and told it to sync with our exchange server using a gprs connection. The device connects and you can see it syncronising eg Calander 6/6, emails 60/60.
So it all looks like it is working I then go into my outlook email folder on the device and all my folders have been created but they're all empty. I have altered the syncronisation options so it syncronise all my folders for the last 3 days, but still nothing.
Strangely if I create a calander appointment on the XDA it does get syncronised back to the calendar on the exchange server. The same if I send an e-mail, the e-mail does get sent and ends up on my exchange servers sent items.
So basically anything created on the XDA gets synced back to the exchange server, but anything created on the exchange server does not get synced across to the XDA aprt from folders. Even though when you connect it looks like it does.
We are using Exchange 2003 SP2, and ActiveSync Version 4.1.
Any help would be very much appreciated as we have bought 5 of these XDA's for all the top brass at my company and they are breathing down my neck asking when they are going to be set up.

[oliver1]

:(
I've got no chance of ever getting this working have I.
Very sad.

[pheral]

I guess you've got the latest software update (http://xda.o2.co.uk/xdaMiniSoftware.aspx) on the xdas? Sorry no-one can help, i know nothing about it, and a google search didn't turn up anything that looked similar. Having any luck with MS support? They might be willing to have a stab at it, you never know your luck.

[Janak Parekh]

So it all looks like it is working I then go into my outlook email folder on the device and all my folders have been created but they're all empty. I have altered the syncronisation options so it syncronise all my folders for the last 3 days, but still nothing.
This does sound very weird. 8O Couple comments:

1. I would also agree with pheral -- try upgrading the ROM and make sure you've tried a hard reset before going further. Exchange ActiveSync is extremely simple and reliable in my experience.

2. Also, you might want to create a simple mailbox and populate it with a few things -- perhaps the mailbox you're testing with has some weird appointment or email that's causing sync issues?

--janak

[oliver1]

Thanks I have tried connecting to different maiboxes using different phones, as we ordered 5 phones(2 O2 xda mini's and 3 O2 XDA exec's).
So I'm 99% sure the problem is either with IIS or Exchange. But all seems okay as our standard web access and oma access work fine.

So not sure what to try, and can't go messing about on the server, as it is in constant use and would get beaten by my boss if I crashed exchange.

[Janak Parekh]

If you have some time to burn, you might want to install Exchange on a test machine somewhere and see if it's a server configuration issue, which it does indeed sound like. Do you have Exchange plugins? Perhaps spam filtering or antivirus filtering? Or an HTTP proxy, since Exchange ActiveSync works over HTTP(S)?

Barring that, I think this may be the kind of situation where you should be calling Microsoft tech support.

--janak

[Zidane]

You know, this might sound obvious but I'd try it anyway.

Go into Messaging on your device and select the "Outlook" account. Then, go to Menu | Tools | Manage Folders. Then, make sure that there's a checkmark next to each folder that you want to synchronize on your device.

Like I said, it's fairly obvious, but it sounds like something that happened when I first set up my Exchange server.