Syncing massive amounts of e-mail

[JesterMania]

I have a problem syncing e-mails and I was wondering if anyone can give me insight into the following problem:

At work, I use Outlook 2003 which grabs data over a Microsoft Exchange server (therefore e-mails, contacts, etc. are stored on the exchange server and not offline on the computer). I can sync everything perfectly fine except for e-mail. When I attempt to sync e-mail folders which contain approximately > 20 e-mails, I get a server busy error.

Short of reorganizing my entire e-mail filesystem, is there a way to synchronize large amounts of e-mail on WM5 devices? This seems like a massive shortcoming to me as I can't even sync a mail folder containing 54 e-mails :roll: ...

[Brad Adrian]

Unfortunately, Windows Mobile does not natively synch with sub-folders. You might see if something like FlexMail (demo available)does what you want.

http://www.mobihand.com/pocketpcthoughts/product.asp?id=1026

[JesterMania]

Thanks Brad, I'm going to investigate Flexmail and see how it fairs. The thing is though, I can sync with subfolders fine, but only if they have relatively few e-mails. For example, I have one subfolder containing 8 e-mails which syncs just fine. However, it appears as though ActiveSync (or the Exchange server) "times out" when I attempt to sync with folders/subfolders with more e-mails (200 e-mails for example). I was rather disappointed at this because I thought that Windows Mobile was meant for business but if I can't even sync with a folder that has 200+ e-mails I can't see how practical WM5 would be in an e-mail-intensive business environment. :?

[Mark Kenepp]

Maybe your issue is not with your handheld?

It could just be that ActivSync is trying to read the data but the connection between Outlook and the Exchange Server is not able to keep up?

I know that that doesn't really give you a solution to your problem unless you are able to convince your IT staff to improve the performance of your Exchange Server.

I wonder what would happen if you moved everything to a local PST?

What would happen if you synced directly with the Exchange Server?

Personally, when I set up Windows Mobile devices for my staff, I explain to them that they can't expect to keep an email archive on their handheld. They are pretty much okay with that.

For a solution to your problem, I would recommend testing a local PST file and/or direct sync with the Server.

Also, there may be corruption in your data. Try moving half your emails out of the folders that sync and if it does not work, move the other half out and the original half back. If the problem goes away, then you know that there is an issue with something in the half that didn't work. If the problem still exists, then hopefully Flexmail will help.

If you decide to experiment with the amount of email that you can successfully sync, it would be interesting for you to post your findings here.

[JesterMania]

Maybe your issue is not with your handheld?

It could just be that ActivSync is trying to read the data but the connection between Outlook and the Exchange Server is not able to keep up?

I know that that doesn't really give you a solution to your problem unless you are able to convince your IT staff to improve the performance of your Exchange Server.

I wonder what would happen if you moved everything to a local PST?

What would happen if you synced directly with the Exchange Server?

Personally, when I set up Windows Mobile devices for my staff, I explain to them that they can't expect to keep an email archive on their handheld. They are pretty much okay with that.

For a solution to your problem, I would recommend testing a local PST file and/or direct sync with the Server.

Also, there may be corruption in your data. Try moving half your emails out of the folders that sync and if it does not work, move the other half out and the original half back. If the problem goes away, then you know that there is an issue with something in the half that didn't work. If the problem still exists, then hopefully Flexmail will help.

If you decide to experiment with the amount of email that you can successfully sync, it would be interesting for you to post your findings here.

Thanks Mark, I think I agree with you that the connection between Outlook and the Exchange Server is breaking up. I think I read somewhere about ActiveSync having a 2 minute timeout where if all the mail doesn't sync up in 2 minutes ActiveSync "times out". Supposedly, this was fixed in ActiveSync 4.5, which I am using. :|

I also think your suggestion about moving the mail from the exchange server to a PST file is a good one. By doing so, that would eliminate the need to grab mails from Exchange and transfer should be relatively quick. I think this may be the way I will be going later on.

Finally, I have tried to sync directly with the Exchange Server, but it doesn't seem to work for me. My company allows me to use Outlook Web Access, and the ActiveSync wizard tells me that I can use that URL to sync. However, when I type that URL in ActiveSync can't find the exchange server :cry: . Do you have any idea why that is?

[Mark Kenepp]

Finally, I have tried to sync directly with the Exchange Server, but it doesn't seem to work for me. My company allows me to use Outlook Web Access, and the ActiveSync wizard tells me that I can use that URL to sync. However, when I type that URL in ActiveSync can't find the exchange server :cry: . Do you have any idea why that is?

Are you syncing directly to the exchange server through ActiveSync connected to your desktop?

If you are, then the internal address to the Exchange Server will likely be different than it would be if you were accessing it through the Internet from outside the network if you have a firewall.

My settings are set up to look for the name of the Exchange Server as it is specified in the DNS "A" record (or is it the "MX" record?), i.e. servername.domain.com. I do not enter the URL for my server.

You could try entering the IP address for the Exchange Server instead. That too would be different from outside the network as apposed to inside.

The other thing is that Server ActiveSync might not be enabled on the server or that the security settings need to be set up correctly.

If the server is set up to require SSL then that would have to be configured on your handheld. If the server does not require SSL, then you need to make sure that your handheld settings have that option unchecked. I couldn't figure out how to set up SSL myself so our server does not require it.

[JesterMania]

Thanks for the reply Mark. Indeed I am trying to sync directly with the exchange server via ActiveSync docked to my computer. I guess that's partially the problem there. I'll try to obtain the Exchange IP address and see what I can do with that.