Loading ...Apple made a couple of changes to the Exchange configuration interface on iPhone 2.0 Beta 3. You can no longer enter a host name. When you begin configuring your Exchange account, you're asked to type in your Email, Username, Password and Description. It looks easy enough right? Wrong. If you're like me, you'll enter your email address, your user name, password and an account description. For example, my email address is vincent@iphonebuzz.com, username is vincent_iphonebuzz.com, and vincent exch for description and changeme for the password. If that's all you did, then you're in for a long wait. Make sure you have the server information handy because you'll need it. For the sake of this example, my email server info is webmail.iphonebuzz.com and DOMAIN is IPHONEBUZZ.
The system is trying to work up some magic to set up your account but based on the information provided, it just doesn't know what to do. You're going to end up one unhappy customer unless you know exactly how to enter the info correctly. Using my previous account information, here's the correct way to enter the information so that your iPhone can understand.
iPhone 3G Cases @ MYiPhone.com Online Store
- Email: vincent@iphonebuzz.com should be entered as vincent.webmail.iphonebuzz.com
- Username: DOMAIN\username = IPHONEBUZZ\vincent_iphonebuzz.com
- Password: changeme
- Description: Vincent Exch
As soon as you click NEXT, a second field called Server miraculously appears (see image above). You will NEVER see this field if you INCORRECTLY enter info in the initial four fields. Instead, you will get "Verifying Exchange account information" message with the spinning progress icon and it never connects. Next, enter your Server info. In my case, my server is webmail.iphonebuzz.com. Click SAVE to continue. You should then see the same info in the screenshot below. Click Sync and you're good to go. Make sure to take NOTE that all data in your Contacts and Calendars will be erased when you first synchronize Exchange.
Editor's note: keep in mind that this How-to setup Exchange on iPhone 2.0 Beta 3 will not solve all your problems should you run into issues on the server side such as missing certificates. Please seek out your administrator for support.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:43 am
tried to set it up last night and didnt find the certificate button anymore to allow unsigned certs ?? did i miss something ?
April 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Hi noneed, there isn’t any in Beta3/5A240… If you know how to do it, you can add the boolean value
DAAccountsKey/Item X/ASContextConfiguration/ASAccountAllowAnyRootCert = true
in
private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DataAccess.plist
Michis
April 15th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I have tried both 2.0 beta 2 and 3 and in both cases once all info is entered and exchange account verified the mail account doesn’t allow me to download or send anything as I can’t download the certificates and security policies. Can these be added manually (through SSH?).
April 15th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Thank you…your guide was great..I couldn’t get it to work until I read it.
Its still quite buggy…but it works!
A
April 21st, 2008 at 9:49 am
Hey a million thanks Vince,
It looked like a weird way to put it in. On my user info I dropped the underscore and domain and it worked perfectly.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Hi,
I know that you can’t publish the 2.0 on your site but can some point me to right place for it. I downLoaded 3 different 2.0 b3 firmwares and they all fail to restore/upgrade.
Thanks…
May 4th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I can enter my settings like you describe it. But it doesn’t sync…
Do I need to install a certificate on my iPhone? Where do I put it and how do I configure the phone?
Thanks
May 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Anyway you can post a blog on how to access the plist file? I can get ActiveSync working without SSL, but I’d like to use a self-signed cert (at least for testing) and I just need to add that boolean to the plist file.
Thanks,
Flux.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:52 am
Hi, is there a way to connect via only the webmail interface? I don’t think so, but maybe someone has experiences with it? My company doesn’t make the exchange server directly available. Thanks.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 am
i installed 2.0 on my iphone, works good. was able to sync with my work exchange server. however, there should be a button on contacts to sync it up, or one to just sync everything every now and then, and if there is, then i cant find it.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Hi,
could you please provide the correct data using the following values:
user: boss
domain: dom
server: exserv.dom.local
email: hugo.boss@rip.de
Thank you!
May 27th, 2008 at 9:52 am
If I try it your way - I always get an authentication error (exchange account check failed)… :(
June 25th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I don’t seem to have the private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DataAccess.plist file on my 5a240d, could it be in a different location, or perhaps someone could post it for me? Exchange sync is the whole reason I’m trying 2.0.
Thanks!
July 14th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
iPhone 2.0 killed my email! Not only did I have a headache setting up Exchange, but my Gmail account will not work either. Now I have no mail.
BTW, great job describing what to do to get Exchange verified. I never would have gotten there without your help. I was able to get the phone to verify my account.
Unfortunately when I touch my mail icon the phone thinks for a minute with a white screen and then dumps me back at the home page. Even though both accounts look good in settings, I can’t open mail.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
michael, you say you got your gmail to work on your iphone..i just got the itouch did my upgrade to 2.0 i just cant get my gmail to work on this damn microsoft ex. could you let me know how to set this up please its killing me.
July 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Thanks for publishing this. It gave me the hint I needed, pointing to my companies webmail server instead of the internal exchange server.