Outlook for ios exchange - partial syncing from server to iphone and sent items duplication

[pa1]

Hi:

After installing "outlook for ios" Exchange on two devices, iphone 15 pro max, and iphone se, two problems surface on both devices.

1. Shaw webmail will not sync emails that already exist on the Shaw webmail server to the iphone outlook for ios inbox, it will however sync new emails to the iphone outlook for ios exchange inbox, that is emails that come in after you have installed Outlook for ios.

2. When you send out an email on the iphone using Outlook for ios exchange you end up with a duplicate of the email on the iphone's Outlook for ios exchange sent items folder, that is to say you end up with two emails for each one you send out.

The usual troubleshooting steps were done, turn iphones on and off, restart outlook, reinstall outlook, double check all outlook for ios settings, and so on. It's difficult to determine if this a webmail server problem or an ios for outlook app problem. Its not an iphone problem as it happens on two separate iphone models. I could not find anything on the internet that relates ios outlook for ios to the problems, so I suspect it is with the shaw webmail server.

Thanks

[mdk]

@pa1 wrote:  I suspect it is with the Shaw Webmail server.

I disagree.

E-mail programs, such as Outlook, can be configured in two ways:

1. Using IMAP -- copy messages from Shaw's mail-server to your iPhone, and leave the messages on Shaw's mail-server, so that your other device can also "preview" what Shaw's mail-server is holding for your ID.  When you delete a message, you are deleting from your local device, and from Shaw's mail-server. If you switch to your other device, and it "synchronizes" with Shaw's mail-server, the deletion from Shaw's mail-server will also be done on that device's local mailbox.

2. Using POP.  POP will download messages from the Shaw mail-server to one device, and then delete them from Shaw's mail-server. There is one option within POP to "leave downloaded messages on the mail-server for NNN days", so that any other device will be able to view those messages that were downloaded.

It is not an iPhone problem ...

I agree that there is nothing wrong with the functioning of the Apple IOS operating system, when running the Outlook app (or any other app).

However, it is likely to be a configuration problem within Outlook, causing the observed issue. 

It could also be an imperfect understanding of how E-mail works, when there is more than one device accessing the same mailbox on Shaw's mail-server.

Of course, after those "NNN" days, downloaded messages that still exist on Shaw's mail-server could be deleted, by Outlook, to enforce that "remove after NNN days" configuration option.  Is that what you are experiencing?

[pa1]

Why I chose shaw webmail exchange rather than imap or pop is because it integrates mail, contacts, and calendar with my windows pc's, my iphones and of course shaw webmail.  And this all works pretty good except for the two glitches mentioned in my orginal submission above.  Workaround for the first is to set up an imap account within outlook for ios on the iphones.  IMAP syncs all the emails on the server to the iphone whereas as mentioned above exchange only syncs the emails that came in to the server after the date that Outlook for ios was installed and exchange setup on the iphone.  So workaround for the first problem is to use exchange for everything except taking a look at old mails and for the latter go to imap.  Looks like the "remove after NNN days" configuration option you mention might only be available on POP, couldn't find anything about it on outlook for ios exchange setting nor on shaw webmail.

Imap also solves the 2nd problem of duplicate sent emails.  But not practical because it has no database of all previous email addresses and you have to have physically key in each letter of the email address.

So there you go there are workarounds but it sure would be nice to have outlook for ios integrate seamlessly with shaw webmail.

Thanks

[rstra]

@pa1 

If you’re setting up Exchange ActiveSync, use these settings:

Email address: Your Shaw email address
Domain: shaw.ca
Username: Your Shaw email address, without @shaw.ca
Password: Your Shaw email password
Exchange server: wm.shaw.ca
Use secure connection (SSL): Yes
Use client certificate: No

[pa1]

When setting up Outlook for exchange (Exchange active sync)on the iphone you can input all the settings above except for the last two.  "Use secure connection (SSL)" and "Use client certificate" are hidden or maybe not even there or maybe some defaults are use.