Exchange

Major Exchange bug spotted in iOS 6

Since its release two weeks ago, Apple has taken an enormous amount of criticism over iOS 6. The bulk of the heat has come over the new, so-called inferior Maps application, but there have also been complaints of Wi-Fi and App Store issues.

In fact, according to a new report today, some major companies are urging their employees not to update their iOS devices to the new firmware. But it's not because of Maps or Wi-Fi problems. It has to do with a major Exchange bug...

How to Fix iOS 4 Exchange Sync Problems

After updating to iOS 4, you might have encountered issues when syncing your Microsoft Exchange account. I know I did. Immediately after setting up Google Sync on my iPhone iOS 4, the sync took forever to complete. I ended up deleting and adding the account several times but it didn't really fix the issue as it would still take forever to sync new contacts or new events in the calendar.

According to this Apple Support ticket, I am not the only one. Here are the symptoms: immediately after updating to iOS 4, some users may notice that Exchange ActiveSync Mail, Contacts, or Calendars do not sync, or sync very slowly. In addition, some Exchange Server administrators may notice their servers running slowly.

Here is the fix offered by Apple:

To work around this issue, users should install a configuration profile from Apple that increases the amount of time the iOS 4 device will wait for the Exchange Server to respond to its sync requests. For best results, the profile should be installed on as many iOS 4 devices at your company as possible.

To install the profile:

Use Safari on your iOS 4 device to download the configuration profile. It may be easiest to read this article with your iPhone or iPod touch and tap the download link there, but you may also email the attachment to another email account on your iOS 4 device, and tap the attachment to open it. Tap Install to install the profile, and enter your passcode if prompted. A warning message will appear because the profile is not signed. Tap Install Now. Tap Done to complete the installation, then power off your device and power it back on. Wait for your Exchange data to finish syncing.

After installation, the profile will be listed under Settings > General > Profile.

Have you had this issue? If so, did this fix work for you?

How to Use Multiple Exchange Accounts on Your iPhone

If you have a Microsoft Exchange account set up on your iPhone, you know how useful it is. MS Exchange has become more popular on the iPhone lately since Google implemented Google Sync for iPhone, which allows you to sync your email, contacts and calendars over the air. Exchange is also very popular among enterprise users.

One downside of Microsoft Exchange for iPhone is that you cannot have multiple Exchange accounts on one iPhone. This just changed thanks to some smart users of the ModMyi forum and an iPhone dev.

I was in the process of writing a long tutorial on how to set up multiple Exchange accounts on your iPhone when I found out thanks to JAiB that there is now an application in Cydia that does the hard work for you. If you want to add an exchange account the hard way, then read these instructions on LifeHacker. If you want to go the easy way, read on...

There is now a simple way to add a second Exchange account to your iPhone. It's an app available in Cydia called AddExchange. Launch Cydia, look for AddExchange and install it.

After installing AddExchange, you launch the app from its springboard icon. From there, you simply tap a “+” button, and that’s it! AddExchange creates a new Exchange account behind the scenes, and names it SRV2. All you have to do at this point is open up its settings and change the defaults to whatever your second Exchange server uses. For me, I just changed it to use Google’s sync settings.

Looks simple enough. The downside? You have to be jailbroken but I guess if you're reading this blog, that shouldn't be much of an issue for you...

If you've tried AddExchange, I would love to hear your thoughts about it. Does it perform as well as it is supposed to? Have you found any caveat yet?