Exchange Not Working with Stock Email App

[jlobsien]

I have a Galaxy Nexus "maguro" phone running 4.2.2 JB.

I work in IT, and we're testing mobile device management through exchange. Here's the problem: I cannot get my device to set up a corporate account. My details are all correct, and it says "checking incoming server connecitons..." and then seems to time out and say "unable to open connection to the server".
If I try to use the built-in email app or clone apps like Aqua Mail, I get this error. If I use Maildroid, which is not based on the stock app, it works fine. Connects and syncs and everything is great (except no calendar support). What is going on here?

More details: I am the only one running JB at my work. People with iOS devices, blackberry, or older versions of Android have no problem connecting (even with the stock app), and like I said, I can connect if not using the built-in app or built-in account manager.

Things I've checked: I've tried this on Wi-fi and mobile. I have checked the "data usage" settings to make sure "Auto-sync data" is checked. I have double-checked my exchange account, but again, I can connect by going a non-default route. I tried clearing the email app's cache. I tried a full factory reset with no luck. I even downgraded the damn thing to ICS, and still had no luck!

I would be okay with just using Maildroid, except that I'm not receiving our exchange security policy either, which was the whole point of this venture.

Any help?

 

[patruns]

Does this impact you? Google drops Exchange ActiveSync support for free email accounts | ZDNet

 

[big matty]

What do the Exchange server's logs say? (Should be a logon attempt in Security log and also your web service should create a log...)

I'd also be curious if it does the same thing with your phone, but another user's account?

Good luck!

 

[jlobsien]

Thank you for the responses!

@Pat: I don't think that applies to me...? It's confusing (as the article admits), but I'm not trying to sync a gmail account. Our company has its own mail server, and we use Microsoft Exchange.
@Matty: I will check the logs tomorrow, it was a very busy day today. And I will definitely try another user account. The thing I find so strange is that the phone connects fine when using MailDroid. That kind of indicates to me that my account is okay, and the server is okay, and my phone is okay, and it's just the app.

Our logon username for these accounts is formatted firstname-initial, but the email address itself is initial-lastname@company.org. I don't think that should matter, but I thought I'd mention it.

I'll post back tomorrow, but in the meantime more suggestions are welcome.

 

[big matty]

Thank you for the responses!

@Pat: I don't think that applies to me...? It's confusing (as the article admits), but I'm not trying to sync a gmail account. Our company has its own mail server, and we use Microsoft Exchange.
@Matty: I will check the logs tomorrow, it was a very busy day today. And I will definitely try another user account. The thing I find so strange is that the phone connects fine when using MailDroid. That kind of indicates to me that my account is okay, and the server is okay, and my phone is okay, and it's just the app.

Our logon username for these accounts is formatted firstname-initial, but the email address itself is initial-lastname. I don't think that should matter, but I thought I'd mention it.

I'll post back tomorrow, but in the meantime more suggestions are welcome.

Part of what I'm curious about is the notion that the two apps could be presenting themselves differently to your Exchange. This is not a 100% accurate example, but just for discussion sake - one app may appear like an Outlook client, whereas the other may be appearing as a generic ActiveSync device - and thus governed differently.

I've helped a bunch of users connect various devices to Exchange, and I HAVE seen it where one format of name entry will work, but the other wont. So for example if you had a domain: test.com (in DNS) or TEST (in NT), even though you ~should~ be able to enter ~either~ user@test.com ~or~ TEST\user , I've seen it where only one specific way works. The actual email address should not matter, but just to be safe make sure the email address you are entering in the phone is the same as the PRIMARY email address displayed in the user's AD profile's General tab (which is not the same as viewing their email profile via Exchange.)

Good luck!

 

[jlobsien]

Solved! Huzzah!

So I checked the logs and found an error like this:
The Exchange ActiveSync doesn?t have enough permissions to create ?CN=Username,OU=Users,DC=test,DC=local? container under AD user ?Active Directory operation failed on server.domainThis error is not retriable. Additional information: Access is denied.
.........
Make sure the user has inherited permission granted to domain\Exchange Servers to allow List, Create child, Delete child of object type ?msExchangeActiveSyncDevices? and doesn?t have any deny permissions blocking such operartions.

I fixed it by opening AD, selecting View->Advanced features, then editing the advanced security options in my AD profile. There is a box labeled "Include inheritable permissions from this object?s parent" that needed to be checked.

Let the record show that this was yet another problem with Microsoft's permissions system being way more convoluted than it needs to be. Hope someone else finds this useful.

 

[TanisHack]

@jlobsien
Where did you access the advices directory-on your phone or exchange server? Sorry for my ignorance. I have exact same problem and have talked to ASUS (have Transformer TF301 tablet), Comcast who hosts our exchange server, searched multiple forums and tried several different apps. My exchange email and calendar work flawlessly on my Samsung galaxy S3, but the calendar function does not work properly on my tablet. The strange thing about the calendar is that if I add an entry in my calendar on my tablet, it will sync to the server and all of my other devices. But the tablet calendar won't pull from the server.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Devon Maya]

Thank You So Much!! I was pulling my hair out about this and you are absolutely right it was the AD permissions! Thanks Again!

 

[POSAnd]

Since Jan 31 2014 a wee while after I updated my Galaxy Note II to 4.3 I am able to receive emails using MicroSoft Exchange ActiveSync BUT there is no joy in sending. I always get the 'Retrieving account information...' but the message never sends.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[POSAnd]

Send a Calendar Appointment Invite to the Broken Exchange Email account and when on replies to the invite all of a sudden, Email Send is working again. No clue why this was broken or how this fixes the issue but there we go.