Atrix 2 with MS Exchange 2007, truncated emails

[anon(51467)]

Hi there, I am somewhat new to Android, but have used a Moto Original Droid and an HTC Inspire.

I have MS Exchange 2007 at the office and can get the A2 to set up and sync using the Motorola "Corporate Email" icon/app. My mail comes through although any large mails are truncated and give a message right below the subject line that reads: "To save data, this message was partially downloaded." Then in a button next to that, it reads: "Get full message". When I press get full message the wait icon rotates a few turns and then the message body goes blank with this one line of error message: "Unable to fetch message body from server." And a notification comes up indicating a "Connection error". There are no details to the error.

I have checked all the data and battery settings on the device and nothing lets more data through. I did go to the AT&T store yesterday (I have had this phone three days) and the guy working with me is an Android guy, so he was very good with it and quite conversant about Android and networking and such. He replaced my SIM with a 4G SIM and that did not help.
He tried setting my device to the more expensive full "corporate" email account style and power cycled the phone, that did not help.
He is going to escalate this issue and get back to me on Tuesday (he is out of town today and tomorrow). Said he'll call me and hook me up with a tech. We'll see.

But of course, being into this stuff, I find it hard to wait that long if there is another solution out there.

I have run an exchange server since 1999, and just recently upgraded our site to 2007. It is fine and all perfect for iPhone 3, iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, Sprint HTC EVO 4G, and the BlackBerries. I also run a BESx if that matters. I am not really all that comfortable with Exch 2007 and all the powershell commandlets, but can muddle through any ideas sent along.

Thanks for reading all of this, and certainly swing away with the clue bat and the RTFM comments, just guide me a bit to the right location,

Cheers
Bob

 

[anon(51467)]

I spoke with my sales rep today and he gave me the "secret" Motorola 800 number to call directly to Android tech support. That was a waste. The guy walked me through everything my sales guy and I had done in store.

I was told that Motorola would send me an email with further troubleshooting tips and some links to help solve the issue. That email did not arrive, however the request to take a survey to cover the tech support phone call arrived.

Here is the newest curve ball; my son got a Sony Experia and I set up the Exchange email account. All email was able to be read fully, no request to download or any messages indicating the mail was partially downloaded to save data. I had asked the Motorola tech support three times if Motos UI was designed to limit "corporate email", as the other Android devices seem to use the same basic email app for Exchange. He would not nor could not answer that. I'll be calling them again to escalate.

Am I wrong for expecting an Android device to read the same emails my BlackBerry Bold 9000 could read? If Moto modified the "corporate email" to reduce data use by limiting the download but could not make the full dowload work, I will be leaving that device behind and that will close the door for me and Motorola permanently. I dropped them in the "Star Tac" days when their batteries went to %^@(

The only other Android that looks cool on AT&T is the LG Thrill. I don't want to spend $200 or more on a device now. Is it so bad I would like a nice device with a stock UI? Heck, I'd think the G1 would be cool to have...

I'll post my next events with Moto and AT&T.

 

[TimmyB]

That just doesn't sound right to me. I have my corporate mail on mine (MS Exchange / Outlook-based) and have never seen this message. Maybe you could go back to the ATT store, grab their demo, log in to your corp email on that phone, and see if the problem replicates. At least, you could determine if the problem truly is specific to your phone or not.

Good luck!

 

[anon(51467)]

Thanks Timmy,

I am going back to the store to try a few devices with my exchange. I just got off the second call with Motorola and they seem to think it may be a bad device.

Oh well, my sales guy has been great and ready to work with me.

Curiously, I tested an old Moto Droid 1 this morning and it worked flawlessly and it asked for a pin, as did my sons Experia, "Due to security settings on the server" (or some such) but the Atrix 2 never showed me that message! It is confusing.

 

[anon(51467)]

I am back from the store and indeed the demo Atrix 2 did exactly the same thing. Also never indicated it needed to set a pin or security code as required by the Exchange policy.

Curiously, the HTC Vivid loaded up nicely with no issue! I tried a Samsung and it just would not even try to connect to my Exchange. I may have to ditch Moto and go HTC. I wonder if the battery life in the Vivid is as poor as it was in the Inspire I had for a week......

 

[TimmyB]

I am back from the store and indeed the demo Atrix 2 did exactly the same thing. Also never indicated it needed to set a pin or security code as required by the Exchange policy.

Curiously, the HTC Vivid loaded up nicely with no issue! I tried a Samsung and it just would not even try to connect to my Exchange. I may have to ditch Moto and go HTC. I wonder if the battery life in the Vivid is as poor as it was in the Inspire I had for a week......

Just for fun, I sent myself an email. I copied the text of a 1.5 page MS Word document and pasted it into the body of the email four times. Sure enough, on my phone, it said "To save data, ...", but when I told it to get the full email, it did not have any issues at all. It pulled all the text in and scrolled through it like nothing.

I guess most of the emails I get are not that long, and if they are, I probably saw them on my PC first, so I never noticed on my phone. Either way, it worked the way I would have expected it to.

I hope you are able to find a phone that meets your needs!

 

[anon(51467)]

FWIW, I returned the Atrix 2 and am back on my BB Torch 9800. I am testing other configurations and SSL Certs on my Exchange server. I'll go back and try the Atrix 2 among others at the AT&T store again and see what I find. I had read in the Motorola forums that the Motos have all manner of problems depending on the SSL Certs you have or do not have. My sales guy said to just return the device and wait a few days to see what Thanksgiving and Christmas sales come up and try again. That is what I shall do.

I do miss that big screen and very thin design, as compared to the 9800! SIGH.

 

[TimmyB]

FWIW, I returned the Atrix 2 and am back on my BB Torch 9800. I am testing other configurations and SSL Certs on my Exchange server. I'll go back and try the Atrix 2 among others at the AT&T store again and see what I find. I had read in the Motorola forums that the Motos have all manner of problems depending on the SSL Certs you have or do not have. My sales guy said to just return the device and wait a few days to see what Thanksgiving and Christmas sales come up and try again. That is what I shall do.

I do miss that big screen and very thin design, as compared to the 9800! SIGH.

I am SOOOOOOOO much happier with my Atrix 2 than I was with my webOS phone. Not only from a performance standpoint (which is like comparing a Porsche to a Chevrolet), but from the fact that I don't get asked every other day to check my login credentials, or to check my account because of a bad SSL cert. As a matter of fact, I can't wait to mod my HP touchpad over to Android OS, as soon as they come out with that!

Good luck to you in figuring out what is going on. I hope you find the phone that fits your needs SOON! Nothing worse than going back to what you thought you had used for the last time.

 

[anon(51467)]

Wow, WebOS. I really had high hopes for that and could not wait for the Palm phone. I am a longtime fan of Palm products; I had some of the early Palms with the 2 AA batteries and green screen monochrome. Loved that device, it just worked. I wanted the WebOS to work so well, then I saw the device in a store and was bummed to say the least. ;-)

Yes, the Atrix 2 is awesome, although I hear the new Samsung Galaxy is really quite amazing too, I think I like the Atrix 2 form/size a bit better. I am going by the AT&T store in the next few days when I have a few minutes and will test with the new certs. I hope it works. I do like the BB platform as the OS straight out of the box is so well connected from each part of the phone, contacts/phone/BBM/etc, it really lets me work fast, but that Atrix with a big screen and great battery life is so impressive.

Yup, really thought the BB would be a backup device, but alas it is my daily driver again. Hahahaha, I am running a really sweet Android theme on it, so the "look" is there. ;-)

Cheers
Bob

 

[TimmyB]

Wow, WebOS. I really had high hopes for that and could not wait for the Palm phone. I am a longtime fan of Palm products; I had some of the early Palms with the 2 AA batteries and green screen monochrome. Loved that device, it just worked. I wanted the WebOS to work so well, then I saw the device in a store and was bummed to say the least. ;-)

Yes, the Atrix 2 is awesome, although I hear the new Samsung Galaxy is really quite amazing too, I think I like the Atrix 2 form/size a bit better. I am going by the AT&T store in the next few days when I have a few minutes and will test with the new certs. I hope it works. I do like the BB platform as the OS straight out of the box is so well connected from each part of the phone, contacts/phone/BBM/etc, it really lets me work fast, but that Atrix with a big screen and great battery life is so impressive.

Yup, really thought the BB would be a backup device, but alas it is my daily driver again. Hahahaha, I am running a really sweet Android theme on it, so the "look" is there. ;-)

Cheers
Bob

Yeah, I was one of those who hoped that Google (or someone else who REALLY understood mobile devices) would buy Palm, not HP. Talk about a slow-motion train wreck!

Either way, I am 23 days in and couldn't be happier. Android is really quite nice, I have been able to find a solution for almost everything, except importing all my fuel data from my old phone so I don't have to start over again with my cars! Battery life has been awesome, as well. I tried hard to bleed it down the other day, but after 30 hours, I still had 20% left and needed to plug into USB to do some file-related things, so the battery started charging again there.

Have a great holiday!

 

[Gawain]

I am not an MS Exchange Server guru, but I do have hosted Exchange for my small company and have access to the control panel, etc. and can turn "on or off" BES (but don't administer any of the IT policies).

In my experience with several Android devices (Droid X, HTC ThunderBolt, Droid RAZR), as well as other platforms with EAS functionality (webOS, iOS, WP7), I have fully concluded that Android simply does not like to play well with MS Exchange. Period. Either syncing does not work 100%, calendars don't down load past 90 days' worth of data, and tasks. Of course, memos don't work either. Alas, I've now given up on Android as a reliable platform for MS Exchange. The best non-BlackBerry integration I've seen with Exchange (using BES, obviously WP7 works flawlessly in my experience), was webOS. iOS seemed to work very well (pre-OS 5).

I could never pinpoint the problem because it was always something different. I think it may have something to do with the UI's sitting on top of Android, but I could never be sure. In the end, how much is your time worth? Of the three, the HTC performed the best. Used it relatively trouble free for several months before the email client started dropping settings (not just MS Exchange either, everything - Gmail, Yahoo, etc). The RAZR didn't make it three days with me - EAS simply was not working as designed.

YMMV of course. Hope you iron things out.

 

[anon(51467)]

Well, to update this saga, I have purchased a different SSL certificate and updated my Exchange 2007 server. I went to the AT&T store today to test drive some Androids. Sadly I have the same issues, the Samsungs set up perfectly, apply security then fail to retrieve email with a generic "security error" message. The Atrix 2 sets up, grabs email and is fabulous until I find a long html formatted email, I get the partial download notice, I press the button and it still fails. This is extremely annoying. I am beginning to think it is a 2.3.5 thing and not on my end.

Interestingly my sons Experia running 2.3.3 is perfect using this echange account. The old Moto Droid original running 2.2.2 is also perfect......curious I think.

So, I am still rocking BlackBerry....

 

[allshewrote]

We have had the same problem with Droid 3s on Verizon. I downloaded K9 and it never does that, plus I can have my corporate sync account, my gmail and my yahoo mail all together instead of having to go to separate apps to view new mail for all accounts.

 

[anon(51467)]

Motorola Android support suggested I download and try K9 as well. It did work, but I should not have to use a third party app for a basic feature of a smartphone, nor do I want to use one. Interestingly I found K9 to horribly wreck html formatted email. Perhaps I had settings and knobs to adjust, but I just wanted a simple BlackBerry email experience.

 

[Gawain]

Motorola Android support suggested I download and try K9 as well. It did work, but I should not have to use a third party app for a basic feature of a smartphone, nor do I want to use one. Interestingly I found K9 to horribly wreck html formatted email. Perhaps I had settings and knobs to adjust, but I just wanted a simple BlackBerry email experience.

If you're on BES, sadly, that will be difficult to truly replace. At this point, the best options to look at are WP7 and iOS. Both handle EAS very very well. I'm now on iOS 5.0.1 and have had no sync issues at all. The two-way communication has been stellar.

WP7 naturally syncs very well. Plus, there's support for OneNote, SharePoint and the whole MS Office experience. It also does this while capturing so much from the "cloud" and integrating it pretty well.

But like you, I refused to buy a third party app for what is well regarded as the gold standard for any smartphone. I've seen BlackBerry devices handle Exchange via OWA better than my results with Android. Sucks too, because Android is really neat. My business has to come first though.

 

[anon(51467)]

Well, I must thank all of you for your thoughts and input and accept all blame for this situation. I have found a solution to this "problem" and the problem was me!

While tinkering with everything I could find and talking with the "special" Motorola Android support line, it never occured to me or anybody else to try a service pack on my Exchange server. I spent a nervous afternoon last week applying the latest Exchange service pack (#3) to my server. That all went fine even with a couple of reboots to the the server.

I had no complaints from my BlackBerry users nor any from my iPhone people. So far so good, I was updating our production Exchange box and nobody noticed a thing. I had some time that evening and went off to see my AT&T sales guy and tell him I had one last attempt at my server and Android running 2.3.5. To our astonishment the Atrix 2 hooked up immediately, asked to set a passcode, and then retrieved the mail, including some long HTML formatted stuff.

I was so stunned that I did not purchase the device that evening as I had some other errands to run. I did go the next morning to get a pristine new Atrix 2. It has been flawless since! I am at 4 full days of use and getting really into it. There are a few BB things I totally miss, but will sacrifice that for the rest of the experience, which has been great.

I am using Timerrific for "Bedside Mode" from the BB sacrifice, Light Flow for BB style LED notification, and currently testing IM software to replace BBM. BBM is the hardest item to sacrifice or replace; my wife is still on BB and we used BBM exclusively to stay in touch. She works in a hospital and is "not allowed" personal time on a cell phone or such, so BBM was great due especially to the R and D notifications. Anyhow, testing Kik and such.

Again, thank you all for the thoughts and suggestions, I truly appreciate it and hope I can be helpful in the future around here.

Cheers
Bob

 

[TimmyB]

Well, I must thank all of you for your thoughts and input and accept all blame for this situation. I have found a solution to this "problem" and the problem was me!

While tinkering with everything I could find and talking with the "special" Motorola Android support line, it never occured to me or anybody else to try a service pack on my Exchange server. I spent a nervous afternoon last week applying the latest Exchange service pack (#3) to my server. That all went fine even with a couple of reboots to the the server.

I had no complaints from my BlackBerry users nor any from my iPhone people. So far so good, I was updating our production Exchange box and nobody noticed a thing. I had some time that evening and went off to see my AT&T sales guy and tell him I had one last attempt at my server and Android running 2.3.5. To our astonishment the Atrix 2 hooked up immediately, asked to set a passcode, and then retrieved the mail, including some long HTML formatted stuff.

I was so stunned that I did not purchase the device that evening as I had some other errands to run. I did go the next morning to get a pristine new Atrix 2. It has been flawless since! I am at 4 full days of use and getting really into it. There are a few BB things I totally miss, but will sacrifice that for the rest of the experience, which has been great.

I am using Timerrific for "Bedside Mode" from the BB sacrifice, Light Flow for BB style LED notification, and currently testing IM software to replace BBM. BBM is the hardest item to sacrifice or replace; my wife is still on BB and we used BBM exclusively to stay in touch. She works in a hospital and is "not allowed" personal time on a cell phone or such, so BBM was great due especially to the R and D notifications. Anyhow, testing Kik and such.

Again, thank you all for the thoughts and suggestions, I truly appreciate it and hope I can be helpful in the future around here.

Cheers
Bob

"I have seen the enemy, and..."

Happy you have worked this out AND that you have rejoined the Atrix2 club!

 

[anon(51467)]

You are so right. I just LOLed reading your comment.
Yes, it is ME! The enemy within.


Thanks for your earlier posts and "keeping the faith". I am happy to be here.

On a side note, I am off charger for 17 hours and 21 minutes of my normal use and am quite satisfied with the battery life. I did add juice defender today and it is doing a good job on the default settings. I just hit 20% battery, but about ready to call it a night, so the charger is about to get back into use.

Cheers!
B

 

[TimmyB]

You are so right. I just LOLed reading your comment.
Yes, it is ME! The enemy within.


Thanks for your earlier posts and "keeping the faith". I am happy to be here.

On a side note, I am off charger for 17 hours and 21 minutes of my normal use and am quite satisfied with the battery life. I did add juice defender today and it is doing a good job on the default settings. I just hit 20% battery, but about ready to call it a night, so the charger is about to get back into use.

Cheers!
B

I don't know what I did right, but my battery has been beyond belief on the good side. I don't even look at the meter any more, as it never goes below 70% on a daily basis. I am just so happy with this phone, and the Android experience really has been VERY good for me.