Corporate email sync and unread email display questions on S4

[sharon6502]

I set up my corporate email on Galaxy S4 using Exchange ActiveSync. It syncs pretty well - I get notified for new email even faster than my Outlook client on computer. The issue I have is that when I click on the new message notification (which will bring me to the native mail app window), the email will take like 10 seconds to load. If i go to the mail app directly, these new emails won't even be shown up until 2 minutes later.

Another issue i have is that the read/unread status of emails doesn't get auto-synced to the device; i.e. i've cleared all my email on computer but they will remain UNREAD on my S4 unless i read each email again on the mobile device.

Any of you experiencing the same issues? I love all the other features on S4 but this email gig has to work otherwise i'll have to return it. Any help you can lend will be greatly appreciated!

 

[JHUB11]

I am having the same issue.

S4 w/stock email app hooked into corp exchange account. Email set to push, all default.. My Inbox has 0 unread messages, a new message comes in (1) on both Outlook and S4. I read the email in outlook, the count of unread messages goes back to 0 in Outlook but the S4 notification stays until I open the mail app, it then populates the message as read and clears the count.

Is there any way to have the phone notification go away after reading the message in Outlook? This is very annoying.

 

[Lyne Belanger]

I have the same problem... Please let me know if you find a solution. Thanks

 

[Farish]

Try the touchdown app, it has a 30 day trial. It is 20 dollars but it is probably the best exchange implementation on Android.

 

[sshowerman]

Try the touchdown app, it has a 30 day trial. It is 20 dollars but it is probably the best exchange implementation on Android.

I have the same problem, with corporate and Yahoo mail. Touchdown is not an option with company policy. This wasn't an issue with my Droid Bionic - seems like a bug?

 

[Farish]

I have the same problem, with corporate and Yahoo mail. Touchdown is not an option with company policy. This wasn't an issue with my Droid Bionic - seems like a bug?

It could be a bug but most likely it could be Samsung not support exchange as well. Its not built into Android, each OEM has to do this along with a licensing agreement with Microsoft.

 

[sshowerman]

It could be a bug but most likely it could be Samsung not support exchange as well. Its not built into Android, each OEM has to do this along with a licensing agreement with Microsoft.

I don't think it's that (not supporting exchange). The problem is the same with Yahoo mail for me, and they both had a very smooth setup otherwise.

 

[sshowerman]

I don't think it's that (not supporting exchange). The problem is the same with Yahoo mail for me, and they both had a very smooth setup otherwise.

A further note - the bug appears to only be in the notification bar - the home screen icon cycles through alongside Outlook and Yahoo - for some reason the notification bar isn't reading from the same source as the home screen icon?

 

[captnpineapple]

Its annoying, but the fix is, you have to open the mail app. It happens for all e-mail accounts for me. Once I open the mail app and the notifications are cleared, they don't return.

It's as if the notifications aren't syncing correctly with the mail app. Weird.

 

[caribbeangrl]

I am having the same issue on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for my Outlook Email but not my Gmail! If I get a new email on my Gmail account and read it on my laptop, the icon in the notifications bar immediately goes away. This is not the case for my Outlook email so it must be some setting either with Outlook itself or with the app on the phone. On another forum I read something about Outlook must not be sending a "read" update to the phone. When I read something on my phone my Outlook on my laptop immediately updates, but not the other way around.

 

[dizzwave]

Here's what I have found out through a little experimenting. I could be wrong on this stuff, but it does seem to follow this pattern for me so far.
Exchange only pushes/syncs to your mobile (including syncing whether something's read/unread) when there's a new message to push. (Or when you tap the refresh button on your phone.) It doesn't do a sync when you simply read a message.

Scenario 1: You receive an email from Adam. It is unread on your PC and on your phone. You read it on your PC, but it is still marked unread on your phone... until you receive another email, from Betty -- then Adam's message is marked read on your phone too.

Scenario 2 (here's where it gets hairy, and what caused me to get annoyed enough to look into this): You receive an email from Adam. You read it on your PC, then copy it to your "lulz" folder because it has a picture of a cat on a synthesizer. (It is still marked unread on your phone.) You then receive an email from Betty, but, what? Your phone is still showing Adam's message as unread, and still in your inbox. This is because the server doesn't know anything about Adam's message in your inbox anymore -- it thinks it's in your "lulz" folder. So unless you have that specific folder set for Push (which you can configure in the Email app settings), it will sit there in your inbox until you manually click the refresh button -- which you probably don't want to have to do. (All of your custom folders are probably defaulted to Manual instead of Push.)

I think there are other scenarios worth mentioning, but I think I've figured out enough to get by for now. For a while it just seemed random, and that's no good. ;-)
HTH

 

[kfburrows]

Good research!

I get so frustrated with corporate email and smartphones. My old HTC with Windows 6.5 was the boss with corporate email. I could pick which folders I wanted to sync and show on my phone. I could filter out all the junk folders that I don't need to look at everyday and surely not on my phone. It also would push to each folder I chose to sync and show unread messages in each of those folders. That was important to me since I use rules to push emails from clients to a client folder.

That said, do you or anyone else know if the S4 will do the same thing with sync folders? I went in the Verizon store and actually setup my email on one of the display phones and when I chose to sync a folder, it showed a number in (), but it was all emails in that folder. Apparently, it is the same bug described in this post and until they are all read on the phone, it will remain that way until you do some kind or refresh or sync. I would like unread messages to show in each sync'd folder as messages arrive to them. Is this possible?

Thanks!

 

[tfilarski]

I feel like before I upgraded to S4 a couple months ago on my DROID3 this used to be an issue then there was an update and it was working as expected (read an email on pc, notification goes away on phone). Any resolution yet?

 

[rcsrich]

This has been my experience when using the stock email app with exchange on every phone I've had so far (LG Optimus V, Moto Triumph & GS3) on every ROM, so I tend to think it's just how exchange plays with Android & I don't really expect it to change. I think dizzwave has the right idea and it's just because of the way in which it syncs. Annoying, to be sure, but I'm willing to deal with it to have easy access to my corporate email...

My 2 cents'