June 29th, 2007
Exchange Server Rollup 3: An IMAP fix for the iPhone?
Microsoft rolled out on June 28 the third rollup of fixes for Exchange Server 2007, a product introduced in December 2006.
According to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article on Rollup 3, Microsoft has fixed a number of Exchange issues, including:
- The addition of an integer to the end of the legacyExchangeDN attribute of a newly created mailbox in Exchange 2007
- Failure to display an attachment when using Outlook 2003 to open an e-mail message that contains an attachment
- Display of an error message when a user tries to open a forwarded message to accept or to deny a resource request in Exchange Server 2007: “Cannot open the free/busy information”
eWEEK is reporting that the new Exchange Server 2007 Rollup 3 also will fix a supposed incompatibility between the IMAP version 4 and Exchange Server 2007 that could affect iPhone customers attempting to use IMAP to sync with Exchange. eWEEK says:
“The update is expected to address many issues Exchange Server 2007 users have been having, including with Mac Mail and the fact that when the access their mailboxes on an Exchange Server 2007 server, certain IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) clients cannot open the bodies of the e-mail messages, which trigger error messages.”
The Web notes on Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article don’t call out anything specifically about Mac Mail or the iPhone, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
I’ve asked Microsoft whether an IMAP fix for Exchange Server that would impact Apple users is part of Rolllup 3. More to come later on that, if and when I hear back.
Update: A corporate spokeswoman sent the following response by e-mail on July 2:
“Microsoft confirmed that the Roll Up 3 addresses the reported IMAP issue (the Mac Mail issue) that was reported to Exchange.Microsoft can’t comment on this fix’s impact on the iPhone; Apple are the right folks to answer that question.”
We do know that Apple is telling folks that the iPhone can sync with Exchange Server using IMAP. Still no official word from Apple or Microsoft on when and if iPhone users will be able to take advantage of the more secure ActiveSync prototol to sync the iPhone and Exchange.
“If Apple wants to make it easy for enterprise customers to buy iPhones, they’re going to need to license ActiveSync,” said Peter O’Kelly, an analyst with the Burton Group. “It’d also be good for Microsoft, although perhaps not an entirely happy scenario, e.g., for the Windows Mobile team,” which develops the operating system powering Windows Mobile phones and devices.
The first official Service Pack (SP) for Exchange Server 2007 is still expected some time this fall/winter. Microsoft released a first beta of the service pack in April. While the Exchange Server rollups are for bug fixes only, SP1 of Exchange Server 2007 is expected to include both bug fixes and a number of new features, including new replication, mobility and native IPv6 support.
