OS and Software > All Things Macintosh > [iPhone] 3.1 breaks Exchange Sync for pre-3GS phones

reply to godlikesme

Re: [iPhone] 3.1 breaks Exchange Sync

With all due respect, why not?

If an official workaround cannot be provided that meets the security standards of all IT departments then how are iPhone 3G owners going to access MS Exchange email?

I am not saying that Apple's decision to enforce the encryption policy is wrong. On the contrary, it's a very positive step in the right direction and will only increase the iPhone's prominence in the corporate world for both current and potential customers.

The issue I have with Apple was their approach.

The whole transition to digital TV provides the perfect example. People really had no excuse for not knowing about it and if they went out and purchased a TV set without a digital tuner it was their own damn fault. If however, consumers would have been misled or if the government never told anyone that analog TV would be turned off and continued to let consumers blindly purchase soon-to-be obsolete televisions, that would be flat out wrong.

At least with digital TV if the consumer was totally out of touch with society or in a coma for the last few years they could always purchase a converter box or get cable if they had to.

But with the iPhone 3G -no such luck. Asking the IT department of a major corporation or government agency to relax it's security settings for individual users would be like forcing TV stations to continue broadcasting in analog.

You are entitled to your opinion but I feel pretty cheated.

Maybe I am over-reacting a bit. It's barely been 24 hours since the update was released and I should at least give Apple a chance to respond to the issue.

If a reasonable solution can be implemented then great. I would be totally amicable to some form of settlement that would either allow me to get out of my contract without penalty or upgrade to a 3GS for free or at a reduced price. I am a reasonable person. I have been using my current iPhone for almost 10 months and it wouldn't be fair for me to demand a "free iPhone 3GS". Perhaps Apple could have some sort of "Exchange for Exchange (i.e. MS Exchange)" program.

reply to godlikesme
Exchange 2007 SP1 was released in May of 2008, you bought your iPhone 3G in November of 2008. It is not Apple's fault you didn't research this issue before buying one. You can disable forced encryption and your phone will work fine, so this is a non-issue. I know for Windows Mobile phones, you can still enable encryption on the device itself. It's likely you could even create two different Activesync Policies on your Exchange Server, one specifically for your iPhone devices that doesn't force encryption and another for other mobile devices that does force it.

I'd like to see Apple release 3.1.1 that reverted to ignoring the setting, but that is the most I would expect to see them offer.

I have no control over my Exchange server. I work for a company with like 30,000 employees.

Let's go with the argument that I didn't do my research. However, enforcing hardware encryption was the approach Apple should have taken all along. It would have removed any doubt as to whether or not a customer's MS Exchange servers required it. I would have tried to access my email and received the message I am getting now and known right there and then that the device was not compatible. That would have given me a fair chance to decide whether or not I still wanted to make the purchase. That would have been the right thing to do. Could my IT department have done more research? Perhaps. Could Apple have been more transparent regarding the lack of hardware encryption and it's long-term ramifications? Definitely.

Just to be clear, I could live with a 3.1.2 update that didn't require hardware encryption.

By the way, it's nice to be able to have an intelligent discussion with people and have different opinions without getting flamed like I often see people react on other message boards.

I agree it was irresponsible of Apple to ignore the setting until now and as I stated earlier, I was under the assumption it WAS honoring the setting. However, I didn't seek a definitive answer when I bought my iPhone, so I hold myself, not Apple, responsible.

Could Apple have been clearer that it didn't support encryption? Absolutely. Do I fault them or think in the grand scheme of things they are ultimately responsible for it? I don't. The information was out there, I just chose not to look for it, so shame on me.

reply to godlikesme

reply to Matt

reply to ChiefTom

Chief, I don't think you understand how Activesync policies work. The policy is sent to the device, but it's completely up to the device whether to honor and apply those settings or not. If anything is communicated back, it's simply that the policy was received successfully. The iPhone hasn't been "lying" to the Exchange server in any way, which is why people are in an uproar.

»technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr···84.aspx#
»msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/···551.aspx

Note the requirement that for all those policies to be applied, the device must support Activesync 12.1. If the device doesn't support a 12.1 requirement that it doesn't know about (as is the case with the iPhone) it continues to function but it just ignores that policy setting. My guess is that Windows Mobile 5 devices also continue to function normally yet don't support encryption or any of the new Activesync 12.1 policies either.

Matt,

Thanks forthe referance links.

In the first referance in the middle of the page is the following

Require Device Encryption
This setting specifies whether device encryption is required. If set to $true, the device must be able to support and implement encryption to synchronize with the server.

This means to me that unless the device has can support encryption, it can not synchronize.

It has been this way since mid 2008.

If Encryption was required, why was the device able to sync when this policy say no.

As a user, not an admin, is there an easy way I can check whether or not my Exchange server requires encryption before I choose to upgrade to 3.1? Of course this won't help me if there is a policy change in the future...

reply to ChiefTom

Just thought you guys might be interested in knowning that MS Exchange Server 2007 SP1 was not released in May 2008 but in November 2007 which was a full 8 months prior to the release of the original iPhone 3G. That gave Apple MORE than enough time to test compatibility with MS Exchange 2007 SP1. This is TOTALLY Apple's fault and I have already contacted an attorney to start preliminary discussions about a possible class action lawsuit. If anyone else is interested in filing please let me know and I will start a listserv.

reply to Matt
Here is the link to the original Exchange Server 2007 SP1 download page.

»www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta···ylang=en