[SOLVED] Do I need to setup Exchange account on iPhone for PUSH?

[yonatan]

I've got an iPhone 3G running iOS 3 and I setup an IMAP account to access mail on my Zimbra server. It works great, but the PUSH functionality doesn't seem to work!

Does PUSH only work if I setup an Exchange account on the iPhone?

[phoenix]

Does PUSH only work if I setup an Exchange account on the iPhone?

You also get immediate email notifications with IMAP (if the client uses IMAP IDLE) but you don't get the other functionality such as Calendar & Contacts synchronisation. To get them all you need an activesync configured client and obviously Zimbra NE (for anyone else reading this answer ).

[yonatan]

You also get immediate email notifications with IMAP (if the client uses IMAP IDLE) but you don't get the other functionality such as Calendar & Contacts synchronisation. To get them all you need an activesync configured client and obviously Zimbra NE (for anyone else reading this answer ).

Well I've been searching on Apple's forums and on Google and it seems that even though Zimbra NE supports PUSH, I will not get email PUSHED to the iPhone if I setup an IMAP account.

Do you use an iPhone phoenix or can you confirm this?

[phoenix]

Well I've been searching on Apple's forums and on Google and it seems that even though Zimbra NE supports PUSH, I will not get email PUSHED to the iPhone if I setup an IMAP account.

I have a recollection that's correct, the Apple IMAP client doesn't support IMAP idle (I can't find the link to confirm that ATM).

Do you use an iPhone phoenix or can you confirm this?

No, I don't use an iPhone but some other forum member do. Is there any reason you can't set it up as an Exchange account?

[yonatan]

No, I don't use an iPhone but some other forum member do. Is there any reason you can't set it up as an Exchange account?

No I can do what I want as I run the Zimbra server As you can probably tell from my recent posts I'm at the stage where I'm experimenting as "the user" who will connect to my Zimbra server. I just started by creating an IMAP account to see that everything works and was surprised that emails weren't arriving without having to fetch.

I will try setting up an Exchange account and report back, but if you find that link or the iPhone user here can confirm that it definitely doesn't work with IMAP please let me know.

[phoenix]

As I'm not an iPhone user I can't confirm if IMAP idle is supported in the client on that phone and there is conflicting information about whether it's supported. This blog entry says that it is supported, you would be far better using the Exchange Account on the phone for a connection.

[ewilen]

Just to be clear, Apple Mail (on Mac OS X) does support IMAP idle.

The comments in the blog entry about iPhone indicate that you have to leave the Mail app open in order for it to do IMAP IDLE. Not sure if things have changed under iOS 4. This suggests no IDLE with iPhone: [Imap-protocol] Fwd: iOS IMAP IDLE (Standard "Push Email") Deficiency, Explanation?.

There are some small things that IMAP does better than ActiveSync when you have iPhone + Zimbra (e.g., support for shared folders) but if you don't need them, then I agree with phoenix. However, Push is a major battery-killer.

[yonatan]

I have done some more research and testing on this and Elliot's link confirms that IMAP IDLE is not supported on the iPhone. Therefore, setting up an IMAP account on the iPhone will fetch email on a schedule or manually.

However, as Bill pointed out if you setup an Exchange (i.e. ActiveSync) account then email is "pushed" if you desire. I've got it working on my iPhone and it's really cool The more I play with Zimbra and learn how to configure and manage an email server..the more I likey