[SOLVED] iPhone Email Sent via Zimbra ActiveSync Doesn't Show Sender Name of Zimbra A

[Jason Hung]

Please vote up bug 30526!

SUMMARY:

The Zimbra ActiveSync implementation does not show the sender's name of the Zimbra account when sending email via MobileMail in iPhone 2.0. As tested with an Exchange 2003 stock installation, an Exchange ActiveSync account should show the sender's name as configured in Active Directory/LDAP for the Zimbra account, however this does not happen in a Zimbra ActiveSync account. This bug can make it difficult for recipients to quickly identify the sender of an email.

In short, if I sent an email from my Zimbra account via ActiveSync, I won't see Jason Hung <jason.hung@big.faceless.org>. I'll only see <jason.hung@big.faceless.org>. This is contrary to proper ActiveSync implementation. As a customer of the Network Edition, I hope to see this bug fixed. Zimbra has been very good to us customers, and I hope I will never have to use Exchange again.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

1. In iPhone 2.0, add account from the "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" menu in Settings.
2. Go to "Add Account..." and select "Microsoft Exchange."
3. Enter email address, username, and password. Hit next once. You will be prompted to enter a server address.
4. Enable the mail service.
5. Send a test email to an account of your choice using the ActiveSync account where you will be able to view message headers.
6. Observe that the Sender's Name is not included with the sent mail.

EXPECTED RESULTS:

1. An iPhone using an ActiveSync account should show the Sender's Name in the From field. Exchange 2003 properly implements this:

   Received: from 10.10.10.12 ([10.10.10.12]) by ex01.bigfaceless.local ([10.10.10.12]) with Microsoft Exchange Server HTTP-DAV ;
   Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:02:03 +0000
   Message-ID: <427146A7-3837-4A58-AC17-DB7B3DDC7B15@big.faceless.org>
   From: "Fartox McGonagall" <Fartox.McGonagall@big.faceless.org>

   Notice the "From: 'Fartox McGonagall' <Fartox.McGonagall@big.faceless.org>" part.
2. Zimbra does not correctly provide the Sender's Name from the Zimbra LDAP or Active Directory:

   Received: from zimbra.big.faceless.org (zimbra.big.faceless.org [10.10.10.31])
   by zimbra.big.faceless.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D8480140734;
   Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:14:59 -0700 (MST)
   Message-Id: <A444416D-F154-4500-A3A1-4F2EAC47E2BE@big.faceless.org>
   From: <fartox.mcgonagall@big.faceless.org>
   X-Mailer: Zimbra 5.0.9_GA_2533.RHEL5_64

   Notice the "From: <fartox.mcgonagall@big.faceless.org>" part. No NAME is provided in the FROM field.

[Jason Hung]

Is there any update as to the status of this bug? It has been existent since August of last year.

[macdevin]

One would think 40 Votes would get things done.
I find the Votes to be worthless and a waste of time.

[Jason Hung]

We're making a determination as to whether or not to renew our Zimbra licensing, and things like this worry us since we rely and pay for support every year. We were wondering if Zimbra would update us on the status of this bug, especially since this is a Network Edition feature. Since this component isn't open source, we wouldn't be able to contribute to finding a resolution to this bug.

[phoenix]

The place to check if this is scheduled for a future release of Zimbra is in the Product Portal.

[Jason Hung]

There is a workaround that is now fairly convincing. In the iPhone, go to the Settings.app, select Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and then your Exchange account. Once you see your account settings, choose "Account Info" and instead of your email in the Email setting, input how you would like your name displayed. That's it--pretty easy and very workable.