iOS 5 and Flags Not Working with ActiveSync

[Hanshan]

Hi,

Just installed iOS 5 on my iPhone 4 and was looking forward to the flags functionality a lot but there's an issue.

I setup my zimbra mail using exchange on my iphone and everything syncs beautifully but the flags don't work.

The flags work if I use IMAP to set up, but it doesn't push or sync my calendars/contacts. Gmail works great with push and the flags work.

So if I set up my zimbra account on both IMAP and exchange (active sync) the IMAP shows flags but exchange doesn't.

Any ideas on how to get the flags enabled in my exchange setup?

[grahamb]

I'm running into this as well; there's no option for flagging a message for zimbra accounts set up to use ActiveSync. Flags set on the server through the web client or an IMAP client don't show up on the phone. Interestingly, toggling a flag through one of those two methods *does* usually trigger a push to the phone; I see it checking with the server whenever I toggle the flag.

My Google account also set up as ActiveSync does have the flag option, but it doesn't work either. IMAP works fine.

[grahamb]

I just filed this as a bug:
Bug 65842 - iOS 5 Mail flags do not work with ActiveSync accounts

[Hanshan]

I've created both an IMAP and Activesync account on my iPhone just so I can see the flags with the IMAP. Not really an ideal solution.

Does ActiveSync/Zimbra have this issue on other devices (i.e. blackberry) or is this just an iPhone related issue?

[Hanshan]

For your gmail account, if you set it up using the "gmail" option in the iPhone mail accounts the flags will work properly (you get push and flags).

ActiveSync and IMAP set up for gmail won't work if you want both flags and push.

[ewilen]

Others have run into this.

E.g. iOS 5, mail flagging and Exchange accounts - Ars Technica OpenForum and New in iOS 5: Flagging Email in Mail App

It could be that Zimbra's implementation of ActiveSync doesn't include flagging. Flagging was a new feature in Exchange 2007, i.e. ActiveSync 12.0.

It could be that Zimbra is still using ActiveSync 2.5. Do you know what version of Zimbra you have as your backend? (See my signature.)

If you have ZCS 7 or higher, ActiveSync 12 flagging may be implemented. At least some of 12 is present in ZCS 7, see Bug 62380 – ActiveSync 12.1 Policies. I don't have an iOS-5 device handy to test with at the moment, but I'll give it a try when I can.

If it turns out that flagging isn't available to you with ActiveSync, then you could use IMAP for email, CalDAV for calendar, and CardDAV for contacts. Or just use ActiveSync but turn off mail syncing.

[Hanshan]

Thanks Elliott.

Using Zimbra 7 I'm quite sure. My backend is through 01.com.

I've tried IMAP as an alternative but can't get push to work with IMAP on my iphone. Never have been able to. Is there a solution for that instead?

[grahamb]

Originally Posted by ewilen

Others have run into this.

E.g. iOS 5, mail flagging and Exchange accounts - Ars Technica OpenForum and New in iOS 5: Flagging Email in Mail App

The Ars Technica thread is mine

It could be that Zimbra is still using ActiveSync 2.5. Do you know what version of Zimbra you have as your backend? (See my signature.)

Production is 6.0.12. We have a 7.1.1 test environment as well. It doesn't work on either. Zimbra is likely using 2.5; that's also why you can't use OS X Mail.app to connect to Zimbra as an ActiveSync client; it requires Exchange 2007/AS 12.

[ewilen]

As I mentioned in the bug, ActiveSync and Mac OS X Mail's "exchange" option are entirely different things.

But if 7.1.1 isn't handling flags then it does sound like Zimbra hasn't (fully?) implemented ActiveSync 12--even though they're implementing some of it:

Bug 62378 - ActiveSync 12.1 Bandwidth Reduciton
Bug 62379 - ActiveSync 12.1 S/MIME
Bug 62380 - ActiveSync 12.1 Policies
Bug 62926 - ActiveSync 12.1 Policies - Admin Console work

[ewilen]

Originally Posted by Hanshan

Thanks Elliott.

Using Zimbra 7 I'm quite sure. My backend is through 01.com.

I've tried IMAP as an alternative but can't get push to work with IMAP on my iphone. Never have been able to. Is there a solution for that instead?

Technically I don't believe that iPhones do push with IMAP natively. I'm not sure Zimbra supports it, either, technically. Note here I'm talking about Push-IMAP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which looks like a sidetrack nobody ever implemented.

What Zimbra does support for IMAP is IMAP IDLE - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I don't think iOS has supported that in the past, and I don't think iOS 5 supports it either, although I may be mistaken. What you could do is take a look at some of the iOS apps listed in the Wikipedia article.

(No, I don't completely understand the functional difference between IMAP IDLE and full-on push, other than the fact that IDLE apparently can only retrieve messages that come into your Inbox, while Push can push multiple folders. Possibly something else--RFC4551?--could bring that.)