N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

Hi there,

i'm having some problems synchronizing my n900 with Zimbra Collaboration suite, using 'Mail for Exchange'.

Here following what i do:

1) Mail for Exchange: Welcome
--> next

2) Mail for Exchange: User settings
Email address: my.email@domain.tld
Username: my.email
Password: mypass
Domain: domain.tld
--> next

3) Mail for Exchange: Server settings
Server: public.server.url
Port: 80
(flag is off for Secure connection )
--> next

4) Mail for Exchange: Synchronization content
(yes) Sync email
(yes) Sync Calendar and tasks
(no) Sync for Contacts
--> next

5) Mail for Exchange: Start Synchronization
--> next

6) Mail for Exchange: First Synchronization

I get Exchange server error.
Any idea?

thanks

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

please use the search function. It's common knowledge in these forums, that mfe doesn't work properly with the current public fw.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

ok, sorry.

I'll hope for a resolution.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

Pls check the Server settings especially port settings and if ssl connectivity is needed.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

yes. i have enabled ports ( 80 and 443 ) + ssl and clear login, but i'm getting always the same Exchange server Error.

On n95 works perfectly.

It's strange because on my administration interface i see:

Device: SmartPhone (UQExchange/1.0)
ID Device: my_id
Status: ok
Protocol version: 2.5

So the communication is ok because the server recognize the device...

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I received my n900 in the mail yesterday and I am sorry to say that I have had the same problem with my exchange server setup. It keeps saying error in communicating with server. It does not matter if i choose a secure or unsecure connection. I have never had this problem earlier with my n97 or for that matter the iphone or the G1 that i have owned. Some advice or information from Nokia/Maemo would be helpful before they get flooded with complaints over the next couple of weeks.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

Correct statement will be - MfE works perfectly with Exchange 2007 server. Period. No other servers are supported with the current public fw.

Regarding Exchange 2003 - wait for update. Regarding Zimbra - one of our colleagues has tried the latest version of MfE with Zimbra. It works. Of course, officially it is not supported. The same story with google sync.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

What server do you use? Only Exchange 2007 is supported in the device you have received. Nothing more.

Again and in capital: SYNC WITH GOOGLE VIA MFE IS NOT SUPPORTED in the current firmware.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

You use Exchange server 2003 (as the protocol version 2.5 is mentioned). This is not supported in the current public fw. Wait for sw. update.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

thanks vitaly_repin.
I will wait for a resolution code in order to solve this current bug.

feel free to ask me if you need a zimbra platform to carry out some tests.

regards
davide

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I suspect a lot of people are going to be mad paying for a $500-$650 phone that only supports one variety of exchange server (and that too when the product ships out with such a delay). Do you know when the update will happen?

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I'll second that. My e71 worked no problem. Plenty of the documentation (in these forums, on nokia.com, & maemo.nokia.com) mentions only MfE support, nothing about 2007 or 2003. This should not be a bleeding edge product or issue.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

SyncML over http is a HUGE miss for such a expensive device.
With that it would be a killer device.

I second that, MfE should work with older Exchanges as well. But Zimbra is my master consern (or SyncML over http).

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

The N900 was originally supposed to receive a slow quite release meant for developers and early adopters. The large number of limitations in the first public firmware were well know. Unfortunately Nokia has since started to really market the N900 before it is really ready for a main stream release.

The updated firmware was slated for release before the end of the year, but I have my doubts that its going to make it.

A poor alternative is to use the web based mobile Zimbra interface.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I can now confirm that Zimbra sync works with the latest .51 firmware -- sort of. This firmware version added support for Exchange 2003.

Now with N900 and this new firmware, MfE and Zimbra backend:
- E-mail download works fine.
- Calendar sync works fine both ways.

Tasks don't work fine and cause the whole sync process to fail with a communications error ("Error in Exchange server"). Despite this error, e-mail and calendar is synced as stated above.

I have not tried contacts sync yet.

As far as I can see, there is no way in the GUI to disable tasks syncing, so we have to live with the occasional error popup. Although the sync seems to flash the error message frequently when it fails.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

Do you need the commercial version of Zimbra for MfE support or does the open-source edition provides it as well?

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I'm not a Zimbra backend expert (it's hosted for me), but I've understood the Outlook connector (which MfE uses) comes only with the commercial versions.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

This might be an error not related to Zimbra, after all. Somebody in the general MfE thread reported similar behavior with (I assume) an Exchange server.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I now have my email syncing but there is no email body or sender information.

Any ideas?

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I have same probleme some mail are with no body and no sender ...
But only some, and a for a same sender any mail are visible some are corrupt :confused:

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I can confirm that with 2.2009.51-1 firmware and with v5 series Zimbra initial synchronization of email, calendar and contacts will succeed - thou producing error with tasks - as v5 Zimbra does not support syncing tasks through activesync. But after initial synchronization calendar sync doesn't work anymore - because of this task error - and no calendar records are updated (report below suggest that it works even with tasks error but I was not able to verify it - all I know for sure that it does not work on my phone - it only works like that on initial full sync). I opened also bug report for that - https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8191

Question to Vitaly: Is it possible to manually configure MfE to skip tasks sync for now with Zimbra v5?

Besides calendar and task - email and contacts syncing seems to complete without sync errors. I have not yet tested much but it seems that adding a new contact from phone results with contact record containing invalid fields (actually no data on proper fields) in Zimbra after the sync - might be data fields schema translatin error/mismatch or something...

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

After upgrading Zimbra to 6.0.5 I did try again to sync Zimbra and N900 (as calendar sync was not working with Zimbra v5). N900 MfE seems to be really buggy as it has random quirks - with new and empty Zimbra account I managed to get all sorts of sync results - N900 not syncing calendar, N900 syncing calendar if creating new calendar, N900 deleteing all calendars during sync, N900 not creating new calendar during sync, N900 creating several new calendars (for each sync), N900 reporting sync success but really not syncing.

After fiddling around a bit and testing all sorts of scenarios I came to some conculsions:

1) Do create a new calendar in N900 for Zimbra sync - I never managed to get default N900 calendar to sync. In MfE configuration choose some this newly created calendar to sync - not N900! For first sync this calendar should be absolutely empty!

2) If seeing strange results from sync or sync not working properly - do reboot the N900 to have activesync daemon restarted and try again

I really cant understand why MfE in N900 is still so buggy and problematic - why Nokia did not port existing symbian and mostly working version of MfE to N900 which could have same feature set and stability in theory. Its really disapponting - I own N900 for several months now but because of poor MfE I can't use it on working days. And Im not the only one having this problem...

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

Small update:

It seems that N900 calendar and task RE-sync will work only one-way - all calendar management needs to be done in Zimbra. When editing calendar or tasks in N900 then calendar resync wont work anymore (sync stalls until activesync daemon timeout) - to fix it full calendar sync needs to be perfomed (sic!).

The biggest change from Zimbra v5 to v6 and N900 sync behaviour seems to be that now full calendar sync seems to work - with Zimbra v5 it did initial full sync but exited with unsuccessful status - now with Zimbra v6 full sync completes ok.

But it seems that calendar two-way sync is pretty much broken - so MfE is still not very usable in real life situation.

Re: N900 + Zimbra collaboration Suite
 

I do agree the MfE has a long way to go in many respects. But I have at least gotten it to do two-way calendar sync with our organization's Zimbra 6 server. After I make a calendar change or addition, if I manually resync MfE. This is not just a "send/receive" command but a full manual synchronization of MfE. I would prefer it did this seamlessly and using push without involving Nokia Messaging but at least it does work for me at some level. The Zimbra version we are running is Zimbra 6.0.4_GA_2038.RHEL5_64.