IMAP, Microsoft Exchange and the saga of Mail.app

[Tezmond]

Hi everyone,

I enjoy a good puzzle, this one however is stumping me! I'm woring in an office where we use Macs, due to some other software dependencies which should be sorted out soon we're still using Yosemite on most machines but some of the newer ones are on El Capitan.
Due to the Mail app not being licensed to use Exchange ActiveSync with Office 365 and rather than use Exchange Web Services protocol to access mail which causes huge delays or just loss of data instead I'm trying to set up email accounts as IMAP.

On the Exchange server everyone has organised their emails into Mailboxes by subject so they can put everything pertaining to Daves christmas party into the 'Dave's Party' Mailbox in the lower left of the Mail window as an example.

With the previous setup using AES the Mailboxes downloaded from the server and synced the changes so the mail would be sorted on both the computer and the server but i'm having trouble getting these folders, which already exist on the server, to show up in Mail.

I've trawled the web for hours looking for a solution but havent had any luck.
The fix i was hoping for seems to be a tick box to force a recheck periodically in the advanced account preferences which was removed around the time Tiger came out, I'd scrap Mail and move to Outlook for Mac but sadly the CRM system we use is dependant on Mail.
ANy suggesstions are appreceated!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

-Are you setting up the accounts on the Macs using  >System Preferences... > Internet Accounts > Exchange?
-There is a drop-down menu in Mail > Preferences > General . Check for new messages where you can select the amount of time.
-I am not sure what AES and CRM are...can you explain?

C

 

[Tezmond]

Hi Cory, thanks for the reply!

- Ive been setting up the accounts in Mail using Mail > Accounts and editing preferences through Mail > Preferences
- Checking for new messages is currently set to one minute, it seems to be working fine receiving mail, the folders on the accoint not downloadling is the issue.
- AES is was a typo i missed i'm afraid, it should have been EAS for Exchange ActiveSync, the protocol microsoft uses on the exchange servers as default when emails are set up as an Exchange account, sadly not licensed for use in Mail so very unreliable! Hence the attempted switch to IMAP.
- a CRM is a Customer Relationship Management system, they're a tool used in most types of business but there are so many its hard to keep track, they're used to document all customer information and interactions.

 

[Cory Cooper]

No problem...thanks for the additional information.

EAS - Understood for mobile devices only. It may be difficult to setup the email accounts as IMAP directly in the Mail app, simply because of the proprietary nature of Microsoft Exchange. Have you tried using the Internet Accounts > Exchange in System Prefs? It shoud still work if they are running Exchange Server. I have setup Exchange accounts for school systems and businesses that way, and all the folders sync without issue, as do their contacts, calendars, and notes.

CRM - Now I get it. I don't have any experience with CRMs unfortunately.

C

 

[Tezmond]

We're currently running accounts on some machines simulteaneously, IMAP and EAS with the same logins, the mail arrives reliably in the IMAP accounts, but with no folder structure and unreliably when set up as exchange, but with folder sturcture. While i'm typing this several emails from the past two days have fionally decided to come though on the exchange account.
Really, the prompt arrival of email is the priority so IMAP seems like the sensible choice but the folders issue is irritating