Outlook Mobile Team Blog : Messaging

Texting a Non-Mobile Number

ChaniJ — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:31:00 GMT

Commenter Jakub Anderwald notes how hard it is to send a text message to a home or work phone. I totally agree. These days many people have more than one mobile number and yet we only have space for one mobile number on our phone. As a result people have to store alternate mobile numbers as “work” or “other” and it is harder to send text messages to these numbers.

Jakub mentioned needing to copy and paste the alternate phone number to send a text message. Though not perfect, there are easier ways!

Method 1

Bring up the summary card for the contact you want to text and scroll down to the phone number you want the text to go to. Then you can start a text to that number using Menu -> Send Text Message. In the example below this will send a text message to the work number for Raymond Same.

Method 2

Open a new text message and then choose Menu -> Add Recipient to bring up a list of contacts. Choose the contact that you want to text and it will then allow you to choose which phone number you want to use. The example below also shows how you can send the text to the work number for Raymond Same.

Hopefully these methods will make it a little easier to send text messages to non-mobile numbers and work around the single mobile number limitation.

Quick Note: Email Server Search

ChaniJ — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:15:00 GMT

The other day I was on the way to a potluck with some new friends and I was running late (somehow I always underestimate how long cooking really takes). On my way over I remembered that the location had changed earlier that week and I didn’t actually know where I was going. Checking my email I found that I had deleted the part of the thread with the critical information and only had the emails about what everyone was bringing.

Admittedly that wasn’t very bright of me, but thankfully I had email server search on my phone. From my inbox I used Menu -> Tools -> Search Server and then searched for “potluck” in all folders. It found the email for me and I was able to get to the right place without having to call anyone and admit my mistake. Check it out – it’s a helpful feature, especially when you don’t know where you are going :)

Patch Tuesday: WM 6.1 SMTP fix released!

Outlook Mobile Bloggers — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:59:00 GMT

12/1/2008 Update:

We've narrowed the patch incompatibility to a certificate mismatch. This means that while the patch is functionally sound, the device won't allow the code contained in the patch to run. We'll be working with the device manufacturer to get a version of the patch that will work for you.

If you're successfully running the patch now you don't need any further updates for the SMTP bug.

11/17/2008 Update:

We're still looking into the patch problem- and so far we're only seeing it on the Blackjack II. If you encounter the problem on a different device we'd love to hear about it in our comments section.

Remember that the original bug and the problem that we're having with the patch only affects POP and IMAP accounts.

11/12/2008 Update:

We are seeing the issue reported in one of our comments on some devices:

After applying the patch you may not be able to access your POP or IMAP accounts.

Note that this is not occuring on all devices, so you may not experience a problem with the patch. We are trying to determine how many devices out there might run into this now.

If you apply the patch and have this problem you can uninstall the patch.

On Windows Mobile Standard: Start, Settings, Remove Programs

On Windows Mobile Professional: Start, Settings, Remove Programs

Check back here and we'll keep you posted on our progress.

As some of you have noticed, a bug recently appeared on Windows Mobile 6.1 devices that prevented certain users from being able to send e-mail. It took more time than we expected to investigate the cause, create a fix, and finally test it across the various flavors of Windows Mobile 6.1 out there, but we're happy to say that as of yesterday the fix is available: download it now!

We noticed some confusion around the feature that caused the bug, so here’s a quick description of it: This feature allows operators to specify an alternate server that can be used only when your device has a problem accessing your mail account’s SMTP directly. When can this happen? Some mail services, like those provided by ISPs, only allow access to their SMTP servers when you are directly on their network. With this feature, it’s supposed to be easier for end users to send mail on a Windows Mobile device.

When the feature was shipped, a bug was introduced with it. If your operator doesn’t make use of the alternate SMTP server feature and you encounter an error reaching the SMTP server you specified when setting up the account, your account settings become corrupted. Ironically, the end result is you can’t send mail on that account after this happens- it’s not the operator’s fault, it’s ours.

In this case we were able to get a fix out and provide it directly to you instead of routing it through our partners. This isn’t something we’ve found we have to do very often, but we’re working on improving the way we deal with these kinds of issues in the future. Hopefully this won’t happen again, but if it does we’ll be faster in getting the fix out to you.

Many thanks go out from the team to our customers and especially to Tracy and Matt who went the extra mile to help us identify the problem!

Thanks for your patience on this one.

A couple of things to remember about the patch:

- It only applies to Windows Mobile 6.1.1 through 6.1.3. Windows Mobile 6.1.4 and later are already fixed.

- If you ever clear the flash memory on your device you’ll have to reinstall the patch again.

Links:

KB Article 958639

Download the patch

-Bill Saez

Warning: the following contains explicit SSL

jeffmin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:34:00 GMT

(or, Messaging: Port Probing Demystified)

The "Require SSL" checkbox in the account configuration wizard for POP3/IMAP accounts is an often misunderstood feature. It's somewhat ironic, then, that the intent of the checkbox is actually to simplify account configuration.

Compare the following two screenshots taken from WM6 Standard and Mozilla Thunderbird.

Notice how much more complexity there is in the Thunderbird dialog. Now this is not intended to be a dig at Thunderbird. In fact, as a power user I prefer and appreciate this level of control. But I realize that my preference doesn't reflect the best user experience for someone who doesn't write email software for a living!

Pop quiz, hotshots:

List the standard and secure ports for POP3, IMAP, and SMTP.
What is the difference between TLS and SSL? How do you know which your server supports?
What is the difference between "Use secure connection" and "Use secure authentication"?

To expect that the average user would be able to answer any of these questions is ridiculous. If they are able to provide the server address and username, that is already a huge win in my book.

So in the name of usability, we distilled all this down to a single, easy-to-ignore checkbox. Users who don't care about security don't need to worry. More informed/vigilant/paranoid users can enable the secure setting.

Probing the issue

Despite all the settings available in Thunderbird, there are really only three common connection profiles:

Implicit SSL on the secure port (a.k.a. IMAPS/POP3S/SMTPS)
Explicit SSL on the standard port (a.k.a. STARTTLS/STLS)
Unencrypted on the standard port

Rather than ask the user to know or guess which profile matches their particular server configuration, we simply try them all until we find one that works. We call this port probing.

Let's run through an example port probing scenario where SSL is not supported:

User configures an IMAP4 account and initiates a Send/Receive
Probe attempt 1
1. Implicit SSL on IMAPS port 993
2. Connection time out
Probe attempt 2
1. Explicit SSL on IMAP port 143
2. Connection successful
3. Ask server if STARTTLS is supported
4. Server says "no"
Probe attempt 3
1. Unencrypted on IMAP port 143
2. Connection successful (just use the connection from the previous attempt)
3. Ask server if plaintext authentication is supported
4. Server says "yes"
5. Login!

Now that we know which connection method the server supports, we can continue to use that method during subsequent Send/Receive sessions.

One important aspect of this routine is that the more secure connection profiles are tried first. In the above example, plaintext login was tried only as a last resort.

Questions arise

Q. Isn't port probing slow?

A. Yes, it can be slow since in many cases we are sitting around waiting for the socket connect attempt to time out. But typically the probing is only done during the first Send/Receive so it is a one time cost.

Q. What if my server doesn't listen on the standard ports?

A. Specify the port number in the hostname (e.g. "imap.aol.com:143"). This works for both incoming and outgoing mail server.

Protip: Specifying the port number in this manner will influence the port probing logic to favor the specified port number and will generally speed up the connection process!

Q. I'm using WM5 and [scenario] won't work!

A. Unfortunately there were a number of bugs in the port probing implementation in WM5 (see Errata below)

Q. Wait, you never explained what the "Require SSL" checkbox does

A. If the checkbox is checked, the port probing will never try plaintext login over an unencrypted channel.

Errata

The port probing implementation in WM5 was not perfect, though I'd venture to guess that most users never encountered these bugs. That said, woe unto he whose email administrator did use nonstandard ports or did regard STARTTLS above all others.

If you are having email connectivity issues and you suspect port probing may be to blame, try these troubleshooting techniques:

Add or remove the port number from the hostname
Toggle the "Require SSL" checkbox on or off
Toggle the "Outgoing connection requires authentication" checkbox on or off
(Try different permutations of the above settings)

If you have control over your own mail server, some connectivity issues can be resolved by opening alternative encryption/authentication methods. For example if your server only uses explicit SSL, try enabling implicit SSL on a different port.

Windows Mobile 6 is here...!!!

zhamid — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 03:48:00 GMT

Drool...

After sooo many months of development, it's finally here. Public! We can write about it. We can show it off. Yes!!!!!

Over the next few days developers, testers and program managers in the Outlook Mobile team will write about features they worked on here. But lets do some high-level overview here.

So what's so cool about Windows Mobile 6? Well, it's not a comprehensive list but some of the things I like about WM6 are:

New look and feel, new icons, new sound ... little things amuse me :).
It's faster!
More secure. More cryptography. You can read and compose rights-managed mails (IRM). You can also open rights managed Office documents. It's awesome.
Ready for this? You can read HTML Mail! Yup, rich emails with images, tables, formats and much more!
Comes with Windows Live (was that too much to ask). Hotmail, MSN Messenger, Spaces...it's all in here! You can chat with multiple people at the same time.
Keyboard Shortcuts in Messaging: It seems lame, but it's super useful. Press-and-hold a shortcut key and boom, the action happens.
You can also set Out of Office messages on your exchange server using the phone. I actually use it every time I am away (yes yes, I have a bad memory and forget to set my OOF message on the desktop before I leave).
Exchange e-mail search! You can search your emails stored on the server from your device.
Quickly fetch e-mail messages from the server, instead of having to do a full sync (like in Windows Mobile 5). Emails now show this useful statusbar showing what's happening. The status bar actually goes away when there's no update to show to maximize real estate.
You can finally flag e-mail messages and sync that with the server. Makes e-mail management really easy. No more marking the email as unread to remember to action on it on the desktop later. Just flag it!
The infamous IMAP namespace issue is ... drumroll ... fixed! That's right. Fixed!!!! We had so many questions about it that I had to post an apology. But it's fixed.
What else did we fix? Oh ya, multiple accounts in Messaging sync just fine. Schedule sync works! And the reply-all bug y'all complained so much about (well, at least some of you did) is also taken care of. See, we do listen!
Call history is now linked to contacts, so it gives you context. Open a contact and see when else you communicated with that contact. Missed a call? Now instead of just seeing the number you missed, open the contact and communicate however you want (other phone numbers, SMS, IM...).
The calendar app has this fancy ribbon thing that summarizes the day. It's more useful than it seems. I'll let Calendar folks talk about their stuff in a later post.
Works magically with Windows Vista.
.NET CF 2.0 and Mobile SQL Server!
Support for storage card encryption and storage card wipe.

...and a ton more. This is the list off the top of my head of stuff that *I* enjoy.

So where are some screenshots, you ask? Fair question. In my excitement I don't want to hold this post for screenshots. They'll follow.

QnA: Can I sync with multiple Exchange Accounts?

zhamid — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:56:55 GMT

Question:

Hi there. I am trying to find out if I can configure profiles for outlook mobile to use different exchange servers just like you can on desktop outlook. Is this possible and how would this impact on direct push and syncing. I want to use work and personal exchange accounts on the same device.

Answer:

Unfortunately it is not possible to setup more than one profile to sync with more than one exchange server on a device. Perhaps you can use IMAP or POP to sync with other exchange servers (if they provide an IMAP or POP front). Thanks.

Zeeshan.

QnA: How many accounts can I have?

zhamid — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 22:01:00 GMT

Question:

I'm using an Imate Jasjar device bearing outlook mobile,, and my question is very simple:

I find that it is not possible to me to create more than 5 email accounts in this device.

Is there a limitation for account-creation, or am I doing something wrong?

Answer:

Due to some database limitation, number of e-mail accounts is restricted to 8. Most devices ship with 2-3 accounts preconfigured (Outlook, text messages etc). This means you can only have 5-6 additional accounts.

Some T-Mobile phones actually ship with 4 pre-created accounts, the fourth being a TZones email account, so they'll only allow 4 more accounts.

Zeeshan Hamid.

QnA: Dude, what's wrong with IMAP???

zhamid — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:52:00 GMT

Since a vast majority of questions we get are IMAP related, let me just come out and say it. We have an issue with IMAP :(

Basically we do not fully support IMAP namespaces. According to Wes Salmon, our awesome SDET in Messaging, some servers use delimiters that we do not recognize, but would if we fully supported namespaces. This causes some issues with not being able to sync some folders (eg. Sent items).

I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I guess we messed up!

Zeeshan Hamid.

QnA: Selecting an account from outlook mobile to send with

zhamid — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:52:00 GMT

Question: I'm fairly new to the outlook mobile scene, and I have a question about an outlook feature and its equivalent in outlook mobile (smartphone - Treo 700w).

I have two POP3 email accounts listed in my outlook to send/receive with. I do this so I can sync it to my phone and get both personal and business e-mail. The default e-mail address in outlook is business, as when I'm at home on outlook I almost always use it for work as opposed to using the web interface (gmail) for my personal emails.

When using outlook mobile, I find that the from: field is not editable, and is defaulted to "Oulook e-mail". I would love to be able to respond to my personal mail from on the go, and not have to be in front of a computer to do so.

Is there any way to select which account I would like to send with when using outlook mobile? Or can you offer a better suggestion than creating a POP3 account on my phone solely for my personal mail, setting it not to send receive automatically, and then just using that to send items?

Answer:

Uh, Treo 700w actually runs the “PocketPC” software, not the smartphone one (the distinction is confusing even for most of us who work here). The response below is valid for both Platforms.

I think I understand your issue. You are doing desktop sync. Unfortunately it seems that out software is suboptimal and cannot handle the scenario you described. Essentially if you are using the desktop sync then we basically put the email you send in the “Outbox” and send the “Outbox” with the desktop outlook. The desktop then sends this message out. The desktop uses whatever default account you have to send the message. We have no concept of multiple accounts within outlook if you are using the desktop sync.

Do you have a data plan? If yes then you could sync your gmail directly using pop3. I realize that this isn’t exactly what you wanted to hear, but at least this way you’ll be able to maintain threads when you reply using the pop3 account.

The ability to have multiple accounts to send emails from is a great suggestion. I will take it to our product planning team to consider it for a future release.

We appreciate the suggestion and apologize for the limitation. If you have other general comments about the device or the software then please do send them to me. I’ll make sure they each appropriate people. We are constantly improving our product and feedback from our users helps us a great deal in prioritizing different features in our list.

Thanks.

Zeeshan Hamid

QnA: Can I sort e-mails in the sent-items folder by recipient?

zhamid — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 20:02:00 GMT

Question: I want to know if i can sort the sent items folder by "Sent to" instead of "Sent By" which is obviously myself.. I find it strange that this is not a sort option.

Answer (by Liang Chen, one of our Messaging Dev Leads):

No you can't. With its current design the email list view is optimized with a set of specially handled properties (sender, subject, and time) for better performance and in Sent folder you need recipient instead of sender, which requires some expensive database operation and will slow down performance. This is an unfortunate tradeoff we had to make between performance of more important scenario (inbox folder) and user experience of less important scenario (Sent folder) under current restriction.

Best devices for Messaging

zhamid — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 19:50:00 GMT

So I got asked about my favorite device for Messaging. It's a tough one, really. I've used (and enjoyed) HTC "Wizard" series of devices a lot (Qteck 9100, T-Mobile MDA3, XDA2S etc.). For Smartphones I also really liked using HTC "Tornado" devices (Qtek 8310, 8300 etc. - I can use T9 while driving without even looking at the screen. Sad, I know) :-

(Did you guess I am a fan of HTC?)

However, my absolute favorite Messaging PocketPC (Phone Edition) device would be Palm Treo :-

I love it, love it, love it. Did I mention I love it? And yes, I love it.

For Smartphone fans, I have heard good things about Moto-Q as well :-

So there ya go, there is a device for all sort of users. I haven't tried Q yet, but I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Zeeshan Hamid

Scheduled syncing issues with multiple accounts

zhamid — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 08:24:00 GMT

This afternoon I picked up my Treo 700 and realized that my Outlook e-mail account did not sync for two days. Two days!!! Turned out that the Hotmail account was the main account in Messaging. Reminded me of an old bug. Messaging can only start sync in the main account. So if you would like an account to stay up-to-date then keep it selected in Messaging.

Zeeshan Hamid

Setting up an IMAP account

zhamid — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 06:03:00 GMT

Why do we make it so hard to set IMAP / POP accounts?????

Here's how you do it :-

PocketPC

Launch Messaging (Start -> Messaging)
Menu -> Tools -> New Accounts
Enter your email address (eg. user@microsoft.com)
Tap Next
You can tap Next again to skip auto-config
Enter your username and password
Tap Next
Select Account type (POP or IMAP)
Set incoming / outgoing mail servers and / or domain. Contact your ISP for this information.
Tap Finish.

Smartphone

Launch Messaging (Start -> Messaging)
Menu -> Tools -> Options
Select New Account
Press Action
Enter name and e-mail
Tap Next
You can tap Next again to skip the setup
Enter username, password and domain, if necessary
Select server and account type (POP / IMAP)
Select the network (it is most probably the 'Internet')
Tap Next
Enter servers.
Tap Next
Select options
Tap Next
More options
Next
Finish

Due to a bug active sync can only keep one account up to date. So whatever happens to be the active account in Messaging is the only account that stays up-to-date.

Where are my sent items?

zhamid — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:18:00 GMT

By default the Messaging application does not sync the sent items folder. Therefore, you may notice that your sent items folder is empty. Here is how you "fix" it :-

Pocket PC :-

Menu -> Tools -> Manage Folders
Select "Sent Items"
Press OK
Sync

Smartphone :-

Menu -> Folders
Menu -> Manage Folders
Select "Sent Items"
Press Sync
Press Done
Sync

Zeeshan Hamid

Scrolling to the top hack...

zhamid — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:14:00 GMT

It is a pain to scroll to the top in Messaging (both in Read Note and the list view). Here is a work-around that works :-

In List view :-

Hit the right key to switch accounts
Hit the left key to go back. You're on top!

In the read form :-

Hit back (in Smartphone) or the OK button (in pocketPC) to close the message

Action to open the message again. You are on top!