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

Outlook Mobile Team Blog : POP

Patch Tuesday: WM 6.1 SMTP fix released!