OS X Mail w/ Exchange

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

I now have Yosemite and use Exchange 2013.  I'm trying to figure out why OS X Mail is still so poor working with Exchange.  Its PUSH notification setup is a joke.  I can send a test email from another account and my iPhone will ding but it may take up to 5-10 minutes before OS X Mail registers a new email....even though its set to automatically.  I've tried Googling this but there are so many variations on this I thought to ask about it here and see if anyone else has any new input.  Thanks.

[The_Observer]

Same thing for me, i need to exit and open to get a updated result.

[DeadEndAccount]

I now have Yosemite and use Exchange 2013.  I'm trying to figure out why OS X Mail is still so poor working with Exchange.  Its PUSH notification setup is a joke.  I can send a test email from another account and my iPhone will ding but it may take up to 5-10 minutes before OS X Mail registers a new email....even though its set to automatically.  I've tried Googling this but there are so many variations on this I thought to ask about it here and see if anyone else has any new input.  Thanks.

 

From what I understand the PUSH service used for EWS really sucks (having read through the conversations on Arstechnica) where as your iPhone would be using ActiveSync which apparently does a better job at it. Outlook 2011 doesn't do a better job at it either but I wouldn't hold my breath for Office 2015 for Mac to make much improvements unless they move to ActiveSync themselves.

[Depicus]

Not an ideal solution but I have mine set to poll every minute for two exchange accounts and it seems to work fine, ok not instantaneous but at worse a minutes delay I can handle.

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

I'm just surprised that EWS still sucks at this.  I appreciate the feedback.

[tsupersonic]

Same thing on my '13 MBP w/ Yosemite (and also happened with Mavericks). "Push" mail is delayed by 2-3 mins. - very annoying. I could ask for a MBP at work, but the delay kills it for me. Also, MS, update Office on the Mac! 

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

Same thing on my '13 MBP w/ Yosemite (and also happened with Mavericks). "Push" mail is delayed by 2-3 mins. - very annoying. I could ask for a MBP at work, but the delay kills it for me. Also, MS, update Office on the Mac! 

I heard an update is coming but God only knows when, lol.

[Harrison H.]

So I'm not the only one experiencing this. I had really just thought it was Outlook 2011 (when I used to use it). Didn't realize EWS was really that bad. Hard to get used to after using Outlook 2007/2010/2013 with MAPI and everything being nearly instantaneous.

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

So I'm not the only one experiencing this. I had really just thought it was Outlook 2011 (when I used to use it). Didn't realize EWS was really that bad. Hard to get used to after using Outlook 2007/2010/2013 with MAPI and everything being nearly instantaneous.

 

Yeah, even OS X's mail app is the same way, EWS just sucks.  

[Argi]

Former EWS dev here.

 

Are you sure that Mail is actually using push with EWS?   You should be able to see a hanging get (IIRC, the call is GetStreamingEvents) and notifications are delivered very quickly.  The fact that it's taking minutes suggests to me that it's actually doing pull requests.  

 

Does Outlook for Mac exhibit the same symptoms?

[DeadEndAccount]

Same thing on my '13 MBP w/ Yosemite (and also happened with Mavericks). "Push" mail is delayed by 2-3 mins. - very annoying. I could ask for a MBP at work, but the delay kills it for me. Also, MS, update Office on the Mac! 

 

I heard an update is coming but God only knows when, lol.

 

So I'm not the only one experiencing this. I had really just thought it was Outlook 2011 (when I used to use it). Didn't realize EWS was really that bad. Hard to get used to after using Outlook 2007/2010/2013 with MAPI and everything being nearly instantaneous.

 

Same thing on my '13 MBP w/ Yosemite (and also happened with Mavericks). "Push" mail is delayed by 2-3 mins. - very annoying. I could ask for a MBP at work, but the delay kills it for me. Also, MS, update Office on the Mac! 

 

From what I understand via Arstechnica they are working on Office for OS X - I'm hoping that with what they had to do to get their iOS version up and running that it has required Microsoft to go back and clean up 30 years of cruft and instead the next version of Office will be built on a clan modern foundation that is feature comparable to the Windows version rather than it being the bastard red headed step child like it is being treated today.

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

Former EWS dev here.

 

Are you sure that Mail is actually using push with EWS?   You should be able to see a hanging get (IIRC, the call is GetStreamingEvents) and notifications are delivered very quickly.  The fact that it's taking minutes suggests to me that it's actually doing pull requests.  

 

Does Outlook for Mac exhibit the same symptoms?

Yes it did, although, Outlook at times was faster than Mail.   

From what I understand via Arstechnica they are working on Office for OS X - I'm hoping that with what they had to do to get their iOS version up and running that it has required Microsoft to go back and clean up 30 years of cruft and instead the next version of Office will be built on a clan modern foundation that is feature comparable to the Windows version rather than it being the bastard red headed step child like it is being treated today.

I hope the next version of Office for Mac makes it more inline with the Windows version.  I'm sure Microsoft already recognizes that OS X is becoming more prevalent and that people like to buy Apple products.  

[DeadEndAccount]

Yes it did, although, Outlook at times was faster than Mail.   

I hope the next version of Office for Mac makes it more inline with the Windows version.  I'm sure Microsoft already recognizes that OS X is becoming more prevalent and that people like to buy Apple products.  

 

I hope that too - IIRC Cisco has one of the largest fleets of Mac's outside of Apple and with the move to BYOD beyond just mobile phones it appears that Apple is making waves into the enterprise segment because end users are opting for their products rather than having PC's thrust upon them by IT staff.

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.  I was gonna switch my email away from iCloud back to my domain with Hosted Exchange but, until I go back to Windows or MS and/or Apple gets a really viable mail app for Exchange, I'm not gonna move yet. lol.

[Praetor]

i've had those issues, never got fixed :/  best is to remove the automatic mail fetch and configure to get the mail in every x minutes.

[DeadEndAccount]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.  I was gonna switch my email away from iCloud back to my domain with Hosted Exchange but, until I go back to Windows or MS and/or Apple gets a really viable mail app for Exchange, I'm not gonna move yet. lol.

 

In terms of custom domain hosting - you're probably best to investigate a service provider who can provide IMAP/CardDAV/CalDAV services. Fastmail provides it along with swiftinternet.

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

Well wouldn't you know it.  Right after I give up on it, MS releases a good sized update to Outlook for Mac.  Its nice.  Finally fast email delivery and certain aspects of junk filtering work.  Yes! Lol

[Depicus]

Well wouldn't you know it.  Right after I give up on it, MS releases a good sized update to Outlook for Mac.  Its nice.  Finally fast email delivery and certain aspects of junk filtering work.  Yes! Lol

 

Is it just for Office 365 users or an update to Office 11 ?

[DeadEndAccount]

Is it just for Office 365 users or an update to Office 11 ?

 

Only for Office 365 - I'm holding off purchasing an Office 365 subscription till the new version is released.

[tsupersonic]

I got in on the Office 365 education promo, but I'm not able to update it. Can't seem to login to the My Account website. Grr I'll call MS

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

Only for Office 365 - I'm holding off purchasing an Office 365 subscription till the new version is released.

I have a subscription already.  Its definitely nice to see this kind of update to Outlook for Mac.  The two major sticking points for me was the PUSH notification  or lack thereof when using Exchange with Outlook 2011 and the junk filtering.  With Windows and Outlook/Exchange, PUSH actually worked and when I added someone to a block list or unblock in Outlook, it showed up on the server.  Outlook 2011 didn't do that, PUSH didn't work right, if at all and block/safe lists wouldn't sync.  This new version synced an address when I blocked it and two test emails came through immediately.

[CPressland]

Yeah, EWS still really sucks with Apple Mail and Outlook 2011. Changing the Apple Mail polling to 1 minute is the best work-around at the moment:

 

[Depicus]

Only for Office 365 - I'm holding off purchasing an Office 365 subscription till the new version is released.

 

That sucks, so users who have on premises Exchange are being left out in the cold ? The current version of Outlook is not great.