Knowledgebase

While known issues cause some mail, calendaring, and contact clients, especially older clients and those on some mobile devices, to provide inconsistent and unreliable updating of calendar information via Exchange ActiveSync, an exact cause is not always known, and can vary from client to client (i.e.: Apple Calendar to Outlook or Samsung-based mobile calendaring).

Furthermore, we are not software developers. Our objective in providing tech support is seldom to identify the root cause of issues, instead, it's to efficiently get you working as well as practical. As such, here are some best practices we've developed over more than a decade of working with multiple types of computing devices attempting to synchronize data with our servers:

1. Make sure to use the most current version of your desktop client software (e.g.: Outlook, Mail.app, etc) and Operating System. Your entire team should be using the same versions.
2. Mobile devices are known to have issues with ActiveSync, especially those running older versions of their system software. For details, see the Microsoft article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2563324.
   • Update your phone/device software when prompted.
   • If you are using an older device, you will not be able to rely on the calendar and should consider an upgrade.
   • Apple devices had their issues, and Android devices may have even more, because they sometimes include applications (email and other clients) that are much less popular and as such, may be even more prone to less support for the standard methods our systems rely on for synchronization (e.g.: ActiveSync)
3. Other suggestions for mobile device use:
   • Beware of dropped signals and poor coverage areas that could have an impact on your use of the calendar.
   • Consider managing your appointments only from your desktop clients. 
   • We do not usually recommend Outlook for Mobile devices.
4. Manage recurring meetings carefully and only from your web client, or a current version of your desktop client software. Recurring meetings should not be created as indefinite, and should be limited to the lowest number of occurrences possible.
5. Ensure that your Cloudiance mail, calendar and contact accounts are selected as your defaults in each of those applications
6. If maintenance of your calendar is delegated to an administrator, for best results follow these guidelines:
   • Keep calendar accepts and declines to only one user, preferably the administrator.
   • Keep calendar accepts/declines to only one system. Use a desktop or laptop as the sole device to accept/decline invitations. Do not use a mobile device to accept, decline or edit a calendar event when your calendar is delegated.
   • If it is not possible to limit the devices used to maintain a calendar, at a minimum ensure that all system types are the same (e.g. all delegates use the web client, or the same, and latest, version of Windows, Outlook and the ZCO).

It's not practical for everyone, and, we recommend you use computers that are no older than three years, and mobile devices that are no older than two years. We're just happy we no longer have to maintain blackberry enterprise servers (BES)!