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How to make Snow Leopard REALLY work with Exchange

I was very excited when Apple released the Snow Leopard, also known as Mac OS X 10.6. The main benefit would be the native support of Microsoft Exchange in iCal, Address Book and Mail.app. And this is something I was complaining about for years.

So, I upgraded my computers as soon as I could, and I was initially quite surprised how easy it was to configure the applications to work with Exchange server. (Yes, we have Mictosoft Exchange 2007 over here).

But the very next moment some dire disappointments came:

1. Push email doesn't work with Exchange account any more. If I want to be able to react to emails instantly, in a kind of IM way, I would have to poll the servers every minute or so. This clogs the network and puts extra workload on my workstation. And it is so archaic to poll your email in 2009.


2. Every so often the message counter would show that I have some unread messages, while in fact I don't. White day glitch. I would have to go to "Mailbox ⟶ Rebuild" to reindex the account to get rid of this glitch. And it would happen again next day.

After suffering for a couple of weeks and hoping for a fix from Apple, I have found a workaround to make Snow Leopard work with Exchange almost the way I want it to work. The whole procedure is very simple and only takes 10 seconds more than usual setup. The only additional requirement is to have IMAP access enabled on your Exchange server. Ask your system administrator.

1. Open Mail.app and add your Exchange account just the way you normally would. This will add the Exchange account to your iCal and Address Book as well.


2. Now, you have to remove the newly created Exchange account from Mail.app. This would still leave the accounts for iCal and Address Book.


3. Create a new account in Mail.app using "Exchange IMAP" account type instead. Sometimes this option is not available as Mail.app detects your Exchange server and disables the choice. Just type a fake email address in the first screen to avoid that. Something like asdfhj@sad.geweg.aj.net would do. Then select "Exchange IMAP" as an account type, and fill in all the appropriate options. Don't forget to change your email address to a normal form (from a fake one) once you have your account created.

Enjoy push email, proper counting of unread messages, and iCal support of Exchange calendars at the same time!

iPhone support in Google Calendar

Hurray! Now google calendar supports instant sync with an iPhone!
http://www.google.com/mobile/apple/sync.html

Google Calendar now supports Apple iCal

Breaking news from Google: Google Calendar now supports Apple iCal.

It is not really a solution for synchronising with Exchange, though a very useful extension to Google calendar. With a couple of tweaks it will be possible to synch Google calendar to Exchange too. The only feature missing that prevents Google calendar to be a proxy between Exchange and iCal is free/busy service. I am afraid that the only solution for fellow Mac users is to wait until Snow Leopard is released, and hope that the new incarnation of iCal would support Exchange natively.

Follow the link to the official Google blog above to find the instructions on how to use Google calendar with iCal.

Exchange support coming to iCal next year

Finally some good news. It is official now, iCal will support Microsoft Exchange calendars in the next version of Mac OS X which is expected to be released in 2009.
The official Apple press release can be found at http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/09snowleopard.html and it states:

For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal® and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.

The only problem is that we have to wait for at least another year.

Will Mobile Me solve the synchronization problem?

Apple have announced an extension to their .Mac service, and they have rebranded it as "Mobile Me". The initial information available at their web pages at http://www.apple.com/uk/mobileme promises seamless integration with Mac and PC. They particularly claim that Mobile Me calendar will synchronize with Outlook and iCal and will provide push updates across all the computers connected to the account.

Imagine the following scenario: you run Microsoft Outlook on Parallels or on a dedicated computer at work. Outlook synchronizes your Exchange calendar to Mobile Me, and your iCal also works through that service.
Given that Mobile Me is developed by Apple, I'd imagine that it would actually work and be more secure than using some third party synchronization proxies from companies I have never heard about.

Unfortunately, they are not rolling Mobile Me just yet, but please come back after they have, and I'll tell you if it worked for me.

Any speculations on whether it is going to work or not?

Any hopes for Exchange support now?

I am currently watching the iPhone SDK press conference. They have announced that the iPhone will soon support proper communication with the Exchange. This includes complete Calendar support. What I wish they have done is to license the same technology for the iCal. That would have been an ideal solution for all of us who suffers being a Mac user within a corporate environment.

I do understand that it may be possible to sync the appointments between iCal and Exchange either by using current solutions or through syncing with an iPhone, but what I am looking for is free/busy integration as well.

So, we all have two hopes now, the first one is that the Groupcal will be updated, and the second one (Oh, that would be fantastic) that Apple will begin to support enterprise standards for calendars.

Stay tuned for more updates.