[Q] Gingerbread update issues - Droid Pro General

Forgive me here, as I am just the family techie out in college communicating for my dad with some issues:
My dad, who is technologically illiterate, is having some issues with his Pro. So some background first... He was forced out of his like 4+ year old blackberry curve because his office's enterprise server was no longer supporting blackberrys (it was costing them more money). So he was forced into a Droid, where he got the Pro. He was having some issues with the enterprise server syncing with the phone, so I downloaded Road Sync for him and got that working perfectly. He has had no problems since.
From what I understand, in the last day or two he upgraded his phone from Fro-Yo to Gingerbread. I would see only advantages of that, right? Apparently, Road Sync is no longer syncing, he lost his calendar (which syncs from the enterprise server via road sync), and he has lost some contacts numbers (the field for the specific numbers isnt there anymore).
What the hell went wrong? Being a plane trip away makes it difficult for me to fix the problem myself, so I figure that some of you with the phone in front of you can help out.

Related

Holy Cow! What is the deal?

I am on TMobile not AT&T, I started with iphone 2g(jailbroken), upgraded to 3gs(jailbroken), got tired of my iphone and decided to get this mytouch 4g, mainly to have better speed and performance. I am not an apple fan boy, and really dont care for apple products. Have been hearing so much great stuff about Android, that I was really excited to switch.
Now that I have this mytouch 4g, and made the switch, I am really shaking my head. When I plug in my iphone it automatically sync's up with Outlook 2010, zero effort is required on my part, contacts, calendars, tasks, etc done. I have now spent 1hr on phone with TMobile tech support & 2 hours on phone with HTC tech support. So far zero sync up happening with mytouch period. If I turn the phone to disk drive I can see it on my pc no problems, but USB tethering, no way. I mean how in the world do manufactures expect people to put up with this kind of crap. If apple can figure out how to make this sync up happen with zero effort, surely some other manufacture can make this happen without wanting to slit your wrists.
After spending the 2 hrs with HTC tech support, the excusses for their incompetence is incredible. Well we just havn't gotten our software quite right yet, well then why sell the phone. Outlook is what every business in the planet uses(well the majority at least) and you can't figure out how to make your phone work seamlessly with it, are you kidding me? Well you need to create a gmail account, why, I already have too many work email accounts that works fine why do i need another? So now i created a gmail account, exported all my stuff from Outlook to gmail via CSV, I am still saying WTF. So now everyday when I want to sync up this mytouch, i have to export everything from Outlook to CSV, then import it into gmail just to get my latest info into the phone, please tell me I am missing something here.
Now I am reading that the wifi tethering is going to be an additional cost? Someone help me here. Is there a work around for this? On my iphone, I just hit MyWi and I can create a hot spot that my laptop works awesome with and no additional cost, nothing to plug in, just surf away. Someone please tell me I am missing something here with this mytouch.
I really want to like this phone and keep it, but damn why is everything such a PIA? Phone feels good in my hand, don't love the interface, but can live with it, have not played with the apps yet, but I assume most everything that I have on my iphone I can find in Android. I am on the fence here, and need some help and insight from the Jedi Master here. I am not trying to be a hater on this phone, I just don't understand why so much grief, hell my old Moto Razor back in the day sync'd up better than this thing does.
What is the deal with this mini usb plug as well, have to wonder how long that connection will work for, its certainly not a smooth plug in deal.
Help is very much appreciated at this point.
DegoRed said:
What is the deal with this mini usb plug as well, have to wonder how long that connection will work for, its certainly not a smooth plug in deal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't help you with the other stuff. But that plug is a micro-usb that almost every single phone made today, minus the iphone of course is going to. Its a standard that has proven great with blackberries for a couple of years now. So instead of searching for that iphone cable, you can use the same cable everyone else has. Along with most 2.5" harddrive cases, etc.
Excuse Me but did you expect the android OS to be a magical extension of your brain and not have to bother reading any manuals or instructions. I would bet that if you took time to read rather than just posting hate syncing would be no problem.
DegoRed said:
When I plug in my iphone it automatically sync's up with Outlook 2010, zero effort is required on my part, contacts, calendars, tasks, etc done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out the program companionlink. This is what I use and it automatically syncs all my calendar/tasks/contacts etc from Outlook to my gmail account and then automatically syncs to my phone. It syncs both ways, when I make a change on my phone, it syncs and updates Out look on my PC. Will this work for you? Don't know but it's the best solution I have found for me.
As far as wireless tether, you will have to root (jailbreak) your phone if you want the wireless hotspot feature without paying tmobiles monthly fee. It's simple to do though.
Just curious, have you tried this? https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync
Someone get this guy a tissue
DegoRed said:
\If I turn the phone to disk drive I can see it on my pc no problems, but USB tethering, no way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you installed the driver here? http://www.htc.com/us/support/t-mobile-mytouch-4g/downloads/
On my first myTouch, I hooked it up to my computer and it recognized it straight away without any issues.
On my second, I had to install this before it recognized it then I was fine.
Picasosz-I guess you missed the part about spending 2 hrs on phone with HTC tech support? So far I have reinstalled the drivers 4 times now, reinstalled the HTC Sync software twice. I have rebooted my comp so many times, I am scared it may not start the next time I do it. Really, you think the manual would tell me more than the tech support guy at HTC?
According to the Tech Support guy at HTC, the best Sync software to use for this phone is 2.0.40 that you need to download from the HTC EVO, because they have no software for the HTC myTouch 4g as of yet.
What I do expect is that I plug my damn phone it and it automatically with connect to my PC. Hell my printer does, scanner does, portable HD does, flash drive does, iphone does, and my 4 year old Moto Razor did. Is it really to much to ask that a brand new, latest and greatest, phone to plug in and Sync up? I think not. I am sincerely asking for some help, hoping someone has had similar issues and can provide me some insight. Your comment does nothing to help, so thanks for nothing.
dinan, that app looks great, I will try that, hopefully that works, TYVM.
Some years back, Microsoft invested millions of dollars into Apple's development for the purpose of integration of MS software into Apple products. Google, on the other hand, would rather you keep using their "cloud" based stuff. If you really need seamless Outlook integration, get a WP7 phone. You should have done more research before committing to a Google OS.
Google apps sync is $50/year & companionlink is $40.
I guess I am just screwed.
Thanks Xfoo for your input, I just never guessed that this was the case, assumed everything was pretty integrated these days.
Going to hold out for a week before I send this phone back, I think TMob has a 14 day return period, maybe HTC will pull a rabbit out of their hat by then and come up with some new software. The Tech Support guy kind of indicated that might happen due to the amount of people complaining.
Guess I never knew how good I had it with my year old iphone.
Who uses outlook?
A lot of corporations and businesses still sadly use it.
And If you need perfect outlook sync go with windows mobile. Android isn't meant to be synced to outlook or anything like that. The only thing you are suppose to need to plug your phone into a computer for is to put stuff on the sd card or to charge it. Googled created android with the cloud in mind and for me and a lot of other people that works great. For people that need a phone for syncing to outlook get windows mobile plain and simple. I love the fact that I can go on any android phone type in my google account name and everything is synced, I have all my emails, my contacts, events, and app data. Android is a smartphone but it really isn't meant to be something that you should depend on for outlook. There are solutions out there but most of them are equal to you having to pay.
Outlook and the rest of the PCs with their local storage are increasingly going the way of the dinosaur. Everything will be in the cloud shortly. Google's impending OS is one big glorified web browser. I'm sure it will be very successful as are most other Google's products. Server admins will need to find a way for their colleagues to access the company's servers via secure web protocols.
So, to the OP, in order for this transformation to take place, there will be pains for those who rely on being tethered to a PC, but a more natural company to take the reigns of this business than Google I do not know. Google is almost entirely a web services company. So, naturally their mobile OS is going to be tied heavily to the cloud and not to native software running on a PC. While it is very much possible to sync and tether via 3rd party apps, many will find that what ships with their phone suffices to bring everything they need to the table in today's mobile environment.
Have you ever thought to sync all the data from outlook to a gmail account and use the gmail on your myTouch?
Exchange and all my other email took me 1.7 minutes of toilet time to setup.
If you like things to be already done for you... get the iPhone, because that's what it's about. You get things easy and limited. Dumbed down for the average consumer.
If you enjoy freedom, choice and a little DIY satisfaction... go Android.
Exchange was really simple to set up. It took me less than 5 minutes to set it up. Frankly it took longer to type in my strong password than it did for it to connect to the server.
Not sure what your issue is. I have never needed to plug my android phones into a computer, that is the beauty of android.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Why do you want outlook to sync when you plug it into your computer? This sounds backwards and silly to me. Just have it sync OTA. Al Gore didn't invent the internet so that you could post on forums whining about how you're the only person in the western hemisphere who has never seen a micro-usb cable before. He invented it so that you wouldn't have to use the cable at all.
So what I'm saying is either log into your exchange account with the Mail app and let it auto-sync the calendar. Or shell out for touchdown, which is a little more full featured.
DegoRed said:
Google apps sync is $50/year & companionlink is $40.
I guess I am just screwed.
Thanks Xfoo for your input, I just never guessed that this was the case, assumed everything was pretty integrated these days.
Going to hold out for a week before I send this phone back, I think TMob has a 14 day return period, maybe HTC will pull a rabbit out of their hat by then and come up with some new software. The Tech Support guy kind of indicated that might happen due to the amount of people complaining.
Guess I never knew how good I had it with my year old iphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you want to do something that requires effort. Use Gmail, Yahoo mail, Exchange activesync, POP3, IMAP or any of the other wireless syncing services built into the phone.

[Q] My Experience with the WP7/Samsung Focus

Hey Guys;
So this is my rant about the Samsung Focus. I'll try to keep this brief.
I've been a huge fan of the Zune HD and since day one I've said that I'd switch if they ever add phone features (I was on a 3Gs at the time.)
So enter WP7; I LOVE the UI SOOO much that even though it's missing some really key things I was willing to overlook that and still got the Focus.
- I called AT&T to make sure they'd let me unlock it BEFORE I bought it because I'm taking a trip to Europe for a few months so I need to be able to use their local SIM. AT&T said "NO problem!" Once I got the phone however it turned into "We're not allowing it to be unlocked for 6 Months" (AT&T Sucks)
- It was suppose to take 15 minutes to active, it took 2 days (AT&T sucks)
- found out that WP7 doesn't connect to wireless networks that don't broadcast SSIDs (MS is clueless!) UPDATE: I take this one back... Still a pain, but maybe I'm being harsh...
But even after all these ridiculous issues that had me calling AT&T OVER AND OVER again, I was willing to keep the Phone....
Then came the deal breaker....
Since this is a really new OS from MS, They're supporting the newest exchange servers (2008) and if you're company doesn't have those new exchange servers dependable account syncing isn't in your future! mad:) I've been able to get it to sync, but it errors out before it finishes and then it's unstable. Shooting errors out all the time. Came across this forum: http://tinyurl.com/focus-outlook
So now I'm about to crawl back to the OS I abandoned (android)
Worse of all; I put my 32Gb MicroSD card in the Focus and although it works great, I can't figure out how to format it and get it usable on other devices again. Only the focus can see it now... (has someone come across a fix for that yet?)
So there you have it... I'm not having a good phone week...
kcasante said:
Then came the deal breaker....
Since this is a really new OS from MS, They're supporting the newest exchange servers (2008) and if you're company doesn't have those new exchange servers dependable account syncing isn't in your future!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, the lastest Exchange is 2010 If you're not already on it, you really need to! It's awesome!
My Omnia 7 synched up first time, I really didn't expect it to be able to deal with the client certificate, but it seems to handle it all invisibly. I'm very, very, (VERY!), impressed by how flawlessly it has worked.
If you're not on Exchange 2010, you need to get your company into the Microsoft Partner Network and you will get licences for nearly all of the latest software. We jumped a version (from 2003 to 2010) and the improvement is gobsmacking. Exchange 2010 is so much more efficient, the servers are flying!
Smoothound said:
Firstly, the lastest Exchange is 2010 If you're not already on it, you really need to! It's awesome!
My Omnia 7 synched up first time, I really didn't expect it to be able to deal with the client certificate, but it seems to handle it all invisibly. I'm very, very, (VERY!), impressed by how flawlessly it has worked.
If you're not on Exchange 2010, you need to get your company into the Microsoft Partner Network and you will get licences for nearly all of the latest software. We jumped a version (from 2003 to 2010) and the improvement is gobsmacking. Exchange 2010 is so much more efficient, the servers are flying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes Smoothound, you're right it is 2010; my mistake.
And as for my company switching; I don't think I have any pull in that department. I don't think it's a good idea to call them out on the internet. Lets just say this is a company thats known worldwide as a household name ( and also just bought a dying phone brand due to their OS) I'm actually surprised that they're behind on that tech but I have no way of incluencing an upgrade unfortunately. I'm sure it's in the works but for when I need it, it's too little too late...
ActiveSync is working fine for me on Exchange 2003 without any issues at all. So, no, you don't have to be on the latest version of Exchange.
I'm pretty sure I have Exchange 2003 here (I know it's not 2010 or 2008) and it works just fine. The first time thru it wouldn't download images that were embedded in email but I'd pretty sure that was because of the half-assed network I was using at the time. When I got home and connected to my own network, did a hard reset and set it all up again, mail worked fine. No errors, nothing, just email. I read the same thing about the iPhone 4, too, but it works fine against my server, also.
markgamber said:
I'm pretty sure I have Exchange 2003 here (I know it's not 2010 or 2008) and it works just fine. The first time thru it wouldn't download images that were embedded in email but I'd pretty sure that was because of the half-assed network I was using at the time. When I got home and connected to my own network, did a hard reset and set it all up again, mail worked fine. No errors, nothing, just email. I read the same thing about the iPhone 4, too, but it works fine against my server, also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So now I'm really confused...
And when I set it up the first time it worked well too! All emails Contacts, and Calendar updates were flawless...
I have my corporate mail synced on my phone and iPad so when a mail comes in they all ding at the same time... Somewhere along the line, the focus stopped digging and I haven't gotten it back stable since....
When i set up the account automatically it has no problems finding my account but eventually errors out after pulling down some emails and contacts...
I can set it up manually but it doesn't make a difference.
I really don't want to return this thing because the only other phone thats useable on AT&T in my opinion is the iPhone 4 (or the Captivate) and I REALLY don't want to go back down that dark path
Any suggestions guys?
kcasante said:
So now I'm really confused...
And when I set it up the first time it worked well too! All emails Contacts, and Calendar updates were flawless...
I have my corporate mail synced on my phone and iPad so when a mail comes in they all ding at the same time... Somewhere along the line, the focus stopped digging and I haven't gotten it back stable since....
When i set up the account automatically it has no problems finding my account but eventually errors out after pulling down some emails and contacts...
I can set it up manually but it doesn't make a difference.
I really don't want to return this thing because the only other phone thats useable on AT&T in my opinion is the iPhone 4 (or the Captivate) and I REALLY don't want to go back down that dark path
Any suggestions guys?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has to be your Exchange infrastructure. I have tested the phone with Exchange 2003, 2007 & 2010 and they all work flawlessly. I'm an IT consultant and I have used my Focus to make sure it is compatible with my customers networks so that I can recommend it.
The only thing I'm sure is unusual about my set up is that since it's a dev system and it's just me using it for mail, I don't use SSL and have it turned off at the phone. Everything else is entirely straightfoward. I would think Microsoft would have decent integration between two of their own products BUT the phone is a Rev 1 system. You might take a look around the MS support site to see if anyone has had problems and if there's a reason and/or correction you can take. I second the thinking that it's probably something with your server and/or network but that's about the best I can do.
We are using Exchange 2007 and it works without a problem after the policy was corrected. Windows Phone 7 will not sync if the policy requires your phone to encrypt or strong unlock password (alphanumeric password). Our admin made a Windows Phone 7 policy for these items. Considering you cannot take the microsd out and it wont sync to desktops.. the encrypt is not a big deal.
In this thread the guy says going back and re-enter the information might work:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833863&page=2
This happened to me as well. We have an Exchange 2003 server and what I did was go to "email and accounts" on the phone and went through the proccess and setup everything correctly but still got the error messages.
Now this is what fixed my issue (strange). I got out of the "email and accounts" and went into all programs list and opened "Outlook" , from there I put the settings in again for my account and presto, it just started working and syncing.
I did 2 phones likes this already and it works. Dont ask me how, but it does.
Hope this helps OP and anyone else using Exchange 2003.
kcasante said:
So now I'm really confused...
And when I set it up the first time it worked well too! All emails Contacts, and Calendar updates were flawless...
I have my corporate mail synced on my phone and iPad so when a mail comes in they all ding at the same time... Somewhere along the line, the focus stopped digging and I haven't gotten it back stable since....
When i set up the account automatically it has no problems finding my account but eventually errors out after pulling down some emails and contacts...
I can set it up manually but it doesn't make a difference.
I really don't want to return this thing because the only other phone thats useable on AT&T in my opinion is the iPhone 4 (or the Captivate) and I REALLY don't want to go back down that dark path
Any suggestions guys?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm wondering if that additional microsd card you've in the Focus is causing you issues. I would remove the card, and hard reset the phone. Put in your Exchange info again and see if it doesn't work fine after that.
kcasante said:
Hey Guys;
So this is my rant about the Samsung Focus. I'll try to keep this brief.
I've been a huge fan of the Zune HD and since day one I've said that I'd switch if they ever add phone features (I was on a 3Gs at the time.)
So enter WP7; I LOVE the UI SOOO much that even though it's missing some really key things I was willing to overlook that and still got the Focus.
- I called AT&T to make sure they'd let me unlock it BEFORE I bought it because I'm taking a trip to Europe for a few months so I need to be able to use their local SIM. AT&T said "NO problem!" Once I got the phone however it turned into "We're not allowing it to be unlocked for 6 Months" (AT&T Sucks)
- It was suppose to take 15 minutes to active, it took 2 days (AT&T sucks)
- found out that WP7 doesn't connect to wireless networks that don't broadcast SSIDs (MS is clueless!)
But even after all these ridiculous issues that had me calling AT&T OVER AND OVER again, I was willing to keep the Phone....
Then came the deal breaker....
Since this is a really new OS from MS, They're supporting the newest exchange servers (2008) and if you're company doesn't have those new exchange servers dependable account syncing isn't in your future! mad:) I've been able to get it to sync, but it errors out before it finishes and then it's unstable. Shooting errors out all the time. Came across this forum: http://tinyurl.com/focus-outlook
So now I'm about to crawl back to the OS I abandoned (android)
Worse of all; I put my 32Gb MicroSD card in the Focus and although it works great, I can't figure out how to format it and get it usable on other devices again. Only the focus can see it now... (has someone come across a fix for that yet?)
So there you have it... I'm not having a good phone week...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My company uses Exchange 2003 and I have had NO issues.. Works very well. Curious, what version of Exchange?
Sorry to hear about your issues. If I were consulting you prior to this I would have indicated that corporate users should let early adopters take first swing at the phone before you go for it but it sounded like you were willing to go through some pain.
As for the SSID, I wanted to comment that I think it is sort of unfair you are indicating that MS is clueless on that front. I have read many things from the wireless alliance and they seem to have been saying for more than just a few years (2006) that hidden SSID creates more problems that it solves and that it is not a true security feature. Here is a security analysts take on it: http://blogs.technet.com/b/steriley/archive/2007/10/16/myth-vs-reality-wireless-ssids.aspx
So anyway, as the industry updates it's standards, MS will continue to push those standards, hidden SSID is not a standard and is actually confusing to other wireless networks and traffic congestion resolution problems.
Rename title of thread
I think the title of this thread needs to be renamed.
AllTheWay said:
I think the title of this thread needs to be renamed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries; It's done.
Thresher said:
Sorry to hear about your issues. If I were consulting you prior to this I would have indicated that corporate users should let early adopters take first swing at the phone before you go for it but it sounded like you were willing to go through some pain.
As for the SSID, I wanted to comment that I think it is sort of unfair you are indicating that MS is clueless on that front. I have read many things from the wireless alliance and they seem to have been saying for more than just a few years (2006) that hidden SSID creates more problems that it solves and that it is not a true security feature. Here is a security analysts take on it: http://blogs.technet.com/b/steriley/archive/2007/10/16/myth-vs-reality-wireless-ssids.aspx
So anyway, as the industry updates it's standards, MS will continue to push those standards, hidden SSID is not a standard and is actually confusing to other wireless networks and traffic congestion resolution problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So here's the update...
I find that if I set the exchange account to check for mail every 15 minutes instead of push, it seems to be more stable... Although this is really weird (cause the same config on my iPad and my Evo 4G for that matter seems to work flawlessly) I'm just going to deal with it. Although my statements at the begining of this post was somewhat hard on the phone I will say again; I really LOVE the UI. and the Display is amazing... So much so that I'll deal with the crap I think it's missing for a while.
Here's to hoping MS is as agressive with their updates as they've said they're going to be.
Thanks for all the input guys.

[Q] Exchange ActiveSync policy wiping Fascinates randomly

I am an Exchange 2003 admin at a company with over 500 devices using ActiveSync across multiple platforms and revisions.
We enabled ActiveSync policies this week, forcing a 4 character password down to the device, with the setting "wipe after x failed password attempts" disabled.
Within 48 hours, 3 users have reported their Samsung Fascinates (and one US Cellular Samsung Mesmerize - which appears to be the same CDMA Galaxy S variant) have randomly reverted to stock. The user was not doing anything in particular at the time, nor did they enter their PIN incorrectly.
Does anyone know if Verizon has acknowledged this issue, or plans to provide a fix? It feels wrong having to ask these users to go buy Touchdown, when every other Android phone works out of the box.
My guess would be that it's an issue with 2.1 not really the fact that it's a galaxy s.
2.2 has better support for exchange AS. Depending on the trust you can place on the user I'd suggest creating a new policy for them that doesn't require the pin but request that they use the pin, until the Galaxy S gets froyo.
I'll do a nandroid backup on my phone and enable the policy for my phone and see if it happens to me, I'm not running the stock kernel though so it could be different for me.
Unfortunately we can't do per-device polices with exchange 2003 without some trickery on a users extended AD attributes. And, since there's no way to identify Fascinate users, they report their AS user agent as 'android', so it's difficult to be proactive until they call in with the problem.
I don't think it's related to all galaxy s variants, plenty of Epic and TMobile Galaxy users are fine, but the US Cellular variant appears to be a direct copy of the Fascinate, also on 2.1update1, and exhibits the same symptoms.
Users are lying. They fat fingered the password or the screen came on in their pocket. I work IT in a company that has about 5k android devices and about 20k of iphone bb and windows phones. The exchange admin is a android enthusiast and we talk often, when they started enforcing wipe policy they were swamped by calls about devices wiping themselves but after users got used to entering the passcode the calls pretty much stopped.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Except we don't set that as part of the policy, as stated in the OP. I can mess up my PIN an unlimited amount of times with no ill effect.
There are threads about this on androidforums as well as the vzw forum, but I can't link with my low post count. I just wanted to come to the place where I knew there was the most knowledge with this issue.
Hmm, I have not specifically tested this, so I don't know if Samsung added this functionality or not, but the stock mail client for Android 2.1, to the best of my knowledge, does not support PIN code passwords. That functionality was added into Froyo by Google. I suppose it's entirely possible that the mail client on the Fascinate is buggy and causing this issue.
I know what you mean about having to tell them to pay for a mail app, but I think they'll be happy about it after the fact, after seeing how much better Touchdown really is. The stock mail client is so bare-bones, it's honestly quite ridiculous. Google really needs to get their act in gear and code a decent, full-featured mail client, because right now the iPhone beats Android at Exchange syncing, even though it also can't hold a candle to Touchdown.

IMAP stops syncing intermittently

Greetings. I am a new user to XDA but a longtime reader and geek who uses and is well familiar with multiple desktop and mobile OS's. I say this because the problem I am writing about is possibly the most confusing I have ever faced. In fact, if it wasn’t happening to me personally I would swear it was impossible, so please read on. I would be grateful for any – any – ideas. I will attempt to describe the problem and my troubleshooting steps as clearly and concisely as possible – but it’s a weird problem so needs some discussion.
PRECIS: Samsung Galaxy S II intermittently loses ability to connect to and sync with IMAP servers, BUT ONLY intermittently and ONLY on one particular mobile network. Much testing has been performed as detailed in this post.
HARDWARE / OS: Galaxy S II originally purchased on contract from Three UK, unlocked, and currently running Android 2.3.4, debranded to XXKG5 firmware and generic CSC XEU.
SIMs USED: Roshan (Afghanistan) pay-as-you-go and AT&T (USA) contract with unlimited international data.
SYNOPSIS: I have good data connectivity (slow EDGE, but generally reliable) from the local Afghan provider Roshan using my PAYG SIM. I am able to set up both of my IMAP accounts, have them log in, sync, send mail, etc, but after an indeterminate amount of time, routinely lose the ability to connect at all. However, all other data services and syncing continue to work fine (web browsing, Gmail, calendar, contacts etc) – only IMAP connectivity is broken. No errors appear, but mail just stops coming. Once this has occurred, the only thing that seems to correct the problem is time – it will eventually start working again, but is by no means reliable. Changing how often the accounts check for new mail has no effect. A change to Wi-Fi restores connectivity to the IMAP servers immediately, but then the problem returns over the Roshan mobile network. Yet, I can swap in my AT&T SIM and all works fine immediately, reliably, and never displays the problem. The IMAP connectivity issue exists only with my Roshan PAYG SIM, and only after some amount of time.
HARDWARE TROUBLESHOOTING: The phone and IMAP have worked fine on multiple networks in multiple countries. In the UK, on 3UK and Orange. In the UAE, on Etisalat and du – all with good HSDPA connections. In Afghanistan, the AT&T SIM connects usually to Etisalat but other networks as well, all with EDGE data where available. (Unfortunately for scientific testing, AT&T does not allow connection to Roshan.) And also in Afghanistan, my PAYG Roshan SIM works fine with everything EXCEPT the IMAP problem. Altogether, it seems the GS2 itself works as advertised.
MOBILE NETWORK (ROSHAN) TROUBLESHOOTING: The exact same PAYG Roshan SIM which causes the problem in the GS2 allows a reliably-syncing connection (and servers automatically detected, BTW) over the same mobile network to the same servers using my old iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2.1. Likewise, my boss has perfect service to these servers using this same network with his Roshan PAYG SIM in my old Nexus One on Android 2.3.4. And, my GS2 does fine on this network for all except IMAP.
ANDROID OS TROUBLESHOOTING: In an effort to troubleshoot a potential glitch in the OS, I have flashed multiple versions. The Roshan/IMAP problem exists on both the 3UK-branded H3GKF4 2.3.3 as well as generic XXKG5 2.3.4. And again, a Nexus One running 2.3.4 on the Roshan network does fine also – incidentally also in my office, so at least theoretically connected to the same cell path.
EMAIL CLIENT TROUBLESHOOTING: In an effort to isolate a fault with the Samsung email client, I purchased and installed Enhanced Email, with both 2.3.3 and 2.3.4 installed. Same results: fine on Wi-Fi, fine with AT&T, unreliable in both clients with Roshan PAYG SIM.
(LACK OF) CONCLUSION: Can it be possible that I have uncovered a ridiculously obscure bug? How can just one data service type (IMAP) be affected on just one network (Roshan) yet all other services are fine, and the IMAP problem does not exist with other SIM’s and/or networks? Is there anything something like a traceroute I could run to see what’s happening to my IMAP requests?
If you’re still reading, thanks for staying with me this far. I’m completely baffled, and frankly, more than a little frustrated that what is meant to be the best smartphone in the world can't reliably get my mail on the network I need it to, while a tired old iPhone and Nexus do so all day long. Any ideas?
Kind regards,
Adam
UPDATE: Did nothing, started working
All --
For the past two workdays, IMAP email has arrived in both the Samsung Email client (set to check every 5 minutes) and Enhanced Email (set to check every 10) on the Roshan mobile network. I have done absolutely nothing to cause this to happen.
Of course I am very pleased all is working as advertised, but the episode has still somewhat tarnished my previously stellar opinion of this phone and diminished my trust in it to a degree. Regardless, I'm glad. If the problem resurfaces, I will repost here.
I suspect the reader will agree that "it just started working" isn't a very satisfying fix, so if someone else experiences a similar issue with IMAP and/or knows more about how it works, I would really like to learn. Feel free to drop me a line on <<[myxdausername] at gmail dot com>>.
Kind regards,
Adam

Problem connecting to google servers today?

GrooveIP app won't sign on today and tells me that it can't connect to Google voice servers.
I had problems downloading an update from the play store too.
In my Sync settings... I've got some spinning arrows... but no actual syncing going on. And I've got an error down at the bottom of the screen "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly"
Anybody else? It's been like this all morning.
No problem in Atlanta, USA. Play store works, downloads work, emails, sync, all of it.
It figures...I spend over a half an hour screwing with it, then I ask the question here. Almost immediately it all starts working again.
I just saw that Google IO tickets went on sale (and sold out) a short while ago (while I was struggling with their servers).
I will take a guess that they either prioritized their servers to handle sales of tickets, or they just got swamped again (like the first couple of rounds of sales of Nexus 4s).
Google doesn't use the same banks of servers for POS and cloud services, they know better than that. Likely it was something to do with your local/regional data connection or DNS.

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