outlook contact groups do not sync with EAS

Idea shared by digital.iway - 8/14/2014 at 5:57 AM

Declined

I have outlook 365 and many contact groups. Contact groups will not sync to smartermail and I see only individual contact will sync.

Some contact groups have email address from existing contacts, Some contact groups are just a list of email address not connected to existing contacts, Some contact groups are a mixture of both. No matter what the scenario the groups will not sync and do not show up as groups when using webmail.

This is very critical as all my clients have a need for contact groups and this feature is not working.

Please let me know when this feature will be available or how I can get it working.

24 Replies

Reply to Thread

Employee Replied

8/19/2014 at 4:10 PM

Employee Post

At this time Contact Groups are not supported to Synchronize to SmarterMail via Exchange Activesync, or the Add to Outlook feature.

However, you are able to setup Aliases as a domain administrator that will send to a group of addresses. This feature can act as these contact groups, however they would need to be managed by domain administrators instead of the individual users.

I'll be glad to get this post moved over to our ideas section for further consideration from our developers for a future release of SmarterMail.

digital.iway Replied

8/20/2014 at 3:51 AM

thank you for your reply. I cannot believe this feature was not requested and /or not available in SM currently.

Without this feature I cannot sell smarter mail EAS to my clients because this is not a true sync and Aliases are NOT an option I would give anyone due to admins needing to be involved.

SM could be a real powerhouse if the sync capabilities are fine-tuned and you can guarantee full sync of (calendar, contacts", notes, drafts, contact groups, tasks).

Please move this to the ideas section and I hope this does not get overlooked.

digital.iway Replied

9/12/2014 at 4:56 AM

Has there been any discussion to include this feature at all in the next MINOR or MAJOR release??

Dennis Ameling Replied

9/14/2014 at 4:03 AM

Same here. Such a function would be really welcome in the SM software.

FlexWS Replied

9/25/2014 at 9:11 AM

Voted! Would be really nice.

Employee Replied

9/25/2014 at 3:14 PM

Employee Post

I have added this to our feature request list.

Tim Uzzanti Replied

9/26/2014 at 6:06 AM

Employee Post

I'm not sure I have seen this request before. That is the benefit of the new community, allowing people to share ideas and Vote up potential ideas. Already, there are 7 Votes. Seems like a likely candidate to get some attention pretty quick!

Thanks,

Tim

Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com

digital.iway Replied

9/26/2014 at 6:49 AM

I am so glad this is gaining attention. Having this sync functionality will enable me to sell/market EAS to clients with full confidence and become more competitive against email services like office 365 exchange.

Keep voting this up and lets gain some more traction!

Employee Replied

9/29/2014 at 10:44 AM

Employee Post

At the moment, Microsoft does not support Contact Groups for the EAS protocol. Microsoft is continually improving the EAS protocol, and, if it supported in the future, SmarterTools will as well.

For additional information, you might find this KB article beneficial.

digital.iway Replied

3/18/2015 at 8:04 AM

Ok, I just wanted to add to this. I get it and understand that this is a Microsoft limitation.

What I would like to know is for the clients using webmail only (no outlook, no program, just SM web) why can we NOT create contact groups JUST in webmail??

So the groups would not be synced (not a big deal) and I can just tell clients to make a group in outlook and make a group in webmail.

How about adding this to the to do list or tell me a way to do this currently?

Nancy Rich Replied

4/23/2015 at 2:24 PM

It would be GREAT even if the user could tag multiple contacts and put them in a category. As SM is now the user has to select individual contacts and select which category to associate them with.

This would work as groups since the user could select which category to filter by and the contact group would list and then be selected to send an email.

Joe Burkhead Replied

4/24/2015 at 11:26 AM

I see this is now marked as Declined by SmarterTools. Really???? You are declining to help your customers with a function that is requested by so many corporate customers?

I am so disappointed to see you take this stance. Please reconsider. All we need is an Alias function at the user level. Please.

Employee Replied

4/24/2015 at 11:48 AM

Employee Post

Joe, this was marked declined back in September due to the limitation of Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol. Whenever Microsoft includes the capability of syncing contact groups, we will include it. However, in the mean time, Nancy Rich does propose an interesting and probable workaround using categories.

Joe Burkhead Replied

4/24/2015 at 12:46 PM

Robert,

Yes, that would be a great workaround as long as we could have the ability to select multiple contacts at one time and add them to a category.

Might I also suggest that you offer an easier method of creating categories. Right now, we must first select a contact and get to the categories that way. It would be nice to have a direct link to categories instead.

Appreciate your response and possible resolution to this issue.

Joe

kevind Replied

2/22/2016 at 8:23 AM

Joe, ran across this old thread and I totally agree with you regarding making it easier for users to:

1) select multiple contacts and add them to a category
2) make it easier to create categories (groups)

My idea to solve these 2 problems is add a Group folder pane. You can create a new Group just like you create a new Email folder. You can check the box in front of Contacts and say, Add to Group. Vote for it here:
http://portal.smartertools.com/community/a86530/add-category-group-pane-to-contacts.aspx

randy bell Replied

7/14/2016 at 11:27 AM

really, never requested. This is a basic feature, I have just put a client onto smartermail and now have to look at moving to office365. Smartermail seems to advertise as an exchange alternative, but it is NOT. It does not support basic features like moving multiple emails and folders within a mailbox and shared contacts.

randy bell Replied

7/14/2016 at 11:28 AM

This is not a microsoft limitation, it's Smartermail. If you have exchange or office365 exchange this works with outlook 2007-2016

digital.iway Replied

7/14/2016 at 1:55 PM

I think EAS accounts sync differently than the full exchange account. Either way if they did add this feature there is still a limit on EAS accounts inside SM that when over a certain amount of storage (around 10gb or so I think) where they slow down or do not perform well at all. I never sell SM as an exchange alternative and I have to tell clients that it is an exchange LIKE solution with limitations then go through a description of each limitation so I do not lose clients that have expectation after setup.