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SM Beta - EAS - Contacts do not display
Problem reported by Mike Wiegers - 1/4/2020 at 1:51 PM
Resolved
SmarterMail BETA Build 7306 

Contacts do not show up on clients using Outlook 365 and ActiveSync and iPhones using EAS. Do not know if they display on Android. I only started the beta with build 7303 and updated a few days later. I don't know if problem was there with that build.

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Shaun Peet Replied
This has also been the case for us as well.  To be clear, contacts synced using EAS were working prior to installing the BETA.

I happen to have both an iPhone and and Android to play around with two different email accounts - the iPhone connected using EAS does not show any contacts.

On the Android, using the default mail client that came with the device (an older / cheap LG phone) the contacts were no longer showing.  I then installed Gmail, Google Calendar, and the "Google Contacts" app - and in the Contacts app, contacts ARE showing from the EAS connection, however I'm not sure whether the Gmail app shares contact information from the Contacts app.  I know for certain that the "Phone" app itself does NOT interact with the Contacts app to show its contacts (it did with the default email application installed with the phone).  So it's pretty annoying that to make a phone call I have to first open the Contacts app, find the contact, and press the call button from there.

I will also point out that contacts synced using EAS to Outlook also stopped working after installing the BETA.  By stopped working I mean that in the Contacts area things seem to show up some times, but when composing a message and hitting the "To" button, no contacts show up there to choose from.

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Employee Replied
Employee Post
Hi Mike and Shaun,

I too had this happen after one of the updates on our own servers.  To resolve it I deteled the EAS account from the device, then logged into the web interface for that account and under Settings > Connectivity deleted the connection in the Synchronized Devices card.  After this I added the account back to the device and it started showing the contacts again.  
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Mike Wiegers Replied
Emily,

I have tried that and also the following.
Export all contacts as CSV, delete all contacts, import as CSV. 

I finally imported that CSV file into a Gmail account and then exported it to "vCard (for iOS Contacts)". I then had to import that into the user's iCloud accounts and have them start using that for their contacts.

Thanks,
Mike

  

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Employee Replied
Employee Post
Hello Mike,
Would you be willing to PM me the CSV? I can try and see if I can replicate this with your contacts so that we can see whats going on.
If I cant replicate it with that it may be something to do with the way the data is written. The best way to solve that would be to get a copy of your user without the grp files so that emails aren't shared with me but so that I can replicate your settings exactly. If you'd rather go this way, let me know and I can get you a way to send me the files over.
Thank you in advance.
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Employee Replied
Employee Post
Hello everyone,
I would just like to update this thread so everyone coming to this thread is up to date as to where we are.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to replicate the issues seen here. We have tried multiple iPhone and iOS devices and have been able to successfully sync over contacts in every case, including when given credentials to one of the users having this issue so that we could try to sync it from their server.

This is not to say that we don't see this as an issue. We are still actively looking into ways in which we may fix or replicate this. That being said, the newest versions of iOS (13+) have been plagued with issues related to EAS and mail in general and this could very well be an iOS upgrade issue since we've only had reports of it on iPhones (v13.3) that we have been able to confirm are still an issue after removing the EAS connection under the connected devices. Apple has released a new beta iOS that includes some more bug fixes. We will continue to try and keep this thread updated as we get any new information.
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Mike Wiegers Replied
Problem is still there with SmarterMail BETA Build 7320 
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
Mike,

Delete the account fully from iOS and re-add it.  (Do not just "uncheck" the Contacts option in the Accounts area in iOS.)  Also, you MUST delete the synced device in the connectivity area in webmail prior to re-adding it to your iOS device.  This will be a 100% removal of all synced info in iOS and SmarterMail and will give you the best results for solving the problem.

There have been 3 different reports of this issue so I decided to sit down with one of my developers and we tested FIVE different iOS devices, using the same account connected to a customer's server in their production environment, and we had ZERO issues.

Unfortunately, we are seeing a TON of mail issues from Apple across iOS and MacOS (SmarterMail, Exchange, and all protocols) which is making things very difficult.  If the above suggestion did not work, issues are often resolved by backing up your iPhone or iPad to iCloud and then Factory Reset your device and then restore from iCloud.  iOS  is starting to have bad upgrade issues and FRESH installs / restores have much more consistent results.  This wasn't the case for Apple and was something we were used to seeing only with Microsoft Windows.  I hate giving this suggestion because it's almost as bad as "try turning it off and on again" :).  But it really is starting to become a thing for iOS.

We did just sit down with the Apple Business Team on a variety of issues this week and expressed some of our concerns.  They joked about how Apple uses IMAP and DAV for all the corporate mail and that their native Mail applications (iOS and MacOS) don't get used internally with EAS / EWS.  This explains why there are so many mail issues across all their operating systems.

In our release notes, we also mentioned that Apple has BETA's of iOS, iPadOS and MacOS.  There are NO new features and these upcoming releases are just FIXES.  There are many mail issues resolved in the updates and we look forward to testing them to see what they resolve.

I'm not eliminating us as an issue, I know we can always be a culprit or in some cases find a way to work around a third party's problem but this particular issue we have looked at numerous times and these are the results.

Hope this helps and I look forward to your results.  If you are still having an issue, don't hesitate to PM me and we can test again on your production account as well.

Thanks,

Tim
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Mike Wiegers Replied
Tim Uzzanti, See the PM thread working with Josh Pickering. The last thing he suggested was to do a factory reset on the phone (as you have) and I did not do that. I have tried everything you suggested. I was hoping he would have passed this information along. This is a side effect of a beta I wasn't expecting, users that didn't even have MAPI enabled and once in the beta, I couldn't rollback. I was one of the customers that gave access to one of the actual accounts and you couldn't reproduce. I also configured the account on a different model iPhone and it worked from it. I just can't see telling multiple people to factory reset their device to get your contact to work again as you both suggest. I moved them to iCloud contacts and looking at different options to move away from SmarterMail.

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