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  • Archive folder disappears on iOS

I'm using Outlook connected via MAPI and iOS Mail connected via ActiveSync. I've noticed that the "Archive" folder has disappeared on iOS but remains in Outlook and the web mail interface. To be clear, I'm not talking about the archiving feature of Grommunio, just the Archive folder that get's created when you click the "Archive" button in Outlook or iOS Mail instead of the Delete button. I've tried removing and re-adding the account on my phone and it hasn't helped. Not only does this mean I can't access emails in the Archive folder it also seems to break archiving emails from the phone. While they get removed from the inbox on my phone, they don't get moved when looking on Outlook or webmail. I don't know what Apple Mail is doing with them. Any idea what's going on? The folder has been there for at least the last week, it just disappeared recently.

I notice i get the following in the /var/log/grommunio-sync/grommunio-sync.log when Archiving an email on my iPhone. Seems like it's trying to create an Archive folder since it doesn't already see one, but presumably that's failing because one already exists.

Policy 'devencenabled' not supported by the device, ignoring
cmd='Sync' memory='4.55 MiB/6.00 MiB' time='0.05s' devType='iPhone' devId='db9qkuei6l7u36tqpkjavfj3f8' getUser='todd@redacted.org' from='172.20.0.180' idle='0s' version='2.0.120.edd6c9e' method='POST' httpcode='200'
Policy 'devencenabled' not supported by the device, ignoring
cmd='Sync' memory='4.55 MiB/6.00 MiB' time='0.06s' devType='iPhone' devId='db9qkuei6l7u36tqpkjavfj3f8' getUser='todd@redacted.org' from='172.20.0.180' idle='0s' version='2.0.120.edd6c9e' method='POST' httpcode='200'
SyncCollections->CheckForChanges(): Waiting for store changes... (lifetime 900 seconds)
StatusException: SyncCollections->CheckForChanges(): Timeout forced after 11s from 900s due to other process - code: 3 - file: /usr/share/grommunio-sync/lib/core/synccollections.php:592
cmd='Ping' memory='5.65 MiB/6.00 MiB' time='10.71s' devType='iPhone' devId='db9qkuei6l7u36tqpkjavfj3f8' getUser='todd@redacted.org' from='172.20.0.180' idle='11s' version='2.0.120.edd6c9e' method='POST' httpcode='200'
Policy 'devencenabled' not supported by the device, ignoring
StatusException: ImportChangesICS->ImportFolderChange('false','0','Archive'): Error, mapi_folder_createfolder() failed: 0x80040604 - code: 2 - file: /usr/share/grommunio-sync/lib/grommunio/importer.php:713
cmd='FolderCreate' memory='5.45 MiB/6.00 MiB' time='0.28s' devType='iPhone' devId='db9qkuei6l7u36tqpkjavfj3f8' getUser='todd@redacted.org' from='172.20.0.180' idle='0s' version='2.0.120.edd6c9e' method='POST' httpcode='200'

19 days later

I've spent a lot of time on this and think I've discovered a workaround. The problem seems to arise when you have a mailbox connected via desktop Outlook and iOS Mail. If you let desktop Outlook specify an Archive folder it seems to set a MAPI property on it that iOS doesn't like and it drops the archive folder from the list of available folders. When I say archive folder, I'm referring to the feature of modern email clients where you can either "archive" a message or "delete" it, not the archiving feature of Grommunio.

My hack workaround to fix this was to create a new "OutlookArchive" folder in my account. Then use MFCMAPI editor to change the designated archive folder assigned to my account to be the new "OutlookArchive" folder. Once I did this my previous Archive folder reappeared on iOS Mail. Since I wanted both email clients to send archived mail to the same Archive folder I removed the standard "Archive" button from Outlook and instead created an Outlook quick step to move the selected message to the "Archive" folder. So I use that quick step to archive emails instead of the normal Archive button.

I'm glossing over a lot of the details, especially the MFCMAPI part to keep this post simple. If someone down the road wants more detail just post here and I'll provide it.

Why all this is happening is still unknown, I've only ever had this problem with Grommunio, so I'm guessing there's some issue there or a lack of support for archive folders in general within the Grommunio platform - I'm not sure. I spent hours going through the PHP scripts that run the grommunio-sync feature but didn't come up with any solutions, but that's mostly due to my unfamiliarity with the grommunio backend I imagine.

For now my mess of a solution will suffice, but I'm certainly open to this issue being properly fixed.

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