Update 07.22.2010: Removing the Activesync timing settings profile and upgrading to 4.0.1 just might have fixed everything! Scroll to the end of this post for the latest usability updates.

Update 07.15.2010: Still Not Fixed! I jumped the gun… Look at the bottom of this post for my updates.

Well, that wasn’t a part of the plan.

Anyone else notice unexplained, excessive data usage and a quick draining battery since switching to iOS 4? With a little luck and the magnificent Google, luckily was able to resolve my ActiveSync blues.

After upgrading (perhaps prematurely) to iPhone OS 4 on June 24th, I immediately began to have problems sending and receiving emails through my Exchange account using ActiveSync. To get rid of the issue, I decided to take the simple route and delete my account and start fresh. After the first reset, my mail, contacts and calendar synced up perfectly. Problem solved I thought.

The next day, I discovered many sent emails on my iPhone would end up sitting in my outbox for extended periods of time. For so long that my iPhone would continuously try to sync the email message to the Exchange server unless I went to the outbox and deleted the messages that were unable to be delivered. More worrying, was the fact that my brother was experiencing exactly the same issues on a different wireless carrier.

At first I thought it was a problem with my Exchange server and the version of ActiveSync installed on the iPhone. Ultimately, that thought turned out to be incorrect. At the time I had no choice but to accept the issue and figured it was a result of me being overly eager to upgrade to iOS. Rolling back to 3.1.3 was definitely a “to do” for the coming week.

Bugs and new software go hand in hand. Plus, between my iPhone, Exchange server version (2010) and the version of ActiveSync software running on the Exchange server, I didn’t really know where to turn to resolve the issue on my own. To add to my confusion, my Exchange host, Intermedia, responded to a trouble ticket I submitted stating that no one else had reported any issues syncing their Exchange accounts with their iPhones. I’d have to wait until iOS 4.0.1…

Here were the two issues with my iPhone since my upgrade:
1. Accelerated battery drain on my iPhone 3Gs
2. More worrying, the fact that I managed to transfer over 1 GB of data with my iPhone without my knowledge (I’ve never come close to transferring this amount of data on my phone over the course of a few days. If I hadn’t had the curiosity to check my data usage for the past month, I’d never have known I’d blown through 1 GB of useless data transfer over the course of a few days.)

Here were my worst data days:
June 28th: 453440 Kilobytes of data transfer
June 29th: 612016 Kilobytes of data transfer

These days, it turns out, were excessively bad because I forgot to delete the 3 emails stuck in my outbox. Also, I didn’t check my data usage until the 30th since I didn’t think that the battery drain and constant denial of Exchange server connectivity were related. Initially I suspected that the accelerated battery drain was a result of the increased processing power required to manage multiple open applications. It wasn’t until I saw the data wheel spinning next to my carrier’s name 30 minutes after trying to send a couple of emails that I put everything together. Immediately, I stopped syncing my Exchange account using push to limit my data transfer damage and stopped using the iPhone to send emails.

As it turns out,the cause of my expedited battery drain was in fact intermittent (at best) Exchange server connectivity issues. The good thing is that I have 2 GB a month of data with my phone’s account. The bad thing is that if I was out of the country while having these problems I’d be very poor.

This weekend, with this knowledge in hand, I again deleted and set up my Exchange account on my iPhone. My hope was that some profile settings may have been adjusted since I last synced my iPhone to my Exchange account over ActiveSync. The initial sync up was great. However, just as before, I was having problems delivering emails. I noticed it more on emails with attachments (such as images) but even emails that were less than an kilobyte in size were again sitting in my outbox. To protect myself for any unwanted data usage, I turned off push notifications for my mail account and started to manually check emails. Responses to emails were usually done from my home or work computer. It was at this point that both my brother and I figured we’d be stuck with this issue until Apple updated iOS to 4.0.1.

Fortunately, there’s been a fix issued by Apple! I’m happy to report since applying the patch 2 days ago that I’ve had no problems sending or receiving emails and that my data usage is back to normal. Phew. Turns out the patch was posted on June 28th. I, only discovered it on Sunday.

So, if you’re experiencing a quick draining battery, excessive data usage and, most importantly, emails that are sitting in your outbox follow this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398

Apple lists the symptoms as: “Immediately after updating to iOS 4, some users may notice that Exchange ActiveSync Mail, Contacts, or Calendars do not sync, or sync very slowly. In addition, some Exchange Server administrators may notice their servers running slowly.”

Perhaps the support page should also list the additional symptoms of severe battery drain and excessive data usage which are a direct result of iPhone not syncing or connecting properly with the Exchange server. Again, I’m happy to report that both issues are resolved since applying this patch to the iPhone.

07.15.2010 Update:
The Exchange connectivity issues haven’t disappeared. Unfortunately, the patch that Apple issued to increase the wait time for authentication hasn’t resolved my problems or the problems of many more iOS 4 upgraders. I’m able to send small emails most of the time (as opposed to 100% before my upgrade) but replies or emails with attachments fail 100% of the time.

On Tuesday I tried sending two emails, each with a 200kb image attached. Sure enough, they got stuck in my Drafts folder after trying to send themselves for over an hour. After a hard reboot (turning the iPhone on and off), the emails were sent. However, this is still not an ideal solution and will still cause massive bandwidth usage if you’re not careful.

I just read that iOS 4.0.1 was released but this update apparently only fixes the antenna issue on new iPhones and the calculation used to determine the signal strength. Also, to add to the sadness, users on this Apple Support Thread have upgraded and are still unable to send emails through their Exchange accounts.

07.15.2010 Update:
Okay, looks like the profile patch page I was referring to has been updated. Apple is now telling users to upgrade to iOS version 4.0.1 if it’s available to them. I can upgrade! I’ll try upgrading tonight.

07.17.2010 Update:
Okay folks. I’ve updated to 4.0.1. Here are my most recent notes:

- I can send emails no problem that aren’t replies
- If I try to reply to an email I get the spinning data wheel of death. From what I can tell, replied to emails time out. I also can’t stop the replied to email message from sending. Reply tos don’t even show up in my Outbox as they are attempted to be delivered. The only way to stop the email client from trying to send such an email is to off my phone and reboot. Otherwise, my phone dies (it did this yesterday).
- Larger emails (emails with attachments) have been able to be delivered

07.22.2010 Update:
Email is working better (maybe even back to normal?!)… I’m sending emails with no problems. Replies are working too. Even tried sending an email with an attachment (a 1.3 MB image!!!) and it went through.

I’m guessing my Exchange host Intermedia made some configuration changes on their end to support the iPhone’s possibly flaky Activesync protocol implementation because I am having, as far as I can tell, 100% email success in the past few days.

07.23.2010 Update:
Hmmm. Possible bad news. Had a couple spinning data wheels today when I opened my mail client on my iPhone. Got paranoid about data usage and rebooted my iPhone, though I was still able to send all my outgoing emails.

07.29.2010 – 08.02.2010 Update:
Had time outs again. I’ve isolated time outs when sending emails to when I am replying to a message. It’s only when I am replying to a message and if I can type the entire message or copy and paste what I wrote within 20 seconds of opening the message I can actually send it. If I type a reply for more than 20 seconds, I get the spinning data wheel of death and have to reboot.

08.26.2010 – 09.02.2010 Update:
Like the Fat Boys, the spinning data wheel of death is coming back hard again. Can’t respond to emails. Even 2 word emails that I type out in less than 5 seconds time out. The time out on replied emails is practically instantaneous and can only be remedied with a reboot. I’m guessing that my Exchange host has changed some settings to help iPhone users but whatever has changed has made things worse once again. It’s happening on our other two iPhones as well.

4.1 is just around the corner. Question is, will it finally fix this HUGE problem?