Hello,
This morning, I updated my fairphone to fairphone open 21.03. Everything seems to work fine except calendar and email. The problem is I use an exchange account. This account was deleted during the update. I wanted to create an account but in creating account, I can’t create exchange account, there is not the exchange option.
Thanks for help
Benoit
Hi @bensz ,
I’m not an expert, but it seems that the account types listed in Accounts > Add account depend simply on the apps installed on the phone. Which MS apps have you installed?
Which apps do you usually use for mail and calendar?
You might also try going to live.com in your phone’s browser, logging on, chances are you’ll see a link to install apps for Exchange.
Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I don’t use MS app. The exchange connector was installed by default in previous version.
On my phone, I use mail and calendar installed. The exchange account is used to connect with my egroupware server.
Benoit
Hi again, thanks for the info.
So I take it you’re using mail and calendar apps that come pre-installed with FP2. I don’t know this model, but I would think that you should be able to configure access to your Exchange account directly in the apps. The “Account” facility in Android settings simplifies things by allowing apps to share one setting for each account, but there’s usually a way to set the account(s) directly in the app settings. Or you might possibly consider installing other apps that do allow this.
If you aren’t able to do this, you might consider declaring this problem as a bug, through the bug tracker, and / or contacting the Customer Support team.
There may well be other people on the Forum who will be able to make better suggestions. You can also ask the advice of a Fairphone Angel. To find an Angel in your area, check out the community map >
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Google discontinued the Microsoft Exchange Account support with one of the earlier android versions. Their alternative is to install the Gmail Exchange-Services Add-On https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gm.exchange. As I understood it, this is some kind of middleware Service which logs into the Exchange Server. And the phone becomes some kind of sub-client.
I switched to CardDav/CalDav solutions, as DavX5 is offered via f-droid.
Edit: I can't help it... the app is there somewhere in google nirvana - I just freshly installed it
It’s a google play link, and apparently the play website doesn’t like that one. I have it in my list of formerly installed apps.
But the impossibility to find it quickly (it’s not even listed via play store app as a google created app although it definetely is) seems to be intentional.
Good luck, but imho the days of MS Exchange on Android are over.
Edit2: Ah, I know why! They included it lately into Gmail App. As said, it really doesn’t compare to the former functionality.
Edit3: Official Google MS Exchange / ActiveSync instructions. From Android 8.0 on, it depends on GMail App.
3 Likes
Unfortunately, the link leads nowhere…
Same Problem, I lost my Microsoft Accounts (these are Email-Accounts connected directly to any M365-tenant and NOT Connected via POP/IMAP protocol)
MyFP2 lost the option to connect to accounts other than IMAP,
No Microsoft,no Google-Accounts can be selected from the menue “add accounts” in the settings.
It has nothing to do with Android istself, everything works fine on an Android-phone, and it has nothing todo with MS Apps,
it seems the FP-update is buggy
The APIs for the connection to MS/Google are not installed after updating.
And yes I let it run a 2nd and 3rd time ,
I am waiting for a fix
Hi @alexka and welcome to the FP community forum 
Otherwise is CalDAV / CardDAV a / the way to go? There are “service apps” in the Playstore for this. Does Exchange support this?
The Gmail app should support Exchange, but I have not tested it. The AOSP Mail app on Lineage OS as well as the fork of the K-9 Mail app on /e/ OS support Exchange. (I have had good experiences on Lineage OS with the Exchange interface.)
There is an issue filed in the Github repository of K-9 Mail that describes all the fuzz about Exchange pretty well:
Spoiler: Exchange is closed source. Should a developer want to support Exchange, Microsoft says “no problem, just sign the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and we are fine”. However, K-9 Mail supports the old WebDAV protocol (up to Exchange 2010 servers), and did some “experiments” with EAS (Exchange ActiveSync), but they never completed and released anything in this regard, because they want the app to remain open source.
However, there are forks of the K-9 Mail app that include Exchange support, such as the one in /e/ OS. And support for Exchange was readded to Lineage OS. I have no idea whether the developers signed the Microsoft NDA or not.
Using an officially certified Android ROM, I have read that Gmail must be the standard mail app in order to configure an Exchange account, but that statement should be verified, of course. In any case, Outlook for Android will do the job…
Hello,
Thanks for all yours reply.
I use exchange connector because with one connection, I have calendar, tasks, and mails. So for my server I only have to open the 443 port and no SMTP port. And as I know, egroupware is open source.
Thanks
Benoit
Hello,
Yesterday, I declared this problem as a bug.
Thanks
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This is no Fairphone issue. If Google does not supply it anymore, it is not a bug. @waldie already posted the official Google MS Exchange/ActiveSync instructions, please see above…
3 Likes
Yes, not a bug, seemingly, just more Google / MS machinations*. My apologies.
*This sort of thing makes me seriously consider moving to a de-Googled OS.
And where do you get the interface to Exchange from there? It is closed source from Microsoft anyway…
I didn’t say that I could. I’m just fed up with these so-called “industry leaders” who treat users as a football.
Hi
I chose FP to avoid Google. I cannot accept to give my data to these thieves.
Does anyone know:
- an alternative to connect to my professional server without using a google tool? Do other email/calendar/contact clients allow me to create an account without going through google?
- do you know a way to go back to the previous version of the OS where everything worked fine?
Thanks for your help
Which OS do you run on your Fairphone? There are two from Fairphone: Fairphone OS, and Fairphone Open OS. Details here:
https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/204642759-Operating-systems-OS-for-the-Fairphone-2
Since last Sunday, it is “Fairphone Open 21.03.0-rel.2”
You could go for F-Droid independent of Fairphone OS / Open OS. Within, you find k9-mail (email), DAVx5 (contacts+pers calenders), ICSx5 (public calenders), nextcloud client, …
Considering manual installation, there is code.fairphone.com. You find the instructions of going back (which is meant for Open OS → Closed OS), installation instructions and the specific downloads for Android 9+7 atm. Beaware, Iam not sure what will happen on a downgrade with your data partition. And it might wipe data anyways, as the script might execute $fastboot oem unlock .
Hi
Thanks. I cannot fix this problem and I spent 2 months without calendar on my FP. It becomes tricky.
- my old exchange account was linked to my professional account based on OBM. One told me that OBM cannot support DAVx5, ICS…
- i tried with my personnal provider (Free, I’m in France)… and i didn’t success. Thanks for your help: i would like to avoid a paper calendar.