We have identified a problem with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1.4.12 version (MAPI CDO 1.2.1 - 6.5.7638) with Exchange 2007, Exchange 2007 SP1 and the Out of Office (OOF)message getting corrupted causing the Out of Office to stop sending notifications.

If you set the Out of Office using OWA 2007 or Outlook 2007 it and the end-user had BES service, the OOF will initially reply within the first 20 minutes. After 20 minutes the OOF stops responding even though it says it is active.

Additionally, if you view the OOF settings from the BlackBerrry device, it will show the Internal Out of Office message rather than the External OOF message.

Microsoft has published a related article for Legacy clients detailing the issues especially with Outlook 2003. It appears the the BlackBerry is exhibitiing the same problem:

Legacy client and Out of Office (OOF) interoperability
You Had Me At EHLO... : Legacy client and Out of Office (OOF) interoperability

It took several weeks for us to work up sceneries, but have narrowed it down to whether or not the mailbox has the BES service active on the account.

You can test by using a mailbox on Exchange 2007 with an active BES account.

1. Send a test email from an external 3rd party email address after setting. You will receive the normal out of office reply.
   
2. Wait 20 minutes or more.
   
3. Send a second test email from ANOTHER 3rd party email address. Exchange will only send one auto-office reply to each respective mailbox.
   
4. The OOF reply will not be sent.

PLEASE NOTE:
In addition, in Exchange 2007 OOF responses are more secure because of the following two checks:

• OOF messages will not be sent out in response to server-detected Junk E-mail. If Exchange 2007 detects a message as Junk or if the message sender is in the user's block list, no OOF response is sent.
• OOF messages are not sent as responses to Internet mailing lists. Exchange 2007 does not send OOF responses for incoming messages with the Precedence:bulk header set. However, if this header is missing, it is possible that OOF responses may be sent out because there is no reliable way of determining that the message was sent to a mailing list. OOF messages are also not sent as responses for incoming messages with the X-Auto-Response-Suppress:OOF header.

See:

Exchange Server 2007 Out of Office (OOF)
You Had Me At EHLO... : Exchange Server 2007 Out of Office (OOF)


If others could test this and reply back with your results and BES versions and versions of MAPI CDO (mapi32.dll, cdo.dll) located in /System32 and Exchange /bin directories.

Thank you.

created new thread for this ...

Same issue here, cdo.dll version: 6.5.7651.61. We're using Outlook 2003.

Tested a user with BIS and Outlook 2003 on Exchange 2007, no problem
Tested a user with BES and Outlook 2003 on Exchange 2007, after @ 20 mins, no OOF messages at all.

Now have 2 clients with the same issue.
One client has a pure, newly built Exchange 2007 SP1 environment and BES 4.1.4. Nothing previous, brand new environment. Anyone figure out where the problem resides, Microsoft or BES?

Any luck? Please help!

Haven't seen many other posts regarding this issue. We're also experiencing the same problem. Exchange 2007 SP1 and BES 4.1.4. Any users without BB's do not have the issue regardless if they use Outlook 2003, OWA or Outlook 2007 but if a user has a BB then we get the same issue as above.

It will send an OOF for about 20 minutes but then just stops. I have a call into RIM but they were not able to help at this time. They said SP1 is not supported (we installed it to get rid of the duplicate OOF message issue) until BES 4.1.5 which is set to be released March 28th 2008. The tech did mention other companies are having this issue but were able to fix it by having the users set their OOF through OWA but we tried that and after about 20 minutes it still stops sending the OOF.

I imagine by now others must be using exchange 2007 SP1, anyone have any more info.
Thanks
Ben

BES 4.1.5, MR1 will fix this, NOT 4.1.5.
If you're running 4.1.4, we are hopefully receiving a hotfix for 4.1.4 MR4 which will fix this as well.

I'll keep you posted if we do receive this.

-Will

Thanks for the update and info, did RIM tell you they had a fix coming for 4.1.4 MR4? I had asked but the tech said I'd need to wait for 4.1.5 for official SP1 support he did not mention 4.1.5 mr1. I did mention to the tech we have 2 BES servers (we had just recently migrated from our older server ) and the old one is still valid and online so if they wanted someone to help test I'd be more than willing. (No one is on this server but I could move an account over to it for testing).

Thanks again, please keep me updated.

Ben

I've been on the phone with RIM for over the past 2 weeks now and they had to get the hot fix approved. They were supposed to have sent this to me last Thursday and I have heard nothing from them. They wrote me back finally today saying that they sent it to me twice yet none of my message logs or spam quarantine has anything in regards to an email from them. The support with this has been less than stellar compared to prior experiences. I'll keep you posted once they provide me the mysterious hot fix. Cheers!

*EDIT (had wrong version numbers)* Interesting, I was on the phone with them on thursday last week (Mar 20th) and was told there will be no hot fix for MR4 even after I volunteered to test it on a 2nd BES server we have. The tech did say that 4.1.5 will not have the fix for the OOF issue but that a hotfix for 4.1.5 (MR1) will follow 1-2 weeks after 4.1.5's release date of approx March 28th.

After going back and forth with RIM for a few months, they finally provided us with a fix for 4.1.4 MR4. It's a "quickfix" that replaces two files and should return functionality of the OOF with Exchange 2007.

Our BES is still 4.1.3, so we cannot apply this yet; we will be soon.

This fix is ONLY for 4.1.4 MR4. If you apply 4.1.5, the OOF will be broken once again until MR1 for 4.1.5 is released (no date yet).

This quickfix is largely untested but was released by RIM. I would be happy to share these files though.

-Will

Interesting, they've made no mention of a quickfix anytime I've tried to talk to them. I would definitely like to test it out, obviously I'd prefer to get it direct from them but I really don't want to wait on hold an hour to be told nothing is available. I don't think this site has PM functions but I'll take a look and see if I can message you offline. Thanks again!

In case anyone is interested I have tested the patch WillFulmer received and it seems to be working 100%.

Hi Will - can I have a copy of the Fix?

Cheers

Kem

Feel free to PM with your email address and I'll send it. I did have one peer of mine in Australia attempt the patch and his services would not stop after, required, full uninstall and reinstall of 4.1.4. May have something to do with a non-US-English version perhaps.

Use this at your own risk but we have 2 successful installations so far!

-Will

Glad that didn't happen to me! Did you end up getting it installed , just wondering who else has had success. We did install in a test environment first successfully before installing in our live envir. again without issue.

Does anyone know the version number of the hot-fix? We are having the same issue, currently on 4.1.4 MR4. I see there is a 4.1.4 MR5 available now for download, but the release notes make no mention of a fix for this issue.

Thanks.

The particular fix from WillFulmer is an "unofficial" hotfix so I don't think there is a version number, he acquired it directly from RIM and was nice enough to share it with us. 4.1.4 MR5 DOES NOT have this fix built in. 4.1.5MR1 is supposed to have it but thats still some time away.

Well after spending about 2 hours on the phone with RIM, they claim there is no hot fix and they do not provide private hot fixes. This is clearly an issue as we can reproduce it at will for any users that are on the BES server. Any chance someone could pass on the fix to me so we can test it out? I saw some others on this thread were kind enough to share it after actually getting it from RIM. It would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
the_coop

Yah I ran into the same wall, clearly the do have a hotfix (even if it is only a beta) but are not normally willing to release it. I do have it and ran it in our test envir. and now in our live envir. successfully. If you'd like a copy just send me a PM with your email address.

Please could someone update this thread........I have run into the same issue. Any chance of having the fix sent to me also please.

Not sure I follow by updating the thread. It is a known issue, RIM will acknowledge it however they don't have an official patch until 4.1.5MR1, if you are running 4.1.4MR4 (not MR5 ) there is a patch a few of us are using that appears to work. Its "as is" from a tech. at RIM, from what I've gathered it has worked for everyone except a BES server in Australia so it could be US localized but I can't confirm that. Send WillFulmer or myself a PM and I'm sure we can send you that patch if you'd like to try it. Again its "as is", personally I tested on a seperate BES test server first.

we're having the same problem in our environment and i've been waiting for rim to get back to me but they havn't. Could someone please provide me the Hot Fix. This will be appreciated.

Anyone know if this has been fixed with 4.1.5? dont have a 2007 sp1 environment to test with atm.

Also dont see any mention at all about OOF in the 4.1.5 Documents, would be nice if they mentioned if it was fixed or not....

I am installing the sp5 today so will post once done.

I had asked RIM and was told it is NOT in 4.1.5 but will be in 4.1.5sp1. I don't know this for a fact though but I'm not going to try testing until sp1 is out.

4.1.5 = 4.1 SP5

the next release after that would likely be 4.1 SP1 MR1 ... yup, SPs for SPs ... heh, silly RIM.

No, The 4.1.5.26 does not fix this issue.

Thanks, guess we'll have to wait for 4.1.5 MR1 or higher....

Why wasn't this listed as a Known Issue in the 4.1 SP5 Release Notes, would have saved a lot of time...

sorry, yah I meant its "supposed" to be in 4.1.5mr1

We have this escallated within RIM as well and yes they say it won't be fixed until 4.1.5mr1

as a work around they provide the following KB article, but i'm not sure this will work reading the problems here.

BlackBerry Search Results

Can some admins here confirm the issue still exists when the OOO is enabled from outlook and not updated from the blackberry?

I checked with RIM on Friday and MR1 for 4.1 SP 5 is not available yet. In the past I had entered an SDR 145355 to request a repair to this problem. This was prior to the release of SP5. When I spoke with RIM on Friday they indicated that there is a new SDR 162722 which covers this problem.

They did not give an ETA on MR1.

There is still a problem and editing the OOO from OWA 2007 does not fix the problem.

Just to shed a little more light on this, you should experience this issue if you have the following environment:

1) Exchange 2007
2) BES Server
3) Outlook 2003

If you have these criteria your SOL. Blackberry is aware of this and working on the issue. When I spoke with the tech they (development) are working to get their Exchange 2007 environment together. Glad to know they are ahead of the curve on this.

However, if you have Outlook 2007 instead of 2003, their is a work around you can do. However, since I do not have 2007 I did not inquire as to what it was.

I hope that this helps save you a little frustration. I have wasted a lot of time on this one. Exchange 2007 introduces some new OOF features. OOF sets a MAPI field called PR_OOF_STATE on all of the clients (Outlook 2003, OWA 2003, Outlook 2007, OWA 2007 and BES). Unfortunately, to accomodate the new features, they changed the location in MAPI for the template for the OOF message. The old location was IPM.Note.Rules.OOFTemplate.Microsoft and the new locations is IPM.Note.Rules.ExternalOOFTemplate.Microsoft. The BES is not able to handle the new location. If you set it using OWA2007 or Outlook 2007 it will work for about 20 minutes to 2 hours and then it will either disable or it will revert back to a previous OOF message.

If you want to see the MAPI Profiles you can download the MFCMapi utility from Microsoft and you can watch this occur.

I hope that this helps. I am a T Support subscriber and I am checking periodically with Rim about the MR1 Patch. They keep saying that it will be out soon but it is not out yet.

I hope that this helps.

I got the patch from Will yesterday and we will be applying the patch next week and see if it fixes the issue. I first need to take a snapshot of my Blackberry VM in case it blows up.

I will keep you all posted on the outcome.

A VM Snapshot is a great idea. Remember for this fix, all you're doing it RENAMING (not overwriting) two files and starting the services. You could always just replace the original files. Or worst case scenario, take 10 mins (depending on speed of the VM), install BES and repoint to the DB.

We only have the Blackberry Professional Software ver 4.1.4 with Exchange 2007 SP1. We are having the same issues with OOF. Does anyone know if RIM is updating the Blackberry Professional as well as the Enterprise versions?

Dear,
We have the same issue, exept that OOF is working with some users. don't andertand why...
OOF do not work anymore with BES server down... ???

Does the patch you tried fix this issue ?

Thanks
Laurent

Laurent,

I have not yet had an opportunity to take care of this. I did get an IM from another member who tried the patch in the UK in his VM environment and it was working. That was last week sometime when I heard from them.

Just add my 2cents on this I added the patch on the 4.1.4 in the test lab and it worked fine. However we were told in no uncertain terms that RIM would not support us if this change caused issues. Also we were required to change to 4.1.5 to support the features in 4.5 handheld software. My understanding was that the changes are lost with the SP5 install (which makes sense). So we didn't go ahead with this in production.

However RIM were initially telling us June/July on this fix and that has now blown out to December. Is anyone else getting this feedback from RIM? This is a major issue for us as we have to hold our BES users in a separate 2003 environment.

This is not even quoted as a know issue in the SP5 release notes and I think as more people convert to Exchange 2007 they are going to be asking why were they not made aware of this issue?

Someone on another forum [RE: BES 4.1.x, Exchange 2007 SP1 and OOF] posted that if you use OWA to specify a start and end time range for the Out of Office Assistant, then the problem doesn't occur. I'm testing this at the moment, but feedback from other environments would be useful, and might even help BlackBerry narrow down where the corruption occurs and speed up delivery of a fix.

It's crazy that this isn't listed as a known issue in 4.1 SP5 as it would save everyone time and aggravation.

Does anyone have access to the text of SDR162722 that they can post here?

UPDATE: this workaround did not work for me on Exchange 2007 SP1 using either OWA or Outlook 2007 SP1 to set the OOF with a specified time range.

Yeah I tried this too and it failed for me as well.