[bugsy]

I've searched and haven't found a good answer to this. I just purchased a new bb and my company is running a BES. I would like to get my existing inbox messages transferred to my blackberry, but my helpdesk is saying this isn't possible. They indicated that only new messages can be transferred. Wireless syncing and reconciliation is working fine, but only for any new messages that come into the inbox. Is it possible to get my existing exchange inbox messages sent to the bb or is my helpdesk correct? Thanks in advance.

[KonTiki]

No can do is right.

[dpeters11]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it seems to me that this could be done through the properties of the server, in the Pre-Population tab. I think by default it gets 7 days worth of headers, up to 200 messages, but I'd think you could change that to get more messages, unless we're talking about a lot of e-mails going back a long time. This is on 4.0, I can't remember how it works in the older 3.6 and earlier.

[HotdoG]

Originally Posted by dpeters11

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it seems to me that this could be done through the properties of the server, in the Pre-Population tab. I think by default it gets 7 days worth of headers, up to 200 messages, but I'd think you could change that to get more messages, unless we're talking about a lot of e-mails going back a long time. This is on 4.0, I can't remember how it works in the older 3.6 and earlier.

Message prepopulation is certainly an option. This is only available on BES v4.0 and later. BES 3.6 does not have this feature.

Default setting is 5 days or 200 messages. Max is 7 days or 350 messages.

So this will send a number of emails from the user's inbox to the blackberry, but not all if the number of messages is greater than 350 messages or older than 7 days.

The following instructions relate to Exchange BES. If you're on a Domino or Groupwise BES, maybe somebody else can assist.

The message prepopulation needs to be enabled (which I think it is by default) and one of the following two criteria must be true for message prepopulation to happen:

1. The user is a new user on the BES.
2. There is a new handheld assigned to this user.

If neither is true, you can simulate #1 by removing the user from the BES and deleting all the blackberry information from the user's mailbox when it prompts you to. Also, when re-adding the user to the BES, you have to remove all user statistics if it prompts you. It is very important to delete this information or else the BES will consider the user an existing user and therefore will not perform message prepopulation.

Next, security wipe your handheld and perform an enterprise activation. The message prepopulation should happen during the enterprise activation process. Note: You lose all of the data you have on your blackberry by performing a security wipe.

Other option is to forward the emails to yourself. The problem with this is that all the emails you see on your blackberry will say it's from yourself.

Remember, you can not synchronize emails. You can only reconcile emails.

So bugsy, your helpdesk is correct, unless you're on BES v4.0 in which case you can mention message prepopulation to them.

Good luck.

[Soapm]

Can you back up the messages from the previous device and restore them on the new one?

[HotdoG]

Originally Posted by Soapm

Can you back up the messages from the previous device and restore them on the new one?

Yes. You can use the Backup/Restore option in Desktop Manager for that.

If you want just the messages from the previous device and not everything, you can go into the advanced option within Backup/Restore and just backup the messages database. Then restore that database to the new device assuming that both devices are blackberries. You didn't mention if both devices are blackberries or not. This does not require a BES so you don't have to bug the BES admin if you have one.

[jax]

What happens if you mark the messages as unread or move them between mail folders - doesn't this push the messages back to the BB?

[bugsy]

Thanks for all the quick replies. We are not yet on 4.0 of the exchange bes, so that option won't work. I haven't tried moving some items to different folders and then moving them back to the inbox, I'll see if that works.

[Mike_tm]

Does the reverse can be done - Exporting email from the blackberry to the Exchange mailbox? (Exchange 2003-BES4.0)

Thanks.

[Zro]

If you move a message it will not get put over to the BlackBerry.

The ONLY ways to get old email to the BlackBerry is to either use the prepopulation with 4.0 (7 days or 365 messages, whichever is lower) or to backup the messages database on the old one and restore it to the new one before any other messages get there (restoring the database will overwrite the database completely, not add to it).

And the last option is not as pretty, but you still get the message on the BlackBerry, and that's to forward the messages to yourself or copy them to memo pad items. It's an ugly workaround, but if it's only a couple emails and they HAVE to be on your BlackBerry, it works.

BTW, I read at the PocketMac site that they were trying to implement actual email synchronization in future versions. Of course this doesn't help anyone with a PC per se, but maybe they'd be looking into a standalone inbox sync tool?

Zro