A little experience with Android/Touchdown/Exchange

Background: Our university IT department has authentication setup on a different domain than the Exchange server runs. That prevents a quick setup. Here is how I solved it.

Android 2.0 OS (on a Droid 1)  – now a Droid 4

Settings setup (little tool icon)

* Tab 1: Account *

ActiveSync Only
Login ID: <name>@ads.tamu.edu
This is my email address: UNCHECK
Email Address: @exchange.tamu.edu
Password: <xxxxx>
Folder Language: English
Save: press this

* Tab 2 :Connection *
Server Name: exchange.tamu.edu
Uses SSL: Check
Fetch and trust certificate: UNCHECK
Save: press this

* Tab3: Advanced *
All personal preference but here are some notes.

Down towards the bottom is “Selected Email Folders”, followed by “Choose Folders” button.

Select the folders you want for immediate, local, access on your Droid.

It may take more than a few synchronizations to setup a full mailbox on the Droid, even if you are only set for 1-3 days. I have noticed a tendency with older builds of the application to not sync the Inbox…. So be sure to get the latest update from the Marketplace and to set AutoUpdate to ON.

Another caveat is to use the “Backup Settings” button on this screen when you’ve got it all working. This makes a copy of the settings to a local file store outside of the application. This can help if you have the following issue:

For reasons I don’t understand, I ended up with duplicate folders… So I wacked all the data (that’s under the DROID – Phone Settings button, Applications) then loaded the backed up Touchdown settings and then was able to select from a single set of folders and sync after a few iterations.

At this point my system is running fine, is pushing email, tasks, notes, appointments, and contacts back and forth seamlessly.

Now for my wish list… but that’s another post 🙂