Apple limitations and restrictions

Microsoft Exchange account setup fails when setting up an account with IBM Traveler.

Verify that the mobile user is not trying to connect to the IBM Traveler server using an HTTP connection. Also verify that the Domino® administrator has configured the HTTP port to automatically redirect to SSL. Apple devices do not support redirection to SSL from within the Exchange ActiveSync account. This only applies for levels prior to iOS5.

Microsoft Exchange account setup fails with incorrect user ID message.

Verify that the user ID used to set up the Exchange account on the Apple device does not contain a / character. The Apple device does not send the correct credentials if the user ID contains a / character.

Apple devices do not handle multi-byte characters in login IDs.

Attempting to log in with a user ID with double-byte or multi-byte characters causes the Exchange account setup to fail. To work around this problem, use a login name alias that contains only single-byte characters.

Not all default or policy settings apply to Apple devices.

IBM Traveler defined device Security settings apply to Apple devices. However, the device preference settings (Sync settings, filter settings, and device settings) do NOT apply to Apple devices.

Auto Sync does not work over a VPN connection.

Auto Sync messages may not flow over an Apple VPN connection. Therefore, mail, calendar and contacts will only receive new data when a sync is initiated on a schedule or by the user. The user can initiate a sync by opening the application which will most often, but not always, initiate a sync. For mail, the user can also initiate a sync using the sync icon.

To preserve existing Contact or Calendar data, upgrade the firmware to at least 3.0 or manually configure the device following the instructions to disable the sync of Contacts or Calendar data.

Currently there is no security setting to govern the behavior of the Apple 5s Fingerprint scanner.

Apple device users can enable or disable the Fingerprint scanner as desired. If enabled, the fingerprint scanner will allow a user to bypass entering a device pass code when unlocking the device. The device will still prompt for a passcode when it is powered on and at least once every 48 hours. This is by Apple design. No management of the Fingerprint scanner will be possible until Apple exposes the function to external management through the Apple Configuration Utility and/or ActiveSync protocol.

iPhone supports only mail addresses with ASCII characters.

Sending a mail message to an address with non-ASCII characters results in a delivery failure.

Draft mail messages are not synchronized with the server.

Apple devices do not support syncing draft messages. Drafts are considered local to the device or local to the server, and never synchronized.

The mail setting for Show x Recent Messages does not work with IBM Traveler mail.

This setting does not apply to IBM Traveler mail. Use the mail filter setting for Mail days to sync to control how much mail is kept in a folder on the device.

The mail folder list does not scroll horizontally.

This does not work on Apple devices. If you have a deeply nested mail folder structure, you may not be able to see the most deeply nested folders.

Mail shows ? in place of an embedded image.

In some cases, turning the device off and then back on fixes this problem.

The font used for the mail message body is too small.

If the mail message contains embedded images, tables, or other graphical elements that are too large for the small Apple screen, then the entire message is scaled down so that these graphical elements can be seen without scrolling. To view the rest of the message, zoom in and then scroll the document as needed.

In versions prior to iOS5, mail cannot be deleted or moved unless the device is connected with the server.

The Apple device Mail application does not allow many mail operations unless the sync can be completed immediately with the IBM Traveler server. For example, if the device is put into airplane mode and WiFi is disabled so that there is no connection possible with the server, then mail move and delete operations are grayed out and unavailable. At other times, you might notice that you have moved or deleted mail from your Inbox and later it reappears in your Inbox. This occurs when the device cannot contact the server and is a limitation of the Apple device.

Folder management does not work on the device.

On versions prior to iOS5, folder management (creating, renaming, moving, and deleting folders) is not available on the device. Starting with iOS5, folder management is available on the Apple device, but only if the device is connected to the server.

Opening a mail message immediately after it first syncs may prevent the screen from painting properly.

When a mail message first syncs to the Apple device, it contains only plain text and no attachments. Typically the device immediately fetches the rest of the mail from the server, including HTML text and possibly attachments if they are small. In some cases opening the mail on the device in the middle of this fetch operation prevents the screen from painting correctly. Moving back to the folder and then opening the mail later fixes the problem.

Replying to mail does not include file attachments or embedded images.

On an Apple device, if you want to include attachments or embedded images on a response, you must forward the mail and select Include Attachments. If you only reply to the mail, the attachments and embedded images are not included in the response.

Reply and Forward marks do not sync from server to device.

Apple devices do not support the syncing of Reply and Forward marks. These marks are considered local to the device or local to the server, and never synchronized. However, if you reply or forward a mail message on the device, the corresponding message in the server mail database will reflect the reply or forward mark.

Read/unread changes periodically do not sync from device to server with iOS versions prior to iOS5.

This is a limitation of the Apple device. If the change cannot be synced immediately, the device often forgets about the change and not synch it later.

Apple devices do not always download the entire mail message.

Some of your messages on your Apple device may download in their entirety. Others have attachment icons or a button to get the remainder of the message.

Apple devices sync mail in two phases. First, the device asks for 500b of the mail in plain text. It does this for every mail message. Second, the device examines the message and determines if it should auto-download it or not. If the device decides not to auto-download the entire message, you will receive a download button at the end of the message, and any attachments in the message will have icons to allow you to individually download them. If the device decides to auto-download the message, it will request the MIME version of the mail, which contains all of the rich text and all of the attachments. The criteria for this decision is internal to the Apple device and non-configurable.

Mail does not work with personal groups.

Because we do not support the synchronization of groups, mail sent to a personal group (one not defined in the Domino server's address book) is not delivered and is not able to be sent.

Moving mail to a folder on the device after it was replied to or forwarded may intermittently fail.

The Exchange ActiveSync specification has an Update command, but the Apple device does not honor it by updating the content (body) of the mail. Therefore, IBM Traveler tries to work around the issue by deleting the mail in one sync and then adding it back in the next sync. If the device tries to move the mail between the deletion and addition, the move will fail because the deletion has been processed. Apple's EAS implementation moves and syncs asynchronously, so if the operations are on the same item, problems may result.

If the move fails, try moving the mail again to avoid the timing gap between the deletion and addition.

Apple devices can only enable click to call phone numbers from the Notes® (specifically, the Description field) of a calendar entry.

If there are phone numbers in the subject or location field, then these are displayed, but the click to call feature is unavailable. It is only available for numbers in the Description field.

The Notes field may not display all meeting data.

On Apple devices older than iOS 8, the calendar Notes field may not display all of the data from the Domino calendar entry for large descriptions. If you edit the calendar entry on the device, you cannot see more of the data that gets truncated from the initial view.

Attachments in calendar entry do not sync to device.

This is a limitation of the Active Sync protocol. Attachments are not defined for calendar entries.

When rescheduling instances of a recurring meeting, the new recurrence date is incorrect.

It is possible your Apple device is sending out incorrect recurrence rules when rescheduling. This is a known Apple bug.

When multiple unprocessed invites are in the device inbox for the same meeting but for different instances, only the most recent invite will push to Apple calendar.

When a meeting chair invites an attendee to different instances of the same repeating meeting, one instance at a time, separate invitation notices are sent for each instance. An Apple device views these notices as multiple invites to a non-repeating meeting and only pushes the latest one to the calendar.

Invites are not sent to personal groups.

Because the synchronization of groups is not supported, calendar invites sent to a personal group (one not defined in the Domino server's address book) are not delivered and are not able to be sent.

Meetings created from the device with the 'All-day' option are modified to start at 4am and end at 8pm.

An All-day event does not provide a start and end time selection. IBM® Notes does not support this type of All-day event as a meeting. A IBM Notes meeting has one or more attendees with selected start and end date/time values that can be changed through a meeting reschedule. Creating a meeting from the device with the 'All-day' option results in IBM Traveler creating an All-day event, with no attendees, in the users server mail database.

Changing the 'All-day' option setting for an existing event is not supported.

Once an event has been created, IBM Traveler does not allow its All-day option to be modified. Modifying the 'All-day' value from the device results in IBM Traveler rejecting the change and restoring the event to its prior state on the device.

Changes to a meeting on the device that apply to both the current and future instances of the meeting may be rejected by the IBM Traveler server.

Apple devices may split a meeting into separate meetings when making changes to the current and future instances of a meeting. In prior releases, IBM Traveler merged the split meeting back together. This will no longer be done. By default, the IBM Traveler server now rejects the change and sends a mail to the user. The version of the meeting prior to the change attempt will also be sent to the device.

The notes.ini setting NTS_AS_ALLOW_MEETING_SPLIT=true can be set to allow the meeting to be split. This results in the prior meeting being split into separate meetings that will be managed separately in both IBM Notes and IBM Traveler.

Prior to using NTS_AS_ALLOW_MEETING_SPLIT=true, review the Known limitations with Apple Devices and Lotus Notes Traveler wiki article.

Location field display is truncated on the device.

Apple devices older than iOS 8 truncate the display of the Location field based on the device type and calendar view. IBM Traveler appends room information to the end of the location field, but it may not display on the device due to this truncation. If the location field is larger than 75 characters, then IBM Traveler prepends the room information to the description field of the event.

The notes.ini setting NTS_AS_INCLUDE_ROOMS can be used to change the number of characters at which IBM Traveler prepends room information to the description field.

Click to dial does not work, if the stored number includes the letter p as the pause symbol.

When entering a dial-in number, use a comma to indicate a pause instead of the letter p. Apple devices will not dial a number when the letter p is used to indicate a pause. For example, do not use 123-456-7890p12345#. Instead, use 123-456-7890,12345#.

Delete (Cancel) of an event from the device may not include All future events option.

If the instance selected is represented by an Exception element in the underlying structure of the event, then the All future.. option will be not available. The action only affects the selected instance in this scenario. The user will not be able to determine beforehand whether the All future... option will be available. Actions on multiple instances from the device may be required to Delete (Cancel) the desired instances.

On Apple iOS7 devices, a ghosted reschedule notice may remain on the calendar after the reschedule has been processed.

This problem was fixed in Apple iOS8. A workaround for iOS7 devices is to resync all calendar data by turning calendar sync off and then back on. To do this, open the Settings application, select Mail, Contacts, Calendars, then select your IBM Traveler account, and then toggle the Calendars switch.

IBM Traveler does not support the sub-calendar feature on Apple devices.

The Apple device calendar allows you create a sub-calendar to the primary calendar of an account. IBM Traveler does not support this. Any data added to a sub-calendar under an IBM Traveler account calendar will not sync and will be lost.

Some meeting notices have an attachment called meeting.ics that is 0 bytes and cannot be downloaded.

This attachment is a placeholder for the calendar data normally displayed by the iOS device. When the event is not on the calendar, or has been removed (due to being canceled, for instance), the calendar data cannot be shown.

iOS 8 only: When the chair of a meeting cancels all instances of it, the cancel notice is not ghosted to the device, even though it is unprocessed.

This bug was fixed in iOS 9. The cancel notice can still be processed on an iOS 8 device from the Mail inbox, by selecting Delete event.

When a remove attendee notice is received and synced to iOS Mail/Calendar apps, it is immediately processed by the server and, in the case of a repeating meeting, may cause other instances to be tentatively accepted.

This is by design. iOS Mail/Calendar apps do not have a way to process this type of notice from the device. As a result, IBM Traveler server will automatically process it when the notice is synced to the device. If the user has not taken action on the original invitation yet, IBM Traveler would tentatively accept it in order to process the remove notice. The user can still use the iOS Calendar app to accept or decline instances of the meeting, as needed.

When one or more instances of a repeating meeting are canceled and the invitee has not taken action on the meeting invitation, the cancel notice may not ghost to the calendar.

The iOS device is ghosting the invitation to the calendar and is not able to ghost the cancel notice over it unless an action is taken on the invitation.

After declining an instance of a repeating meeting, the other instances may be marked tentative.

Apple Bug 25114211 has been opened for this issue. The Apple device sends both the decline and tentative actions to the server, even though the user did not choose tentative for any instances.

To Do support

IBM Notes To Do's are supported, but not through the Reminders app. To Do's are only supported using the IBM Traveler To Do's app, available from the Apple app store.

Cannot assign To Do's from a mobile device.

To assign To Do's to another user, use the IBM Notes Client or Notes Web Mail (iNotes). The ability to assign To Do's will be reviewed for inclusion in a future release.

Notebook or Journal documents are not synced to the Apple device.

IBM Traveler does not currently support syncing of Notebook or Journal documents to the Apple device.

Multiple accounts may cause delays in receiving results.

All of the accounts may be queried, and the device may wait to display any results until all are received. If you have any inactive accounts or accounts where the server can no longer be reached, you may want to remove them.