Connecting to Exchange or Office 365

A: If you are not using our Office 365 Direct sign-in, you may strike problems with ActiveSync. We recommend using the Office 365 Direct sign-in when possible as it is more reliable.

Speaking Email can use the ActiveSync protocol to communicate with Microsoft Exchange server, Office 365, and Amazon WorkMail. 

This is a fairly complex protocol and supports a range of server versions, security policies, and administration features. Due to the wide range of different configurations, some issues may be encountered.

Errors when connecting your account

Could not connect to Exchange server using ActiveSync using the supplied credentials. 

When you enter your credentials to connect your account, Speaking Email validates and provides appropriate error messages to help you fix what is wrong. 

Here are the various issues that can be identified:

• Server format incorrect - should be like exch.mydomain.com (AS1)
  Do not enter http or any other characters. The server name should be just letters, digits, dots and dashes (eg myserver.mydomain.com)

• The server address is not an email address, it should be something like exch.mydomain.com (AS1)
  Don't enter your email address in the server name field :)

• Server name not found in DNS lookup (AS2)
  When a server is not reachable, we check to see if its IP address can be located using the internet domain name system (DNS). The server name could not be resolved, let alone reached, so is probably incorrectly typed. This server name could not be found on the internet, which means it is either not existing or is only available from an internal network.

• Office 365 rejected your password (AS4)
  Check your password and make sure it has not expired. Note that passwords automatically expire (depending on Exchange server policy). 

• Username for Office365 should be your email address (AS7) 
  You have entered a username which is not a valid email address, so this will not be your correct username since all usernames in Office 365 are email addresses.

• Exchange version not supported (AS6)
  We probe your Exchange server to see if it responds to an OPTIONS command. If it returns HTTP 505 or 501 then this message is displayed. This could be a configuration error on your Exchange server (check ActiveSync is working from other devices). Or it may be that your server is not Exchange or Amazon WorkMail or is very old. 

• Exchange Server rejected your password. Either username, password or domain is incorrect (AS4)

• Exchange Server returned 403 Forbidden. The mailbox may not be on this server. (AS8)
  You may have incorrectly entered the server name, domain or username. For example you may have entered a valid Exchange server name but it isn't your server.  Things to check:

• Domain - does your account need this?
• Username - should it be your email address or just a username?
• Server - is this the correct server where your account resides?
• If you have multi factor authentication (MFA) or Modern Authenticaton turned on, you will need to use a one time "app password" for Speaking Email - see these instructions from Microsoft.
• This is not an Exchange / Office 365 account.
  When the Exchange server rejects your credentials we do a check of your email address to see if we can automatically determine what account type it is, so we can suggest what kind of account it is you need. Please add the account using the correct account type in Speaking Email.
• Office 365 does not recognise this email address (AS4)
  Check your email address for typos, or you may have a different account type.
• Exchange Server returned 440 Login Timeout. This could be a permissions error. Check that you are able to connect via iPhone or Android mail and that 'Speaking Email' is an allowed User Agent (AS6)
  Verify that you can connect using ActiveSync in another email client, or use the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer. Your system admin can check on whether your server is rejecting Speaking Email based on its User Agent string.
• Server may not support Exchange ActiveSync - cannot connect to [endpoint] (AS3).
  This may not be the correct server name. Check that the endpoint address looks correct. You may have typed it incorrectly. 
  
  This error indicates that the server is not an ActiveSync server, so check if your mail server does actually support ActiveSync and whether it has a different address.

If unsure what to do, you should verify that you can connect using ActiveSync in another email client (eg iPhone or Android mail), or use the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer. 

Mobile Device Management (MDM) 

Some enterprises use an MDM system, such as Microsoft Intune, to manage employee access to apps via a "corporate app store".

If your enterprise uses an MDM system and your connection is not working, first try using a "app password" if you are able to use this.

Otherwise, please contact us on feedback@speaking.email to ask if we can support your system.

What is Speaking Email?

An app for iPhone and Android that reads your email out loud to you. It intelligently extracts content from emails (minus the signatures, disclaimers and threads). And it lets you action your email - archive, mark-as-read, trash, flag, reply, or forward. It can be completely by voice command, or use the large on-screen buttons or full screen touch gestures.

Who is it for?

People with blindness or visual impairment. People who are busy and run out of time to get through their inbox. People who want to make productive use of time when driving between appointments.

Do you have Apple CarPlay?

See our other product Speaking Email CarPlay.