Outlook Mobile Does Not Like Changes to Server Name

I recently made some server changes to one of my email accounts. Basically, the mail server changed from mail.ServerA.com to mail.ServerB.com. A completely new server name and new DNS entry, but everything else stayed the same. It’s the same email address, same account name, same password, etc… So it should have been a really simple change to make on my various email clients. I changed the server names on my desktop Outlook client without any problems. Simple / easy are not terms that I can use for the switch when it comes to Outlook Mobile.

The required DNS changes were made at approximately 2pm on Saturday. I went into the Send/Receive settings in Outlook Mobile for the account in question and changed the server names. Then I attempted to do a send/receive. Unfortunately, it just sat at the “Connecting…” prompt for a long time and eventually came back and said it was unable to communicate with the server and that I should check that I have an active data connection. Normally, I would just restart the phone and that would force Outlook Mobile to re-read the server settings and all would be good. As you may already know, that’s not currently an option for me. So I needed to find a way to have the device pick up the changes without killing Outlook Mobile or restarting the phone.

Assuming that the old server information must be cached, I figured I would just wait this out. Eventually it would re-read the server settings and see that it’s changed. After 4 hours I was still without email on my device. When I would attempt to execute a send/receive it would just sit at the connecting prompt. At this point, I figured it would be best if I turned off the automatic send/receive schedule that I have configured to 1 hour. Then if I was to let it rest for a couple hours it should re-read the server information when I manually do a send/receive, right? HA! Not a chance. After another 4 hours, I was still not getting email on my device and I was wondering if this was going to be the event that forced me to break down and reboot the device. It was getting close to bedtime, so I figured instead of a restart, I would let it rest over night and try it again in the morning.

Unfortunately, there was no surprise in the morning that I was still without email. With a fully rested and refreshed mind, I figured it was a good idea to try removing the email account and adding in a new account from scratch with the correct settings. Sure, it’s starting all over again with all that setup/detail required, but it should get around this problem. And sure enough it did. I don’t understand why, but after waiting for over 15 hours, Outlook Mobile still would not correctly read the mail server settings. And in the end I had to manually recreate the entire email account on the device just to reflect a simple server change. Does that make any sense? Frustrated, but happy that I didn’t have to resort to a reset just to make a change to my email server settings.

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