Windows Phone Thoughts: You May Lose The Ability To Sent Email Via SMTP On Windows Mobile 6.1 Device

"You have a Windows Mobile 6.1-based device that is configured to use a POP3 e-mail account or an IMAP e-mail account. On this device, you experience the following symptoms:.

• You unexpectedly lose the ability to send e-mail messages
• E-mail messages remain in the Outbox folder after you synchronize the e-mail account.
• You may receive the following error message when you try to send an e-mail message:

The message cannot be sent

Even though you lose the ability to send e-mail messages, you continue to receive incoming e-mail messages."

What I find interesting, and frustrating, is this is because Microsoft has given yet more control to the carrier. As you read the rest of the KB article, you get to this paragraph:

"This behavior is associated with a feature that is introduced in Windows Mobile 6.1. The feature allows for mobile operators to specify an alternate SMTP server name that is used if e-mail messages cannot be sent by using the user-specified SMTP server name. If the mobile operator does not specify an alternate SMTP server name and if the Windows Mobile 6.1-based device does not connect, the e-mail account is corrupted and cannot send e-mail messages."

This blows my mind in two ways. First, how many times has Microsoft given the OEM or carrier control of how something on the device should work, and then when the carrier does absolutely nothing about it, the device doesn't function properly. I can think of two instances. The IE Cache settings are set by MS at something like 40MB and there is no way for the user to edit that without hacking the registry, and even that doesn't work on some devices as the registry value is reset on restart. MS expected the OEM to set it at a more reasonable level based on the device by the carrier, yet none that I know of do, so the storage on people's devices fill up over time because of the cache, unless they remember to go manually clear it. The other example is a few versions ago, Microsoft didn't put the necessary template on the device to control how Windows Media Player buttons could be assigned - that was the carrier's responsibility. Some carriers did, but others did not, leaving the user with no reliable way to assign buttons to WMP functions during use. I am sure there are other examples.

The second way this blows my mind is, why in the world is Microsoft allowing the carrier to intercept SMTP messages and send them through its server? This may sound like a helpful feature if your SMTP server is down, but it isn't. If I wanted my email going through my carrier's SMTP server, I'd set it to do so. There appears to be no way to block this behavior, and it strikes me as a security concern and privacy issue.

While Microsoft has yet to release a fix, which should, in my opinion, to remove the feature entirely, Tracy and Matt's Blog has given some details on how to fix this using information put together by one of the industrious individuals at XDA-Developers. Might be worth the time to copy the cab file and directions to your device so that if this happens to you when traveling, you can quickly fix it until MS releases a more permenant fix.