In settings for Calendar -> General, I tried setting the default reminder to “At start” (which should be equivalent to zero minutes). An “Operations” dialog appeared reporting an error saying:
An error occurred
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Circular logic with no usable description of the error. Users are not programmers, and those that are programmers are not likely to be working on em Client to know the trigger logic for the error or its error table.
I installed em Client and then had it connect to my Hotmail account. It retrieved all existing messages in the Inbox and other folders along with all my calendar events and contacts. There are events that have reminders set on them. At first, I thought the error was because none of my events have reminders; however, almost all of them do. In fact, I don’t see the point of creating an event for which I’m not reminded is going to happen or has started.
With auto-config when adding the Hotmail account, I figured em Client’s database would already know it should be using Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) since it has that support and is connecting to a service known to also support EAS. How could em Client by synchronizing on my Hotmail calendar and contacts if it weren’t using EAS?
Hmm, I thought em Client supported EAS. Went back to emclient.com and started hunting around again. Their https://www.emclient.com/how-we-compare web page says they support Exchange. Yet I couldn’t find just what features were in their freeware version and which were only in their payware version (Pro). I thought I read them claiming the free edition had all the same features as their payware version other than the limit of 2 accounts maximum in their free version. At https://www.emclient.com/pro-vs-free, they don’t mention Exchange is a differentiating feature between the free and Pro versions.
At the very bottom of their web pages, and not as part of any comparison chart, I noticed a hyperlink to “em Client with Exchange”. The hyperlink points to https://www.emclient.com/em-with-microsoft-exchange. No mention there the free version does not support Exchange. Step 2 claims that auto-setup should use Exchange:
For automatic setup simply enter your MS Exchange email address, confirm and skip to step 5.
I went in em Client under Tools -> Account, but see the Hotmail account there is defined to use SMTP and IMAP (and AirSync, whatever that is). Huh? Why isn’t em Client’s auto-config when adding a new account for Hotmail using EAS? I saw no option to convert the account from IMAP/SMTP to Exchange. Obviously their auto-config on new-account config is unreliable. So, do I have to delete the existing Hotmail account and create a new one to use Exchange? If so, and opposed to what they claim in the web page describing setup, what do I do when creating a new account to force it to use Exchange? If I have to manually config the new account to use Exchange, will em Client’s server database know the string to specify to identify the Hotmail/Live/Outlook.com EAS server, or do I have to ferret out that information?
It is a slap in my face that they profess to support Exchange but their auto-config won’t use it when I specify an @hotmail.com domain in my e-mail address. Looks like I have to delete the existing Hotmail account, create a new account, NOT click on the Start button to use their auto-config script, and instead click on Mail and the Exchange icon to get the dialog specifying to connect to an Exchange server. Oh joy, now I have to figure out the correct server settings. As I recall, the Exchange server for Hotmail is not some simple string.
em Client says it supports Exchange. Forget about it being easy using their auto-config script when creating an account.
To setup an Exchange account (yes - fully supported by the Free version) go to Menu > Tools > Accounts, and add a new account.
Don’t use the Automatic Setup, but choose Mail > Exchange.
As far as I know, AirSync is an older version of EAS. At some time the project split, and AirSync was developed for mobile applications. Or anyway, EAS was originally called AirSync, but now they are different. I think that eM Client is the only desktop messaging client that now supports it.
The auto config usually gets its settings from the server’s autodiscover. In the case of Hotmail, eM Client has an override to use AirSync.
Okay, I deleted the IMAP/SMTP account for Hotmail and created a new Hotmail account but did not use auto-config. Instead I selected Exchange, and em Client figured out the server ID and other config settings.
Alas, that did not get rid of the “Object reference not set to an instance of an object” error. I got 2 or maybe 3 popups for that error. I was too busy reviewing the new account and other stuff to click on the notification; however, as I recall, clicking on the notification just made it go away.
