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Microsoft identifies Windows Phone 7 data leak culprit, finds ActiveSync issue in the process
Daniel Carey
You may remember a while back we reported on Windows Phone 7’s mysterious data phantom and Microsoft’s subsequent investigation into the matter. Well, now that the computer mogul has had time to conduct a thorougher investigation, it has come to light that the infamous 3G Data abusing culprit was none other than Yahoo Mail. That’s right, Yahoo Mail — saying it once for effect just doesn’t have the same sávoir-vivre as the second time.
The statement, obtained by renowned Microsoft pundit, Paul Thurrott, highlights the issue as well as remedies being taken by the company. According to the statement, both “Microsoft and Yahoo! have worked together to identify a fix, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks.” Should consumers in possession of an affected handset not wish to wait for a Microsoft pushed update, they can follow the steps below for a semi-temporary remedy.
Note: The following steps were taken from Paul Thurrott’s post, which can be found here.
- On the Start screen of Windows Phone 7, click on the arrow at the top right.
- Choose “Settings” from the app list.
- Choose “email & accounts.”
- Choose “Yahoo! Mail.”
- Click on the setting under “Download new content.”
- Select a less frequent settings, If you are using the default setting (every 2 hours), change this setting to ‘manually.’
- Click on the setting under “Download email from”
- Select a shorter time range. If you are using the default setting (the last 2 weeks), change this setting to ‘the last 7 days.’
Besides the data leak issue, Microsoft has also identified an issue with its Exchange ActiveSync email protocol. Stating that while there is an issue, it should only “affect a very small percentage of users.” According to information gained by Mr. Thurrott, the current Exchange sync issue can be caused “by email that exceeds the mail server email size setting or is sent to an invalid email address.” Currently the issue can plague the likes of email services tapped into Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync service, Outlook and Gmail come to mind. Should you use either of the aforesaid email services, it is being suggested that users delete mail that “appears stuck in the outbox.” It isn’t an actual fix, however, it does temporarily resolve the issue.
Essentially, what it boils down to is a lot of used data for consumers in possession of Microsoft’s mobile re-launch. When you’re dealing with the lively hood of one’s money, i.e. bloated phone bills due to a phantom data issue, it really isn’t acceptable that Microsoft has waited until now to inform customers. In fact, there’s no excuse that it took this long for the company to release any kind of statement. I’m sorry, but there really isn’t. And while this is extremely far fetched, some form of monetary compensation for severely affected handsets is in order (not that this will happen — there’s really no way of distinguishing between affected handsets and those that had blatantly exceeded their data cap).
Despite what I previously said, it’s good to see that the Redmond based company is indeed working on a fix, and hopefully it will be available for download sooner, rather than later. Until then, has this issue plagued you? Let us know in comments.
Header image courtesy of Cam (camknows) on Flickr.
