Unfortunately Exchange Service Stopped

[Res]

Since a couple of days my new Xperia Z2 shows the message "unfortunately Exchange Service Stopped" - i can just confirm OK. After some time the message pops up again.
Have found the issue in other forum from 2013, but could not find root cause or fix.
Cleared the cache of both Email and Exchange app, does not help. Delete Data is diabled in settings/app/....
Believe I run the latest version of OS (4.4.2 v 17.1.1A.0.402)
Application crashes:191 x Exchange Services

Any idea?

[PI16UE]

Note: I posted this on the Z1 forum as I am using a Z1 - I added my reply here as my experience with exchange services on the Z1 may also be relevant to this discussion on the Z2.

I am using an international version of Xperia Z1 C6903 with Kitkat 4.4.4 Build 14.4.A.0.108 that was updated OTA when it was first released in June. T-Mobile is my cellular provider.  I could not recall exactly when I updated it.  So far it has been working fine until last week when all of a sudden I was getting this "Unfortunately Exchange Service Stopped" messages popping up constantly during the day.  I did not pay much attention initially but then I got another warning claiming that my mobile data has exceeded the 1.6 GB threshold on Aug 24th when my billing cycled on Aug 19th.  In 5 days, I consumed over 1.6GB of traffic and when I click on the mobile data usage, Exchange Services took the biggest portion at 1.2GB within 5 days!

I have 6 accounts set up in the Email app.  One Office 365 account, two Live.com accounts, one Outlook.com account and two Comcast accounts.  Except for the Comcast accounts which are using POP3, all the other accounts are using Exchange Activesync.  In my first test, I removed the Office 365 account and it seemed to have fixed the Exchange Services error.  However, I do need my Office 365 account as it is the source of records for my contacts.  After I added it back, the problem resurfaced.  I then performed a factory reset on the phone and proceeded to reinstall all my apps and settings.  It was worse as not only did the exchange services act up again (stopped every 20 minutes), I also stopped receiving emails from my Office 365 account altogether.  Undaunted, I decided to reapply the latest 14.4.A.0.108 build using PC companion.  After the firmware repair and a complete reconfiguration of my phone, the problem with exchange services still exists.  Yesterday, exchange services burned through over 1 GB of mobile data in less than 6 hours.  I am also seeing a big decrease of my battery life and the phone is always warm (or even hot) to touch.

I duplicated the same email account configuration on an Xperia Z Ultra GPe (also running 4.4.4) with the stock email app and it consumes less than 100MB of data since August 19th.  I am getting exactly the same emails on the same email accounts as those on the Z1.  I also compared to my wife's Zperia Z1 Compact which is running the exact 14.4.A.0.108 build and accessing an Office 365 email account and her Z1 Compact consumes less than 100MB and she has never experienced the "exchange service stopped" issue. 

I just wanted to share my experience and hope that something can be done to fix this.

[Rickard]

Thanks for the feedback!

It's very strange that you only see this in your Z1 but not Z Ultra or Z1 Compact as they share the same software. Could you please try wiping and then removing your Z1 as a device from the account and see if that helps. See this page for more information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2791863

[PI16UE]

The Z Ultra is the Google Play edition so it is not running the same software.  The email app is stock Kitkat.  It has no issue accessing my Office 365 account.  The Z1 Compact is indeed running the same software but it is accessing my wife's Office 365 account, not mine.

 I have tried the following:

1. Removed the Office 365 account, which seemed to fix the problem but I needed the account for my contacts so this is not a solution for me.
2. Wiped the device and reconfigured everything from scratch.  After I added the Office 365 account, the exchange issue resurfaced.
3. Repaired the phone with PC Companion by reloading the 108 firmware, and reconfigured everything from scratch. After I added the Office 365 account,, the exchange issue resurfaced.

I can live with the Exchange Service Stopped issue as long as I can still receive emails from Office 365.  However, what I cannot live with is the excessive data usage (more than 1GB over 6 hours) consumed by Exchange Services and the activity has significantly impacted the battery life.

For now, I am changing the PUSH synchronization for the Office 365 account to manual check every hour.  Hopefully that will decrease the data usage.  I am not hopeful this will be fixed any time soon.  One other option is to root the phone and replace the email app with the Kitkat stock email app.

[Rickard]

I see.

But would it be possible for you to remove your Z1 as a device from your account as descibed on the url i posted? When you connect with ActiveSync to MS Exchange your phone/client is registered and remembered in the account by the server. Try removing the phone there and then add the account again in the phone.

[PI16UE]

Richard,

Thanks for your suggestion.  I did what you had requested and removed my phone from my Office 365 account and then set it up again.  In fact, I removed all accounts from the email app and only set up my Office 365 account using Exchange ActiveSync.  It did not fix the problem.  On Saturday, Exchange Services consumed 700MB of data in 2 hours while I only received 1 email in my account during this time.  I even adjusted how much data to sync: it was set to 1 month in June before I had the problem and now I set to to 2 weeks.  I think I have really run out of options to try.  It is the amount of data it is consuming that bugs me.  If you have other suggestions, I am all ears.

[PI16UE]

Mystery Solved !

I am glad to report that the culprit is not my phone or its firmware.  It was a limit on my Office 365 account.  Each Office 365 account can be accessed by up to 10 phone devices, which include Android phones & tablets, Windows phones, Windows Tile mail (but not Outlook on the desktop), Blackberry devices, and Apple devices.  However, when more than ten devices are added to the account, it is not obvious which device(s) are being blocked.  All the devices will show the last synchronization timestamp.  I have to drill into each phone details to look for the Access State which should be set to "Access Granted" for normal mail flow.  If a phone's Access State shows "Access Denied", it can be one of two reasons: number of devices accessing the mailbox exceeds 10; or the device acts in a manner that can adversely affect Exchange Online service performance (EAS throttling).  To make it even more difficult to diagnose, my Xperia Z1, being the 11th device, can still get emails from the account, except that it takes a long time to get the emails and in the process it will consume a lot of bandwidth (serveral gigabytes in one day) as most access requests are being denied.  Also this repeating access causes the Exchange Services to stop from time to time.  I cannot fault it from trying though.

After I realized the device limit, I removed enough devices and my Xperia Z1 is now back to normal.

[Rickard]

Glad to hear that you found the problem and thanks for the feedback

[EriccsonDieHard]

Thank-you for this solution - as I have also been experiencing massive data useage, bad battery life and a "hot" phone. Hopefully this will fix it. This also started happening after I upgraded the software.

NOTE: When I called support they simply stated that I had to do another back-up and re-install of everything - which I was not prepared to do - and they siad that was all that could be done!! I am so glad I found this - Thank-you!!

[Jaycee86]

Mine also came up after after updating my Xperia M2 to Kitkat. Its weird because I dont access my emails on my phone nor have set up exchange services on it. So what I did, I went to apps under settings and looked for exchange services and disabled it completely. no more issues since then.

[jbear]

Almos the same here.

after 4.4.4. update two notifications keep popping up:

"Email account requires you to update some security policies" 

"Login failed. If problem continues logout and login again"

I've deleted my accounts and cleared caches and all that. Nothing seems to work.

Sony: some fix to this?