Thursday, December 16, 2010

Thunderbird won't open inbox subfolders after upload to google apps

I think Thunderbird is an excellent mail client -particularly for Macs - for users on Google Apps. When setting it up for a user, I found that I was getting an error that the folder didn't exist whenever a user would try to view the data in one of the inbox's subfolders. The error looks like this:


But then I found this solution:


In short, Thunderbird is looking for a subfiolder of INBOX - but gmail's folder's when imported from Exchange may often be Inbox. So you need to rename inbox portion of the label to be INBOX. So you'd need to change this:


to this:

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

setting up a Blackberry on Google Apps (with current Enterprise Activation)

This post will guide you on how to set up your Blackberry with your new Google Apps server.

Your phone was originally installed using a different kind of server - Blackberry Enterprise Server - and we have "wipe" your phone to remove those Blackberry Enterprise Server settings.

If you have anything other than email/contacts/calendar that you want to keep – please touch base with your system administrator to help back up your phone (this would typically be things like music or pictures). If the only content on your Blackberry is your company data then we can continue.

Step 1:

First, we wipe the Blackberry.

Click Options > Security Options > General Settings > Click the trackwheel/trackball on the Password field > Select “Wipe Handheld“ Type in blackberry when prompted.

A youtube video showing the wipe process is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRt9eXb0NW8&feature=related

Step 2:

Download the Google mail for Blackberry application.

To download the email app, in the web browser on the BB, go to www.gmail.com

Near the top of the screen, you should see an icon for “get faster gmail” - click on that

Download the gmail application and install it.

It’ll probably put the gmail application in the applications group on your BB. I’d recommend moving the gmail app to your main screen.

Open the gmail app and log in with your email address and your password.

It’ll download all your Google Apps email currently in your inbox.

Step 3:

Download Google Sync for the Blackberry.

In the web browser on your BB, go to http://m.google.com/sync

Download the app and install it. It’ll probably be located in applications after you install it. Sign in with your email address and password and tell it to sync your calendar and contacts.

That should be it.

Please contact your system administrator if you have any questions.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

viewing other users' mailboxes in Google Apps (email delegation)

I often find that I want to enable users to see other user's mailboxes within their Outlook. If there's a common mailbox like careers@domain.com or you're viewing the mailbox temporarily of an employee who has left the organization.

On Google Apps, I have found the method for doing that described here:

Of note - as of December 2010, this is available in premier edition only and not available in the education edition.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

restoring a file using previous versions (shadow copy)

When you delete a file from a network share, it does not go to your recycle bin . . . but you can still restore the file from "previous versions."

"Previous versions" is a tool for retrieving deleted files and prior versions of files located on a network share.

To use previous versions to recover a file, go to the folder where you want to restore the file from. Right click in an empty space (not a file or any menu) and choose properties:


Click on the Previous Versions tab (this will only exist if your administrator has enabled previous versions):


Looking at the dates on the right side of the window, choose how far back you want to go in a previous version of that folder and double click on the folder with the date you want.

A new window will open up with the a snapshot of the specified folder on that date (and time).



Find the file or folder that you want to restore. In my opinion, the easiest thing to do is copy and paste the file/folder from the previous version to the actual/current folder.

And that's it. That's the best method to use previous versions to restore a file that you may have deleted or overwritten. Please note that this feature must be enabled by your administrator for it to work.