[Evolution] Why is it only Outlook can sync contacts/calendar/tasks

[ants <antony c steele gmail com>]

Hi, I have done as much research on this question as I can, and am hoping
that others can please help further.

Gnome/Ubunto sees my work Office 365 account as a "Microsoft Exchange
account", so Evolution uses the GOA:ews service. I am not entirely sure as
to why it knows to use ews, but it was a good call and works great. Mail,
contacts, task and calendar all sync correctly - love it!

(It does amuse me that this manages to bypass the Microsoft 2FA that my work
activated for everyone a year ago, and I only need to use the Microsoft
authenticator app when running Outlook on Windows/Mac or Outlook on an
iPhone/iPad. Accessing my work outlook email on my Android device running
Blackberry Hub, or Evolution on Ubunto both seem to bypass the Microsoft
2FA! )


I have a personal email address that is an outlook.com account, but
Gnome/Ubunto sees this account as a "Microsoft account". As a consequence,
Evolution uses GOA:Outlook and imapx+smtp.

This is limiting, as Evolution is able to do email brilliantly, but it can
not see my personal Outlook account contacts, calendar or tasks.


I can get to my Outlook contacts, calendar and tasks with no problem on my
Android mobile (Blackberry KEY2 running Blackberry apps), and of course the
online version of Outlook can access all these options fine too.


It looks like only Outlook for Windows/Mac, or any mobile device - is the
only way to get access to Outlook Mail/Calendar/Contacts and Tasks.

I think I have read that mobile devices can use Microsoft exchange
activesync without a licence, and EAS is a required "protocol" to get to the
Calendar/Tasks/Contacts.


Desktop mail clients need to get the Microsoft licence if they are going to
do more than mail, and nobody does this other than Microsoft?


So, I was surprised and thrilled when Evolution was able to do everything I
wanted with my Work Office365 account - but why can't it do the same with my
personal Outlook account as well?

I have been looking for a way to force Gnome/Ubunto to re-evaluate my
Outlook account to be treated as a Microsoft Exchange account, rather than
just a Microsoft account - but with no joy.


When I explore the mail server settings in my Android device, both my work
and personal email accounts use the same server address of
outlook.office365.com  ... so if my mobile can use Outlook contacts/calendar
just like my work account, then why can't I get Gnome/Ubunto/Evolution to
also do the same?

 
Hope I haven't bored anyone to death with this long post! :)

Thanks, Antony.




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