I am using an email provider (Zoho currently, but the problem seems to apply to multiple provider) that only supports EAS (Exchange ActiveSync) for proper sync (IMAP supports mail only, no contacts and/or calendar). It seems that the Apple Mail application in OSX uses EWS instead (differences described here).
This is of course bad news, since a mail account without calendar and contacts is essentially useless to me. Are there any good solutions to this?
Things I have considered and researched:
- Change mail app in OSX (did not find any good ones supporting EAS, and I would need to also change calendar app as well.)
- Switch mail provider to one that supports EWS (there are surprisingly few, and even fewer that are good enough - I have spent way too many hours researching this track)
- Install EAS plugin on OSX (this would be the preferred solution, but I did not find one, not even sure this type of functionality can be added to Apple Mail)
- Host EAS<->EWS proxy. (I am not afraid of hosting my own services, but I did not find a proxy.)
- Move email to VPS with e.g. OpenChange. (I prefer not, since receiving email is such a critical function that I prefer managed hosting)
I refuse to believe that someone out there has not solved this problem already. Ideas?
The least bad idea I have so far is this:
- Keep Zoho or use another provider with IMAP/SMTP support.
- Host own mail server on VPS.
- Let the mail server download mail and forward mail from/to Zoho.
The disadvantage is of course that it is another service that I would have to maintain, monitor and install security updates for.
