How to Enable/Disable Exchange ActiveSync?

Exchange ActiveSync is a client protocol developed by Microsoft. It is used to connect and sync mobile devices with mailboxes on Exchange Server. ActiveSync allows Outlook users to access their mailbox items, such as emails, contacts, attachments, calendar, tasks, etc. from their smartphones securely. The Exchange synchronization protocol works with both high latency and low bandwidth networks, which allows users to access their emails even when the network strength in their mobile device is weak.  

ActiveSync is enabled by default in Exchange for new users. However, you can enable or disable ActiveSync for users to allow or prevent them from accessing or synchronizing their Exchange mailbox on mobile devices.

Exchange administrators can enable or disable ActiveSync access by using Exchange Admin Center (EAC) or Exchange Management Shell (EMS). In this guide, we will discuss steps to enable or disable ActiveSync in Exchange using both EAC and EMS.  

Steps to Enable or Disable Exchange ActiveSync

Follow these steps to enable or disable the ActiveSync protocol in Exchange Server 2010 SP1 and later versions via Exchange Management Shell (EMS). You can also use the Exchange Admin Center or EAC in Exchange 2013 or later versions to control ActiveSync and other aspects, such as,

• Enable or disable ActiveSync for specific users
• Remote wipe data from lost or stolen mobile devices to prevent unauthorized access to company’s sensitive information
• Export user mail items into multiple formats
• Set or change security policies, such as password length, complexity, attempts, etc.

Assign the Roles and Permissions

You can check the permission and roles required to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync by executing the following commands in the Exchange Management Shell.

$Perms = Get-ManagementRole -Cmdlet Set-CASMailbox

$Perms | for each {Get-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role $_.Name -Delegating $false | Format-Table -Auto Role, Role Assignee Type, Role Assignee Name}

You can verify if the “Organization Client Access” role is already assigned to your user account by running the following command in EMS,

Get-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role “<RoleName>”

For instance,

Get-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role “Organization Client Access”

If not, you can assign these roles and permission by using the Exchange Admin Center or Exchange Management Shell (EMS).

In EMS, execute the following command to assign the role required to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync.

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role “<RoleName>” -User “<UserName>”

Replace <RoleName> with the required role name and <UserName> with the username of your account you are using to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync. For instance,

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role “Organization Client Access” -User “Administrator”

After the role is assigned, you can go ahead and follow the steps

Enable or Disable ActiveSync via Exchange Admin center

The steps are as follow,

• Open EAC and navigate to recipients> mailboxes.
• Select user mailboxes for which you want to disable the ActiveSync.
• On the right-pane, click ‘Disable Exchange ActiveSync.’

• Click ‘Yes’ to confirm.

• The Exchange ActiveSync service will be disabled for the particular user mailbox.

To enable the Exchange ActiveSync for user mailbox, follow these steps,

• Select the mailbox in recipient> mailboxes.
• Click ‘Enable Exchange ActiveSync’

Click ‘Yes’ to confirm

• This will enable the Exchange ActiveSync service for the specific user.

Enable or Disable ActiveSync via Exchange Management Shell (EMS)

The steps are as follow,

• Open Exchange Management Shell (EMS) as administrator and run following command,

Set-CASMailbox -Identity <SMTP Address of user> -ActiveSyncEnabled $true

For instance,

Set-CASMailbox -Identity administrator@test.local -ActiveSyncEnabled $true

• This will enable the ActiveSync services for the particular Exchange mailbox.

• You can then execute following command to check if ActiveSync is enabled for the user

Get-CASMailbox –identity <SMTPAddressOfUser>

For instance,

Get-CASMailbox –identity administrator@test.local

Disable Exchange ActiveSync via EMS

The steps are as follow,

• Open EMS as administrator and run following command to disable ActiveSync for particular user,

Set-CASMailbox -Identity administrator@test.local -ActiveSyncEnabled $false

• Check the ActiveSync status for particular user by running following command,

Get-CASMailbox –identity administrator@test.local

To Wrap Up

When Exchange ActiveSync is enabled, employees or users can access their mailboxes from both PC and mobile devices. In Exchange Server 2010 and later, the ActiveSync is enabled by default for new users. However, as an Exchange administrator, you may require to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync for users facing issues with their mailboxes. Sometimes, users may encounter issues with Exchange ActiveSync enabled profiles when their mailbox gets larger or reaches a certain size limit. In such cases, you can use an EDB to PST converter tool, such as Stellar Converter for EDB, to export the mailboxes or mail items to a new database or mailbox.