Subfolder notification using ActiveSync in 4.4 tested and working!

[WoodroweBones]

Ok everyone, I know there are a fair number of us out there that have rules setup in Exchange to redirect emails from certain people to folders. The problem with this is that will stop us from getting notifications on our phones (NOTE: I am not referring to syncing those folders. Obviously they need to be synced but the issue was that even with them synced you do not receive a notification when an email arrives in the folder even though it did sync properly). I was shocked when 4.4 came out and this issue hadnt been addressed. However as per the official issue on the android code site a user found out an incredibly easy way to make it work! It appears it is built-in by Google they just chose not to enable the feature.

See this post: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=50188#c59

I wasnt sure where to post this as it should work for any phone running the new email app in 4.4 but I didnt want to create a thread in each phone forum.

Here are some directions that may be a bit clearer than the original comment above.

NOTE: I used Root Explorer (paid version) for this

- Go to your email database folder. Located at: /data/data/com.android.email/databases
- Click on the "EmailProvider.db" file (open in Internal Viewer)
- Choose "Mailbox" from the list
- From this list write down the corresponding "serverId" of each folder that you want to have notifications on
- Convert those numbers to Base64 using the following tool: http://www.motobit.com/util/base64-decoder-encoder.asp (note that you will remove any "=" signs after your number)
- Now go back a folder to: /data/data/com.android.email/shared_prefs
- Now find a currently syncing folder from that same account (i.e. likely labelled: Folder-<ACCOUNT NAME>-<BASE64STRING).xml) So as an example lets say [email protected]. In that example the folder with serverId "5" is being synced. In this case its the "Inbox" folder of that account
- Long press on that file and choose "Copy" and then copy it back to the same directory
- Rename your newly copied file changing JUST the BASE64STRING part to the one that matches the folder you want to sync
- Reboot phone and enjoy!

 

[WoodroweBones]

I guess I should post them in some of the phone forums... there was a big thread somewhere I remember posting in at some point

 

[AnsenBayer]

Thanks for writing out these instructions! Glad to see there's a workaround -- this one little issue has driven me nuts for forever!

Just for reference, there is a thread I've followed for quite some time that's been focused on this issue, but it's buried in a Galaxy S II forum, so I think it could be easy to miss. They seem to be on to the same solution you posted here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48140770#post48140770

EDIT: Actually, just noticed the XDA post I linked to is word-for-word the same as the Android Issue Tracker post you reference, so that's the same guy providing the solution. Small world.

 

[WoodroweBones]

Just an FYI that even in gmail 5.0 this issue still exists and is still easily fixed by adding the file as above (different folder now though). Apparently making this an option is beyond Google's ability

 

[ShamaN4ik]

Have the same problem.
The real path to DB is:
/data/data/com.google.android.gm/databases/EmailProvider.db
Shared prefs:
/data/data/com.google.android.gm/shared_prefs
And the manual instructions at the first post of this topic didn't helped me.
I have OnePlus 3T A3003 with Oxygen OS 4.1.3 (beta7) (Android 7.1.1) and Gmail version 7.4.23.154506495.release.

Anyone have any ideas?