Samsung Galaxy S Series

[jack_bauer77]

Hi,

My corporate exchange email madnates that i lock my phone with a 4 digit pin, now while this is a pain in the bum, my new SGS2 seems to have decided that is not good enough and I must use a 6 character password, with at least one letter, one number and one special character!!

Is there any way around this as I can't put up with this and the network issues i'm experiencing mentioned in another thread.

[picadillyjim]

Hi Jack,

My phone is set up with my company's exchange email  and it only asks me for a 4 character pin.

If i remember correctly, when you set it up and it insists on a pasword  - it gives you the option of 4 character or 6 character pin - and I chose the 4 character pin.

Do you want to remove your exchange email account from the phone, deactivate the pin and try to set it up again, and this time choose the 4 char pin instead?

Hope this helps

[jack_bauer77]

Nope - forces the 6 digit password.

Just removed account and added again and the only option not greyed out is password (Pic attached). I've checked everything server side and it only mandates the PIN, and when using my HTC Desire HD it only requires a PIN.

So are you saying you're using a corporate exchange account with only a PIN? What version of exchange are you using? What version of Android?

I'm using Exchange 2007, and Android 2.3.4

[picadillyjim]

I am on Outlook 2007 and Android 4.0.3 although the sam has been true since i was on Android 2.3.3.

The way it looks to me the fault is not with your phone or Android - it lies with your company administrator who dictates the password policy for the device on which you access your company email. Although it is then not a fault - merely policy.

I can confirm that I get the last two options on your screenshot active when I set up my company email and I choose the 4 char pin option

As long as I don't set up my company mail the phone doesn't require me to have any pin of any nature, but the company email disables the face unlock and the pattern pin option leaving just the 4 char and 6 char pins to choose from.

Edit - just read your post again - so you don't have this issue when you use your HTC phone? then maybe it IS your phone and we need to hope for a forum expert to throw light on this.

[jack_bauer77]

Well I've double and triple checked the server settings, and have now found numerous posts on forums complaining about this exact problem.

Any chance you could post your Exchange settings (if you have access to them), as I'm suspecting your company admin is not forcing security, but could at least compare?

[swarren]

@jack_bauer77

Don't know if this helps but see attached pictures from my phone, I am running ICS so I don't know if this makes any difference.

I went in to settings as per your screenshot and it asked for a 4 digit password, the only thing it did say once I'd entered 3 numbers is that it must contain one letter, but, as you can see once I'd entered that it allowed me to save the four digit password.

Hope this helps

Steve

[jack_bauer77]

Nope, sorry - the only was I can choose a PIN is to delete my corporate exchange account.

What I really need is someone who has access to their exchange server settings so I can compare - picadillyjim for instance tells me he uses outlook 2007 rather than the version of exchange used

Thanks for at least trying to help!

[picadillyjim]

Hi Jack,

Yes, I realised my error of giving you Outlook version rather than exchange - I am currently having difficulty accessing my webmail which is where I suppose I can view the exchange versions and the settings in the tab "Mobile Devices" or something like that. I will try and post this as soon as I can. IN the meantime, I have a screenshot of how my PIN settings look like.

[picadillyjim]

Hi Jack,

I have managed to access webmail> mobile devices  and it lets me know all the devices which has my email setup on. I can;'t find any settings there at all. If you could let me know where to look, I will try and share them with you. Sorry for not being of much help.

[jack_bauer77]

I dont think it is something you can check from Outlook - you really need server admin access

[jack_bauer77 · Accepted solution]

Well i did the upgrade to ICS last night to see if it would make any difference - I know kno wwhat's going on at least as the ICS settings displayed a bit more information.

The exchange / active sync server settings have a setting that mandates encryption of the remote device hardware (i.e. my phone) if the device supports it. The phone itself mandates that if you use encryption, then you use the password lock screen rather than PIN. So I'm assuming those who are using an exchange account, do not have the server side security setting to force encryption. The Desire HD hanset doesn't support encryption, so it was never an issue. I cant convince my infosec team to make an exception to this policy for me, so I'll either need to get a new phone which does not support encryption or put up with it.

Not quite a solution, but I think it's as good as i'll get!