14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has begun informing customers in Germany that iCloud and MobileMe email will no longer get “pushed” to their iOS devices, as the result of a recent court ruling in favor of Motorola Mobility in a patent suit.
“Due to recent patent litigation by Motorola Mobility, iCloud and MobileMe users are currently unable to have iCloud and MobileMe email pushed to their iOS devices while located within the borders of Germany,” Apple said in a statement issued Thursday via its Support site.
That doesn’t mean customer’s won’t be able to receive email. The Cupertino giant clarifies that everything is still in place, but that the Push feature has been crippled.
“Affected customers will still receive iCloud and MobileMe email, but new messages will be downloaded to their devices when the Mail app is opened, or when their device periodically fetches new messages as configured in iOS Settings,” the company says.
On desktop computers, laptop computers, and the web, the push email service remains unaffected. Service from the likes of Microsoft (i.e. Exchange ActiveSync), and other providers, is unaffected as well.
Apple didn't agree with the court's decision, and specifically stated “Apple believes Motorola's patent is invalid and is appealing the decision."
As a temporary resolution, German customers whose iCloud or MobileMe push email delivery has been disabled can still configure their iDevices to automatically download new mail in the background.
Apple outlines the following steps as the standard procedure to work around the problem:
For iCloud Mail: 1. From the Home screen, tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars 2. Tap Fetch New Data 3. Select a time interval for Fetch 4. Push can remain turned on to continue push service for Contacts and Calendars.
With these settings, your iCloud Mail account will fetch new messages at your set interval while you are inside Germany. Push email service will continue to be available outside of Germany. For MobileMe Mail: 1. From the Home screen, tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars 2. Tap Fetch New Data 3. Select a time interval for Fetch 4. Tap Advanced 5. Tap a MobileMe account in your account list 6. Change Select Schedule to Fetch 7. Tap Advanced to return to the prior screen 8. Repeat steps 5-7 for each MobileMe account on your device.
Contacts and Calendars associated with the German account will also see Push disabled.
“To maintain push service for Contacts and Calendars, leave Select Schedule set to Push and continue to check email manually,” says the Mac maker.
As for MobileMe users, Push will be disabled indefinitely.