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Connect to an Exchange mailbox with WebDAV

Overview

Note: With RIT's upgrade to Microsoft Exchange 2003 in March 2005, WebDAV access now requires SSL. The Mac OS X Finder, as of Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther," does not support SSL for WebDAV connections. Therefore, this procedure no longer works; it is provided for informational and historical purposes only.

In Mac OS X 10.2 or higher, it is possible to mount an individual Exchange mailbox to the Desktop using WebDAV. (See WebDAV and Connect to a file server for more information.) This enables you to do several things including the following:

  • Looking at the individual .EML reference files contained within the various folders.
  • Examing folder sizes to determine where quota space is being used in an Exchange mailbox.
  • Manipulating the files within the account for management purposes.

All of the functionality associated with this is accomplished by mapping the Exchange mailbox in a way similar to an AFP or SMB file share point.

Mounting the volume

You can mount your Exchange mailbox to see the files within, in the same way you can connect to a file server (or Apple's .Mac iDisk service). The basic steps are the same as the way you would Connect to a file server with Mac OS X.

  1. Select "Connect to Server..." from the "Go" menu.
    ConnectoServer:
  2. Enter the URL of your Exchange mailbox
    Note: The URL of your Exchange mailbox is equal to http://mymail.rit.edu/exchange/abc1234/ where "abc1234" is the username of the mailbox the user wishes to mount.
    WebDAVAddress:
  3. Enter the username and password of the account specified in the URL in the previous step. WebDAVExchangeFinder:
This will place a network file server icon on the Desktop with the username specified during this procedure. The contents of the Exchange mailbox for this account are contained inside this network file server.

Although doing any procedures within WebDAV is accompanied by a noticeable delay as the computer negotiates with the servers, this is an excellent way to clear out problem events or emails that clients can't remove as well as a way to troubleshoot quota issues. Manipulating the account through the Terminal is a much more efficient and functional way to work with this type of connection.

Note: The .EML files, as contained within the mailbox, do not display the actual information associated with them. However, they do represent those files and deleting any of the files within the account while connected through WebDAV will result in the deletion of the corresponding event, e-mail message, contact, task or note, within the Exchange environment. Therefore it is important to note that while this procedure is an excellent tool for troubleshooting problems, and getting information about an individual account, deletion will cause an unrecoverable removal of the deleted entities.

Section: Maintain a Macintosh, Use a Macintosh
Keywords: calendaring, e-mail, internet, mac os x, microsoft exchange, network, troubleshooting
Question: How do I connect to an Exchange mailbox through WebDAV?
FAQ item: true
Score: 450