BlackBerry 10 device not showing some Outlook folders

When I set up my work account on the Z3 it was showing all my Outlook folders. I made some folders on the BlackBerry and they appeared in Outlook too. But when I made some folders on Outlook they didn’t appear in the BlackBerry. Odd!

Tried the usual stuff like refreshing my email view on the BlackBerry but that didn’t help. Went to Account settings on the BlackBerry and checked whether there was something I could toggle to get the folder to appear – no luck! I checked the BES 10 server too in case that had some setting but there was none.

FYI: Not surprising that the BES 10 server didn’t have any email folder settings because BES 10 uses ActiveSync instead of the custom syncing protocol of BES 5 and prior. Previously BlackBerries and BES 5 servers communicated via RIM’s servers and used a custom syncing protocol but all that has changed with the new devices and BES 10 as these communicate directly via ActiveSync. The BES 10 server is really optional and if present it is used only to apply security policies and extend the corporate network to the BlackBerries without requiring a VPN or exposing ActiveSync to the Internet. The BES 10 server does not play a role in the email delivery or access.

I noticed that the new folders I created in Outlook were sub-folders of Inbox. I wasn’t sure if that mattered so I created a new folder outside of Inbox to see if that appears on the BlackBerry. Quite oddly, it did! Now I moved the previous sub-folders of Inbox into this new folder and oddly again these now appear on the BlackBerry. Finally I moved these folders back to being a sub-folder of Inbox and now these appear under the Inbox too! Very weird. And now if I create a new sub-folder under Inbox in Outlook, it too appears on the BlackBerry.

Not sure what the issue was or why the above steps fixed it, but I thought to post it here in case it helps anyone.