Exchange account on smartphone: what is wiped, what power does admin have?

I have been unable to find answers to 2 questions on TechNet, hoping one of you in the forums can help. I am an Exchange administator.

Environment: Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 hosted on premises

Question 1:
When you as administrator in Exchange Admin Center perform a wipe of someone's device, does it wipe only the Exchange account or everything on the device? Microsoft says it wipes "their phone clean of all corporate and user information" (source  technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998614(v=exchg.150).aspx) but doesn't clarify if that user information is the Exchange information only or all personal stuff, too.

Question 2:
A user wants to add Exchange email to her Samsung Galaxy phone. When she goes to add it, she's presented with a screen of about 20 security policies that she must accept before she can finish adding the account. My question is: what power does the Exchange Admin Center give an administrator? Our default OWA for Devices policy is "Password required, 4 characters, lock device after 15 minutes" and "wipe data after 8 attempts to enter password." As far as I know, this is all the power I have. However, her phone's list included things like muting/unmuting and changing ringtones, which as far as I know I can't possibly do in Exchange Admin Center. Or can I?

Thank you!


May 27th, 2015 1:09pm

1) Depends on what you use. The 'regular' ActiveSync functionality is full device wipe. The new MDM/Intune based wipe is selective, so only company stuff is removed.

2) Again, depends on what you use. What's possible via ActiveSync you can configure via the EAC/PowerShell. Additional control can be offered via MDM/Intune, though I haven't seen anything specific to ringtones (might be from another MDM solution). Here's a link to the TechNet documentation around MDM/Intune: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt143180.aspx

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May 27th, 2015 4:45pm

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