Issues with Exchange Account and Q10

Question

Well, I hate to be writing this, but I'm hoping that there might be someone out there that can help get past some first day issues I am experiencing.
The background: I have a long history with legacy BlackBerry devices, and almost as much history with iOS devices. My most recent phone was an iPhone 4S, and I make extensive use of iCloud to keep my iMacs, iPhone, and iPad connected in real-time. The setup worked. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. However, because I used to have a BlackBerry device (most recent the 9930) and because I don't use the iPhone for more than e-mail, iMessage, and phone calls (generally speaking), I decided to give the newest BlackBerry device a shot. So I bought a Q10.
At this point I feel compelled to say that the hardware is everything I had hoped it to be. It's solid, has a good weight, and appears to be made very well. I have no complaints with the hardware, including the keyboard (a big selling factor for me), so I won't really get into the hardware as the issues I am experiencing all have to do with the OS. Let me also say that I am very familiar with the iCloud integration issues (missing Contact photos and disabled Calendar sync), so I'm not voicing a complaint over those issues in this thread.
I have connected my Exchange account. I used to have everything in Exchange before I moved my entire computing world over to Apple, and now I keep Exchange around for e-mail. Therefore, I have no contacts, no tasks, no notes, very limited calendar entries, and a massive amount of e-mail on the Exchange server. However, to test everything out, I have added a single contact record so I can see it show up on the phone and be able to test two-way sync between the Q10 and Exchange. And here is where the first issues crop up. It looks like Exchange connects and then disconnects at random. For example, if I open my Contacts on the phone, I see the one contact (called John Doe). Then, as the phone is sitting there with the screen on, the contact will disappear and I will see a "Start adding contact to your contact list" notice on the screen. Then, after a short period of time, the single contact will return. It is important to note that the entire time this is happening, the All Contacts option is selected in the list so that all available contacts are shown. Additionally, I have SIM card contacts turned off, but if I alter the selection in the view list (All Contacts, Favorites, etc.), the SIM contacts will re-appear when I return to the All Contacts view. At the same time, even though I have turned off SIM Contacts in the settings, the setting has reverted to show SIM Contacts. If I turn off the setting again, SIM Contacts still show up. Possibly related: I can't delete contacts on the SIM card, no matter how many times I try, and it now it seems that I can't get SIM Contacts to go away in the Contacts app.
Likewise, Exchange seems to connect and disconnect from Calendar. I go to the calendar and move day by day to June 15th. I see an entry that I know is from Exchange (I have no other connected calendars at this time), and it is in blue. I change the calendar color to green and the entry changes color, as expected. However, if I jump back to today and then scroll day by day to get to June 15th again, the calendar entry is missing. After a few seconds, the entry re-appears, but it is, once again, in blue. The setting has reverted itself, and it seems like Exchange is completely disconnecting and automatically reconnecting to the phone like I am setting it up again for the first time. Very odd. As I'm typing this, I just saw something odd. I swiped to wake up the phone, and the active frames screen was the visible screen. The calendar app is still running (since I left it running, minimized, when the phone went to sleep) and the date shown in the active card was Jan 1, not Jun 8. Why? The date (and time) on the phone is correct and is set automatically by the cellular system.
Nevertheless, looking at BlackBerry Hub, I see only two e-mails in my Inbox from Exchange, even though I have roughly a dozen in my Inbox. The rest are filed in sub-folders. And bam! Just like that... I get the "Add Accounts" screen while looking at the Hub. In other words, as I was typing this, I first saw two Exchange e-mails and then, out of nowhere, the e-mails disappear and I see the "Add Accounts" screen as if no account has been connected.
So... first question: Is anyone else experiencing this issue? This is very strange, and very frustrating. Second: could this be related to the large amount of e-mails I have stored on Exchange, some of which have large attachments? I selected "Forever" as the sync history length. I have my concerns, however, if this is related to loading historical e-mails onto the phone (in other words, the first sync with Exchange) because there is no reason that I can understand that the phone would blank out as if no account was connected at all. I can understand lag and stuttering while the history is syncing, but not a complete disconnect and reconnect. Considering all of the issues with the one and only contact record disappearing, the calendar entry for Jun 15th disappearing and then reappearing with the wrong calendar color, and e-mail in my Inbox incomplete (two of a dozen e-mails) and ultimately disappearing, I feel like this OS just has some real, significant issues.
Full disclosure: I do want iCloud to work and am a fan of Apple products, but the lack of full iCloud sync support is not a big enough issue for me to want to send back this phone and/or see it fail so miserably. I will happily move my info from iCloud into Exchange, Google, and/or set up a new Exchange account for personal use (Office 365) because I am not wedded to iCloud per se. But, I won't go through that trouble if I can't even get my first account to work properly. It should also be noted that I do have a basic Google account (non-paid) and I had previously attempted to connect to it. However, I was experiencing the exact same issues with contacts disappearing, e-mail disappearing, etc. So I deleted that account. Truth be told, I deleted the Exchange account as well, and then re-connected to Exchange only to test one account at a time. Unfortunately, even with Exchange only, I am seeing very strange and frustrating behavior as described above.
Help... please. I want this to work but the frustration I am feeling is growing worse by the hour.
Model: SQN100-2
OS Release: 10.1.0.2011
OS Version: 10.1.0.2038
Build ID: 525050
Ian

Answer 1

To follow-up with this issue:
I ended up performing a security wipe on my device. The security wipe finished, and I was about to reconnect with Exchange when I decided to visit our host's web site to see if they had any articles covering the issues I was experiencing. While they didn't have anything specific, I did find a step-by-step guide to connecting a BB10 device to Exchange... and right there at the end, it said "Do NOT enable memo sync."
I contacted support, and the rep told me that OS 10 has an issue with memo sync and it can cause all sorts of unpredictable behavior. Now, whether or not this is accurate I can say this: So far, the device is not disconnecting and reconnecting like it was before. Problem is, is this a result of not enabling memo sync, or is this a result of the security wipe?
I may have overlooked it, but I don't recall reading anything about that anywhere else. I'm tempted to try re-enabling the memo sync to see if everything blows up again. At least that way I can see for myself if the memo sync is a real issue. Of course, perhaps it's an issue with SherWeb (our host) specifically. Hm...
Anyway, for those that were interested, and for those that may come along in the future with a similar situation, the strange behavior that I first reported is no longer happening. I just don't know if it was a result of a security wipe or a result of not enabling memo sync with Exchange.
Ian