Patent ID: 8010997

Claim:
At a computer system that maintains data accessible to mobile devices, a method for enforcing an appropriate mobile device configuration prior to permitting a mobile device to access the maintained data, the method comprising: receiving at the computer system a sync request from the mobile device, the sync request requesting that the mobile device be permitted to access the data maintained by the computer system in order to sync data between the mobile device and the computer system, the sync request indicating a current mobile device configuration of the mobile device and including a configuration version corresponding to the current mobile device configuration, the data maintained by the computer system comprising electronic mail data; determining that the current mobile device configuration is not appropriate for accessing the maintained data, wherein the act of determining that the current mobile device configuration is not appropriate for accessing the maintained data comprises comparing the configuration version included in the received sync request to one or more configuration versions stored at the computer system representing appropriate configurations for accessing the maintained data; sending device configuration settings to the mobile device, the device configuration settings representing a new mobile device configuration that is appropriate for accessing the maintained data; in response to the mobile device receiving the sent device configuration settings, receiving at the computer system an indication that the mobile device is configured in accordance with the sent device configuration settings; and in response to receiving the indication that the mobile device is configured in accordance with the sent device configuration settings, permitting the mobile device to access the maintained data using the sync request in order to sync data between the mobile device and the computer system.