Sent out to affected users in the last few days, is an email from Microsoft, quoted below, effectively meaning the end of the Nokia SIM-driven intelligent email set-up and 'push' system that has been used for Symbian handsets for years. Of course, in 2014, many people may already be using a custom Exchange email set-up (e.g. with Nuevasync to Google) or may have set their email up with IMAP or POP3 manually, and if you didn't get the email then your mailbox probably isn't affected.

Thanks to MyNokiaBlog for the report, we have this quoted email from Nokia:

Please update the Mail settings on your Nokia phone to avoid service disruption

Dear Nokia mobile phone customer,

We’ve noticed that you are or were using the Mail app on a Nokia Symbian phone to access your email account. We’re changing how email is delivered to your phone and need you to take action.

Beginning 17 November 2014, the Mail app on your Nokia Symbian phone will no longer let you send and receive new email, or read existing email unless you update your settings.

Go to http://nms.nokia.com/em/c and immediately complete the steps shown to continue using the Mail app. When done, you’ll enjoy uninterrupted access to your email.

Don’t miss a single message. Please act before 17 November 2014 to stay connected to your email. Go to http://nms.nokia.com/em/c today!

For further instructions, visit the following pages for your corresponding device.

• If your device is E5-00, C5-00, E72, E72-1, E72-2, E73, E52, E52-1, E55, E75, E75-1, X5-01, 6700s, 6710 Navigator, 6710s or 6730c, check out the instructions here: http://nms.nokia.com/em/f

• If your device is E63, E71, C5-03, C5-05, C5-06, 5228, 5230, 5233, 5235, 5238, 5250, 5530, 5630, 5730, 5800XM, X6-00, N73, N78, N82, N85, N86 8MP, N95 8GB, N97, N97 Mini, 6220c, 6270c, 6760s, 6790s, E51, E66, E61i or E90, check out the instructions here: http://nms.nokia.com/em/g

• If your device is N8-00, C6-00, C6-01, C7-00, E6-00, E7-00, X7-00, 500, 603, 700, 701, 808 PureView, Oro, N97 Mini PR2+ or any other Symbian ^3 device, check out the instructions here: http://nms.nokia.com/em/c

The links go to pages effectively walking affected users through deleting their mailboxes and adding them back in again, this time with all manual set-up of settings, and a number of suitable parameters suggested by Nokia's/Microsoft's help pages.

There's also the heavy implication that emails for affected users were being pushed from a Nokia email proxy, something which will also be closed down on 17th November 2014, though I've been using Exchange access to access my email on Symbian for so long that I'm out of touch with how this works/used to work.

I do wonder how many people are being affected by this - comments welcome. Did you get the email (I didn't)? Were your current mailboxes set-up through Nokia's SIM-driven wizard (i.e. set-up isn't possible for most hosts unless there's a SIM card in the phone to guide a server wizard as to which settings to use)?  Is your email on Symbian currently 'pushed' by Nokia after a wizardly set-up several years ago?

For all those (the majority?) using Exchange directly to a host, I don't think anything will change or break, but hey, it's always a good time to at least make a note of your salient email access details and settings, just in case?