NA idevice mail

[Let'sgoflying!]

Have had the ipad & iphone for years now, but still haven't figured out how they handle the mail.
I notice when the laptop is on, the mail arrives briefly on the idevices, then disappears; annoying but tolerable.

The biggest thing is that each device has a thousand emails from the last 2 years (I am guessing 1/30 of all mail), and
a) I am not sure why it is keeping only those ones; there is some spam, some regular correspondents.
b) I am not seeing a bulk-delete option.

 

[denverpilot]

Doesn't make any sense unless the laptop is using the antiquated POP3 protocol and deleting mail off of the server or the desktop has sorting rules in the mail client and its receiving mail, then moving it to another folder.

The normal configuration nowadays is IMAP for most mail servers with the various clients all generally in sync all of the time. If something arrives into the inbox and the desktop is doing IMAP IDLE (attached to the server and waiting for notifications of new messages) and the iOS devices are attached to a server that supports Push, mail arrival is nearly instantly seen on all of them. Deletes go the same way.

Stuff that'll slow it down but never get it out of sync if you pull down the screen and update are lack of push on the server for the iOS devices or lack of IDLE support. Hit refresh on all of them though and they'll all end up exactly the same.

Need more info on your setup to figure out why it wouldn't be doing the above.

 

[RJM62]

I doubt that anyone understands it, to tell you the truth. I'd estimate that 99.99 percent of all my email support tickets and calls relate to iThings. I think the last non-iThing mail ticket I got was about two or three years ago -- and I'm not even kidding.

All of my servers support BlackBerry FastMail, so setting that up is a no-brainer. Email address and password, and the device auto-configures. Android requires a bit more work, but ultimately works. Same for Outlook, T-Bird, etc. But iThings are hit and miss. Even if the user does everything exactly right, it's a crap shoot whether the mail will work.

Another annoying thing that I have to believe is caused by unannounced updates is that some days, I'll get a bazillion mail complaint tickets from iThing users, all on the same day. Previously-working mail will simply stop working, for no apparent reason, and with no fix other than deleting and re-creating the account on the device using the exact same credentials and settings. I have no idea why this happens, but I have to suspect silent updates. I can't think of any other reason.

The mail, in fact, is the main reason why an iPhone will not be my first choice when John Chen finally drives the last nail into BlackBerry's coffin. I like Apple's emphasis on privacy, and I can tolerate the rest of the OS, but the mail is absolutely ghastly -- and for me, mail is the most important feature on a phone other than voice.

I don't know the specific reasons for your problem. I have to believe that it has something to do with the way the iThing's IMAP implementation handles trash because my users have the same problem. There doesn't seem to be any way to completely delete the real crap that they want really gone. I happily bulk-delete it for them server-side when they ask because it hogs storage space on my servers.

Other than using POP3 (which takes some doing on an iThing and has plenty of its own drawbacks), the only thing I can recommend is logging into your mail provider's webmail gateway and seeing if they have a way to remove the offending messages. I'm sure there must be some other way to really, truly delete an email using an iThing, but I haven't found it yet.

Rich

 

[denverpilot]

Hmm thought of another one. If your not using a typical mail provider (big name, lots of ithings), many limit the number of updates one can request per minute via IMAP. iOS and Mail.App both open a number of sessions simultaneously to download mail in folders in parallel. This ticks off some mail servers and some of the sessions hang.

Find a smarter IMAP provider (Rich's fastmail.fm is great. And clueful.) or simply close the mail app with a double tap of the home button and swipe it away. A full restart will get you some more mail until you hit the arbitrary limit set in the server again.

I hit limits on Yahoo if I have all five Apple devices online at the same time and syncing mail when a massive amount has queued. (Yahoo's method of handling this is that they start failing the user auth of individual connections which pops a login box on the idevices, making the problem obvious. )

Many mail providers simply drop the TCP session after properly setting up the three way handshake, which is fairly rude, but eventually the idevice figures it out and tries again.

 

[RJM62]

Hmm thought of another one. If your not using a typical mail provider (big name, lots of ithings), many limit the number of updates one can request per minute via IMAP. iOS and Mail.App both open a number of sessions simultaneously to download mail in folders in parallel. This ticks off some mail servers and some of the sessions hang.

Find a smarter IMAP provider (Rich's fastmail.fm is great. And clueful.) or simply close the mail app with a double tap of the home button and swipe it away. A full restart will get you some more mail until you hit the arbitrary limit set in the server again.

I hit limits on Yahoo if I have all five Apple devices online at the same time and syncing mail when a massive amount has queued. (Yahoo's method of handling this is that they start failing the user auth of individual connections which pops a login box on the idevices, making the problem obvious. )

Many mail providers simply drop the TCP session after properly setting up the three way handshake, which is fairly rude, but eventually the idevice figures it out and tries again.

Fastmail.fm is the most trouble-free provider I've ever used. Everything just works, all the time, with no drama. I have the paid account because I want the calendaring. It's well worth the modest cost. Like the mail, it just works, on any client, on any device, with no drama. It's a totally trouble-free service.

Rich