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Level 1

11 points

"This message has not been downloaded from the server"

I am using GMail and am have problems reading (some) emails with attachments. I can read the first several lines through the preview view, but can not open (some) emails without getting the "This message has not been downloaded from the server" error.

The problem appears to be completely random. The problem occurs sometimes after I open the email on my computer, and other times it occurs before I open the email on my computer. And sometimes opening the email on my computer does not cause any problem opening the email on my phone.

I have seen this problem on two different phones now and have re-created the email accounts on both phone several times. But the problems keeps (eventually) appearing--for some, but not all emails.

For some strange reason, I was able to open an email with attachments that I previously was unable to open. Not sure what changed or what I could have possibly done.

The other day, I opened the email and viewed the attachments on my iPhone. Later, I opened the email on my computer. After opening the email on my computer, I was no longer able to open that email on my iPhone. However, I was able to open that same email and view the attachments on my iPhone again.

Then as another test, I sent 5 identical messages with attachments to my iPhone. The only thing I changed was the subject of each message. I was able to open only 1 of these 5 messages. The other 4 messages gave me the "This message has not been downloaded from the server" error.

I currently have several week-old messages on my iPhone (each under 300k) that still say "The message has not been downloaded from the server."

I was connected to wifi for over an hour, so that's plenty of time to download these few small emails. I can read the "preview" of the message from the Inbox screen, but when I click on the message itself, I get the error.

And, those messages with the attachments that I was able to open earlier? I can no longer open them now. Very, very frustrating.

This problem appears to happening to all users with with POP email accounts. This problem essentially makes the iPhone useless if you can not reliably read email messages or any attachments.

Is Apple working this very serious problem?

 PowerBook G4, Macintosh 512K, iPod nano (2nd Gen 8GB), iPhone (8GB)

Posted on Jul 26, 2007 1:08 PM

119 replies

Aug 23, 2007 1:47 PM in response to JBatch

Same problem here! I have tried several times to fix it. It seems random. Glad I am not the only one. Please respond to me if you find a solution. What is the point of email on your phone when you can't receive the document or picture???????????????????

Aug 23, 2007 2:21 PM in response to angelamowinski

Same problem with my iPhone. Inappropriate.

Aug 23, 2007 3:26 PM in response to teamrass

Does anyone know what's up here? Are we facing timeout issues and the iPhone is giving up?

I'm betting that this is at least part of the problem. Don't dare hit any email that has html/images in it if you are in airplane mode. You'll wait interminably long for it to time out and then tell you that it can't be downloaded.

In fact, a whole bunch of stuff gets squirrely when you don't have very good connectivity.

I also get these weird race conditions when I enter an unknown wifi zone while reading email. When it pops up the little dialog to ask if I want to join, it will sometimes freeze for a few minutes - the phone becomes unresponsive to touch, buttons, and resets.

The last time, I couldn't even get it to reboot. Thank god for the most recent firmware update. I was able to force it down and the upgrade did the reboot for me.

JBatch Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 23, 2007 3:31 PM in response to Elizabeth Vetter

I have the same problem whether I have four bars or no bars...or whether I have a strong wifi signal or not. Connectivity doesn't appear to effect this one way or the other. It still appears to be completely random.

Aug 23, 2007 9:06 PM in response to JBatch

I only have the problem when I have limited connectivity. Then, it is pretty much anything with a remote image. For some reason, a lot of my clients like to stick img urls in their signatures.

Aug 25, 2007 9:24 AM in response to JBatch

This is a pretty big deal. Why no answer from Apple. Don't make me short aapl!!

Aug 25, 2007 11:00 AM in response to rudyhassen

Here is the workaround that I had to apply to get around this POP mail issue. Yes another workaround to add to the growing list of workarounds. I ended up auto forwarding all my POP accounts to .mac and my personal server. I deleted all my POP accounts on the iPhone and now have just IMAP. I'm also using Synchronia (another workaround) for corporate mail and although it has bouts of connectivity issues, for the most part it works for email only. Since everything is all IMAP now, this stupid error no longer comes up.

Aug 25, 2007 11:29 AM in response to SuperSizeIt

I appreciate the fix. They should fix it though. I want to have the email on my iPhone. imap is great, but sometimes I want the mail or doc on the phone itself. Also, I like the Blackberry 's ability to delete the mail off the device, the server or both. Great for SPAM control. Nothing wrong with taking some features from the competitor right? All of these issues go away with the leopard release right Apple?

Aug 25, 2007 12:42 PM in response to rudyhassen

You realize that's the entire point of IMAP right? It keeps the local copy synchronized with the server, so you have the ability to delete mail from the device, and the server both. having to delete them both separately through a POP connection isn't exactly a feature I'd like to have.

Aug 25, 2007 2:55 PM in response to rudyhassen

I don't know if any of these issues will go away when Leopard is released. Only Apple will know. But the workaround I'm using is a viable method of alleviating that silly error with POP email. Since there is no other way to fix it, IMAP seems to be the only solution.

melihah

Level 1

8 points

Sep 9, 2007 1:49 PM in response to JBatch

I'm having the same problem.

It happened with several messages but the one I really noticed it with was an important email that had a travel itinerary--quite useless if the message is not "...downloaded from the server"! The funny thing is that sometimes you get a message at the bottom of the email that gives you the option to try downloading more of the message and sometimes you don't. With this particular message, the original email was rec'd more than a month ago and stored in my iPhone Inbox AND was still sitting on the email server. I opened the email several times since first receiving it, and the message downloaded fine each time. Now 1+ month later, I got the "This message has not been downloaded from the server" message.

netsyd2

Level 1

0 points

Sep 11, 2007 5:10 AM in response to JBatch

Same issue ... doesn't seem to matter how old the email, weither I've read it or not. Gmail account w/ pop access.

I don't understand why the iPhone doesn't keep a local copy. Unless I'm missing something it sure seems like every time I open an email it goes back out to re-download it.

Apple made a big mistake trusting AT&T data to support all the web access on this device.

Sep 11, 2007 10:42 AM in response to netsyd2

I just bought a iphone and like everythin except email.

I am also having this problem with my pop mail account. If I set the mail account with the preference to keep mail on server then I can continue to read the mail on the phone. As soon as it is removed from the server I can not read the email.

Does anyone know for sure that the iphone does not keep emails stored in the memory of the phone?

If the emails are only retieved via the server then I will have to return the phone.

Does anyone from Apple respond to questions in this forum? I see this issue was started a long time ago.

sandrift

Level 2

399 points

Sep 11, 2007 11:00 AM in response to jlmza2350

jlmza2350 wrote:
Does anyone from Apple respond to questions in this forum? I see this issue was started a long time ago.

No, nobody from Apple posts to these forums with responses to questions. The purpose of these forums is for users to share information. Apple employees do read the forums, but the best opportunity to get a problem like this addressed is to send polite and specific feedback about your problem here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

With a problem this widespread, I imagine that it will likely be addressed in a near-term update. In the meantime, the workaround suggested above by SuperSizeIt sounds like a good one - if you can, forward your Gmail (or other POP account) to an IMAP account, such as .Mac.

Frankly, I don't care for POP under any circumstances, so I'm going to be sending Google feedback urging them to consider switching to IMAP.

Jorge G.

Level 3

646 points

Sep 11, 2007 6:41 PM in response to JBatch

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this issue. 60% of the time I get this message, that it has not been downloaded from the server. Happens both for my yahoo and gmail accounts. Very annoying, hope it gets fixed soon..

"This message has not been downloaded from the server"