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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

KingMax

Level 1

30 points

Sep 12, 2007 12:01 PM in response to JBatch

just got the iPhone after the price drop. i love it but have already noticed this problem. at first i thought it only happened over EDGE with a wonky connection but i just checked my mail thru wifi and i got the error message-- and on an email i'm quite sure i had already sucessfully downloaded. seems random-- except for the previously mentioned theory that it affects large emails/emails with attachments.

i'd rather not do the .mac IMAP workaround. this is supposed to work, Apple! please don't make me regret this purchase.

rkkeller

Level 1

137 points

Sep 13, 2007 7:42 AM in response to JBatch

I have many email accounts on the iPhone and never had a problem until just today.

An email that I _had previously viewed_ and choose to keep so I can reference it again all of a sudden today I can not view it. I clicked refresh, tried to transfer it to another folder (would not let me), etc...

Also why when you try to view already viewed emails does it look like its trying to download it again and doesnt just display ?

Sep 15, 2007 6:59 AM in response to JBatch

From time to time I will visit the YahooMail web site in Safari on iPhone when messages aren't being downloaded properly. Although I enter the correct username and password Yahoo sends me through an extra layer of secure login that requires me to enter the secret series of letters and numbers in a picture. This even though I entered the correct info the first time.

After completing the login at " https://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=us " I went back to Mail.app on iPhone and everything was working again.

Is this a Yahoo problem where their extra layer of security is not allowing iPhone to login?

(Logging in to google did not fix Mail.app for google)

Sep 15, 2007 2:23 PM in response to JBatch

From what I have gleaned from various discussion groups and my own experimentation, it seems that messages beyond a certain length--which I haven't been able to determine--and almost any attachment, aren't stored on the phone. Unlike most email clients that work on a POP system, both desktop and mobile, the messages with attachments look back to the server on the iPhone. This would be ok but the problem occurs if you have already downloaded the same message on your home or office computer, so the iPhone has nothing to look back to on your server and you get the dreaded "This message has not been downloaded from the server." I guess that Apple used this approach to conserve memory, but it is a pain that they really offer no explanation for.

My simplistic fix for this is I opened a separate Gmail account, to which my main account is set up to forward a copy of every email. That way, if the message has been download on my computer, the iPhone will always see the Gmail copy, that is until I delete it from Gmail. Because of the high capacity of Gmail, you can store tons of email and attachments before running out of space. I've been running my phone's email this way for a few weeks and haven't once had a problem. Each time you want to view the email, the phone, however, still must contact the Gmail server to retrieve the attachment, which takes a little time depending on your connection. You can't, for instance, look at an attachment while you're riding on a subway in Manhattan. At this point it's just one of those iPhone trade-offs that we have to live with.

Sep 15, 2007 5:13 PM in response to Cleveland Guy

I also wonder if a build up of trash and/or bulk email somehow causes the problem. Sometimes logging into Yahoo via Safari and emptying the trash fixes the mail.app hangup, for awhile.

Sep 21, 2007 9:22 PM in response to Cleveland Guy

I can't believe that apple set this **** thing up to REQUIRE an internet connection to view email I've already viewed. defeats the purpose of taking messages/attachments when no internet access is available (airplane, subway, etc.) There is 8GB of space on it? Why not????

Sep 22, 2007 4:46 AM in response to Marty2241

Well, I was getting frustrated to no end with this issue, and while I just wanted to "fix" it, here's what worked for me. Setting up a new yahoo account, and forwarding all my gmail to that, and that works great! Also yahoo is the only free push e mail for the iPhone.

Sep 22, 2007 5:32 AM in response to PhilipJohn

Thanks so i will try that next to solve the incoming mail issue. But what about outgoing email? I would like to keep my gmail address as the "from" even if It's routed via yahoo...

Sep 29, 2007 9:18 AM in response to Marty2241

Updated to 1.1.1. I am STILL having this problem. It is extremely frustrating. I have submitted a number of bug reports to Apple. Anyone else?

omnicube

Level 1

0 points

Sep 29, 2007 2:12 PM in response to Marty2241

best way to resolve this situation I found, until Apple can fix it.

I forward my Gmail to a yahoo account. I setup gmail to keep a copy in the inbox, so I can download at home.

NOW...in your yahoo account, go to the options section for Mail Addresses. Edit the account and setup your reply to: option to your gmail account. If it's blank it will default to yahoo. If you put something in there, the reply to will be your gmail.

Hope this helps until later fixes are out.

jwbates

Level 1

0 points

Sep 29, 2007 7:51 PM in response to JBatch

I'm sitting here with a great example of this problem. I've got a POP account set up, neither Gmail nor Yahoo. I received an email with several photos attached, and since my POP is set to not remove it from the server, I got it on both my laptop and the iPhone.

However, the iPhone gave me a "This message has not been downloaded from the server" when I tried to read it. "Aha!" I thought, "That must mean the message has not been downloaded from the server!"

However, when I went back up to the mailbox view, it had a preview of the first few lines of the message. Switching back to the message still gave the same error. Here's the kicker, though: I hit the forward (on the iPhone) button and forwarded the message back to the same account. The message was sent successfully, including attachments. But looking back at the message on the phone, it still claims, "This message has not been downloaded from the server".

I'd say that's a bug. It happens pretty frequently, too.

Sep 29, 2007 8:45 PM in response to Mike Loiterman

I gave up with Apple regarding this and just use IMAP for my personal domain mail, local ISP. Dot Mac mail seems to work fine and lets not even get to the corporate mail solutions.

cdd543

Level 1

15 points

Sep 30, 2007 9:21 AM in response to jwbates

Interesting..I never thought about resending to same address. It is hard to believe this bug hasn't been addressed by apple.

kay9pee

Level 1

9 points

Sep 30, 2007 10:01 AM in response to cdd543

I've had this problem since day 1. I have an eBay business and get fairly large e-mails and almost all got the "This has not been downloaded ---" message. Maybe it's my imagination or wishful thinking but the problem, though it still exists, is not nearly as frequent as it was before the recent update. That being said, a fix is still definitely in order.

vinnyf

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2007 10:45 PM in response to kay9pee

I'm new to this whole iphone thing, and have been trying to wean myself from the palm pilots I've been using for a decade. What a difference in the interface! However, it seems like the iphone was never really developed as a PDA, as wonderful an ipod as it might be. I was very disturbed to find that Outlook didn't sync the task list (notes), and that email attachments needed to be downloaded each time - they weren't stored on the phone. I finally worked around the problem by creating a new account (mine's on gmail, but any of the free accounts would probably work) and sending any email with attachments I wanted permanently on the phone - notes, train schedules, etc. - to that account, which I named 'keeper' (hey, creativity wasn't a strong suit). Now, just forward any email from that account to anywhere, and it - along with it's attachment - is stored in the "sent items" associated with that account. Yeah, it's a kludge, but it's the only way that works for me. Good luck!

"This message has not been downloaded from the server"