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"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

Reply
119 replies

Oct 17, 2007 11:08 AM in response to JBatch

I have finally gotten my iPhone to receive e-mail properly. Here is how I'm doing it:

1) I forward all mail from my primary account to a secondary account.
2) The secondary account is downloaded to a sleeper-box I have in the office, where I use SpamSieve to prune out the spam. (This step is not necessary, but cuts down on the garbage mail).
3) All cleaned mail is then forwarded to my Yahoo! Mail account.
4) I set up iPhone to use my Yahoo! Mail account.

The end result is that I get a fairly cleaned-up collection of mail that once it lands on the iPhone, is actually viewable, including any attachments. I hadn't viewed an attachment properly prior to switching to Yahoo! Mail.

At least we have one example of making Mail work on the iPhone! Despite the fact that it only takes a few extra hoops.

Mac Hammer

Oct 25, 2007 11:22 AM in response to JBatch

SO glad to read I am not alone in suffering with this problem. I got my iPhone right after it was released and have gone through 2 phones. Both have exhibited the same behavior. I have also played with every setting on the phone and different email accounts and also noticed no difference whatsoever. What I want to know is this:

1. IS Apple working on this... does it see this as a bonafide problem? If so, where is this problem in terms of priorities re bug fixes?
2. What PRECISELY is the cause of the "clog" in the pipeline?
3. Is there a difference depending on what kind of WIFI network is being used by the iPhone to get the mail?
4. How are people getting attachments if at all right now via their iPhone?

SOOOoo frustrating, this particular problem... particularly that it has yet to have been addressed by Apple. Wouldn't it be great to have a look at how Apple has prioritized known bugs on the phone.

Oct 25, 2007 1:42 PM in response to KingMax

Would I then have to have all of my mail at my POP account (which is my primary account) forwarded to a Gmail account (or have Gmail go suck up all my POP mail)? If so, will Gmail still leave all of my POP email where it was originally so that I can still use my regular POP mail account (which is my primary email account)?

Wow - how complicated email has become now!

Nov 6, 2007 1:19 PM in response to Actually Human

Yes, if you want to avoid the issues a POP server presents, you can forward e-mail from the POP account to your Gmail account (presuming you already have logged into Gmail and enabled IMAP access). When you set your POP account to forward e-mail to Gmail, look for the option to either preserve messages on the original server or delete them once they've been forwarded.

Nov 6, 2007 3:37 PM in response to b_behringer

b_behringer - this may seem like a stupid question, but did you delete your old Gmail account on the iPhone and it set up using the "Other" option under Settings>Mail>Add Account... on the iPhone? The "Gmail" option under "Add Account..." is only for POP-enabled accounts - if you want to use IMAP on Gmail you have to set it up on the iPhone manually (for now). (Specific instructions for each setting are on the Gmail website.)

I haven't had any problems with the "message not downloaded from server" message since I enabled IMAP on Gmail. If you did the above already, can you be more specific about what messages aren't downloading? For example, do they always have attachments, or are they always over a certain size, etc.?

Nov 6, 2007 5:39 PM in response to sandrift

I agree. I've been using IMAP on TWO gmail accounts on my iphone (set up manually as mentioned above) and in one week have seen no further issues with "this message has not been downloaded from the server".

In fact, it has downloaded messages from my gmail Inbox (and maintains them without getting the error mesg) that were 1+ year old.

Thank you to gmail/google for fixing this.

Nov 8, 2007 2:24 PM in response to JBatch

I have found if you just page up or page down to another message (using up and down arrows) and then return to the one that said it has not been downloaded, it usually loads so you can see it. It just takes a few seconds. The first message tries to load before the download is complete. Hope this helps.

Nov 14, 2007 9:56 AM in response to JBatch

This has worked for me, although the message unread symbol stays until the next message check. But i can live with that.
http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2007/08/21/fixing-iphone-email-account-issues-delete- then-re-establish/
Basically the mail box's that are set up by syncing need to be deleted and set up manually on the iPhone. Its that simple. Messages are now downloaded fully .

"This message has not been downloaded from the server"

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