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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

Mar 11, 2008 8:42 AM in response to JBatch

I'm shocked to see that this is a common problem since iphone was released. I got the phone this week and I'm getting the same frustrating message. In addition, I often times get a variety of other messages such as --
1. cannot access server (and then the messages will download)
2. name or password is incorrect (nothing has been changed)

Because I don't have wi-fi access readily available, I'm always using AT&T Edge to download. I understand not being able to access email when I'm not in AT&T range, but can't figure out why it's so inconsistent and flakey when I know I'm connecting to AT&T.

Overall the phone is great, but this is a fatal flaw for those of us that purchased the iphone primarily for data access. Any update or additional insight on this?

This is a great forum and it's helped me a lot with the questions and problems I've had. Great resource --



kim

Mar 11, 2008 3:19 PM in response to JBatch

Possible Fix...If it lasts. So far so good.

I went into my Mail program on my Mac (not the ideal program, but apparently it uses less space on the computer when in use.)

I went into my preferences and clicked on Accounts>Advanced and then unchecked "remove copy from server after retrieving a message".

So far so good but we'll see!

And I'm using Comcast POP mail.

The iPhone has several productivity issues that my Treo did not. Cut and paste, saving documents, excel files etc...

A shame...but fun!

Mar 11, 2008 4:45 PM in response to K J Wilkerson

I seriously hope they sort this out before starting to tout the iPhone as a blackberry competitor!

I get this problem on my iPhone as well - both with IMAP and POP accounts. I use O2 as my carrier here in the UK. Now, after testing different configurations and methods, it seems to me that I can view email fine when connected via WiFi. But when on EDGE and especially GPRS, messages from gmail (POP) and .mac (IMAP) often fail to load.

Apr 19, 2008 2:08 AM in response to JBatch

I also have this problem.
However, I also have a slightly different problem, that might be related.
I can't download new messages by pressing update. It runs, and then stops as if there are no new messages. If I then log onto my webmail I can download the messages. Still a lot of them say that they are not downloaded, but I cannot understand why I have to log in on the webmail to make it work!
I can use Safari for that, but it's a time consuming workaround...
Any ideas?

May 14, 2008 2:17 PM in response to JBatch

I have received this error message hundreds of times over the last year and had all kinds of other issues with my iPhone that Apple store employees are unable to solve and unwilling to admit exist. A friend told me today to try turning off the WiFi setting when you are using the ATT network, and so far this is working (except for large emails where the wheel just keeps on spinning).

Luckily I have a blackberry and hardly ever use the iPhone.

May 15, 2008 7:34 AM in response to JBatch

Nothing mentioned here works for me.
Occasionally it also tells me my password is incorrect which I know it isn't.
I simply cannot reply on my Iphone to receive email. Absolutely still have to drag my laptop around because of that. Shame on Apple for not fixing this,
and for monitoring these discussion groups, but never replying to them. Not my idea of good customer service.

Jul 15, 2008 7:01 AM in response to Brian Haberman

I've had two messages do this since Friday. I am new to iPhone and love it. It does seem weird. I had one email do this after I viewed it on the phone and was never able to view it again. I had another do it and a few minutes later it said not downloaded from server but about a half hour later it showed the email.

I'm not very tech sophisticated but thsi sounds weird and aren't the emails stored on the phone?

Jul 16, 2008 4:23 AM in response to JBatch

I also keep getting intermittent problems viewing and downloading emails. Sometimes an email that I've viewed, and then tried again later has to re-download and then I sometimes get that message again.

Also, my iPhone checking mail is causing my Entourage to redownload messages on the server that it already has done so causing mass duplication. It doesn't do it when I deactivate my mail on the iPhone.

Seems like iPhone Mail is just as poor as Mail was back in the days of OS X 10.2

Jul 16, 2008 1:30 PM in response to andyjjj

Im Having the same problem, Brought my 3G phone Friday set the mail up yesterday all seemed fine, now today I was viewing the mails fine and the attachments were all ok. But this afternoon I keep getting This Message has not been downloaded from the Server. It’s not only the mails with attachments but others to. Any Help is appreciated

"This message has not been downloaded from the server"

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