Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

"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

Jul 31, 2007 1:36 PM in response to JBatch

This has been an ongoing issue. Several threads regarding this serious flaw has sprung up. I agree that this should be one of the very first fixes for the iPhone, as it both impacts consumers as well as users who opted to experiment with the iPhone for business use.

I finally deleted my problem emails after several days of letting it sit there in the inbox with "This message has not been downloaded from the server" message. Even IMAP is flaky on the phone, but eventually it works and you get your mail if your patient enough.

Aug 4, 2007 8:12 AM in response to Charles Andrews

Same thing here too. It's very frustrating because at first I thought that it was just happening after I checked my mail on my home computer and then it would give me the message on the phone but then I did some experimenting and now see that it happens randomly no matter what I do.

With no way to store documents (like a Excel or Word doc) on the phone itself I was counting on being able to email docs to myself and just keep them in my mail app.

Can anyone say if this is happening with mail on a .mac account too?

Aug 22, 2007 10:17 AM in response to JBatch

I have had this problem as well...however, once I changed my setting in Mail, on my computer, so that the messages were not deleted from the server I didn't seem to have the problem anymore. Anyone else notice this? This is not a retroactive fix though...any messages that my iphone processed before I made this change were unaffected.

Also, why is it that the iphone doesn't appear to actually sync messages with your computer when it is connected? It only seems to talk to email via AT&T and the POP/IMAP servers.

Aug 22, 2007 8:43 PM in response to JBatch

[My appologies for cross posting, this seems a more apposite thread to respond to than my original "Re: Question for GMail Users" thread.]

Alas, there are a number of emails that I receive the "This message has not been downloaded from the server" message for - even after todays mysterious update - they seem to fall into two categories:

1) Messages that are 'redirected' by Apple Mail from my work account to my personal gmail account - a filter fires, redirects personal email which I can read using the web interface to gmail, but not on the iPhone.

2) Most, but not all - go figure - jpg attachments. For example, the majority of the photos my wife takes on her iPhone and send are, again, readable using the web interface to gmail, but not via the iPhone Mail application.

Coming back to look again doesn't seem to improve my luck. Further, I've noticed these messages remain marked as 'unread' - which is equally annoying as the new email count doesn't reflect what's really 'new' any more.

And, finally, I've noticed I get a number of messages where I can read the 'snippet' in the message list window on the iPhone, but the interface presents the same "This message has not been downloaded from the server" message when I try to open it. Often after appearing to load for some time.

Does anyone know what's up here? Are we facing timeout issues and the iPhone is giving up? Are there MIME or Attachment parsing issues? Any and all pointers most appreciated!

I would use m.gmail.com for the mobile interface at this point, if I wasn't using a hosted Google App via a personal domain which doesn't appear to support the same 'mobile' interface.

"This message has not been downloaded from the server"

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.