iPhone Mail does not poll IMAP subfolders for server-side processed e-mails

I am having this issue, too. I have comcast pop account email...7 accounts in all...no special filtering or rules applied...just the default stuff...and I started getting these annoying, non-responsive Load xx messages; xx Unread...several days ago. You click on them and the wheels start spinning but nothing loads and though the numbers seem to sometimes change (more messages to load, fewer that are unread), there's no telling what's prompting these changes. I check my emails on my desktop and there are no more or less than what's coming over the iphone...so this just seems like a straight out bug. I have done multiple resets (and restores) on my iphone because the other annoying bug is that it might "sync" or check for mail 3 or 4 times and do it well, invariably it will eventually get stuck on connecting or checking for mail and sit there...sometimes for hours. The only way out is to reset. Restoring does nothing. Then it works for 3 or 4 more times, then it gets stuck and it's time to reset again. Go figure. Where is 2.1? Please, God, let 2.1 address these issues.
Another Complaint: Why do emails that I send have to use the xxx@me.com address as the default? Why - since I have those 7 comcast accounts - can't it just default to reply to whomever the messages were sent to...as on a Blackberry, or as in gmail???

goodgets wrote:
I am having this issue, too. I have comcast pop account email...7 accounts in all...no special filtering or rules applied...just the default stuff...and I started getting these annoying, non-responsive Load xx messages; xx Unread...several days ago. You click on them and the wheels start spinning but nothing loads and though the numbers seem to sometimes change (more messages to load, fewer that are unread), there's no telling what's prompting these changes. I check my emails on my desktop and there are no more or less than what's coming over the iphone...so this just seems like a straight out bug. I have done multiple resets (and restores) on my iphone because the other annoying bug is that it might "sync" or check for mail 3 or 4 times and do it well, invariably it will eventually get stuck on connecting or checking for mail and sit there...sometimes for hours. The only way out is to reset. Restoring does nothing. Then it works for 3 or 4 more times, then it gets stuck and it's time to reset again. Go figure. Where is 2.1? Please, God, let 2.1 address these issues.
Another Complaint: Why do emails that I send have to use the xxx@me.com address as the default? Why - since I have those 7 comcast accounts - can't it just default to reply to whomever the messages were sent to...as on a Blackberry, or as in gmail???

I too, as well as a few of my friends, have noticed that anything non-push email just quits working. No filters, no sub folders, just a standard account(cox in my case). Only solution is to reboot iPhone(3g) and then all the mails come rushing in.

You can switch the default account your phone sends from, but yes, it would be quite nice to reply from the account it was went to....

I chose to email apple about this (as well as lack of tasks). I went ahead and updated the letter for accuracy (applies to Exchange as well as yahoo/gmail accounts) and to comment on the benefits of adding this functionality in terms of customer retention as well as attracting new customers in the corporate world. Below is the text if you wish to use it.

Hello,

The iPhone Mail app does not check for new e-mails that have been moved automatically by server-side rules from the INBOX to IMAP/exchange sub-folders; it only checks for new e-mails in the INBOX folder. As a result, the overall new e-mail count is off and one has to manually open each and every subfolder to force a resync and show any new e-mails they may contain, which can be extremely tedious and frustrating as it defeats the purpose of the "auto-check" feature.

This issue applies specifically to IMAP and exchange accounts.

A similar issue exists in Leopard's Mail.app and a workaround was provided in the form of a plugin ( http://macapps.perniciouspenguins.com/imapcheck/). I have been unable to find any workaround for the iPhone Mail app though. In both cases this is a lack of basic IMAP/exchange functionality.

A wrap-up thread was created at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1355852 to gather comments from other users who feel this feature should be implemented.

Some have expressed a desire not to have all folders checked due to the number of folders they have, this is a reasonable request. Given this fact it would seem the best solution would be to have a setting for each folder within the mail app that allows the user to define whether or not it should be checked during a fetch operation.

Unfortunately, until this functionality is included the iPhone has relatively little application in the corporate world as most workers rely heavily on email sorting to handle the large number of emails that come their direction. While the iPhone has attracted many users for its wow factor, I have no doubt this has caused some to hold off on the purchasing of the iPhone and others to switch back to blackberry.

regards,

Wow...this thread started in January, along with, apparently, a lot of feedback/requests to Apple, and we're still no closer to this basic functionality after 2.0 came out...? This will make iPhone a non-starter for a lot of enterprise users. I have subfolders for all my client matters with server-side filtering into each. If I have to click on each one of my clients to see whether anything has come up, what good is this so-called push technology? Heck, it won't even PULL without a manual request!

I just received my 3G yesterday. This is my FIRST Apple product. Generally speaking, the user experience is well thought out to the extreme. The inability to see new messages copied to subfolders is, however, a huge oversight....this is something I have been able to do on my Windows Smartphone for more than 3 years. Can I shame Apple into taking care of this issue by suggesting that their performance here has the look and feel of...dare I say....Microsoft.

In the meantime, I will change my rules to COPY new messages to subfolders rather than MOVE them. Then I will delete them from the Inbox as I read them. Unfortunately, in this one case, moving to Apple has reduced my productivity.

Agree..
This is a much needed feature...

I also would like to put in a vote to fix this issue. Everyone else here has pretty much stated why the lack of this feature is extremely annoying, so I won't repeat them. Suffice to say I agree wholeheartedly.

I would agree, however, that this feature should be made an option. In Thunderbird, for instance, it is off by default but is able to be enabled through the configuration manager.

As far as I can see, the software needed to make the fix would be pretty trivial. If the iPhone mail app were open source I would try to undertake it myself.

As a note, I have just downloaded 2.1 and have not noticed any additional options. I will post again if I notice any differences...

Yeah, I'm extremely frustrated by the same problem, and in fact, it caused me to miss a very important email yesterday. I just got an iPhone 3G and synched it to my Outlook email account yesterday morning. I was away from my computer all day yesterday, so I used my iPhone to check my mail. I was not aware of this limitation, so I did not think to check every single sub-folder that I had set a rule for.

As a result, I found out today that I missed an extremely important email yesterday because it was sent to a subfolder that I had not checked. As a result, I missed a meeting with my study group in my graduate school MBA program. Had my iPhone shown a new mail icon in the sub-folder, then I would have definitely seen it.

It is amazing to me that the iPhone would have such a terrible limitation.

I just emailed Apple feedback based on the very useful template someone posted above. I added a personal touch at the end, elaborating on my frustrations. Haha.

I'll add my name to the list. I don't really use my main email account on my iPhone because I'd have to work through almost ten folders manually. IMAP IDLE support would be nice too. 🙂

Folder propagation without opening individual folders is crucial.

My email usage is primarily for business. Server defined rules to move mail to designated folders is critical for organization. The concern others on this thread have about the amount of email they have existing in their folders stored on the server and their iPhones becoming bloated is confusing to me. If this was an option there would certainly be a way to select which folders you want to 'sync' and how far back you would like to pull email from (1 week, 2 weeks, etc.). This is native to smart phones on the market.

Folder propagation would be disastrous for me. Can you imagine the time, battery capacity, and storage necessary for my entire 2 GB OST file?

Again, why would you choose to pull ALL of your stored mail to your mobile device?

You would only pull recent emails (my 1 week or 2 week example above) and would have the choice of folders to pull.

Hello,

I just received my iPhone yesterday and I want to add my vote to the poll: we need to be able to refresh IMAP subfolders.

It is difficult to understand why it is taking so long to add such a simple enhancement.

Let's hope that Apple will hear us, or at least explain us why it isn't implemented yet.

Best Regards,

Charles

Hey all. I'm afraid I don't understand. To clarify, you are saying that when syncing to an IMAP mail account where there are folders other than inbox that mail is delivered to, the iPhone does not automatically load those into the mail application. Correct?

I just set up an IMAP account based on the advice of another user here who has found a way around the whole hotmail sync issue. By default, this mail service puts your hotmail messages in a separate folder rather than in the main inbox. The iPhone does, in fact, retrieve them. It doesn't update the icon, but it definitely gets the mail without me pressing the refresh icon or otherwise forcing a check. In fact, it just made the mail noise right now. When I open the app and look in this account, there is a number next to folder that receives the mail from my hotmail account.

Is this not what everyone is talking about not happening? Of course I'd like to see the icon give a visual cue, but it is in fact doing what it is supposed to.

No. On mine the folders other than the inbox will have no messages in them (or they will be old messages if I have at least visited the folder manually before). I have to navigate to a particular folder, click the refresh icon, and then it will load the messages. I am set to auto check and it consistently updates the inbox, but none of the folders. Using fastmail as my IMAP service.

For whatever reason, it sounds like yours is working as we would all expect it to.

Message was edited by: mhibbs