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

Just to let everyone know, OS 3.0 NOW SUPPORTS subfolder push.

go to your mail configuration > exchange account and you can specify what folders to push

"exchange account" ?

does subfolder push only work for Exchange or IMAP as well?

push only works for exchange.

Imap and Pop3 protocols don't support push.

This doesn't include notifications on the Mail app icon for sub-folders though. Still only Inbox.

Agreed, coming over from a Blackberry really shows the limitations of the email client.

And I dare say Apple will not be allowing any alternative email clients in the app store........

I was looking for alternatives in the App Store, not expecting to find any, but lo and behold I found something called ibisMAIL. Anyone tried it?

Just to clarify the issue: The iPhone 3.0 OS update merely shows that there are new emails in subfolders once you drill down into your inbox and view the list of folders. Any of the subfolders that have new messages will be in bold with the number of new messages in parenthesis next to the folder -just like every other email client. This is better than having to open each and every subfolder and refresh it but is still way off from what Apple should have done.

How freaking difficult is it to check the subfolders??? Just write a freaking recursive function and iterate all of the subfolders to check if there is anything new and get the count. There must be some property on the Inbox that tells how many new messages are in all of the subfolders. If RIM and Microsoft can get this information why can't Apple? Technically Apple already has the information already. The fact that 3.0 doesn't force you to manually refresh each folder means that all Apple has to do is "peek" into the Inbox and tally up all of the new messages in the subfolders. If they can display those values when the screen is generated why not have a global variable that keeps a running total?

This is not rocket science. One could argue that the reason they held out so long for cut-copy-paste was because they wanted to figure out the most elegant way to do it. But this one is a no-brainer!

Apparently there are a few services (such as nuevasync.com and msgpush.com) and that will allow you to use your IMAP account as an Exchange. According to this post ( http://bit.ly/7rc8M), one of the benefits is that they (or at least nuevasync) "allow you to monitor folders other than the Inbox for new mail"

Has anyone tried these? Do they solve the problem discussed in this thread?

Correction Microsoft cannot handle only RIM. Microsoft and Apple apparently do not think that messages in a subfolder need no notification. It is hard to believe that during testing of these phones no one had any subfolders?

Just bought ibisMail

It has a function called "subscribe", which allows you to choose which folder(s) to poll when you update (open the client or refresh).

Best solution for the problem so far!!!

How to poll IMAP sub-folders with ibisMail


http://ibis.ne.jp/en/products/ibisMail_iPhone/#mainscreen See "Folder List screen"


Enter your mail account to see the folder list.

Press Edit at the top right corner to enter the edit mode.

Choose a sub-folder you like (for example folder 1).

Press very small "Edit" buttom at the bottom of the screen.

Turn on "Subscribe"(default OFF).

At the folder list screen, press update(refresh) button.


Now, ibisMail polls for INBOX and sub-folders you chose to "Subscribe".

Does ibisMail use the iPhone's notification system? How is the user notified of new emails if the application is not running?

No background function or push notification.

All I'm talking about is polling for IMAP INBOX and subfolders, not push e-mail.