"Unsent Message" - What now?

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Level 1

10 points

"Unsent Message" - What now?

I have a Yahoo account my iPhone 3G. I created and "sent" an email.

On the bottom of the message screen, I am informed, "1 Unsent Message."

I have tried numerous times to send the email manually, even created another new and different message hoping to drag the tardy one out with the new. The new one departed, the original still lingers on.

Nothing I have done can solve this. I even deleted and re-setup the account and the message is still there haunting me.

Anyone got any idea on a solution?

Mac Book, Mac OS X (10.5.4), POS PC w/Vista; iPhone 3G with no 3G service

Posted on Aug 25, 2008 2:45 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

unlikelysquiggle

Level 1

4 points

Oct 27, 2008 9:29 PM in response to HeloCaptain

I had this problem myself, and tried everything in the forums about resetting network accounts and deleting then re-adding email accounts and it's completely unnecessary. It's a glitch, one that no amount of factory resetting has solved, so I suggest just working around it:

The easiest way to recover your email in limbo is to go to settings, flip your phone into aeroplane mode, then go back to the mail account you're dealing with. Write a new message to anyone and click send. Of course it won't be able to send it with all the connections off, but if you go back to your mailbox, voila! The outbox is has suddenly appeared, with 2 messages in it: the mystery "unsent" email you originally composed as well as the one you just wrote in aeroplane mode.

From the outbox I usually delete the dummy email and MOVE the stuck email into the drafts folder (if you don't move it it will just get stuck again). The switch out of aeroplane mode, go back to your mailbox, and try sending again. It usually works, but if it doesn't at least you can look at the email and retype it or forward it, etc.

That's the best advice I've got. Hope it helps!

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Answer 2

Jason L

Community Specialist

Aug 25, 2008 2:49 PM in response to HeloCaptain

Try Resetting Network Settings, go to Settings> General> Reset> Reset Network Settings.

Then delete the account and then adding it again with a new unique description.

If the issue persists restore the iPhone: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305744

Jason

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Answer 3

Nov 26, 2008 8:46 PM in response to unlikelysquiggle

unlikelysquiggle, thanks SO MUCH for your solution. I was just about to wipe my phone when I came across your post, fixing my problem without hours of work. You're awesome! Thanks!

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Answer 4

HeloCaptain Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 25, 2008 3:16 PM in response to Jason L

I tried your suggestion re network reset, etc. That did not fix it.

I will wait on doing the restore, only because I am forced to do one every day or two anyway and I don't want to waste several hours of my time for something that is annoying but does not appear to interfere with the functionality of the instrument.

Thanks for the response.

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Answer 5

Aug 25, 2008 3:18 PM in response to HeloCaptain

I get "unsent message" sometimes when uploading photos to flickr via email -- it seems like the data connection times out.

When it happens, I wait until I'm in a stronger network signal area (or can connect via wireless network), then go to the message and click the refresh icon. It usually sends successfully at that point.

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Answer 6

Nov 30, 2008 8:41 AM in response to HeloCaptain

Captain, you said you reset network settings but you did not delete the email account in question and re-enter it. It is not a big deal. You wont lose anything and you will then most certainly have a working yahoo email account again.

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Answer 7

Dec 3, 2008 10:04 PM in response to unlikelysquiggle

Following the suggestion I am able to see the messages stuck in the Outbox, but the Edit button in inactive so there is no way to delete them. Also, I can open the stuck messages, but then the trashcan is inactive so I can't delete them that way either.

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Answer 8

Dec 4, 2008 7:07 AM in response to HeloCaptain

read through all the responses back to your query... I also experienced this problem two weeks ago. Nothing seemed to work for my "unsent" email. Turned out I had a typo on the one email and ended up deleting and resending it. One of the responses back seemed to make you smile with a resolve, so I will have to chk it out next time it happens.

With that said, going back to the original issue, it would seem to me that there was a way of just deleting the "cause" (in my case the typo in the email address) and being able to resend... but there doesn't appear to be a mechanism to make the "correction" on the fly? That would make for a nice update for those inadvertent "typo" errors.

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Answer 9

Dec 4, 2008 8:41 PM in response to Mark Nienberg

Oh, I see now. You can't delete messages while in airplane mode, but if you switch airplane mode off and then open email and get to the list of mailbox folders quickly enough (before it reconnects using wifi or something) then you can see and select the Outbox and the Edit button will be active.

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Answer 10

Dec 5, 2008 5:56 AM in response to HeloCaptain

If you don't want to send the e-mail again and just want to get rid of it, then there is one easy way to fix it. Go into the outbox where the stuck e-mail is. Touch the e-mail preview and slide your finger to the left. Voila! A delete button appears. This same thing happened to me. I'm not sure why yahoo e-mails sometimes fail.

Hope it helps!

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