How to not store IMAP email on iPhone

Question

Level 3

930 points

How to not store IMAP email on iPhone

Mail.app on the Mac has an IMAP option that lets you not store local copies of messages. (It's under the Advanced tab.)

Is there any way to do something similar on the iPhone? For security reasons, I'd rather not have my email viewable when I'm not connected to the IMAP server.

Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Oct 22, 2008 11:13 AM

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Answer 1

Damon M.

Level 4

3,705 points

Oct 22, 2008 11:57 AM in response to Waveman

Hi Waveman1,

The iphone does not store the email itself on the iphone.
When the iphone looks like it is downloading a list of emails, it is not downloading the whole email, but just the header.
Then when you tap on an email, the iphone goes back out to the server to download the body and any attachments for the email.
It caches the last email viewed so that if you go back to the email right away, the iphone does not have to download the email again.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 2

Waveman Author

Level 3

930 points

Oct 22, 2008 12:08 PM in response to Damon M.

The problem is that the iPhone does store email locally. I just tried it, and emails going back more than a month are still viewable, even though I'm not connected to the IMAP server. On the Mac, all that you can see are the message titles, but not the message bodies (assuming that you have "Don't keep copies of any messages" selected under account setup.)

Thanks.

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Answer 3

Oct 22, 2008 12:27 PM in response to Waveman

If you are really worried you can move the messages to a different IMAP folder using Mail.app on your Mac, and not look at that folder on your iPhone, but look at the original folder which will then be cleared.

Mail on the iPhone is cached because the network connection could be quite slow. Each time you went into a mail folder you would have to redownload everything again. That would be a lot of network activity. Not everyone has unlimited data on their mobile plan.

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Answer 4

Waveman Author

Level 3

930 points

Oct 22, 2008 1:45 PM in response to Matthew Smith

Matthew Smith wrote:
If you are really worried you can move the messages to a different IMAP folder using Mail.app on your Mac, and not look at that folder on your iPhone, but look at the original folder which will then be cleared.

I'm not sure how that would help. I know, for example, that I can move mail out of my Inbox on my Mac and it will no longer be visible on the iPhone, but that doesn't take care of mail that comes into the iPhone before I get to my Mac. Similarly, mail that I move to another IMAP folder on my Mac will still be visible on the iPhone.

What I'm looking for is a way to make sure that my IMAP mail is viewable on my iPhone only when I'm connected to the server, just like I can on my Mac.

Matthew Smith wrote:
Mail on the iPhone is cached because the network connection could be quite slow. Each time you went into a mail folder you would have to redownload everything again. That would be a lot of network activity. Not everyone has unlimited data on their mobile plan.

True, but shouldn't that be my choice?

Thanks.

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Answer 5

Oct 22, 2008 2:12 PM in response to Waveman

Mail on the iPhone does not have this capability.

Whether you have the choice or not is dependent on whether it is workable.

What benefit would I get if I had mail only stored on the server? I can only see it when I am in Mail on the iPhone, unlike on a computer where I can access from other applications? Having it on the server would be like having the data on the iPhone but slower.

If you set up security with a passcode lock, no one can pick up your phone and read your email either.

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Answer 6

Waveman Author

Level 3

930 points

Oct 22, 2008 3:00 PM in response to Matthew Smith

The issue is that much of my email contains sensitive information that I cannot let others read. If email is stored only on the server and hence is only visible on the iPhone when I'm connected, then it isn't readable by someone who finds or steals my iPhone. The passcode doesn't offer enough security, I'm afraid.

This wouldn't be an issue if my organization supported Exchange, which it currently doesn't.

I'm just trying to see if anyone has a solution that I haven't thought of.

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Answer 7

Oct 22, 2008 4:36 PM in response to Waveman

Why is the passcode not enough security? You can set it to erase all data after 10 failed attempts. I think this was introduced in v2.1.

I believe if someone connected a passcode protected iPhone to iTunes where it was not previously connected it will only allow them to erase and restore. They wouldn't be able to see the mail.

With the current security capabilities of the iPhone you need to determine what the risk is of someone being able to read your email. Since Mail on iPhone keeps messages on the device you need to know how difficult it would be to get access to that information.

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