Negative unsent messages count

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Negative unsent messages count

Hi,

I have multiple mail accounts defined, with my Yahoo account set as the default account. Earlier today I tried to send a message with a shaky WiFi connection and received an error message that the message could not be sent.

Not sure what kind of crazy bug kicked in as a result but the next thing I know, iPhone is uncontrollably sending messages from one of my personal IMAP accounts through my Yahoo account to various email addresses. Somehow this stopped after tens of emails were already sent out. The problem is that now the status bar says that I have 4294967214 unsent messages (yes, 4294967214 - it's not a typo), probably the result of a hex representation of a negative number.

When I look at my Outbox, I see a message count of -81 but no messages are displayed (probably because the number is negative) and therefore I cannot swipe-delete the Outbox's content. Does anyone know of a way other than individual swipe-delete to force the Outbox folder to delete all of its content?

Thanks
Dan

-, iPhone OS 3.1, -

Posted on Dec 16, 2009 3:28 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 16, 2009 3:32 PM in response to elements99

I have seen the same or similar reported here before and it always involves a Yahoo account.

Try deleting and recreating your Yahoo account on your iPhone.

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Answer 2

elements99 Author

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Dec 16, 2009 3:46 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Thanks. I removed my Yahoo account but unfortunately, that did not solve the problem. The status bar still has the insanely large [incorrect] number of unsent items and as a result the outbox still has the negative message count. Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Dan

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Answer 3

Dec 16, 2009 3:48 PM in response to elements99

I would try an iPhone reset next, which is done by pressing and holding the home button and the sleep/wake or on/off button simultaneously until you see the Apple logo and then release - ignoring the slide to turn off prompt when doing so.

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Answer 4

elements99 Author

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Dec 16, 2009 3:56 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Thx, I just tried that, still no go 😟

Dan

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Answer 5

Dec 16, 2009 4:03 PM in response to elements99

How many additional email accounts are involved?

I would delete and re-enter all email accounts.

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Answer 6

elements99 Author

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Dec 16, 2009 6:08 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Sadly, that didn't work either. I had four email accounts defined. I removed all of them and then reset the phone. When I added an email account back in, the same problem persisted.

Next I sent 82 ⚠ emails so that I reset the message counter to a positive number. I was then able to see one message in the Outbox which I swipe-deleted. The rest were hidden and could only be made visible if you search by "from address". Unfortunately, the search results table does not allow swipe-delete. So all messages were sent out and I'm back in square one.

I'd appreciate additional ideas on how to solve this issue.

Thanks,
Dan

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