I click Mail, it opens for 2 seconds, then closes down to main menu?!?!?

Hi,

Try forcing the Mail app to close and then launching it again. This article: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1445 will walk you through forcing an app to quit.

If the issue persists, try restarting the iPhone by holding the Sleep/Wake button until the red slider appears> then slide to turn off> and turn the iPhone back on by pressing the Sleep/Wake again.

If its still happening, you can try removing the email account from the iPhone and then adding it again or restoring the iPhone.
This article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414 will walk you through restoring the iPhone.

-Jason

iPhone and iPod touch: Very large email attachments can cause Mail application to quit
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2100

iPhone and iPod touch: Mail may unexpectedly quit if webmail account settings are synced http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2780

Try adding a new Mail account(different then the one already on the phone). After the new account is added try opening the Mail app. If it stays open then now remove the mail account causing problems. Now add it back.

My problem is solved. I removed all of the messages in my folder since the problem began. I then put them back one by one until the problem came back. It turns out that the mail program didn't like one particular email. Both my wifes phone and mine have the same email which is why it started on both our phones at the same time.

PHeinreichs, thank you for the info. I need to clarify though, did you remove all the messages from your folder on your computer (eg, in Outlook)? If so, does that also move the message on your iPhone at the same time? Mine is set up so that if I delete a message from my computer, it still stays on my iPhone and I can't get my iPhone inbox to stay open long enough to delete or move anything.

Please let me know if I've misunderstood what you've said.

Thanks very much and Happy New Year!!
Janice

You would have to move them on the computer with Outlook or Address Book from the inbox to another folder.

A common misconception is that mail syncs from computer to iPhone. It does not. The computer goes directly to the Mail server for Mail and the iPhone goes independently to the Mail server for Mail.

So if you move it on the computer and then check it on your iPhone it will be moved as well.

Within Outlook and Address Book there is also an option to 'leave a copy of the message on the server'. If you disable that option then after Outlook checks and retrieves Mail then it is gone from the server and when iPhone goes to check there is nothing there.

I have all of my mail routed through a gmail account so that it stays in sync with all my devices (including outlook which I have setup to access my gmail account through imap). So for me it was a matter of accessing my email directly through gmail and moving the email from one folder to another and then trying it out on my iphone. For you it will need to be a little different. If you have the same messages on both your outlook and your iphone, then maybe just trying to delete the emails on your iphone one by one until you find the problem (you may be able to this if you are really quick). Then you can either get them back again from your Trash folder or by forwarding them back to yourself from your Outlook account.

Thank you PHeinrichs and everyone else for your help! I was able to figure out which email was causing the problem by putting the phone in airplane mode, which allowed me to at least stay in the inbox long enough to scroll slowly down and as soon as the offending email started to come onto the screen, that's when it would shut down. I tried several times and different ways to delete the message, but just couldn't do it before email would close, so ended up having to delete that email account and then re-adding it again. Problem is now resolved.

Again, many thanks!!
Janice

Janice or PHeinrichs, if the emails that were causing crashes do not contain sensitive information, would you mind forwarding them as raw source to appdis@dankeen.com?

To get the raw source, in Mail.app on OS X view the message and choose "Save As..." from the File menu, and then make sure to choose "Raw Message Source" as the Format.

Thanks,
Dan

hi

i've got the same problem, it lets me delete about 3 messages and then closes and when I got back in the deleted messages are there. I've deleted the account once, restarted, restored but the problem is still there. I have run out of ideas, this all started about a week ago, was fine up until then.

thanks

mcwhan, the only thing I can offer is that the same thing was happening for me (in addition to what I already mentioned above), where messages that I deleted would appear again after it shut down. I finally figured out which message was causing the problem, but couldn't keep email open long enough to delete it, so deleted and re-added the account causing the problem. Fortunately this worked for me.

After you delete & re-add your account, are the same messages returning to your phone inbox?

Just wanted to throw in my experience - Mail suddenly started crashing constantly, I couldn't keep it open for more than a few seconds. Rebooting didn't help, home & power button restart didn't help, airplane mode was fine. I sync my mail with Thunderbird on my laptop as well, so I took a bunch of messages I'd received since the last time Mail seemed to be working, and moved them to a local offline folder - that did the trick. A few of them were bounced messages that some server had fed back at me - I suspect one of them had a wonky header and Mail was just freaking out at it.

Not sure what you'd do if you don't have another computer to sync to, though... I guess find another computer, go into Webmail, and clear out the suspects.

Have you found an answer yet? Mine is doing the same thing!

Have you found any resolution to this? Both my phone as well as my wife's started doing the same thing at the same time this morning. Too strange.