IMAP inbox problem - I'm getting very frustrated

Yes, I'm having this same problem with one of my three IMAP accounts.

One of them is doing exactly what you describe -- my 70-message INBOX shows 119000 messages in the "load more messages" section, but only displays a few messages in the list. When I delete mail using Entourage on my Mac, the mail stays visible on the iPhone mail.

I tried deleting and re-making the user account on the iPhone to see if this would help, but it ended up back in the same state again.

Oddly I have acccess to another server also running the same UW IMAP server software, and this one doesn't seem to do that -- it seems to show a correct inbox size and scope, and seems to notice mail changes correctly when made with another mail reader. Not sure what the difference is between those two accounts -- they're almost identically configured, just with different usernames and domains.

I have the exact same problem...

I'm seeing the same problem with IMAP deletes not propagating.

I'm wondering if it's a IMAP namespace issue, or something to do with different delete folders on the server. For example, if Thunderbird on my desktop deletes an email, it's really instructing the IMAP server to move the email to a "Trash" folder -- that's not the same as actually deleting it.

I'm no IMAP expert, so maybe this has nothing to do with anything, but when I get a chance, I'm going to try looking into this.

Sorry for replying to myself here...

I was having an unrelated problem with Stanza not being able to download e-books, and their recommendation was to shut down and restart my iPhone.

Not only did that solve the Stanza problem, but weirdly it fixed this IMAP problem as well.

The only thing that makes sense is that the Stanza error message was about permissions in a /tmp directory. I don't know how that could get screwed up, but I can see how it could affect many applications. In any case, IMAP is working again. I'll see if the problem recurs.

I get the same problem. Earlier today about 5 of my emails showed up in the inbox but now none show up. New emails come in OK and I can ask it to get more emails but it only brings back 1 days woth at a time then they all dissapear. What a right pain in the arse...

Before I saw this thread I posted another as I am having the same problem you describe.

Do you have a iPhone 3G or 3GS?

I have tested this problem happens the same way on my iPhone 3GS and also on a second-gen iPod Touch.

After a sync or a device restart, the list of messages seems to get rebuilt and most of the deleted messages disappear, but the problem starts again from that point on. The problem of it telling me I have 120000 messages never goes away. It must be looking at other mailboxes to get that count, since I have maybe 60 messages max in my inbox.

Go to setting, mail, turn off your email account and then turn it back on. Fixed mine two ago and no problems since.

Yes, seeing the same thing here. Only started (I think) a day or so ago -- that's about a week after upgraded to iOS4. Shows only a half dozen messages in the inbox, claims there are about 100,000 left on server (in fact my inbox currently stands at about 30 messages). Clearly an iOS4 bug as numerous threads like this have sprung up all over the forum, and in every case the problem started after the upgrade.

Very annoying, because suddenly the Mail feature of the iPhone (which I use all the time) is crippled. Only being able to see the few most recent messages makes it almost unusable.

32 GB 3G

A few additional tips to help the situation...

I deleted the account on the iPhone.

I shutdown mail.app on my laptop.

I went to the web page of my email acct and rebuilt the index for my inbox.

I started mail.app on my laptop and selected the inbox and did a rebuild.

I re-entered the acct info onto my iPhone.

I turned off 'push' on my iPhone.

Still a little weird with old messages on my inbox, but otherwise behaving better.

I'm experiencing exactly the same problems since I upgraded my iPhone 3GS to iOS4.0

However, it only seems to affect folders which regularly have messages deleted from them, such as the Inbox. My inbox currently has three messages in, yet on the iPhone, it shows the newest two, then says:-

'Load More Messages...
197 messages total, 0 unread'

If I click on the 'Load More Messages' message, it thinks about it, but doesn't load them (presumably because they aren't actually there)

This only seems to happen on two folders which have incoming messages delivered to them and then moved elsewhere. Other folders which tend to just have messages added work properly.

Another thing which seems to happen is that if e-mails are deleted by another client, the iPhone doesn't always realise straight away, and you have to close and re-open Mail to get it to recognise the deletions.

As other posters have said, before the 'Upgrade' to iOS4 this never happened.

I don't know if it's relevant, but I'm using UW-IMAPd on a Debian Linux server.

I'm really disappointed by this. Until now my iPhone has never done anything wrong, and I thought Apple had made a device without all the problems that seem to beset other phones. Now it's getting as bad as the rest.

I assume Apple will fix this at some point. Does anyone know if they read these discussions?

Found the issue. I decided to change my IMAP server from UW-imap2007e to Dovecot and after a few hours of reconfiguring and testing my server all was OK.

Not sure of Uni of Washington is planning to update their software any time soon but if you have your own server the conversion is straight forward, in a commercial environment it is harder.

I've been fighting this issue as well. My IMAP server is Parallels Pro (formerly Ensim Pro). The solution for me was to move all my messages from my inbox to another folder, compact my inbox, and then move everything back.

At least, that fixed it for now.

I have the same problem with an UW-IMAP 2006k.398 server. All other email accounts with different IMAP servers work fine.