iphone mail not showing mail that shows up in Apple Mail mailboxes on iMac

Question

Level 2

496 points

iphone mail not showing mail that shows up in Apple Mail mailboxes on iMac

My imac get all my mail just fine. Both accounts I use for mail are IMAP. I have quite a few mailboxes for Friends, Family, Internet orders, etc. Mail that comes to my iMac that goes into those folders never shows up on my iPhone. It caused a real problem the other day when a friend couldn't make it to a meeting downtown and sent an email that I would normally respond to but I never got it on my iphone. Any thoughts on how to cure this? I don't see a way to sync them totally. I don't use iCloud.

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 12

Posted on Jul 17, 2019 9:49 AM

Reply

Answer 1

digibudII Author

Level 2

496 points

Jul 17, 2019 10:10 AM in response to mvan231

I would note that the "other" mailboxes on my iMac that don't get updated are marked as "On My Mac" so perhaps they don't get into the IMAP world in the same way. I transferred my account from POP to IMAP about two months ago but don't know how to get folders changed on my iMac if that is indeed the problem. I can't drag a folder from the "On My Mac" section of Apple Mail into the area above that. I see that folders for "Flagged" and Drafts and such that are above "On My Mac" section of Apple Mail do show up on my phone. That seems to be the issue but I don't know how to duplicate the folder that are on my iMac in my iPhone or move them on my iMac in such a way that they will show up on my iPhone.

Reply

Answer 2

mvan231

Level 3

997 points

Jul 17, 2019 1:20 PM in response to digibudII

with the IMAP settings of the email server, it should be downloading the other folder information. It works much better than POP used to. However, your Gmail settings should just have to login within the accounts and passwords portion of the settings app. Then it should stay up-to-date based on the folders you tell it to sync.

Personally, I like the gmail app better than the mail app, but that's me.

What is your ISP?

Reply

Answer 3

mvan231

Level 3

997 points

Jul 18, 2019 9:54 AM in response to digibudII

I think that is probably what is happening to your emails. Do you have any folders listed for that specific account that aren't "On My Mac" ?

Reply

Answer 4

mvan231

Level 3

997 points

Jul 17, 2019 9:54 AM in response to digibudII

What email system are you using? Gmail? Outlook?

Sometimes mail sync doesn't happen often enough and it could be that you have your settings for syncing mail on your iPhone set to manual mode?

You can check in Settings-> Passwords & Accounts -> Fetch New Data

Reply

Answer 5

digibudII Author

Level 2

496 points

Jul 17, 2019 10:03 AM in response to mvan231

I have a Gmail account as well as a local ISP, GCI that provides email services. It doesn't appear to be related to them as it happens with both companies. The sync settings were Fetch Automatically for them and I changed them to do so manually every 15min the other day to no effect. The only similarity is that if an email is set with a rule on my iMac, in Apple Mail, to go into a sub folder, that email will not show up on my phone. Only mail that goes into the general "Inbox" on my iMac will make it into the iPhone's Mail program.

Reply

Answer 6

digibudII Author

Level 2

496 points

Jul 18, 2019 9:12 AM in response to mvan231

I guess I should look at the Gmail app but my ISP is local, gci.net (Alaska...statewide) and the bottom line is I can't find a way to make the same mail folders on my iPhone as I have on my iMac so things that get put into my mail folders on my iMac don't get into my iPhone. Can't find any information about that problem. Maybe delete the Mail app from my iPhone and reinstall it?? Given it's all IMAP I shouldn't lose any mail, should I? Or it may be that the iMac sends mail to folders that are 'On My Mac' and that takes them out of IMAP circulation?

Reply

iphone mail not showing mail that shows up in Apple Mail mailboxes on iMac

Similar questions