iOS Mail Sync: Status "Read" does not sync, but other status changes do

Question

iOS Mail Sync: Status "Read" does not sync, but other status changes do

On my iPhone, I have the following problem: When another one of my devices (my iPad, my wife's iPhone, Outlook all of whom use the same mail accounts) receive or delete an Email, those are synced with my iPhone. But the "Read" status is not.

Take this situation: All devices receive an email: is correctly reflected on iPhone
Another device deletes that email: is correctly reflected on iPhone
Another device reads the email and thus changes its status to "read": is NOT reflected on iPhone; Mail remains in status "unread"

To summarize: It's only when another device just reads the mail that the status change does not come across to my iPhone

To make things harder: This only happens with two of my mail accounts, not all of them. I haven't been able to find any difference in settings between the accounts (which are all on the same provider).

And it's been happening for the last one or two weeks, not before.

Thanks for any help!

Michael

Posted on Dec 12, 2022 1:26 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 10, 2024 11:13 PM in response to Miguelito1612

I believe I’ve resolved the problem by allowing Fetch « automatically » on my iPhone versus « every 30 minutes ». The minute I switch to automatically, the synchronisation was made.

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Answer 2

Mar 15, 2024 9:09 AM in response to Miguelito1612

I had the same issue, found port TCP 853 needs to be open on the firewall. DNS on TLS seems to be the culprit. After opening the port the random devices on the network now show correctly.

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Answer 3

jmarse1

Community Specialist

Dec 14, 2022 4:12 PM in response to Miguelito1612

Hi Miguelito1612,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're having an issue with seeing your mail as read when it's first read on another device. We'd like to help.

Who is the email provider? If it's iCloud, does the message appear as read when you go to the iCloud website?

If these are 3rd party emails, have you check to see if they show as read on the provider's webmail? That will be helpful to know so we can continue to isolate this issue.

Let us know how that goes and we'll be able to address the specific steps when we know more.

Take care!

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Answer 4

chuckbl

Community Specialist

Dec 21, 2022 6:36 AM in response to Miguelito1612

Hello Miguelito1612,

You should be able to remove that configuration profile under the Settings > General > VPN & Device Management menu. This resource has more details on that process: Install or remove configuration profiles on iPhone

If you aren't able to remove that profile from there, you'll want to continue working with your email provider. They'd be in the best position to assist with any configuration profiles they have provided.

Take care.

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Answer 5

Dec 22, 2022 5:53 AM in response to Miguelito1612

Alright. As I had assumed, Strato came back with a reply that they could not find any problem with their servers.

So I'm back with you guys and girls. Let me describe the situation once again in detail:

For simplicity's sake, let's assume I use only two email clients:
- My iPhone with iOS Mail
- Outlook on my PC
- Additionally, I can also access my mailboxes via Webmail.
Let's furthermore (again for simplicity) assume I use only two mail accounts (with fantasy names)
- MailOK@...
- MailNotOK@...
Both these mail accounts are set up identically (except of course for account name and password) on iPhone and Outlook. I just checked that for the fifth time. Specifically, they both use IMAP and always have.
Situation 1: "MailOK@..." receives an email.
- 1A:This is shown correctly on all mail clients
- 1B: If one client reads the mail, this is correctly reflected as status "Read" on the other client.
- 1C: If one client deletes the mail, this, too, is correctly reflected on the other client.
- So Situation 1 works ok!
Situation 2: "MailNotOK@..." receives an email.
- 2A: This is shown correctly on all mail clients.
- 2B: iPhone reads the mail first: this is correctly reflected in Outlook (and, of course, Webmail)
- 2C: Outlook reads the mail first: this is correctly reflected on Webmail, but not on iPhone. There, the mail remains in "Unread" status. This is the problem we've been talking about in this thread
- 2D: Any client deletes the mail: This, again, is correctly reflected in the other client.

Isn't there any chance we (probably someone at Apple support) can trace whether in Step 2C the iPhone does at all receive a "Read" notification and processes it correctly?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Michael

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Answer 6

Jan 2, 2023 6:02 AM in response to Miguelito1612

OK, everybody, here's another smoking gun pointing at iOS Mail: I installed Outlook on my iPhone, and there everything works alright; Outlook on iPhone receives and correctly processes the "Read" status. Only iOS Mail does not.

Does anyone have an idea how to get Apple support involved in this matter? I'm perfectly happy to discuss it on the phone in either German or English, if that helps.

For your convenience: to review the problem description in detail, please refer to my post from Dec 22, 5:53 am in this thread, in particular point 2C.

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Answer 7

Feb 17, 2023 7:41 AM in response to rgareus

Issue still persists for me with Gmail. Began with IOS 16. Just updated iPhone to IOS 16.3.1 and still no fix. I have Mail on IOS checking 2 Gmail emails. One is unaffected and working normally, as they both had been for years. Both are set up identically.

Marking emails as read in Mail on IOS does not show read in one Gmail address. However, marking emails as read in Gmail does show as read in Mail on IOS. This is a one way synching issue from IOS to Gmail. Deleted emails in Mail on IOS do not delete in Gmail. Deleted emails in Gmail are indeed deleted in Mail on IOS. Outlook app (with unrelated email) and Gmail app work normally.

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Answer 8

Dec 15, 2022 11:11 AM in response to Miguelito1612

Miguelito1612,

In that case, the next step will be to contact your email provider, so they can continue to help you verify those account settings on your Apple devices.

Take care.

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Answer 9

destiny241

Community Specialist

Dec 15, 2022 8:56 AM in response to Miguelito1612

Hello Miguelito1612,

Did you set up this email as IMAP or POP? You can go to the following page, type in your email and see the appropriate settings. We'd suggest using IMAP and not POP, so you can see your read emails on all of your devices. Here's that website: Mail Support (This would be specifically for your incoming and outgoing mail servers.)

Let us know if that solves this on your iPad and iPhone.

Take care.

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Answer 10

Jan 2, 2023 6:30 AM in response to Miguelito1612

OK, everybody, here's another smoking gun pointing at iOS Mail: I installed Outlook on my iPhone, and there everything works alright; Outlook on iPhone receives and correctly processes the "Read" status. Only iOS Mail - on that same iPhone!! - does not.

Does anyone have an idea how to get Apple support involved in this matter? I'm perfectly happy to discuss it on the phone in either German or English, if that helps.

For your convenience: to review the problem description in detail, please refer to my post from Dec 22, 5:53 am in this thread, in particular point 2C.

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Answer 11

Jan 6, 2023 4:58 AM in response to Olaf Klemann

Strange that all three persons (so far) who are complaining about the problem use Strato as Email / Webspace provider. And yet, a few things point clearly towards an iOS problem. Sounds as if Strato is doing something that is technically correct - albeit different from other Email providers -, but is not understood as intended by iOS Mail. Or rather: as if knowledgeable persons from both sides ought to get together to analyze. But here I go again, dreaming of a perfect world...

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Answer 12

1ssmith

Community Specialist

Dec 15, 2022 2:32 PM in response to Miguelito1612

Hi Miguelito1612,

Yes, that's correct. Check with the email provider and verify the settings are correct and there aren't any issues with the account.

Kind regards.

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Answer 13

rgareus

Level 1

13 points

Jan 9, 2023 11:59 AM in response to floris242

Identical issue, also with imap.strato.de

It is a relative new problem. I think it only started to happen with the iOS 16.2 updated.

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Answer 14

Dec 15, 2022 12:14 AM in response to jmarse1

Hi jmarse, thanks for replying.

The Mail provider is Strato, a German webspace provider. I've been with them for more than 10 years, and they host my Emails on my webspace.

And: Those Mails are shown as "read" when I access them via browser / webmail on Strato. And so they are in Outlook and Thunderbird.

It's just on my iPhone (and, as I just found out, on my iPad) that they remain in "Unread" status.

Thanks for your support!

Michael

Edit: I deleted that mailbox from my iPad and set it up again. No change, Emails remain "unread".

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Answer 15

Dec 15, 2022 2:22 PM in response to Dustin_R_308

Thank you, Dustin.

So just to make sure I understand what you're saying: Your assumption, from the information I've provided, is that there is a problem on the side of my Email provider (Strato) who apparently fails to forward a "read" status to my Apple devices even though those mails are marked as "read" in the Strato webmail access?

I'll call Strato tomorrow and I'll let you know the result. Thanks for trying to help so far!

Regards

Michael

Edit: Things work fine on my old Macbook. It seems it's just the iOS devices that have the problem.

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iOS Mail Sync: Status "Read" does not sync, but other status changes do

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