Does Apple backup / restore / transfer email data?

Question

Level 1

6 points

Does Apple backup / restore / transfer email data?

I lost email data when I moved to a new iPhone. It looks like Apple does NOT back up and restore or transfer emails and associated data (flags, read status) on the iPhone. They seem to assume that all email data will be resident on the email servers and only back up the email account settings needed to download those emails again.

If this is correct, as a worst case scenario, I might have several hundred emails on my phone, all nicely organized and flagged, and lose them when migrating to a new device or restoring from backup. If my email provider is no longer available, all my emails would be lost when the phone is restored from backup, and none of them transferred to the new device, even if you do a direct transfer from the old to the new phone.

Can anyone verify this or come up with a solution? Right now all I can do is forward the missing mail (that is still on my old phone) to myself to get the old emails to my new device.

iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 17

Posted on Oct 15, 2023 3:01 PM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,008 points

Oct 15, 2023 3:07 PM in response to knightstorm

IMAP and Exchange accounts fully synchronize with the mail server. All of the email in those accounts should exist on the server. They are not part of the backup.

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Answer 2

knightstorm Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 15, 2023 3:20 PM in response to KiltedTim

That assumes that

1) I’m using IMAP or Exchange

2) The servers will never be taken off line or crash.

it sounds like my email can still be lost (as it was), since it’s not being backed up (as far as I can tell).

I’m sure that the .PST file on my Windows machine can be backed up. I was hoping to find a way to do that on iOS.

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Answer 3

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,008 points

Oct 15, 2023 4:20 PM in response to knightstorm

The mail should still exist on the server.

There is no pst file in the macOS mail app. PST files are specific to Microsoft Outlook. Even Microsoft is doing away with them as they are not supported by the new version of Outlook.

If the mail server crashed, they the organization hosting the mail service should recover them from a backup.

If they were taken completely offline, the users should have been advised to make other arrangements to store their email.

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Answer 4

knightstorm Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 15, 2023 5:04 PM in response to KiltedTim

1) The email exists in the iPhone.

2) Apple, since they “own” the iPhone environment, should provide a proper backup/restore/transfer utility.

3) Apple does not appear to do so.

I used the PST file as a data store example. Email exists on the iPhone as a LOCAL data source in some sort of organized format, even if Apple do not make it accessible. That is data that should be backed up, preferably as part of a full backup/restore routine.

We should NEVER be required to rely on the cloud as the our sole source of data.

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