I did a hard restart on my iPad. When it rebooted, it had loaded over 8,000 emails, most of which had been deleted, going back 11 yrs. They also appear on my much newer MacBook Pro, Sonoma 14.4.1.
What do I do? I doubt that it is just a matter of deleting them.
Great privacy concerns also. Where have these emails been, apparently available for downloading?
Vivian Berg
iPad Pro, iPadOS 17
Yep, it is from the mail server where the emails originated. You would find the same thing if you deleted your email and then added it back again. It will download all emails from that mail server, even if you had deleted them already. Same thing happens when you set up a new device. Check with your email provider to see what the retention rules are. I find this happens more with POP email accounts, since the emails are saved on the server to be downloaded independently with multiple devices and when you delete the email on one device, it will not remove it from the server, so it can be downloaded on another device. With IMAP mail account, when you delete on one device, it is deleted from the server and is also reflected on your other devices.
The emails were likely never deleted from your email provider's server
“…email provider’s server.” Would that be our internet provider?
Maybe, but not necessarily. It's whomever provides your email address. Google, Comcast, some other company, etc.
8000 emails loaded onto my iPad
