I have the latest OS for both iPad Air m4 and iPhone 16 pro max. Both email settings are IMAP. When I delete an email on one device, it remains on the other. Shouldn’t they sync if messages are on the server?
I haven’t checked in some time, (probably since I bought the devices a few months ago), so I don’t know if this is a recent problem.
I have rebooted both devices.
I'd appreciate any help.
Thanks in advance.
iPhone 16 Pro Max, 18
IMAP mailboxes are entirely reliant upon your Mail Provider's mail servers. That said, your devices must properly communicate with the mail server to send and receive email.
Deleting and re-adding your email account is sometimes the easiest way to resolve a problem with a specific Mail account. After deleting the account, perform a forced restart before re-adding the email account to your iPad/iPhone:
Settings > Mail > Accounts > [Your Mail Account] > Delete Account
Force restart iPad - Apple Support
Settings > Mail > Add Account
Deleting an IMAP Mail account from your devices should not result in any loss of mail messages - as only a copy of the mail messages are downloaded from the server to each device. The original messages are retained on the server until they are intentionally deleted - after which, message deletion is synchronised with other devices.
Be aware that some email providers now require the use of App Specific Passwords when accessing mail over IMAP or POP3. If this applies to your email account, you will need to generate a unique password for your iPad email account - that will differ from your normal Account Password. As examples - AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft all use App Specific Passwords when using anything other than their own email client Apps.
If you need to generate an App Specific Password, you’ll need to log-in to your Mail Providers account management webpage - using a web browser - and generate the Password from the appropriate account security page.
More information about AOL’s App Specific Passwords can be found here:
https://help.aol.com/articles/allow-apps-that-use-less-secure-sign-in?guccounter=1
For Yahoo, more information can be found here:
https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN27791.html
Microsoft:
Google Mail (Gmail) has until recently also used App Specific passwords to access email - although this has now been deprecated in favour of OAuth authentication. Simply removing and re-adding the Gmail account from the Add Account wizard, selecting Google and following the prompts, will correctly configure the correct account settings.
IMAP mailboxes are entirely reliant upon your Mail Provider's mail servers. That said, your devices must properly communicate with the mail server to send and receive email.
Deleting and re-adding your email account is sometimes the easiest way to resolve a problem with a specific Mail account. After deleting the account, perform a forced restart before re-adding the email account to your iPad/iPhone:
Settings > Mail > Accounts > [Your Mail Account] > Delete Account
Force restart iPad - Apple Support
Settings > Mail > Add Account
Deleting an IMAP Mail account from your devices should not result in any loss of mail messages - as only a copy of the mail messages are downloaded from the server to each device. The original messages are retained on the server until they are intentionally deleted - after which, message deletion is synchronised with other devices.
Be aware that some email providers now require the use of App Specific Passwords when accessing mail over IMAP or POP3. If this applies to your email account, you will need to generate a unique password for your iPad email account - that will differ from your normal Account Password. As examples - AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft all use App Specific Passwords when using anything other than their own email client Apps.
If you need to generate an App Specific Password, you’ll need to log-in to your Mail Providers account management webpage - using a web browser - and generate the Password from the appropriate account security page.
More information about AOL’s App Specific Passwords can be found here:
https://help.aol.com/articles/allow-apps-that-use-less-secure-sign-in?guccounter=1
For Yahoo, more information can be found here:
https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN27791.html
Microsoft:
Google Mail (Gmail) has until recently also used App Specific passwords to access email - although this has now been deprecated in favour of OAuth authentication. Simply removing and re-adding the Gmail account from the Add Account wizard, selecting Google and following the prompts, will correctly configure the correct account settings.
Thank you so much! This worked like a charm.
You're very welcome.
Deleting email on iPad not deleted on iphone
