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Deleting Old Email Addresses From Cache?

Two of my contacts have changed there email addresses, and I updated it in contacts, however as I begin to type there email in the "To" section I get a list of emails addresses popping up including the ones I deleted from my contacts. I assume they are coming from some kind of cache, but have not found a way to delete those emails that pop up. It's a nice feature, but if the emails are not correct it really does not help.

Posted on Apr 28, 2011 3:30 PM

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92 replies

Dec 16, 2012 7:15 PM in response to rlin81

"I can delete contact cache on IOS 6. Not sure about 5. I can use me-too steps he provided and also when typing in the name i get an arrow next to some search results and it gives me the option to remove from recent."


Yes! This works perfectly. Thanks for the tip. Just tap on the blue arrow when the suggested addresses pop up in the address bar, scroll down to hit the red delet from cache button.

Mar 29, 2017 3:34 AM in response to GoGas38

I've often wondered why some email addresses had no blue circle. Thanks for that tip. I found that one of my email addresses was being picked up by another app (WhatsApp) this was added to my contacts because my Contacts setting was set to include "Contacts found in Apps" - so no i blue circle next to them!


The more sophisticated the software - the more 'Gotcha's' there are ;-)

Apr 28, 2011 3:52 PM in response to OzziesMAC

As with the Mail app on a Mac, the iPad's Mail app stores all email recipients in a list of previous recipients. The autofill feature for email addresses when addressing an email pulls from contacts and from the list of previous recipients.


Different from the Mail app on a Mac, there is not a way to access the list of previous recipients to remove a previous recipient from the list, or add a previous recipient to the address book or contacts that is not already entered - not at the present time anyway.


To purge the entire list requires restoring the iPad with iTunes as a new iPad or not from the iPad's backup.

Apr 28, 2011 4:07 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Thanks for the reply!


Not being able to delete old emails from this auto fill without requiring to do a full ipad restore is crazy! It sounds like the answer you get from a Windows OS tech support guy "Reinstall The OS". This seems like an over sight for not having this feature. I have looked everywhere, and I am afraid you might be correct, but I surely hope Apple adds a line of code to take care of this.


People do change there email addresses from time to time, it would be nice to delete them from the auto-fill when they do.

Apr 28, 2011 4:21 PM in response to OzziesMAC

You're welcome.


The Mail.app with OS X on a Mac when first released 10 years ago didn't have this option either for a while.


I venture to say more than just a line of code is required. If just a simple line of code was required, the option would have been included from the start with iOS released nearly 4 years ago now. For whatever Apple's reason, this has obviously not been included with their priority lists for iOS updates. When the option is provided, more than likely it will also include an option to add a previous recipient to Contacts that is not already entered as is available with the Mail.app on a Mac - creating a new contact or adding it to an existing contact. I doubt extensive programming is required for this, but more than just a simple line of code.

May 6, 2011 10:07 AM in response to Allan Sampson

Well you guys need to move it up your priority list as this request has been asked for by many many many people and it's frustrating. It's been over 3 years now so please get it done we won't wait 10 years.


You don't need to fully implement the complete feature (editing the email chache) just start by provide a simple way to delete the email cache entirely upon request then later you can improve that feature by adding the capability to edit the cache.


Very frustrating...this is the only thing I can say!

May 6, 2011 8:32 PM in response to OzziesMAC

I did not know this feature was missing for such a long time, specially since it seems that it has been brought up before and often. I just read a bunch of these same complaints on iPhones, when contacts have changed their emails and the auto fill continues to keep the old ones as current.


This is something that will eventually happen to every user with lots of email contacts and should be moved up the food chain. I guess we keep waiting for now.

May 6, 2011 8:58 PM in response to eetawil

eetawil wrote:


Well you guys need to move it up your priority list as this request has been asked for by many many many people and it's frustrating. It's been over 3 years now so please get it done we won't wait 10 years.


You don't need to fully implement the complete feature (editing the email chache) just start by provide a simple way to delete the email cache entirely upon request then later you can improve that feature by adding the capability to edit the cache.


Very frustrating...this is the only thing I can say!

No one here is Apple. We're all just users like you.

Dec 28, 2011 2:38 PM in response to Allan Sampson

"No one here knows if the list of previous recipients will be accessible with iOS 5 as is accessible with the Mail app on a Mac."


Now we know email cached is still stuck on your iPhone with no way to delete it.


jenkfarrell I wish it would self delete we had an entire department at work merged with another and they all got new email addresses. Now depsite all the old ones removed from the address book we still get them popping up from the cache. Even worst if you send an email and mistyped the address by one digit and sent it out, from now on this incorrect address will be in memory!


So it has nothing to do with the address book. The only Apple solution is to restore iPhone as new(The Nuclear Option), anything else Apple will not delete this pesky email cache.

Jan 12, 2012 10:20 AM in response to OzziesMAC

To manage addresses in your Previous Recipients list:



Choose Window > Previous Recipients.



In the Previous Recipients window, do any of the following:



To sort the list by name, email address, or the date the address was last used, click a column header.



To search for a name in the list, enter the name in the search field.



To view the card for a recipient who is already in your address book (a card icon precedes the recipient’s name), double-click the name.



To add one or more selected recipients to your address book, click “Add to Address Book.”



To remove one or more selected recipients from the list, click Remove From List.



Removing the recipient is useful if you don’t intend to use it again or if you previously mistyped an address and want Mail to stop suggesting it as a matching address.

Deleting Old Email Addresses From Cache?

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