"This message has not been downloaded from the server" - Multiple devices all using Exchange Active Sync

Question

"This message has not been downloaded from the server" - Multiple devices all using Exchange Active Sync

We are having this issue across multiple IOS devices ranging from IOS version 5.x up to the latest 6.1.2. Many (not all) emails sent to the devices are unreadable and simply state: "This message has not been downloaded from the server". Microsoft believes this to be some sort of bug with the IOS devices in the way they are handling the SSL encryption.

Facts:

- Devices are connected to an Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 6 via Active Sync (No POP3, IMAP or SMTP)

- issue occurs on multiple IOS devices within the organization ranging from IOS 5.x up to the latest 6.1.2

- Issue occurs on both external cellular data and internal wireless networks

- Not all emails sent to the devices result in the error, but issue does tend to occur more frequently from certain senders/domains

- Using the same user account on an android phone does not result in an issue (even when receiving the exactly same email that has been sent to the IOS devices)

- Closing mail app / rebooting device does not resolve the issue

- Doesn't appear to matter what the mesage format is (can be html, plaintext, etc)

- Spent nearly 7 hours with Microsoft going through the Exchange server configuration and looking for possible causes. None have been found and all testing indicates things are setup correctly.

- This is not a case of Issue 2.3 listed here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2563324 (verified by Microsoft Support)

- If we disable SSL on the IOS device and connect via plain HTTP the messages are displayed correctly!

- If we use a different SSL certificate, the issue still occurs - so not a problem with the original cert.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what would cause this? Does the ISO devices have any sort of log that would indicate why it's reporting this error? The current error is pretty unhelpful.

iPad (3rd gen) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iOS 6.1.2

Posted on Feb 27, 2013 3:47 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 4, 2017 7:40 AM in response to Druidjitsu

Ok, believe it or not, this worked, at least for Hotmail. A little background. Some time ago when I moved from one IOS to another, I don't remember which, the IOS popped up with an email (from Microsoft) on the legacy IPhone app that said something like "We see you are using an email app that does not support "focused mail boxes". We recommend you use Outlook Mobile". It says if you want to use Outlook Mobile click that link and if you want to continue to use the legacy email app click this link. Well initially I must have clicked the Outlook Mobile link which must configure the system to use only Outlook Mobile and somehow disables the legacy email app. Based on the article in Computer World (https://www.computerworld.com/article/3229861/mobile-wireless/apple-microsoft-pa tch-ios-11-email-flaw.html?idg_eid=2abd1a49455e7d6be147eb2abb01ce6b&email_SHA1_l c=426ade4a2c199ea17efe3a31b0465f9fa167ff15&cid=cw_nlt_computerworld_dailynews_20 17-10-03&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Computerworld%20First %20Look%202017-10-03&utm_term=computerworld_dailynews) I suspect it may have to do with the encryption, but I cannot verify this.

I went through the above procedure and flushed all the email on the legacy app and turned it back on. Lo & behold I saw that email from Microsoft asking "did I want to use Outlook Mobile or the legacy app?" I chose the legacy app this time and wham, all the email popped back in including all the bodies of the emails.

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Answer 2

Mar 1, 2013 9:33 AM in response to Blair.Stouffer

Crickets.....

Guess I'm stuck paying the $695 (yikes!) support call to apple. Does apple actual monitor and respond on these forums, or is it completely end user supported?

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Answer 3

Mar 7, 2013 1:04 PM in response to Blair.Stouffer

Solved!

GFI hosted anti-spam solution was modifying headers of the messages in a way that IOS devices don't appear to like.

Glad I didn't pay Apple's support ransom for that resolution 🙂

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Answer 4

varjak paw

Level 10

177,430 points

Mar 7, 2013 1:33 PM in response to Blair.Stouffer

Blair.Stouffer wrote:

Does apple actual monitor and respond on these forums, or is it completely end user supported?

It's completely user-to-user. Apple does not provide any official support in any of these forums.

Regarsd.

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Answer 5

neeper67

Level 1

5 points

Mar 8, 2013 5:45 AM in response to Blair.Stouffer

Can you share with me how GFI fixed your issue?

I am experiencing the same problem, called GFI hosted support and they are not aware of the solution.

I would really appreciate if you let me know what they did to fix your problem and I will tell them to do the same on my account.

Thank You!

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Answer 6

May 16, 2013 2:34 PM in response to Blair.Stouffer

I have the same issue, but different devices display symptoms differently.

I can have a message with the "has not been downloaded from server" on my iPhone, but the same message downloads and displays correctly on my ipad. And vice-versa.

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Answer 7

Jul 18, 2013 8:09 AM in response to Blair.Stouffer

Here's the easy answer:

http://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2011/09/iphone-tip-content-of-e-mail-not-displ ayed.html

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Answer 8

Sep 1, 2013 8:08 AM in response to Blair.Stouffer

Hi Blair,

Been seeing this problem on a number of domains that are hosted on maxmail.

I've just opened a case with them, from memory do you remember if GFI fixed this for you per domain?

Regards

L

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Answer 9

Sep 2, 2013 4:03 AM in response to Community User

Oh Yeah!

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Answer 10

Apr 18, 2014 3:46 AM in response to Blair.Stouffer

GFI Have a solution for this problem. It is to do with iOS implementation of reading the message headers when SPF compliance modifications are made by GFI.

http://kb.gfi.com/articles/SkyNet_Article/Error-This-message-has-not-been-downlo aded-from-the-server-when-downloading-messages-to-an-iOS-device?retURL=%2Fapex%2 FSupportHome&popup=true

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Answer 11

Aug 2, 2014 6:22 PM in response to tomonautsmuse

QUICK & EASY FIX.........

This recently started happening only on my i5s, only with my exchange email account. The icloud emails worked just fine. However, none of the suggestions I came across online resolved the matter. I decided to delete the the exchange email account & immediately re-added it to the iPhone & like magic is was operating as it should. Hope this saves someone else an hour + of troubleshooting!!!!!

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Answer 12

Sep 2, 2014 11:00 AM in response to electronicWAN

is turning off spf filtering the only solution as gfi says. that lets too much spam through. there must be a better way!

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Answer 13

Mar 3, 2015 2:35 PM in response to Blair.Stouffer

We faced similar issue on all our users unable to download emails from corporate Exchange 2010 Server. Its about the accepted domain setting in Exchange server. We followed below article to resolve the issue

http://www.grishbi.com/2015/03/this-message-has-not-been-downloaded-from-the-ser ver/

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Answer 14

Sep 23, 2015 7:40 AM in response to Blair.Stouffer

Since upgrading to IOS 9, the emails that I have "saved" on my phone now say "This message has not been downloaded from the server." When I'm running thru the list of emails, I can see the first few lines of the messages, but when I tap on it to open and read, all that is there is the above message. It is not helpful to read messages and then they are gone. Can someone help me?

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Answer 15

Oct 1, 2015 11:46 AM in response to DonChrisVAB

...i have the same problem.... no idea where to go from here!

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