IMAP mailbox in Mail on Mac not showing the same contents on iPhone

Question

Level 4

1,345 points

IMAP mailbox in Mail on Mac not showing the same contents on iPhone

This also applies to my iPad.

I created a new Mailbox in one account in Mail on my iMac yesterday. To it, I dragged the contents of the inbox from another account. Both are Gmail accounts. All the email shows up fine on my iMac, includes emails from March. (Though I was surprised the drag seemed to move the mails rather than copy them, since they are separate accounts.)

The issue is that on my iPhone and iPad I don't see the most recent messages in that Mailbox. I only see emails through February 8th.

The view on both the iPhone and iPad are the same. In both cases only mail through February 8 is visible. On the iMac all the mails that were moved over are there though.

Since it's IMAP I assumed all would sync. Any idea why the most recent emails showing on my iMac's IMAP mailbox are not showing on my iPhone or iPad?

Mac is latest Mountain Lion. Both iPhone 5 and iPad 2 are latest iOS versions.

Thanks,

doug

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion, iMac (21.5-inch Late 2009, 12 GB)

Posted on Mar 16, 2013 5:21 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Rojmer

Level 4

1,666 points

Mar 16, 2013 7:30 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

Hi, Doug

I don't use Gmail so I am not sure about this but I have been seeing posts here lately about Gmail stopping Activesync.

See if this helps you. I hope so

http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2716936

Reply

Answer 2

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Mar 16, 2013 7:45 PM in response to Rojmer

That appears to be unrelated. I believe Activesync has to do with Microsoft Exchange.

Thanks,

doug

Reply

Answer 3

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Mar 16, 2013 7:55 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

Just my humble opinion

Doug wrote

"I created a new Mailbox in one account in Mail on my iMac yesterday. To it, I dragged the contents of the inbox from another account."

You didn't do anything to your actual Google accounts(on actual server). You just moved some folders locally in your Mac mail on your Mac.

Reply

Answer 4

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Mar 16, 2013 8:00 PM in response to fromsouth

I believe that is incorrect. The folders and most of the mails do appear in IMAP on my iPhone and iPad as well. The problem is just that the most recent ones aren't showing up on my iPhone and iPad. However, all the moved mails and folders do show up in the target account in Gmail via the web.

If you are dragging between IMAP accounts you can even watch the activity window - you can see the transfers between accounts take place, and it takes a while.

If you are just moving files locally on your Mac, or even within one Gmail account, it's almost instant.

The folders would not have appeared in the different Gmail accounts, or be visible in the new account in Gmail on the web, if they had just been moved locally on my Mac.

doug

Reply

Answer 5

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Mar 16, 2013 8:12 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

there is a chance that you need to re sync your phone and ipad to mail account. If you are sure you can see that info in your webmail (try it on your ipad) then I would delete and re add account and it should re sync.

Reply

Answer 6

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Mar 16, 2013 8:29 PM in response to fromsouth

Yes, it's definitely visible via webmail.

Delete and re-add the account was going to be my next step. It's always a bit time-consuming while waiting for things to sync up again, so I was hoping there was an alternative. But since it's IMAP it is always harmless to try that.

Thanks,

doug

Reply

Answer 7

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Mar 16, 2013 8:36 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

.

Delete and re-add the account was going to be my next step.

I am sorry I took so much time to tell you what you already know.😁

Reply

Answer 8

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Mar 16, 2013 8:40 PM in response to fromsouth

Actually you didn't take much time at all to tell me what I already knew. 🙂

Reply

Answer 9

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Mar 18, 2013 7:54 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

Even after deleting the IMAP account on my iPad and recreating it, the Mailbox in question is not showing all the mails I can see in the same mailbox on my iMac or in Gmail via the web. It still only shows through February, just like before.

I wonder what the problem can be.

doug

Reply

Answer 10

Jul 5, 2013 7:36 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

As of two days ago, I am having basically the same problem as described:

imap account on my University, it always synced just fine with my iphone. Two days ago it stopped pulling new messages from the server, and moreover, it also does not show the recent ones it showed already, but only shows me approx. 100 really old messages (6 month old).

Whenever I sync, it pretends to do it (sync date gets updates), but it does not fetch the messages.

On my desktop and on my ipad2 (EXACT SAME SETTINGS), everything is ok, messages are pulled from the server (just as it was ok on my iphone two days ago, and I did not change anything).

When I go to the desktop, and move a new message (one this is not showin up on my iphone) to a subfolder of inbox or to the trash folder, then I suddenly can see this message also in the subfolder or in the trash on my iphone.

I have deleted the account and set it up anew, same result: the same 6 month old messages get uploaded, and that's it. I can delete also these old messages, and then they are gone, but also this does not pull up any additional messages.

Any ideas?

Oliver

Reply

Answer 11

jbixler

Level 1

20 points

Aug 9, 2013 9:54 AM in response to rioreiser

I have the same exact problem, Oliver. Did you ever find a fix?

Reply

Answer 12

Aug 9, 2013 2:15 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

No, I was not able to fix it in a convincing way, but after deleting many messages through my labtop, it was again ok. However, overall the system still is very irratic, e.g. all my messages are there, and then suddenly it loggs into the server to download messages, and out of nothing all current messages are gone again. The people on our computing center adviced to set up my account through active snyc and not to use imap, I had so far no time to really look into this.

Reply

Answer 13

Aug 20, 2013 12:04 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

I have had this problem on and off for more than 12 months. Snow Leopard and iPhone4. Not using gmail - ISP-specific mail.

Mail > Mailbox > Rebuild seems to resolve it, for a while at least. Looks like Apple aren't releasing any software updates for Mail on old OS. Really not happy with OSX Mail. Letting partner use it because she is familiar despite the bugs.

Will consider migrating to some other mail client when a suitable stable highly functional alternative emerges. Personally still using Eudora 6.2.4 (obsolete) on Snow Leopard, which causes a lot less grief than OSX Mail.

Reply

Answer 14

Sep 18, 2013 3:24 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

I have this problem too and maybe this is an answer to your problem.

I end up finding the new "Mailbox" down at the bottom of the list on the left under a grey heading with the same name as my email account. If I hit Show, the new folder is in there.

The problem then is when I drag it up to the Inbox at the top, I can only place it as a subfolder of one of the existing folders/mailboxes and not on the top level like other subfolders.

If I go to Exchange, then I can move it. Or if you have OWA you can move it from there, at least I can with Exchange 2013.

Reply

Answer 15

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Sep 20, 2013 1:01 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

Well, in iOS 7 this has not gotten any better. I can simply see some email in Gmail that don't show up via IMAP in iPhone mail. Search just doesn't find them. But if I go in via the Gmail app I can see them. Some mails simply seem to not get synced. If I go into the folder I filed them in they just aren't there in the iOS app.

d

oug

Reply