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Q: How to avoid draft emails from disappearing while switching between apps?

How to avoid draft emails from disappearing while switching between apps? I've lost lots of draft emails by multitasking in iOS 7. When I switch back to Mail from another app like Safari, the content of the email I was writing is missing!!! Anybody else has this problem?

iPad, iOS 7.0.2

Posted on Oct 4, 2013 7:11 AM

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Q: How to avoid draft emails from disappearing while switching between apps?

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  • by BlackBloke,

    BlackBloke BlackBloke Nov 14, 2013 5:57 AM in response to frenzo
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 5:57 AM in response to frenzo

    I have this exact problem.

     

    I start writing a reply email, switch to another app to get something (link, words, picture, etc.), copy, and come back to mail to see my writing has disappeared! It's never been a lot of writing, thankfully, but it's annoying every time. What the **** is going on?

  • by JimHdk,

    JimHdk JimHdk Nov 14, 2013 6:21 AM in response to frenzo
    Level 7 (28,565 points)
    iPad
    Nov 14, 2013 6:21 AM in response to frenzo

    This can happen when the operating system needs to allocate memory for the app you are switching to. Any dormant apps memory may be used. If this occurs then your draft is lost.

     

    To prevent this from happening cancel your draft before switching apps. You will be given the option to save the draft. Do so and you can always recover the draft to edit before sending it.

     

    Note that this is more likely to happen on iPads with less RAM, I.e., the iPad 1 256 MB and iPad 2 512 MB.

  • by BlackBloke,

    BlackBloke BlackBloke Nov 14, 2013 6:22 AM in response to BlackBloke
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 6:22 AM in response to BlackBloke

    Follow up: I did a hard reset of the iPad and it seems to have solved the problem. I hope appearances aren't deceiving. I'm wondering if this may be something that happens to some first email, but stops there. And the next day's first email will similarly disappear, leaving the later ones safe?

  • by BlackBloke,

    BlackBloke BlackBloke Nov 14, 2013 6:26 AM in response to JimHdk
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 6:26 AM in response to JimHdk

    Thanks for the reply. I'm using a 3rd generation iPad, and I never saw this behavior in iOS 6 to my recollection. Is iOS 7 worse at handling memory or is there something that may be hogging it? One would think that written text in an email would have higher priority than a static web page (of which I only had two at the time, and they refreshed anyway), or a position in an old iMessage conversation.

  • by JimHdk,

    JimHdk JimHdk Nov 14, 2013 6:27 AM in response to BlackBloke
    Level 7 (28,565 points)
    iPad
    Nov 14, 2013 6:27 AM in response to BlackBloke

    Resetting the iPad frees all the RAM in use which makes this problem less likely to occur. It can still happen during subsequent use however.

  • by BlackBloke,

    BlackBloke BlackBloke Nov 14, 2013 6:30 AM in response to JimHdk
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 6:30 AM in response to JimHdk

    Well, I'll keep an eye out then. Hopefully dev priorities will change towards favoring user input for memory. Or they'll stop being stingy with memory in devices.

  • by JimHdk,

    JimHdk JimHdk Nov 14, 2013 6:35 AM in response to BlackBloke
    Level 7 (28,565 points)
    iPad
    Nov 14, 2013 6:35 AM in response to BlackBloke

    This behavior could certainly occur in iOS 6.

     

    However, there could be a bug or change in the latest level of Safari/iOS which is requiring more memory to be used and making the problem more likely to occur.

     

    If you think that such is happening let Apple know via a bug report at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html Provide some detail on what you were doing, i.e. pages visited, actions taken, etc.

  • by BlackBloke,

    BlackBloke BlackBloke Nov 14, 2013 6:43 AM in response to JimHdk
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 6:43 AM in response to JimHdk

    I'll try to do the feedback report tonight.

  • by DMC'sBrother,

    DMC'sBrother DMC'sBrother Sep 14, 2016 5:32 AM in response to frenzo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 14, 2016 5:32 AM in response to frenzo

    Greetings

     

    I Have had this problem for years.  This morning I discovered that it went away when my message was not in my signature.  I have used the greeting "Greetings" for over a decade and put it in my signature to keep from having to type it each time.  It appears that iOS recreates the signature upon returning to the app deleting any modifications.  The body of my message was sandwiched in the signature.

     

    Hope this help.