I synced my iphone 5 to my laptop and afterwards it started to download all of my deleted emails to my phone. I now have over 8000 emails on my phone, what do i do? And how do i get rid of them?
iPhone 5, iOS 8.4
Go to Settings > Mail and then scroll down to Sync. Make sure All Events is not selected. Select 2 Weeks Back. Then go to your Mail App and delete all mail from all the Mailboxes including Trash, Junk and Sent. Hope this helps you...
i did that, but they are still there. I followed some online instructions to delete a bunch of emails at one time, and changed my events to 2 weeks back, but every time i do that they delete and then show up again...any other ideas for me?
Are you using a web based email service like Yahoo or Gmail? What happens when you go to a computer and check your mail? Do you see 8000 there? Also how old are the 8000? I would go to a Mac or a PC, log on to Yahoo, Gmail, or whatever you have, delete all the emails that you do not need. Then go to your phone, Settings > iCloud and turn Mail OFF. Then go to your phone and delete all mail again from all mailboxes. Perhaps they are coming back from the iCloud account.
I'm using my phone provider century link for email. i just checked the account and there are over 9000 emails. They go back almost from the start of my email. They just keep downloading. i will try and delete those and follow your steps. i have no idea what could have happened, if it is my email provider or when i synced?
well, it's not working... is there anything i can do through itunes to fix it? i think it started when i plugged my phone in and synced it...
I tried everything you mentioned and it still shows over 9000 emails now on my phone.
Well, I am at a loss also. I think your email provider pushes all their mail to all your devices, doubt that the iTunes sync had anything to do with it. You likely have an IMAP account which is what I have.
What is your concern regarding the number of emails? When you go to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage (the upper one, not the iCloud) what does it show for Mail? I have 34 MB (with over 6000 thousand emails on the server) since only the most recent are actually taking space on my phone. I know that my mail on the server is far larger than 34 MB, many contain pictures that eat space quickly. I think that the iPhone has a cache and it deletes the older email material unless you go back to look at it again. If you have a comparable number of MBs, let's say 50-100 I would not worry about the number of emails. I know that is not what you asked, sorry. 🙂
Got this from Pogue's Manual:
Delete email attachments. Files downloaded with your email take up a lot of space, too. The solution is to delete the email account (openSettings, then Mail, Contacts, Calendar, then the account name; scroll down and tap Delete Account) — and then add it again. Make sure you know your email passwords before you do this!
In the process, you’ll vaporize all the attachment files and message caches that you’ve ever downloaded and opened on your phone. When you add the account back again, those files will still be online, ready to download — but only when you need them. (This trick works for most account types — but not for POP3 accounts.)
I changed my push to off. my mail store is 542 MB used and i have 672 mb available on my phone. I guess i was trying to free up space by attempting to move my pictures off my phone, thinking sync would do it. in the mean time this happened. i was trying to free up space on my phone by doing all this.
OK, don't give up just yet, I now understand. First follow David Pogue's advice above as 542 MB for mail is a lot. Pogue wrote a very reliable book on the iPhone, The Missing Manual, so delete the account as he recommends and then add it again to free attachment space. Here it is again:
Delete email attachments. Files downloaded with your email take up a lot of space, too. The solution is to delete the email account (openSettings, then Mail, Contacts, Calendar, then the account name; scroll down and tap Delete Account) — and then add it again. Make sure you know your email passwords before you do this!
In the process, you’ll vaporize all the attachment files and message caches that you’ve ever downloaded and opened on your phone. When you add the account back again, those files will still be online, ready to download — but only when you need them. (This trick works for most account types — but not for POP3 accounts.)
Now to move pictures off your phone... Are these pictures in Camera Roll and are they pictures you took with the phone? (not pictures you synced from your computer to your phone I take it). If so don't use iTunes. If you have a PC go to the Windows File Manager, plug your phone into a USB port and you should see the phone listed there just like a camera. You can then copy the pictures to your PC and once you know for sure they are on the PC and only then, delete them from your phone (twice, you have to delete them from Camera Roll and then from Recently Deleted, click on Albums at bottom). If you are using a Mac then do the same but use Finder instead of Windows file Manager. Hope this time is the charm... 🙂
Oh, BTW, turn your Push back to ON.
It worked, thank you so much for your help!!1
You are welcome.
I have over 8000 emails on my phone, how do i get rid of them?
