After ios9 update my emails with attachments won't open and say "message not yet downloaded from server". They were there previously. How do I get them back?

Hi Lawrence

I, like many others, have also had the problem of the contents of emails disappearing (specifically only those with attachments) since the moment I upgraded to iOS9. I have been following this thread since day one and share the frustration that countless others are obviously feeling, be they in the hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands. I have POP accounts on my PC and iPhone5. Changing to IMAP is not an option. Until Apple resolves this issue (it's starting to seem more like 'if' than 'when'), I have changed the setting on my PC to leave a copy of all incoming messages on the server, so as to preserve the messages on my iPhone. My iPhone has always been set to never delete from server.

I notice that you've mentioned a couple of times that you have been experimenting by sending and receiving emails with large attachments to yourself, to see if that's what may be causing the "message not yet downloaded from server" message to appear. I have been experimenting too, and can vouch for the fact that the size of the attachment is not a determining factor -- I have sent emails to myself with very small attachments (a Word file or a small pdf document) and, once manually removed from the server, they suffer the same fate as emails with large attachments. Someone also suggested a while ago that "flagging" the incoming emails might be a workaround -- I can vouch that this also does not work.

And so we wait .......

Try sending a series of emails with attachments (5 or 6) from your iPhone and monitor those messages in your sent folder for 24 hrs. I bet after 24 hrs, those sent emails will have the dreaded "Msg Cannot Be Downloaded from Server" when you look at them.

Hi, Had a 54 minute phone discussion with Apple today. The first representative gave the usual fixes (i.e delete email account etc) that don't work. It then got escalated - and am somewhat saddened to report that a fix won't be any time soon (if at all).

The 2nd person from Apple confirmed that the issue is NOT listed as an emerging issue with iOS9 - and that unless more people complain it probably won't be.

Quite clearly they simply don't get it - much of the time he was trying to fob me off with:

• It is a fault in your country only (Western Australia) - I pointed out people from the US, UK and other countries had the same issue
• It then changed to it is probably a fault with your ISP - I pointed out that therefore many ISPs from all over the world must therefore have the same fault
• Your phone needs to be set to push every 15 minutes to refresh emails - I talked about how POP3 email is supposed to work
• It is the fault of spam filters thinking the emails are spam and so keep trying to download over and over - this made no sense at all

He admitted to me that he didn't know much about POP3, and couldn't really see what the issue was. He then told me about how an issue needs to be reported by a large group for it to be even looked at or considered. He claimed no-one had reported this issue (even though I and many others have).

He eventually agreed to complete a problem form and submit it - and send me an email with the results. He didn't seem confident of a resolution - maybe I just got him at the end of his shift and he was over it. Didn't feel very confident after this.

There must be alternatives to Apple's email app for POP3.

I reported the issue!

Thankfully have my Samsung laying around...I gotta switch. Can't run IMAP due to low data bandwidth in rural areas, and high price . POP is a must...APPLE MUST ADDRESS THIS ISSUE>POP IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE AS IT IS STILL USED WORLDWIDE.

Former USMC wrote:

Okay - so far - so good. Here is what worked for me:

• Restored iPhone to September.
• iPhone 6S requested password for email.
• Emails flowed in.
• Settings - General - Storage & iCloud Usage - USED was 8.8 GB and AVAILABLE was 2.5 GB.
• Deleted old iMessages, some Photos, a few videos, a few apps, etc.
• Now - USED 7.7 GB and AVAILABLE 3.7 GB
• Keeping emails on Verizon server...did not delete them.
• Email on iPhone now contains ~ 60 messages - and all of their content for over 24 hours.

This is sidestepping the issue. With POP mail there should be no need to leave emails on the POP server. When a message is retrieved on the iPhone the message should then reside on that device, irrespective of whether or not it remains on the POP server. Additionally, messages in Sent Mail also should reside on the device and not be effected by whether or not the message is still on the server. This is glitch in the iOS9 mail app that Apple needs to cure.

We need to make this visible to Apple to get their attention because from the posts I'm reading it appears that a limited number of users are impacted, or a limited number of users have made known they are having this issue. Aside from using the feedback link it may help posting the issue on social media networks. I'd be interested to hear other ideas on how we can get Apple's attention.

I too received a case # from Apple who submitted the issue to their Engineering unit. Let us know what if any feedback you receive. I will do likewise although I received a case # on 10/1 and have not yet gotten any feedback. I will be calling the tech who assigned the case # later this morning. Good luck.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I'm not saying there isn't a real issue that needs fixing, but the number of users affected is small. So rather than ranting it would be much more effective to do some troubleshooting and see if we can narrow down the conditions under which this occurs. It isn't memory, because there is no limit to the storage that one app can access other than the total free memory on the device. If we have some useful information to help Apple isolate the problem that will help speed a resolution. I've been experimenting today with sending and receiving messages with large attachments (8 MB on average, which is near the limit of most ISPs for a single email). If we can find a way to reproduce the problem I (and any users at level 6 and above) have a way to pass information on to engineering. But pointing them to a message thread that is 90% rants is not going to get their attention.

Roger that Lawrence Finch. Troubleshooting and making the issue know to Apple will help while ventilating is not a remedy.

It sounds like you have a temporary workaround. I don't use gmail but would guess their servers are IMAP.

Question from a non-techie: Could this issue somehow also relate to the specific email provider? I'm using road runner. If I set up a new account, I get a choice between pop and imap. If I delete an existing account and enter the information again, it defaults to imap. I need to use the garbage password system discussed earlier to get back to pop. However, imap and pop use DIFFERENT ports with roadrunner. Is there something going on with roadrunner defaults and ports that is, at least in part, causing the problem here?

peter144a wrote:

Question from a non-techie: Could this issue somehow also relate to the specific email provider? I'm using road runner. If I set up a new account, I get a choice between pop and imap. If I delete an existing account and enter the information again, it defaults to imap. I need to use the garbage password system discussed earlier to get back to pop. However, imap and pop use DIFFERENT ports with roadrunner. Is there something going on with roadrunner defaults and ports that is, at least in part, causing the problem here?

The issue is not unique to any particular provider. It has surfaced from multiple ISPs.

Once again, with reference to your flexible approach to statistics, is this thread 80% rants?

Rontu2 wrote:

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I'm not saying there isn't a real issue that needs fixing, but the number of users affected is small. So rather than ranting it would be much more effective to do some troubleshooting and see if we can narrow down the conditions under which this occurs. It isn't memory, because there is no limit to the storage that one app can access other than the total free memory on the device. If we have some useful information to help Apple isolate the problem that will help speed a resolution. I've been experimenting today with sending and receiving messages with large attachments (8 MB on average, which is near the limit of most ISPs for a single email). If we can find a way to reproduce the problem I (and any users at level 6 and above) have a way to pass information on to engineering. But pointing them to a message thread that is 90% rants is not going to get their attention.

Roger that Lawrence Finch. Troubleshooting and making the issue know to Apple will help while ventilating is not a remedy.

Oh, but it really is!! For once Rontu2 we disagree - after the day I had yesterday travelling across Europe with my new improved iOS 9 mail app, ventilating made me feel a whole lot better. Off to post some more Apple feedback as part of my new bedtime routine...

I'm able to reproduce the problem reliably. In checking on my laptop I had email configured to keep messages on the server for a week. I tried deleting the messages from the server, and immediately after that the messages on my iPhone lost their content. I'm continuing trying to narrow the problem.

One thing to check is if an account that is POP only on the server side behaves like this. I gather that most of the reports are from users of servers that offer IMAP, but iOS mail is being configured to access it with the POP3 protocol.

ASide from the POP problems we're all having, how do you become a level 7?