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?

Also, whilst looking at irritating bugs on mail, the text doesn't wrap when typing. Email is a pain at the moment. Please sort this out! (Apple user since 1989 and this is the most trying update to date!).

I Couldn't agree more with you, Apple for some strange reason seem completely oblivious to how serious this issue is, i have been an Apple user for decades and for the first time I'm questioning the point of paying through the nose for a so called premium product that is looking very bottom budget right now, no one really cares about stupid little bugs that don't really cause huge problems but Apple seem to be unable to prioritise their problems, as you say email is sacrosanct and Apple's response has been woefully inadequate this should never have happened let alone not been sorted on the first update

This problem is much more serious than the one with apps not copying from the iPhone to the Mac. A solution with the next iOS update is urgent!

Posting here is a waste of time if you want action. This is a user-to-user forum; it is not read by Apple. To let Apple know go to http://apple.com/feedback. Better yet, contact Apple support (use the Contact Us link at the bottom of the screen). Even if the problem is solved in the next release, it will not recover the lost content.

The more important point if you have a POP email address is your iPhone should be set to never delete from the server.

zzr1100d6 wrote:

Hi,

your not a dinosaur for using POP most of the business world use it because once the email is there its physically on the device like an iBook or PDF and can be viewed when there is no Wi-Fi or cellular data network available its a critical thing for many businesses and people who travel widely it is still extensively used throughout the world, this is a major issue and Apple need to sort it very quickly.

Most of the business world uses MS Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino or IMAP. Business level gmail is even MS Exchange based, as is GoDaddy business services. It is only the dinosaur businesses that still use POP. With all of these, messages are downloaded to the phone as soon as they arrive on the server if you have Push enabled. They are thus accessible even without a data connection. There is no advantage to POP for business OR personal use, except that you can delete messages from your phone without affecting your other email clients. For most people even that is a disadvantage, not an advantage. When the POP protocol was designed it was unimaginable that anyone would ever retrieve email on more than one device. POP simply is not designed or intended to support multiple email clients.

Thank you for your suggestion, I have submitted feedback to Apple. My phone is set to never delete from the server. When the problem is resolved, is it possible that the content will be restored since the delete from server is set to never?

I think we have to be more clear, POP, is the protocol for receiving emails, typically from your ISP mail account, where Apple have really cocked up with this upgrade (I have the same problem) is that this error also appears against sent mails that have attachments. They are sent to the outside world using SMTP, no copy is ever saved on a server, their time there is transient before being delivered to the recipient. The device where the email was composed is responsible for holding on to the original, something that my iPhone has previously done. Now I am missing several important emails.

Yes I know I can select "Always BCC myself" but that is something that I did not want to do and have never felt the need to do. As for POP not being designed to be used with several clients, I'm beg to differ, providing you decide to have one device as a "master" and therefore the only one to instruct the server to delete once downloaded, then it works just fine. It's something I've been using for at least 20 years!!!

appleisrubbish wrote:

It's something I've been using for at least 20 years!!!

Exactly. And it's 19 years out of date as a technology. Even the larger ISPs (e.g., Comcast) now default to IMAP when you set up an email account. You have to jump through hoops to set it up as POP.

I just did 2 tests with a POP account I keep primarily as a honeypot. I sent a message with an attachment. When I opened the "Sent" folder the message was there, complete with attachment. I then sent a message with an attachment TO this account. Again, it arrived with the attachment intact. Unfortunately, I don't have any messages in the account from before I updated, so I can't determine if older messages would remain intact.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

appleisrubbish wrote:

It's something I've been using for at least 20 years!!!

Exactly. And it's 19 years out of date as a technology. Even the larger ISPs (e.g., Comcast) now default to IMAP when you set up an email account. You have to jump through hoops to set it up as POP.

Well you're a lucky man! I have two ISPs from which I send and receive emails and when contacting an email client be it Apple, Microsoft or whatever they use POP3 to get emails and SMTP to send.

appleisrubbish wrote:

Well you're a lucky man! I have two ISPs from which I send and receive emails and when contacting an email client be it Apple, Microsoft or whatever they use POP3 to get emails and SMTP to send.

I didn't say I used my ISP for email (and it isn't comcast). I learned that lesson the hard way. I moved and could not get Verizon in my new home. So the email address I had used for 15 years, and that everyone knew, no longer worked. Rather than use my ISP, with the prospect of that happening again, my only email addresses are hosted on independent servers that are not tied to my ISP. So my email addresses are now "portable." I also had the same problem with my phone number of 40 years. So now the only phone number I give people is my Google Voice number. It's programmed to forward to my cell and my home number. But if I move again I keep the same number and just change where it forwards.

Having the same issue on an iPhone 4S. The only possible cure going forward with POP mail, I think is to set the Preference in your Mail client not to remove mail from the server after retrieving a message. That would have to be done on all devices that are used to access the mail account.

Rontu2 wrote:

Having the same issue on an iPhone 4S. The only possible cure going forward with POP mail, I think is to set the Preference in your Mail client not to remove mail from the server after retrieving a message. That would have to be done on all devices that are used to access the mail account.

Hi, sorry to say but I think you are missing the point. I can almost accept received mails no longer being available, but sent mails should be maintained no matter what. Apple have managed to lose those too!!

Hi Lawrence, sorry but you appear to be out to discredit any user of POP/SMTP clients rather than admit like everyone else on this thread that Apple have managed to make an absolute mess of this upgrade in relation to mail.

I'm pleased that you have found alternative solutions and also that you are in the US rather than UK where things are a little different and we don't have to change ISPs just because we move.

I concur with your remarks. I have my MacBook Pro set to remove mail from the server and my iPhone set never to remove. That works fine. There is an issue however with the iOS9 upgrade. Messages that were in my Inbox or Sent mailbox before I did the upgrade are gone showing the dialogue you are seeing on these posts. Messages sent or received after I did the upgrade however have remained on the phone intact.

What I found odd was that immediately after I upgraded to iOS9 I went to back up the phone to iCloud. Typically before the backup starts a display shows the date and time of the last backup. The display did not show a date and time but showed "Never".