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?

Rontu2 wrote:

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".

That may be because iOS 9 was never backed up.

That's likely the reason. I did a backup without incident.

This probably explains why suddenly mail memory usage is next to nothing compared to large usage before the iOS9 upgrade.

Check your mail usage and see if it has dropped drastically now.

I think it appears that since the iOS9 update, emails downloaded into the iOS devices will remain in those mobile devices, like they should, until the emails have been downloaded into the MacBook/Laptop from the POP mail servers which, after that point, is when I noticed emails starting to disappear from my iPhone and iPad.

For some reason iOS9 is not storing copies of the downloaded emails in the iOS devices storage areas, instead, they are downloading fresh copies of the 'same' emails from the POP mail servers every time the Apple Mail app is launched. The problem begins once the emails have been downloaded into the MacBook/Laptop, and the Mail apps have been configured to immediately remove downloaded emails from the POP mail servers, then when I try to view the same emails again on my iOS devices, I get the "This message has not been downloaded from the server.", because the iOS9 is no longer able to retrieve the same messages from the POP mail servers.

I have also checked the Incoming Mail settings in, both, my iPhone and iPad, under the heading Delete From Server: both devices have been set to NEVER.

Clearly this is an update issue that, hopefully, Apple will resolve fairly swiftly in due course.

It seems to be a conflict between what is better: to get more memory for the i-device or to minimize the usage of gigs on the mobile account and Apple decided for the free memory not considering that there are people with other needs.

In my case, being on travel 2/3 of the year and only having internet acces over the mobile net, is this new strategy very very disappointing because she obliges us to consume more of our scarce and expensive mobile internet traffic.

I hope Apple will give us in the future the choice to decide ourselves what is better for us.

I think you have hit the exact problem and this is a massive screwup by Apple. I have lost several significant emails that are unretrievable. Not a happy camper!

DITTO

All,

I have the same issue. I have identified at least 4 other separate threads on the apple forums as well as numerous threads on other forums. I will attempt to précis them here and also provide links so you can read through my sources yourselves. Note there is, as always, a significant amount of duff information, guessing and questionable fact obscuring the useful evidence.

1. This issue only appears to be affecting people with email accounts set up for pop/smtp.

2. Following upgrade to iOS 9 / iOS 9.01 and possibly the 9.1 beta as well, email content is removed from the iOS device resulting in a sudden decrease in the storage required for the mail app.

3. Emails that may have been present on the device for many months and accessed multiple times in both the inbox and sent items will be randomly replaced with the basic placeholder information (similar to a IMAP case prior to download) but with the body and attachments replaced by the statement: This message has not been downloaded from the server.

4. Deleting the account and setting it up again from scratch does not resolve the issue and will result in the loss of all the email placeholders - further increasing your loss of knowledge so you can't even work out what you've lost (tried it with one of my 4 accounts - won't be doing any more of them). I forwarded a lost message that was held on my iMac archive back to the newly set up pop/smtp account and it appeared and was accessible for about 12 hours before reverting to 'This message has not....

5. Switching the account to IMAP if you go for a delete and re-setup will also result in the loss of all the email placeholders but will 'probably' solve the problem (within the limitations of IMAP) for future emails.

6. This affects all iOS devices - iPads (all gens on iOS 9) iPhones (all gens on iOS 9). It is not affecting the same email accounts on our OS X machines (an iMac)

7. This issue affects you irrespective of you country, internet provider or email provider - the discriminator is the use of pop/smtp. It is disappointing that a number of apple customers have paid for support and been palmed off with this as a possible cause.

8. pop/smtp is not legacy or backward compared to imap it is just different. We use pop/smtp for 3 reasons: we don't want emails left on the server where a questionably secure environment could be compromised; our family want the ability to all download the same email to multiple devices without affecting each others ability to do so; we want one master device (the main iMac) to be the deleting device that holds the archive of all emails (right now we are very pleased we have this as all the iOS devices are scorched earth right now).

9. Some emails appear unaffected - I cannot identify any rhyme or reason to this. Old, new, addressee, - there doesn't seem to be a pattern. Can't say for certain but it seems that more are being affected as time goes on. If you are affected and you have the only copy of an email currently and you are going to need it again.....get it somewhere else ASAP!!!

10. This thread and forum is just for sharing knowledge between users. If this has affected you then you need to fill in the apple feedback page with your confirmed symptoms and the impact if you want anything to be done. Follow this link and do it now or apple pop users will remain without a fix! I recommend do one for each type of iOS device you have affected and the mail app itself.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Here are the other apple forum threads related to this issue - maybe someone else is familiar with a clever way to link them all up - please do so if you know how:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7226924

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7221489

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7226501

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7227219

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7230143

And from outside the apple forum:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2451886

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=&t=1543947&mid=0&nmt=IOS+9+an d+POP+acounts

I may have the fIx. This was with the help of a Cox technician. I deleted the pop account I had, and re-created the account. In the process I discovered that Apple iOS 9 no longer offers the option of a pop account; only an IMAP account. The IMAP account will not function in the way that I would like. So the Cox technician showed me a trick that he used for Yosemite but was not sure wold work for the iPad. But it did. The trick is when you create a new (IMAP) account give it an incorrect gibberish username and password. Then it tells you that that information is not correct and when you are given the chance to fix it you now have the option of selecting a pop account. So far today, it's working. And as a matter of fact I got back the emails that got deleted when I deleted the account. Or at least most of them. I'm a little concerned about posting this on this community, because if Apple eliminated the pop account option they may plug this hole if they know it's there. Good luck to all!

Apple has not eliminated the POP option. Since iOS 5 (yes, going back several years) when you create an email account iOS queries the server as to the protocols supported. It then chooses the most advanced. As most ISPs now support IMAP it is the default. If you don't want IMAP you have to fool the mail settings, as you did. But this isn't new either. See: Forcing creation of a POP or IMAP email account

I updated both iPhone and iPad. For me I can open attachments on my phone but not my iPad even though both have 9.0.1

The key Discriminator is using a pop/smtp setup on iOS 9 not iOS 9 per se. I don't know the definitive answer to this but believe you could setup the same email account on one device as imap and on another device as pop/smtp. This would be one possible explanation for the symptoms you are describing - but it would be useful to know more.

Yes it happened to me also. Unfortunately the email I lost was my daughters itinerary.

So I've been freaked out. Luckily I had my son in laws Mac and was able to access his emails. But I shouldn't have had to do any of that. I agree this time Apple dropped the ball big time.

If you restore a backup made before you did the update that should restore your email. However, it will overwrite any changes you have made or content that you have received since the update.

On an earlier iOS version update that had issues I did that. Wiped the phone and did a restore from iCloud of a backup that predated the upgrade. The restore was perfect except it not include any email messages. I called Apple and verified that a restore will recreate the mail account and settings but will not recover any messages. That was maybe 2 years ago so unless there's been a change a restore is not a cure for lost email messages.