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?

I have just about had a gut full of Apples lack of response. I have all the same issues detailed over the last 700 responses. Email content disappears, mail continues to download messages again from the server after they have been deleted from the phone. Wipes all messages from my mail box sporadically. Show at times that I have millions of unread emails. I can't continue to put up with this crap. Apple needs to either roll back to an earlier version of IOS, fix the bugs in the current or I will have no choice but to replace my phone with a Samsung. Google this issue and it is so wide spread yet still nothing happens. I'm over it...

@ Lawrence Finch: " all Apple apps are very basic, and there are better apps for almost any function available in the app store" - well, then why won't Apple let us change the default browser or e-mail app in iOS?

....or delete the useless bloatware they insist we have installed?! (Surely deleting those would free up memory for other App's!)

To think that Apple do not monitor this forum or indeed selectively edit it - well.

It's a bug in IOS9 which has a number of associated failures:

- software testing and release processes

- customer communication

- recognition that poor service means customers leave

Like many, many other users - I've waited for a fix or news for over 2 months. Nothing, it's hardly surprising then that there are conspiracy theories.

I did a simple experiment. I took a picture with my ipad and mailed it to an email address that I do not pick up on ipad, but only on my desktop. I only added the words 'test of email' to the pic.

I sent it using the SMTP server of my email provider. So my Ipad SENT box would be the only place where I would have a copy of this sent email.

Within a day the email dissapeared out of my SENT box. Instead it had the usual stupid message about not having been downloaded, never mind that there is no server that it can possibly be downloaded from.

So it is NOT JUST POP3 inbox. this is a basic bug in the stupid email program from Apple. This is NOT about my in-box. they are dissapearing from the sent box whenver there is an attachement involved.

even if they dont support POP3 they surely they would still have to support SMTP ?

This isnt about yes/no supporting POP3 strategy. this is just a stupid incompetent programming error.

and yes of course Apple has its fair share of incompetence, just like any other company.

they just care less about it.

By the way, the idea that apple doesnt read this forum is of course laughable. Of course they do. But they will never tell you. But their PR people will of course keep an eye on these forums.

For me this apple has gone well and truly rotten.

Mr. Finch for quite some time you have been posting to this forum that the problem will be solved. How about posting when you think it should be solved?

AS for your points.

1) "No one is pushing customers to do anything." Sorry, but Apple is. By not fixing the email problem they are pushing us to go elsewhere. Try going without email for two months. I think you would feel pushed.

2) "There are plenty of third part apps." There are? Been there done that. They have ads, they have bugs and they cost money. But that misses the point. IOS 9 has the dubious honor of being the first OS issued without a working email.

3) "it is a bug." I have been in the computer business for a long time, writing, designing and overseeing software development. I have NEVER seen a company take this long to fix a major problem. Calling it a bug is an understatement. For Apple this may be the equivalent of the 1918 flu. It is an epidemic.

4) Not sure what all the verbosity is about Apple apps. Most Apple apps are very good. But again, you miss the point: they put a new product on the market with a defective operating system. It the IPad Pro were a car it would have been recalled.

AS for conspiracies, no one I know has called it a conspiracy. What it is is ignorance, rudeness and stupidity. All it would take to satisfy most of us is two sentences. Admit you have a problem. Admit you are working on it and will try to have it fixed by a certain date. We have waited two months, which shows our patience and loyalty to Apple. Apple has shown little loyalty to us. Our loyalty is wearing thin.

Spewer22...well said. 100% agreement.

Stark reminder for those who've recently upated to iOS 9+ and are just now looking for answers ... all email on your iPhone or iPad that display "This message has not been downloaded from the server" are likely gone, permanently from your device. Doesn't matter if you've backed-up to iTunes (or iCloud) since email is not included in these backups. The fact that all email messages on my old iPad 2 are now nothing more than "subject lines" is a HUGE inconvenience for me, but not a devastating problem as it may be for many others.

On the iPad, I have "Delete from server" set to Never for all 4 of my Comcast accounts. On my Windows 7 PC and Outlook 2010, I do remove messages from the server (after downloading). Thus, email for all accounts safely resides within a (very large) .pst file on my hard drive. Even email that I've SENT from the iPad isn't lost because I always Bcc myself and have an Outlook rule that searches for the string "Sent from my iPad", which moves 'em into the Outlook Sent folder when downloaded. I also backup the .pst file on a regular basis. So, all email I've sent or received for years (decades) are on the PC.

Although email that has accumulated on my iPad over the past 4 years IS now "missing", I've personally never considered email sent/received on the iPad as a permanent (master) copy. When I eventually upgrade my iPad (long overdue), I'll have to start over anyway with new (null) iOS Mail accounts since there's no way to migrate this email from one iOS device to another, correct? So, for better or worse, this has been my approach.

POP/SMTP has worked flawlessly, on the PC at least. Not storing all email in the cloud is a trade-off I suppose, but I haven't lost a single email or attachment in years. For those of you who don't have "master" copies stored elsewhere, other than on your iDevice, I feel your pain. If/when this problem is ever resolved (9.2?), I intend to delete ALL of my email accounts (i.e. all messages) on the iPad and just start over (recreate accounts), since as I stated earlier, the thousands of messages there now are just subject lines with dates. Anyway, my $0.02 ...

Lawrence Finch, I am still waiting for Apple to officially accept that it is a bug and to officially say when it will fix the bug.

I remember you promised me that you will provide me with such link when I will show you how other companies do it. I did my side of the bargain and showed how Oracle deals with bugs.

Apparently Apple is not as good as Oracle when it comes with accepting that there might be bugs in their products.

I Have been told by Apple support, who I have been support chatting with for at least few weeks now (yikes) that the issue should be resolved with next iOS update.

Well, I am glad you were told this.Unfortunately I dont think it means much.

I have been an international IT manager for too many years that I care to remember and have had to deal, and have had working for me many support and helpdesk people.

The 'it will be fixed with the next update' is i fear a well established answer when dealing with something the helpdesk knows they cant fix or dont wish to deal with. Its a bit the digital equivalent of 'the cheque is in the post'.

Until I see a actual acknowledgement from apple of this very serious bug I am taking the assurance you were given with a pinch of salt.

Still, there's always hope. I hope I am very wrong. If you are in contact with them then maybe you can ask HOW it will be fixed.

I bet you they wont know.

Mr Finch, I read your latest post with some amazement. But it wasnt until I looked at your profile that I understood.

You are steeped in Apple. To coin a sprhase, you are apple to the core.

You have many apple devices and are a dedicated customer. This means that the apple quality of service and attitude feels normal to you. You are quite used to having to go online to select as you pointed out many apps to possibly replace resident apple apps.

you possibly do not know that out here in the real world its downright weird that you cant change a default app. Rather strange that you cant delete preinstalled apps. Peculiar that after an update apps simply disappear because they are no longer supported. Strange to think that a manufacturer forces you to buy one of their new devices to get that app back. (Remember the Skype disaster on the ipod touch?). to you it may be quite normal that a manufacturer considers you as a source of income rather than an actual customer to give service to. And from the tone of your post it would also seem that the non communication from apple on bugs is somehow not unusual.

All this you will be used to and therefore you may not understand quite what is 'normal' anymore.

none of this is Mr Finch. None of this is. Which is why we are posting our comments in this forum.

@cusance... well said. Just once exception... extremely poor service from Apple is "normal". Certainly in regards to this problem.

I also recall Mr Finch giving a commitment to user Serguei regarding statement/acknowledgement from Apple of this issue. But I have to say I haven't seen it, despite reading this thread and others from start to finish.

I think we have to accept that some people just cannot make the distinction between good and bad service. Honest and timely communication with your customers is just part of good service. Apple continue to fail miserably in this instance.

Yes, that was my point. It may be 'normal' service for apple but here in the real world and compared with other providers, it isnt.

but i recall that a long time ago microsoft acted in a similar way. They too thought they were untouchable. now they are fighting for their market share.

It will all catch up with Apple in the same way. There already seems to be a fairly well established move away from Apple towards android.

I for one will certainly not replace my ipad with another apple device but will move to android. I like to be treated as a person, a valued customer, not as a mug 😠

I reject the notion that IMAP somehow is an advance or improvement on POP3.

it is different but there are aspects of IMAP which I do not like. Simple example:

On my desktop all my emails come together and only my desktop deletes on the server.

If I switch all to IMAP then suddenly I am faced with multiple inboxes etc. This is a pain because although there would be multiple email accounts

all messages are for ME and I would like them in one inbox, with one archive etc. yes i know i can start writing all kinds of rules to sort this but who the **** wants to bother with that? The point is with POP3 i dont have to.

There is no safety difference between the two protocols.

Also something that has already been mentioned before, we simply do not live, nor would i want to, in a permanently connected world.

I know apple would like me to so they can feed me more crap, but I sometimes want to look back on info in my emails while off air.

Pop3 lets me do that very nicely.

My ipad is only picking up some accounts (my main official one) and doesnt delete on the server.

There is only one aspect of IMAP that might be an advantage, and that is that sent emails are saved on the server.

POP3/SMTP doesnt do this which wasnt a problem until Apple screwed it up.

i use POP3 not because I dont know how to use IMAP, i use POP3 because i like it and it suits me better.

cusance wrote: "There is no safety difference between the two protocols.... There is only one aspect of IMAP that might be an advantage, and that is that sent emails are saved on the server"

I find POP3 superior security because after messages are removed from the server the data is not subject to being compromised if the server was ever hacked. My phone is set to never remove messages from the server however the phone is not my primary device for email. My MacBook Pro removes messages from the server after retrieval and that device is backed up twice daily to external drives that are kept both on and off premises so I have all of the data and redundancy. An IMAP server saving sent mail on the server is of no consequence to me because that mail is preserved via the daily backup of my laptop.

For folks who rely primarily on an iOS device for email the bug in iOS9 is a HUGE headache. Hopefully iOS9.2 will cure that.