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Problems with mail in iOS 9

I have updated my iPad generation 4 to iOS 9. First the iPad froze when it updated to the OS, I had to press and hold down both buttons for a few seconds in order to restart the iPad.

I have now discovered that the contents of all of my email are missing, the emails are still there but they lack content, it only says "The letter has not been downloaded from the server." The contents of the e-mail is visible the first time I open them, but the next time the content is gone.

How do I recover the contents of my email?

iPad (4th gen) Wi-Fi, iOS 9

Posted on Sep 20, 2015 4:33 AM

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Posted on Sep 20, 2015 3:55 PM

I Have the same problem on my iPad Air. We need help. Seems ios9 is giving a lot of problems.

244 replies

Sep 23, 2015 12:47 PM in response to Butterfly7

I have the same problem. After upgrading my iPad 1 to iOS 9, I noticed all old emails with attachments in my POP accounts only (MAP accounts are fine) say, "Message has not been been downloaded from the server." There is no additional link provided with which to download them in the window. Looks like a bug. Hope there is a way to recover them in a future patch, as I have a lot of older saved POP emails.

Sep 24, 2015 8:23 AM in response to harntse

I've the same problem in both devices, iPhone 6 64Gb and iPad2 mini. After deleted the pop account (in iOS 9) and re create it, with same parameters, it worked fine for some days, until today when I've updated to 9.0.1 my mail with an attachment are empty.... I'm very concerned about that. No other solutions at the moment, I'll re delete the POP account and re create it on both device, very boring... Hoping Apple fix that soon!!!!!

Sep 26, 2015 2:54 PM in response to dannyfromhöllviken

My email is set up as a POP account. I have temporarily resolved the problem of no email contents on my iPhone for new messages only. I set my account to NOT delete emails on the server (unless I delete them on my main computer.) In my arrangement, this is a setting on my computer, not my iPhone/iPad. This is a kludge, but at least it lets me see my email contents and attachments on my iPhone and iPad. IOS 9 on the iPhone seems depend on looking back at the server when you open the email message on the iPhone/iPad. Seems like iOS 9 does not understand how POP is supposed to work. Apple needs to fix this! Sigh...

Sep 26, 2015 2:55 PM in response to dannyfromhöllviken

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 setup 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 replaced with a header information (similar to a IMAP case prior to download) but the body will be replaced with the statement: This message has not been downloaded from the server.

4. Deleting the account and setting it up again from scratch does not solve the issue and will result in the loss of all the email placeholders - further increasing your loss of knowledge.

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)

7. This affects you irrespective of you country, internet provider or email provider - the discriminator is the use of pop/smtp.

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 device 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 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/

OK other threads - 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

Sep 26, 2015 3:31 PM in response to catherinefromgla

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!

Problems with mail in iOS 9

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