Deleted Mails Reappear

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Level 1

13 points

Deleted Mails Reappear

Hello,

using an iPad2 with a pop3 account I noticed that deleted mails from the trash folder reappear again in the trash folder and sometimes even in the inbox folder. Deleting the mails several times doesn't help. Why can't I delete the mails definitely? Are my mails in an apple server stored after downloading them from my provider? I didn't register for an apple cloud account because my privacy is very important and I do not thrust the cloud.

Furthermore, I fail trying to post this issue with the ipad2, because I coun't read the caracters, so I'm using now a windows notebook.

iPad 2, iOS 9.3.3

Posted on Jul 20, 2016 11:24 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 21, 2016 8:52 AM in response to Stefubir

You can change the character size in Settings>Display and Brightness>Text Size.

No, your emails are not stored in some secret Apple cloud. But they will remain on your pop server until you delete them.

iOS Mail has had trouble with pop since iOS 9.0 was released. I switched to AltaMail, which is an excellent, full-featured mail app.

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Answer 2

Stefubir Author

Level 1

13 points

Jul 21, 2016 1:48 PM in response to Diana.McCall

Thank you for your reply. For the mails, I allready deleted the mails from the pop server by downloading them (I choose the option not to leave the mails on the pop server after dowloading). Sorry, I should have mentioned it. I think teherefore that the mails could only be dowloaded again from some Apple server. Maybe Alta Mail is a better Mail app and I'll try it.

For the problem with the characters, I'll try changing the character size.

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Answer 3

Jul 21, 2016 11:08 PM in response to Stefubir

I really don't think that Apple is saving your deleted mail int the cloud in order to annoy you. I do think that the implementation of the iOS Mail app is less than perfect. So I suspect they are not fully deleted, and they come leaking back. Just incidentally, can you open them, or does it say it cannot be downloaded from the server? They may just be empty headers with no content.

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Answer 4

Jul 21, 2016 4:05 PM in response to Diana.McCall

There's a setting under Advanced for your email account that sets a delay before deleted mails are actually removed. So when you delete them, they just go to the "Deleted" list. They may be coming back from there unbidden. Once when I still used Mail, everything I'd received for months suddenly reappeared. Just a bug.

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Answer 5

Stefubir Author

Level 1

13 points

Jul 22, 2016 9:51 AM in response to Diana.McCall

Replying to your former post: I can open the complete mails (I don't get only the header with the empty mail and the wellknown error message).

The delay setting under Advanced has been to 1 month which tells me, that older mails should have been deleted definitely. I've now changed this setting to 1 day. Still, I think this not to be the solution because even older mails reappeared with a date before 2015. As far as I understand, deleting mails from the inbox (or outbox) folder, doesn't delete mails definitely but only remove them into the trash folder. The mails are deleted definitely only after emptying the trash. A deleted mail from the trash normally can't be recovered (or at least I don't know how). I understand that the delay setting is intended to empty the trash folder automatically after a given period (1 day, 1 month or never), if you only remove mails from the inbox folder.

How did I get the problem with the mails? Simply after deldeting mails from trash and checking the inbox folder and the trash folder subsequentially several times (tapping), because I noticed an activity with the wlan showing a downloading of some data.

I hope not being too long with my explanation.

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Answer 6

Stefubir Author

Level 1

13 points

Jul 26, 2016 5:02 AM in response to Stefubir

After updating to IOS 9.3.3, the problem seems to have been solved

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

278,179 points

Aug 4, 2016 3:08 AM in response to Stefubir

I'm glad to hear things seem to have been solved, however you mentioned messages going back to 2015. It might still be worth checking with your mail provider's webmail service if they have one, or looking up how to check for POP mail with telnet if they don't. Your mail client may remember what it has already seen or is only downloading messages within a limited time frame so there is a possibility that your mailbox could still contain those older messages that failed to delete on previous occasions. Using webmail or telnet might be the way to see and clean these up for good.

tt2

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Answer 8

Stefubir Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 5, 2016 5:04 AM in response to turingtest2

@turingtest2

Thank you for your help. Using webmail of my provider web.de I made sure that mails were ereased from the trash folder. Today the iPad has been updated with IOS 9.3.4 so it will take some time until I can express myself about this problem, whether it is solved or not. I'll report very soon.

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Answer 9

turingtest2

Level 10

278,179 points

Aug 5, 2016 5:17 AM in response to Stefubir

You're welcome. Best of luck. 🙂

tt2

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Answer 10

Stefubir Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 7, 2016 1:06 AM in response to turingtest2

@turingtest2

Thank you for your help. Using webmail of my provider web.de I made sure that mails were ereased from the trash folder. Today the iPad has been updated with IOS 9.3.4 so it will take some time until I can express myself about this problem, whether it is solved or not. I'll report very soon.

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Answer 11

Stefubir Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 7, 2016 1:28 AM in response to turingtest2

@turingtest2

After deleting my pop mail account I tried to reconfigure it. Unfortunately, the apple system only allows to configure an IMAP account and there seems to be no way to configure a POP account again, so I gave up und can unfortunately no report about solutions as I had intended. Sorry turingtest. I think I can live also with the mailing on the iPhone and a windows pc (which is why I need the pop account).

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Answer 12

turingtest2

Level 10

278,179 points

Aug 7, 2016 3:49 AM in response to Stefubir

Hi,

You can still set up a pop mail account on an iOS device. See Set up an email account on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support for details. However IMAP is the preferred access method as read/unread status, deletions etc. are all held on the server so each device gets a consistent view of the account. Unfortunately many ISPs don't support IMAP, mine being one of them. With POP each device downloads its own copies of the messages and the originals on the server are usually deleted after a specified time. Messages read or deleted using one client are still unread and visible on another. See Get help if you have issues using a POP email account with more than one device - Apple Support for more on this, should you decide you want this account back on your phone.

tt2

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Answer 13

Aug 7, 2016 7:08 AM in response to Stefubir

If you still have trouble creating a POP account, try this. Select Other, the enter a bogus email, e.g. fred@junk.com. Since it cannot find the default settings for the provider, it will give you the full set of options. Be sure you have the correct settings from your provider before you start.

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