email folder contents disappeared

[jamo8]

Hi all, sorry if this has already been posted (i'm a noob!) i have searched but can't find anything exactly like this..........I have recently updated my ipad with the 4.3 OS and since then while looking at my emails, i opened a folder that contained quite important saved emails and they disappeared before my eyes and then the same happened with another folder. The folders are still there but no contents! I have tried the usual reset etc but they haven't reappeared. Not sure if this has anything to do with 4.3 - has anyone else experienced this?
Thanks

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Try power recycling the iPad - i.e. powering down by holding the Power button until the slider control appears, accepting then, when the iPad has completely powered down, press Power again until the white Apple logo appears and wait for it to power up. Fixes a whole load of unexplained problems.

Tim

 

[jamo8]

Thanks for reply but i've tried this several times and it hasn't worked

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Thanks for reply but i've tried this several times and it hasn't worked

Yes - sorry - I should have read your original post more carefully. Are you using IMAP or POP as your incoming mail protocol? If you use webmail, can you see the emails on the server? Remember that IMAP, if that's what you're using, is simply a 'window' onto your service provider's mail server. If they're no longer there, then the iPad won't see them either. So, if they have been 'removed' from your service provider's mail server during the time that you updated the iPad, then the observed behaviour is to be expected.

If you're using POP, then I'm puzzled and need to think some more....

Tim

 

[jamo8]

disappearing emails

Yes i'm using IMAP and the account is through Sky. Are you saying that the problem is with Sky? If so i will contact them about the problem.
Thanks again

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Yes i'm using IMAP and the account is through Sky. Are you saying that the problem is with Sky? If so i will contact them about the problem.
Thanks again

OK - we're getting close - IMAP - OK, did you delete these important emails from the server (or did you have the server set up to delete them) during the period when you updated your iPad? I'm hoping not.....

Tim

 

[jamo8]

Yes i'm using IMAP and the account is through Sky. Are you saying that the problem is with Sky? If so i will contact them about the problem.
Thanks again

OK - we're getting close - IMAP - OK, did you delete these important emails from the server (or did you have the server set up to delete them) during the period when you updated your iPad? I'm hoping not.....

Tim

No I didn't delete them from the server and neither did i have the server set to delete them. I opened the folder to read an email and they just literally disappeared before my eyes!

This was a couple of days after i updated my ipad so maybe it hasn't anything to do with update???

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Yes i'm using IMAP and the account is through Sky. Are you saying that the problem is with Sky? If so i will contact them about the problem.
Thanks again

OK - we're getting close - IMAP - OK, did you delete these important emails from the server (or did you have the server set up to delete them) during the period when you updated your iPad? I'm hoping not.....

Tim

No I didn't delete them from the server and neither did i have the server set to delete them. I opened the folder to read an email and they just literally disappeared before my eyes!

This was a couple of days after i updated my ipad so maybe it hasn't anything to do with update???

Possibly - OK - can you see these emails using webmail? Critical question!

Tim

 

[jamo8]

Possibly - OK - can you see these emails using webmail? Critical question!

Tim

No I can't see them when I access email through webmail on my laptop either!

Thanks

Cath

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Possibly - OK - can you see these emails using webmail? Critical question!

Tim

No I can't see them when I access email through webmail on my laptop either!

Thanks

Cath

OK - well at least we know why they don't display on the iPad - because IMAP is just a reflection of what's on the server. Next question - can you see those emails in either the Trash folder on your iPad or using webmail?

Tim

 

[jamo8]

Possibly - OK - can you see these emails using webmail? Critical question!

Tim

No I can't see them when I access email through webmail on my laptop either!

Thanks

Cath

OK - well at least we know why they don't display on the iPad - because IMAP is just a reflection of what's on the server. Next question - can you see those emails in either the Trash folder on your iPad or using webmail?

Tim

No - i can't see them anywhere

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

No I can't see them when I access email through webmail on my laptop either!

Thanks

Cath

OK - well at least we know why they don't display on the iPad - because IMAP is just a reflection of what's on the server. Next question - can you see those emails in either the Trash folder on your iPad or using webmail?

Tim

No - i can't see them anywhere

OK - it's difficult to know where they have gone - particularly if you can't see them in the iPad Trash folder. When you delete them using IMAP they are then sent to Trash and will appear in the Trash folder of your iPad and your IMAP server. But you can set both your iPad and your IMAP server to periodically delete the messages in Trash to save storage space. But you say that you have checked the Settings on your iPad and the Trash is not programmed to periodically delete these messages - i.e. you've got that option set to Never. Check too on your IMAP server - some servers default to emptying Trash as soon as you log off, but you can always set it to keep them for longer. Again, it would be worth double-checking that both your iPad and IMAP server are not set to delete your Trash.

If they really are still not there, then I would conduct an experiment and email myself a couple of messages and see whether they appear correctly in my InBox or do they disappear again. I would conduct that experiment from the iPad and then, separately, using Web Mail to see if the results are the same. This will enable you to determine where the problem lies and whether it still exists. If it disappears when you check and/or trash the email from your iPad then you know it's an iPad issue and we can investigate that further. If it disappears when you use Web Mail then it's a server issue and either it's configured incorrectly or there is a problem that needs to be brought to the attention of your service provider.

Many/most email service providers are required by law to keep copies of all email traffic for law enforcement agencies. If the emails that you've lost are really very important it might be worth approaching them to see if they can 'recover' them for you. However, having said that, they might be unwilling to do this, so don't get your hopes too high.

Good Luck and let us know the results of the 'experiments'.

Tim

 

[Gwenneth]

Hi, I'm having repeated problems also with emails (that I have moved to folders) disappearing before my eyes when I open those folders. This started in Sept or Oct 2011 time frame, possibly after the 5.0 update?

The problem seemed to sort itself out after a month or so (while I was traveling overseas), but has recently started recurring.

I use Yahoo email. I don't have any settings in Yahoo to filter or delete automatically. In some cases if I log into Yahoo on my PC immediately after, then the missing emails appear on the PC.... and if I shut down the iPad and restart it, those will then appear on the iPad. But in some cases they are just gone forever.

I normally don't use the PC for email, so it's not a matter of my having deleted something from the server and not seeing it on the iPad later.

Regarding POP vs IMAP, that's a little over my head technically. (If you can tell me how to check, I'm certainly willing to do that.) But the Yahoo account is pretty ancient (circa 1999) so is probably set up as POP unless Yahoo has forced a change of which I'm unaware. For the iPad, I haven't a clue -- but I bought it in Feb 2011 and would have accepted the defaults/suggested settings. But until the Sep or Oct time frame it performed flawlessly so not sure what has changed.

As an aside -- mentioning only in case there's some link -- my Safari keeps crashing, often multiple times per day. This started in the past month, I think, and is becoming more frequent.

I have done full shut downs and just this morning did a reset of the iPad.

From the threads I've found here it seems to be happening to many types of email accounts, not just Yahoo.

Any thoughts or recommendations? I really appreciate this forum (head and shoulders above the apple site -- stating the obvious I guess), and hope one of you gurus can help me.
Cheers!

 

[lphd]

I'm having a related problem. Recently 4 days of emails disappeared from my Yahoo account on my LAPTOP. Interestingly, they still appeared on my iPad. A Yahoo tech helped me restore them on my laptop by clicking on 'unread messages' (no matter that they were, in fact, already read). That 'fix' lasted two days and then the emails disappeared from both my laptop and iPad.

I've contacted Yahoo and their response is: "According to our records, it appears an IMAP client may have deleted your messages..... Once a message has been deleted by an IMAP client, it's removed from your Yahoo! Mail account. Messages deleted by a mobile device are not recoverable."

Any thoughts? This is disconcerting to understate my concerns.

 

[akammer]

All my emails as well as all the email folders contents also disappeared from my Ipad now. It is all my emails from 3 different accounts. 2 gmx and one gmail account. I just sent a test email from one of my gmx ac****s to my gmail account and it worked. This is now the only email on my Ipad. Any ideas what happened?