Emails suddenly disappeared from my POP mail account on the iPad

[galaxed]

I have read everything I could find on the web and no one seems to have an answer for this specific problem. Twice now, a couple of months apart, everything has disappeared from the inbox on my POP mail account on the ipad. I have two mail accounts, this one, through embarq, and a second one through gmail. Gmail is unaffected. The emails are not in the trash and are still in my Outlook mailbox on my desktop computer. But all the emails on that account vanish simultaneously from the ipad. I've had the ipad for a year and this has only happened twice, in recent months. The first time I thought my grandson had erased them, but apparently not so. I had just turned the ipad off and turned it back on because I was having a separate, unrelated problem with gmail. When the ipad came back on, the inbox on that account was empty. The trash folder still has the emails I threw away in recent days, but inbox is empty of all the ones I was saving. The account is properly set up as a POP account. Is it possible that closing the mail program and then turning the ipad off had something to do with this? But if so, why are there still emails in the trash?

Thanks for any help. I don't want to worry that it will happen again.

 

[Somerled]

First of all, POP is the WORST protocol to use if you want to view mail on multiple devices. The fact that you are only having your issue once in a while is amazing.

Find a service that uses IMAP (gmail is a good). IMAP will allow you to sync your mail across devices, and if you use gmail, you can use Exchange-style syncing of Calendar, Contacts and email.

 

[galaxed]

I've had no other trouble and can sync calendar and contacts from my Outlook program through itunes. But my primary email account, the POP one, comes through my internet provider, Centurylink. Do you think they also provide an IMAP service? Seems a very odd symptom, the one I have, emails vanishing from inbox but not trash.

 

[Kaykaykay]

I've used Pop without probs for years on iDevices, pre-iPad. No probs. Maybe your ISP is the prob? I've got my accounts set to never delete from server. I've now got my email accounts -- Pop and non-Pop -- on seven devices (Windows, iOS and Android).

 

[Kaykaykay]

By the way, are you sure that you've set up your iPad email correctly? If your email is deleting simultaneously, I wonder whether you've got the expiration date set wrong. In my settings on iPad email, I have my Pop accounts set to Remove > Never, and Delete from server > Never. If you have one of those set otherwise, your email will auto-delete after a certain period (decided by you).

I've had Pop email set up iPad since my first one, purchased on first day of availability, so more than 2.5 years ago, and on iPhone long before that. Haven't lost any email in that time, and every time I get a new iDevice, I copy from backup, so my email settings have remained unchanged for years.

 

[Skull One]

If you are unable to resolve the issue to your satisfaction, I would recommend an "out of the box" solution. If you have a legacy Hotmail account, you can set it up to pull your POP3 email from another account. It then is moved to your Hotmail account which will then be IMAP. This is how I deal with my POP3 accounts at present to avoid the issues you have described. I am unsure if new Hotmail accounts still have this ability. Been over 3 years since I needed to mess with this. That is how well it works.

 

[galaxed]

I have it set to delete "never." I think it's set up correctly. It's weird. I never had this problem for the first nine months or so. And why would the trash still have the deleted emails, while the inbox is emptied by whatever this is?

 

[galaxed]

I have mine on three devices, computer, ipad and Android phone. I just have this feeling that it's something with my ipad, but I sure as heck can't figure out what.

 

[The OB]

I have mine on three devices, computer, ipad and Android phone. I just have this feeling that it's something with my ipad, but I sure as heck can't figure out what.

Have you reset your iPad, a good thing to do periodically, particularly if some aspect of the iPad starts to act "strange". This tidies up RAM and cache and gets your iPad to run sweeter again.
Do this: simultaneously hold down both the On/Sleep and Home buttons until the screen goes black and the white Apple logo appears. Let both go then and patiently wait until the logo turns back into the home screen. Slide to On. How did that go?
Regards, Andrew



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[galaxed]

I just reset it, thanks, but I guess I won't know unless all the emails suddenly vanish again. I keep hoping I'll run across someone who's had the identical problem and be totally enlightened.

 

[The OB]

I just reset it, thanks, but I guess I won't know unless all the emails suddenly vanish again. I keep hoping I'll run across someone who's had the identical problem and be totally enlightened.

Well, if those emails don't vanish anymore you probably can then assume the problem was fixed and you won't need to search for others with similar problems. If the problem re-occurs, don't hesitate to come back on this, as other solutions may be available as well as people who will no doubt attempt to help you further.


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[Hellej]

Well, the only help I can give is that I just experienced the exact same problem. Yesterday evening everything was fine, this morning all mails in one of my two POP-Inboxes were gone. All 200 of them. Thrashcan folder also empty. I tried the following:

- Closing the app (doubletapping home, holding the app icon, pressing x...)
- Restarting the Ipad
- Hard reset of the Ipad by holding home and sleep button

Would be nice with a solution to this. I have had the Ipad2 for almost two years, with the email accounts set up like this, with no problems at all.

May I suggest that this is another "feature" of IOS 6?

 

[The OB]

I just reset it, thanks, but I guess I won't know unless all the emails suddenly vanish again. I keep hoping I'll run across someone who's had the identical problem and be totally enlightened.

One more suggestion and that's the extent of what I could contribute:
Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars and tap "Fetch New Data". Is "Push" set to On? And on the same screen, go to 'Advanced" and under you mail server name, tap "Fetch" and check that Fetch is ticked.
Regards, Andrew



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Kaykaykay]

Well, the only help I can give is that I just experienced the exact same problem. Yesterday evening everything was fine, this morning all mails in one of my two POP-Inboxes were gone. All 200 of them. Thrashcan folder also empty. I tried the following:

- Closing the app (doubletapping home, holding the app icon, pressing x...)
- Restarting the Ipad
- Hard reset of the Ipad by holding home and sleep button

Would be nice with a solution to this. I have had the Ipad2 for almost two years, with the email accounts set up like this, with no problems at all.

May I suggest that this is another "feature" of IOS 6?

iOS 6 is a possibility. I'd purposely not upgraded my iPad 2 to iOS 6, because I wanted to keep Google maps, so my iPad 2 is still on iOS 5.1.1. My iPad 1 also is on iOS 5.1.1. My iPad 4 LTE is on iOS 6, but I haven't had it long enough to see any probs with email.

 

[Kaykaykay]

One more suggestion and that's the extent of what I could contribute:
Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars and tap "Fetch New Data". Is "Push" set to On? And on the same screen, go to 'Advanced" and under you mail server name, tap "Fetch" and check that Fetch is ticked.
Regards, Andrew

In more than 2.5 years, since I got iPad 1, my Pop email has never been set to fetch or push. I purposely check email only on manual, because I don't want to be distracted by email constantly, and it preserves battery life to have email on manual. That's the same in years previous to iPad, when I was on iPhone. In neither case has that ever led me to lose or miss any emails.