IMAP Mail, and crappy IOS mail search?

[kippyw]

I use IMAP email, which I have set up to load onto the iPad mail program. Generally I'm happy with it, but the "search folder" option seems very lame. When I search for a subject/header, and it fails to find it local, I then "continue search on server". This effort fails on most attempts. When I go over to a browser and actually go to my my server page, and then use the search function.... the search is almost always successful and I finds what I'm looking for.

Any work-arounds for this problem?

 

[Kaykaykay]

Have you tried using the global search function for iPad? (It's the one when you scroll to the left from your first page of apps.)

 

[kippyw]

No, I haven't tried the Global Search. I just figured that will only look locally when sometimes the email I'm trying to find is located on the IMAP server, and not on the iPad. I just figured I'm doing this wrong when the program/app asked "Continue Search on Server?" and it still can't find the email, which I later find by using a web browser access to the IMAP page.

 

[giradman]

Hi Kippyw - not sure which mail server you are using (Yahoo, Gmail, others?), but has this function of finding your messages on the IMAP server worked in the past? If so, then you might want to 'Force Close' the native Mail app on the iPad (i.e. w/ Mail closed, open the 'multitask bar', press and hold the Mail icon until all jiggle - hit the x to shut down the app - return to the home screen and try again; if not successful, then 'Restart' and if still a problem 'Reset' the iPad).

Now I'm using Yahoo, so just was curious if I could 'search' its IMAP server; below is my iPad Mail app showing the folders on my Yahoo account; when I open one of these 'larger' folders (e.g. sent mail or purchases, for me), the last couple dozen messages are loaded onto the iPad (more can be loaded if scrolling down to the bottom) - doing a search will (as you note) bring up the option to look on the IMAP server - this seems to work for me (I've located messages going back 3+ years) - I'm assuming that you are performing this task in a similar fashion? Good luck & let us know if you find a solution - Dave

 

[kippyw]

Oops, Seems I just needed to listen to your advice and be more tenacious.

The mistake I was making was that I failed to tap on the "Subject" box in my search parameter. Now that I figured that out all is good:
Search using IMAP web interface (my IMAP is Fastmail):




Search within iPad app:



Thanks!

 

[giradman]

GREAT! And yep, you need to select the area (or ALL) to search - Dave

 

[kippyw]

Hey, Here's a plus for the IOS7! It seems that since the update to 7 my local mail folder keeps better track of the IMAP (Fastmail.com) cloud folder. At first I was a bit confused because immediately after the 7 update I noticed "286 unread emails" in my INBOX. These were emails from years ago that I'm lazy about deleting. A little housework and all is perfect. Now the iPad Inbox more accurately reflects the actual IMAP cloud Inbox. In 6 this was not the case.