Receiving and Forwarding mail in all devices

[salgolf]

This is an annoying problem I have had for a few weeks.

I have an original iPad, an iPhone 3G, and a MacBook Pro. I use Mac Mail. A lot of mail I receive comes to the iPad but not to the computer. I think it also comes to the iPhone but I haven’t checked that thoroughly. It's as if the mail is saying OK, I sent that letter; no need to send it further. In other words the iPad received it; that should be enough.

A great deal of the iPad’s mail is junk, much more so than the computer’s. But on the computer, I have a great many “Rules†that take care of most of the junk, spam, etc.

So, I try to forward the important mail that goes to the iPad to the com-puter. Often nothing happens. But most of the time, it appears to send to the computer, and the computer appears to be receiving mail, and says it’s receiving 3 of 3 mails, etc. But nothing actually appears. There are no new mails in the boxes. The mails are not hiding somewhere; I search for keywords and nothing is found.

In other words, I cannot forward from iPad to computer, and maybe from iPhone. Why? What’s happening?

One possible problem, and I'm guessing. I know for sure this happens when all devices are using the same network, my local network in my house. I can't say for sure if the problem is occurring if, say, the iPad is using another network.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks for any help.

Bob

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

At the top of my head would I assume that your email account on the iPad is using POP and set to delete emails from the server as soon as they are downloaded. Which means that they only appear on the device which downloads them first,

You may want to change the settings to either IMAP or Exchange, so that the devices all synchronize every folder with the server. If you need any further assistance in setting up the email account in such a way, would it be really helpful if you could mention which email provider you use.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

At the top of my head would I assume that your email account on the iPad is using POP and set to delete emails from the server as soon as they are downloaded. Which means that they only appear on the device which downloads them first,

You may want to change the settings to either IMAP or Exchange, so that the devices all synchronize every folder with the server. If you need any further assistance in setting up the email account in such a way, would it be really helpful if you could mention which email provider you use.

DontUnderstandMyIpad strikes again. Last night, I was being accused of being a robot. I think you are too .....I mentioned the Turing test for intelligent robots - so clearly I failed....

Thanks!!

Much appreciated.

Tim

 

[twerppoet]

By Mac Mail I'm guessing you mean that you have a mac.com or me.com email address and you have a MobileMe account, yes?

Chances are you're just experiencing some of the strange behaviors that can happen When IMAP encounters rules and junk filters on a local computer. Some key things to hold in mind.

With IMAP accounts everything you do on the device or computer gets changed on the server, if not immediately then soon after you connect to the internet.

The MacBook has a built in junk filter that is probably turned on, and two types of folders; local and server. When it is on, it immediately applies rules an filters when receiving email. When off none of these are applied. When a rule moves an email from the Inbox to a local folder, it is deleted from the server.

So here's a couple of possible scenarios.

First:

The MacBook is off, or not connected to the internet. You start your iPad and see several emails. You reply to a few, delete a few, and leave a couple in the inbox figuring you'll deal with them later on the MacBook.

Later, you turn on the MacBook and go to Mail. It immediately checks for mail. The stuff you deleted is already gone, so it never sees it. Everything else is checked through the junk mail and rules filters.

Turns out one of the emails you saved on the iPad the MacBook has decided it was junk (erroneously even) and it went directly to Junk mail. Since it was already marked read, there is not indication of new mail in the folder. Another email got moved to the local folder JobSearch. Again, since you already read it you don't see a new email indication.

All immediate indications are that the emails have disappeared. Darn, you say, and go back to the iPad. When you open it the emails are there, for about 10 seconds and then the disappear. The iPad has updated with the server and since the MacBook moved both of these emails to local folders on the MacBook, there are no longer on the server.

Second senario:

Your MacBook is on and connected to the internet and email is open. Several emails come in, rules are applied, junk mail is filtered. In the mean time your iPad gets a push notification for each email. A badge appears. You open the iPad, go to email, see the new emails, and about 10 seconds later several of them disappear.

The iPad, besides getting notifications also downloaded at least a preview of every email it received notification for. Since it only receives push notifications for new emails, not emails removed it keeps all of these until it goes to the mail server and updates. It also deletes several emails that were not junk, but that the MacBook faithfully moved to you local JobSearch folder.

When you got to the MacBook, there are there in that folder and marked as not-read.

Suggestions:

Periodically check your junk mail on the MacBook to make sure things you want are not ending up there. For really important stuff enter the senders email address in the Address Book. Addresses in there are always immune to the junk mail filter.

Recreate your rules so that they send stuff to server folders. These are the ones that are listed under the heading of your email address on the MacBook. All those folders should also be visible on the iPad and iPhone.

Alternately you could recreate your rules on the me.com site. I believe, but am not certain, that these rules will be applied immediate on the server. Since you can only set them up to go to local folders everything that happens there should look exactly the same on the iPad and MacBook when you connect.

Disclaimer:

Of course, I could be missing the mark entirely here. Let me know if I am. More importantly if you find out what is going on let me know. I'm always willing to learn, even if it means admitting I was wrong.