Unable to delete email

[Duncan Coolidge]

Frustrating problem. I have searched and tried all suggestions to date but have had no success with solving this. I have two POP mail accounts with Comcast. Despite deleting all email from both accounts, emails reappear when deleted from the iPad. I tried deleting the accounts on the iPad and "reinstalling" them, and being certain to additionally remove the emails from the trash folders. There are no other folders than the inbox and trash only appears if there are deleted emails. There is no option to change to an IMAP configuration. I suspect that some change was made by a now deleted application, but I am not familiar enough with the iPad OS to know if that is a reasonable possibility. Doing a complete reinstall, given the jailbreak and my personal configurations, would be a major time eater. All the icons become unsorted from their tidy category hierarchy. So any of you gurus out there have an answer? Best regards, and thanks for any help.

 

[twerppoet]

This is the nature of a POP account. It does not sync with the device accessing it. There are only two options for a device. Download and delete from the server, or download and leave the email on the server.

The iPad, because it is a mobile device, does the second by default. It assumes you'd rather have all your email available on a desktop (as your main computer) than have it disappear with no way to retrieve it when deleted from the iPad.

I don't have a POP account to play with, but if you dig deeply enough into the account in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Your account, you should find the option to delete email from the server on download. It's up to you to decide if this is the behavior you want.

Using a POP account with multiple devices

Check with your email provider to see if they also have IMAP or Exchange setups. It require a new account setup on the iPad, not just a switch in your current setup. If they do, they should also have instructions on how to set them up. These type of accounts make all changes on the server, so all devices and clients stay in sync.

 

[Mickey330]

I use a POP account (have to - my ISP hasn't changed ... stooopid RoadRunner).

The settings for the POP account are in the Settings app. Go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars > [your POP account] > Advanced > Delete from server. I have three options in there: Never, Seven days and When removed from Inbox. I have it set to delete from the server after removing from the Inbox on my iPad. Then, I have Never set on my iPhone (I use the iPad more for e-mail management).

This works great for me and yes, the mail is deleted from the server. I've checked every now and then and yep, it's gone. And, when I delete the e-mail from the phone, it is still on the iPad (in the Inbox). I still get all the e-mail on the phone - but, then again, I've not waited long enough to let the iPad send a signal to delete it from the server. I can say that, once deleted on the iPad, it does not come back to the iPad; there are no duplicates there.

So, hopefully your POP account has settings like mine so you can set it up to delete? May be worth a shot...

Hope this helps.

Marilyn

 

[Duncan Coolidge]

Thanks. The problem here is particularly weird. I can go directly to my ISP and delete all my email. Then going to my iPad I do the same, including deleting the only other visible file "Trash". Then when I return to the iPad home screen the tag on the Mail icon is briefly gone, but returns with the same number as before, and on entering the mail app ... Bingo there they are again all the emais that were supposedly deleted from the ISP and iPad. They do not reappear on the ISP mail site, just the iPad. I can only assume that despite being deleted, they reside in some other file that is not being cleared. Perhaps there is some search tool that will allow me to find the file that contains that spurious email. iFile is powerful, but has no content search capability, and would be a tedious exercise.
Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[Mickey330]

How long are you waiting between when you eelete the mail from the server to when you access it on the iPad? Maybe it needs time to communicate? Dunno - just grasping at straws here (because you are right, that is weird).

Have you thought about routing your POP mail through an IMAP/Exchange account? Perhaps something like Gmail? I do that for my mom. Of course, my ISP is different but I can forward and delete from the web. I've checked and her mail is being deleted... Now, I don't worry about it. I'm still trying to figure out why I don't do that for mine (except, maybe, I like to see which account is getting the mail).

Oh, and have you checked with your ISP? Maybe they might have an idea what coding is making this happen, if any.

Sorry to not be of better help. Hopefully, someone else might...

Marilyn

 

[joeyteel]

I've seen that behavior before with a POP3 account.

Try doing a reset by holding down the Sleep + Home it tons until the apple logo appears. Then load the Mail app. Wait for it check your account and for the network activity indicator to stop as well.

After that, try deleting just one email and then refresh your inbox without emptying the trash. If the email comes back the problem could be something on the iPad as it won't redownload a message it knows is still on the device.

If it doesn't come back, try emptying the trash and then refresh the inbox again. If it comes back at this point, it is something server side, in which case your ISP would need to investigate it.

 

[Mickey330]

I assume you are still having this problem, Duncan? I saw you created another post on this same issue. I deleted that post because having a duplicate of the same issue fragments the conversation and makes it hard to follow along. Plus, it's against the rules. Please, keep all updates, follow-ups and questions about this issue to this thread; don't start another. Thanks.

Back to your question... Have you contacted your service provider to see if they can assist? I am assuming you are accessing this mail through the Mail app?

When you go into Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars," scroll all the way down until you see the box titled "Mail." The first line should be titled Show." Do you have the lowest setting there?

If not the above (to include the other posts in this thread), then I honestly don't know why this is happening, sorry.

Marilyn