[WyldPhoenix]

This message has not been downloaded from the server

Well, if you have an Apple iPhone and have setup your Mail Application to download your email onto your iPhone, you may start noticing that you sometimes receive the following error message while you are attempting to view an older email:



Why does it happen?

My Guess: I don't think that the Mail application on the iPhone actually saves any attachments (or large emails) on the iPhone when you download emails! It saves the body of the email, but NOT the attachments.

Can you fix this?

Well, this normally happens when you collect your email on your iPhone using the POP protocol!

Most of us download our email onto computers and select the option in Outlook/Outlook Express to "leave the email on the server for x days", typically 5 or 10 (which I do) days. We then setup our iPhones to download the same email, but to LEAVE it on the server - or "Delete from server: Never".

This means that for 10 days your iPhone will be able to access a specific email on the email server, and will be able to download (view) that attachment whenever you want.

BUT: AFTER this 10 day period your computer will remove that specific email from the mail server, and then your iPhone will not be able to retrieve it from the server. Which also means that you will not be able to read any attachments from the mail server.

SO, when your iPhone Mail app tries to download THAT attachment, it will not be able to, and INSTEAD of just displaying the email body, and the attachment link, it displays the error message: "This message has not been downloaded from the server"...

Why Apple does NOT save the attachment? (My guess)

Well, if you are constantly re-downloading any attachment that you attempt to view on your iPhone, then you will constantly be downloading data using your EDGE package! AND your Mobile Service Provider CHARGES you a massive rate (per MB) to download data using EDGE! Which means that they (AT&T / MTN / Orange / whatever) are making loads of cash off you re-downloading your email attachments. Is this right?

Also: The space limitation (apparently) of the primary partition where the OS runs. If we were to start saving 100's of emails, with attachments, then we would fill up the +-65MB of free space that we have!

Way forwards?

Well, if you have moved all of your applications onto the Media partition, you now have a couple of GB free!!!!

Can't somebody edit the Mail app and change a setting in it which:

- Tells Mail to save ALL emails... not only those that are smaller than xxx KB ?!?
- Tells Mail to save in that Media partition?!?

In the meantime Fix?

Change your email account from a POP account to an IMAP account.

COME ON DEV's ... SHOW APPLE THAT WE CAN FIX THEIR MISTAKES!

[Harry Brindley]

Switch to IMAP on the iPhone to solve this problem. Using Gmail as an example, do not create a default POP Gmail account on the iPhone, start out creating an "other" type of email account to get to the IMAP option. For step-by-step instructions, including how to specify a different "from" email address if needed, then read my blog entry at <a href="http://slapphappe.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/iphone-mail-this-message-has-not-been-downloaded-from-the-server/">http://slapphappe.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/iphone-mail-this-message-has-not-been-downloaded-from-the-server/</a>.