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View Full Version : iPhone May Not be Deleting Your Email


Jeff Campbell
07-14-2009, 06:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.iphonealley.com/news/30-bug-deleted-mail-is-still-searchable?' target='_blank'>http://www.iphonealley.com/news/30-...ill-searchable?</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Macworld has stumbled on an interesting bug dealing with how your iPhone deletes (or more accurately, doesn't delete) email."</em></p><p><em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1247540083.usr105634.jpg" /></em></p><p>According to Macworld, if you use your iPhone for email, those messages you have deleted may not be gone. If you search for a few characters or small amount of text in mail, they say you will likely pull up a message that you thought had been previously deleted. If you tap on it, you can open it up in mail like any of your other email. If you then go back to inbox you won't find the message. And the messages supposedly aren't in the trash or the IMAP server either. The conjecture is that they aren't completely deleted from your iPhone. Something to be cautious of if you really want to make sure some of your email is gone.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

ptyork
07-14-2009, 06:27 PM
Those of us who've been IMAP'ers from the start--no, IMAP is not "iPhone Message Access Protocol" ;)--will recognize this as likely stemming from the iPhone (a) marking the message for deletion but (b) not actually purging it (conceptually similar to (a) moving a message to the trash and (b) emptying the trash, but NOT the same). My guess would be that this only affects those that don't specify the IMAP mailbox associated with deleted messages. In this case, instead of moving deleted messages to this mailbox, the iPhone would likely mark the messages for deletion, but not actually purge the deleted messages. To me, this would be considered proper functionality, not a bug. The IMAP web interface should allow for some degree of management of messages marked for deletion (undelete/purge). If not, then it is likely set up to work with a trash folder. In this case, the trash folder should be configured on the iPhone to enable proper functionality.