Phantom emails & contacts

**rossmon1** · 07-07-2009, 06:31 PM

I have searched in vain for a way of removing the phantom email addresses that popup as I type an address. Many people all over the net have posed this question without any answers. Clearing the safari cache definitely doesn't help. I decided to use the new 3.0 search facility on one of these contacts. The search brings up all the email messages that were deleted months ago!!! I have carefully searched for these messages in sent, trash etc and they are definitely gone. Some cache is keeping not only the contacts but the original emails. This is for a pop account.
So who knows the answer to this? The search will display the message ( in this case 25 deleted messages concerning a job application) and if you click on it, displays the entire email as say 1 of 15 in the sent items. If you click on send to go back to the sent mail folder, it's not there! Of course I must repeat that I deleted it and deleted it from trash a long time ago.
BTW I've been a network and support professional for about 25 years now so I'm not making this up or doing something dumb.

**chobbs1** · 07-07-2009, 06:36 PM

Cool. So why is this an issue?

**rossmon1** · 07-07-2009, 06:42 PM

Well its a real annoyance when selecting a contact to have to wade through many others and 2 its a concern to have deleted msgs still lurking arround somewhere perhaps eating up space on my 8gb phone. wonder if attachments are hidden somewheres too. 3rd its not confidence inspiring to have supposedly deleted items still there. what if there is sensitive or just plain secret stuff that you think is safely gone, like applications for jobs when you are already working!

**chobbs1** · 07-07-2009, 07:03 PM

Even on your computer all of your information is still there after deletion. That is unless it is overwritten with a security software that rewrites a bunch of 1's and 0's over the free space a bunch of times.

To find out if it eating up space do a test. See how much space you have, delete something then see if your space amount has changed. I doubt it's eating up space.

Have you tried restoring your phone as new and re-adding you media? This may help if it is really that much of an issue to Wade through past email names. I find this rather handy myself. I sometimes don't want to add a contact but the info is still there if I ever have email said person again.

If your worried about security your gonna have to make a few concessions and set up "passcode lock" and "erase after ten tries" settings that is all I got. Sorry it's not what your looking for.

**chobbs1** · 07-07-2009, 07:20 PM

I just went on apples website and searched how to securely eras dat and found lots of answers. Give it a go. You might find what your looking for.

**chobbs1** · 07-07-2009, 07:25 PM

Also. If I were you. I wouldn't be putting super secret govt documents on your phone cause your never really secure!!! Cue scary music!

**rossmon1** · 07-07-2009, 09:01 PM

I am not aware of my pc retaining deleted emails after cleaning them out and there are ways of clearing the cache of contacts. Of course I have a password protected iPhone. Emails take up space period I don't have to test it to know that. Like any tech, I want to know why and where period. Short of cracking the phone there ought to be a tool for clearing this cache.

**chobbs1** · 07-07-2009, 09:53 PM

Good luck!

**rossmon1** · 07-09-2009, 02:16 PM

What a pain. didn't realize that the bu only backs up email and settings.
Had to resync all my music videos etc. This did get rid of the phantom emails. The phantom contacts are still there

**chobbs1** · 07-09-2009, 04:53 PM

Glad it got rid of some of the problem.

**rijc99** · 08-09-2009, 02:03 AM

It seems like it got rid of it. When you did the restore and resync of media you wrote over the sectors that contained the deleted emails.

I believe if you were to sync media until all memory is taken up you may be able to get rid of the old data.

**Earless Puppy** · 08-10-2009, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by chobbs1

Cue scary music!

LMAO too funny

**Ipheuria** · 08-10-2009, 03:41 PM

I posted in other threads about the same topic so just search for my username I guess. I had the same problem, I searched also the only way you can get rid of the remembered email addresses is to Jailbreak your phone and use BossPrefs with the ABRecent Cleanup plugin. Well the only way I've found.

**DaveDickey** · 02-22-2013, 01:23 PM

I had an incorrect email address that would pop up when I would start to enter my daughters email address. It was finally located in "Recents" as I recall.

**Bazza1** · 02-22-2013, 03:25 PM

Not sure if it will rid you of this particular problem, but you might want to take a peek at PhoneClean. Not surprisingly, given Apple's overweening control issues, its not in the App Store, but its a desktop application for Win or Mac. It can be found here -

Installed, with the iPhone attached via the sync cable, it scans a variety of locations for flotsam. With scan results available for manual inclusion (or not), you then let it run and it wipes this stuff out. Without letting it delete my cookies / script files, the initial clean got rid of over 1 GB of, uh...crap. No apparent issues thereafter.