email unavailable on iPhone if PCs get it first

[Mr. B#IM]

I don't want to think about how much time I have spent trying to solve this frustration to no avail?
I have subscribed to a new email provider that promises pushemail to certain types of phones, but it's not syncing correctly with my iPhone. If my computers (a PC and a iBook) pick up the email first the mail is not there for my phone to download. Yet when the phone gets the mail first the computers both get it no problem.

I've set up a pop accounts on all three devices and each are set to 'leave on server' or 'never delete'. My older iPhone is running 3.0 OS and I have this problem using WIFI or GPRS.

The really odd thing is that every once in awhile the syncing starts to works and my phone gets the email even after the computers do.

This email service is quite good and interesting, if only I can get the sync going properly. I subscribe to China Mobile and the email is with CM's 139.com service which also sends a text message 'alert' whenever an email arrives. Has anyone heard of this service? Odd that I get the text but not the email if the computers catch it first.

Thanks for any advice you might have.
Cheers,
Mr. B

 

[Tkf]

Try calling the provider.

 

[Alli]

Your email is behaving exactly as pop3 email is supposed to. Unless there is a setting on your pc's desktop client to "leave a copy of the email on the server" it will continue to be this way. And pop3 won't push.

Do yourself a favor and use a gmail (free) exchange account so that your pc and iPhone will stay in sync and your mail will be pushed to wherever you are. Then your only issues will be that if you delete from one device, it deletes from all.

 

[lungho]

Your email is behaving exactly as pop3 email is supposed to. Unless there is a setting on your pc's desktop client to "leave a copy of the email on the server" it will continue to be this way. And pop3 won't push.

Do yourself a favor and use a gmail (free) exchange account so that your pc and iPhone will stay in sync and your mail will be pushed to wherever you are. Then your only issues will be that if you delete from one device, it deletes from all.

I admire a women who knows her tech!

 

[Alli]

Flattery will get you anywhere.

 

[Earless Puppy]

see if you can use a imap instead of pop3, it may work better for your needs, but Alli's advice is solid try that first, if not pay for a mobileme account which I personally enjoy

 

[Mr. B#IM]

Thanks a lot for your insight Alli:
Today the problem has resolved itself somehow. I'm now receiving fetch mail to my phone and computers which are all in sync. I deleted some of the existing mail in my iPhone inbox and expanded it to show 50 email instead of 25. This is the only change I made and I wonder if it was the needed fix? Could creating room in my iPhone inbox really resolved the issue?

I know it's not push and apparently China Mobile and 139.com won't support push service for iPhone. I know other people who seem to be receiving real push service from 139.com on other type phones, which I believe are all running Windows programs.

I like this 139.com service because I also receive a free text message alert when new email arrives. These alerts contain 350 characters of the email but it is only a preview. I can also reply to the text message and get the next 350 characters. This way I can judge if the mail is important enough to download right away or wait until I get a wifi connection. I can also set up filters so the text alerts aren't sent for all the incoming junk.

Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated.
Mr. B

 

[Alli]

Unfortunately, the problem lies with the iPhone and not China Mobile or 139.com. I was happily getting true push email on my Palm Treo two years ago with fastmail.fm...and can't get it pushed to the iPhone.

I'm sure every email provider in the world would be very happy to push to the iPhone. Push should be push. Then again...how urgent can email possibly be?

 

[Mr. B#IM]

I'm sure every email provider in the world would be very happy to push to the iPhone. Push should be push. Then again...how urgent can email possibly be?[/QUOTE]

You're right... push is good but what the heck I'm getting text message alerts for every newly arriving email so I can preview the important stuff and it's free... well almost. I pay less than a dollar a month for this service from China Mobile.

If I paid for 'leave on server' from our website/email provider it would cost us more 300 beans a year and every bean matters these days.

Thanks again for the follow up.

Cheers,
B

 

[anon(153966)]

Let me ask this, have you tried good ole' Gmail?

I personally, like Alli don't think that PUSH is compulsory, albeit, it helps

 

[DainBramage1]

Yeah, why not try gmail in addition to your China Mobile account and see how they compare?

Push not compulsory? Maybe not, but without it you'd waste time checking to see if you got email when you didn't. Personally, I love push!

And if your iPhone is jailbroken, try LockInfo to give a quick display on the lock screen of upcoming calendar and ToDo entries, new emails and text messages, missed phone calls, current weather, etc... VERY useful!!

 

[AlecH]

I set up a 2nd email address (ie xxx-iphone@shaw.ca) and set up my main email xxx@shaw.ca to forward a copy to the xxx-iphone@shaw.ca email address whenever an email is received. This way I have a separate email address that is used on the iphone and gets all the same mail as the main address, and I can leave my home computer setup to download (and delete from server) the main email stuff as often as I want.