iCloud delivery of email

[DannyMichel]

I love it when people say the reason we pay ridiculous prices for Apple products is because 'they're the best and they never fail. You're paying for the quaaality'


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[paul-c]

I really like the look of the iCloud website on the desktop. That's about it, though. I don't really need another free email account. Especially one that has lots of issues out of the gate.

 

[leharris22]

My iCloud email is now syncing with the Mac Mail client! Whoot! Not sure if it will last but it just started randomly working.

 

[anon(153966)]

Brilliant news, leharris22

...so how is iCloud's email (@me.com) working for everyone? Is delivery working correctly, i.e. PUSH?

 

[bonesb]

Brilliant news, leharris22

...so how is iCloud's email (@me.com) working for everyone? Is delivery working correctly, i.e. PUSH?

I have no issues with my iCloud accounts, but they're set to Fetch. Like I wrote earlier, iCloud email isn't push email. Apple's notifications server pushes a notification that you have iCloud email, that's what so many are missing, and iCloud email in the iPhone Mail app doesn't support IDLE for email (though it does for other providers). Apple's Mail app also doesn't support refreshing the email message count for iCloud email when set to Push. Delivery of the iCloud email is only effected when set to "Push" and only when the Mail app is open and active (as the frontmost app). Not picking nits here, but its whether Apple's notifications server is working as intended, and we don't know what Apple's polling period is (like RIM tells us BIS's polling is at most 15 minutes).

I set mine to Fetch, with a 15 minute interval, and I get email to all of my accounts without issue and on time and with resolved/reconciled accounts. QED. I have a tablet with an email client capable of IMAP IDLE for all of my accounts (including iCloud/MM accounts) and get notifications on it about the same time as my two iPhones running Fetch. Let's hope Apple figures out how to work out XMPP notifications sometime soon...

 

[bonesb]

I love it when people say the reason we pay ridiculous prices for Apple products is because 'they're the best and they never fail. You're paying for the quaaality'


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not me. I pay extra for Apple products because I don't need an IT person for my company, and my employees don't have to bug me every few days because their PCs aren't working as expected. This entire year, my entire IT expenditure since switching to Apple products was $0. Zero lost productivity. No complaints, no virus/malware/connectivity issues. First year ever with Apple-only products.BTW, we're still using XP, but I ported the disks to Parallels 5 vessels and launch XP only when needed, which is hardly ever now. And, the MacBook Airs I purchased were less expensive by hundreds of dollars than the 3 Windows-based computers I specced out.

I'm donating my planned IT budget to a food bank, thanks in part to Apple's stuff working as expected.

 

[bonesb]

Yeah, I just don't know what to do. I've tried deleting it from the Mac and re-configuring it and it won't set up properly on the Mac mail client. It works fine on the iPhone and web, just not the Mac.

Forgive me, however, there's a post/article you might be interested in reading. I have no idea what your technical capabilities are, however, it's a good read:

Fix a Lion file-opening hang in Mac OS X 10.7.2 | Macworld

Follow the instructions, and your ills may be addressed. Short version, and I can't get into it here, but during iOS beta testing I discovered a new profile in each of my iPhones during beta testing, and I worked through it with Apple Security - they deemed it was not a threat, and instructed me to delete the profile from each of my iPhones. My iPhones weren't working well during that beta, until I deleted the Profile and rebooted my iPhones. iCloud services were working much better after that...

The name of the suspect profile included the name "Ubiquity". Apple never fessed up as to how the profile was installed on my iPhones. I've removed the Ubiquity directory from my Mac a few times, and iCloud always works better afterward. YMMV.

 

[melwan]

I haven't been experiencing issues with push (or whatever other technology it uses).

I just sent an email to my self from my Gmail account. The Mac OSX client received it exactly 18 secs later and iOS (locked and laying on the table) received it after OSX by 3 secs (21 secs).

There are times when I unlock my iPhone and couple emails get pushed at that moment, but it happened very few times since iOS 5 was out.

 

[anon(153966)]

I just tested emailing from:
GMail
Yahoo
Hotmail and my work domain, to my me.com email address. ALL of them delivered the email to my iPhone instantly.

 

[leharris22]

Forgive me, however, there's a post/article you might be interested in reading. I have no idea what your technical capabilities are, however, it's a good read:

Fix a Lion file-opening hang in Mac OS X 10.7.2 | Macworld

Follow the instructions, and your ills may be addressed. Short version, and I can't get into it here, but during iOS beta testing I discovered a new profile in each of my iPhones during beta testing, and I worked through it with Apple Security - they deemed it was not a threat, and instructed me to delete the profile from each of my iPhones. My iPhones weren't working well during that beta, until I deleted the Profile and rebooted my iPhones. iCloud services were working much better after that...

The name of the suspect profile included the name "Ubiquity". Apple never fessed up as to how the profile was installed on my iPhones. I've removed the Ubiquity directory from my Mac a few times, and iCloud always works better afterward. YMMV.

Thanks for the article. I consider myself pretty technically profficent. I like to troubleshoot and solve problems. I've had a Mac for 5 years and a PC for as long as I can remember. I came from using a BB for the last 4 years where I was a beta contributor. This is my first iPhone and I love it and I'm finding it easy to navigate and configure the way I like

 

[jon01]

push works for me at times. other times i dont get anything at all and i go into mail.app on my phone and receive 34623457 emails at once ok, maybe 3 or so, im not very popular...

 

[crookone10]

Hi Gixxer
Thanks. Mail arriving late and only when mail app opened. No push, lazy, unreliable. Problem is me.com account from MobileMe was established as contact to many friends and at work. I don't get it why apple has not made any announcement if they are having server overload and fix is on way in future. At least we know then there will be a solution soon hopefully .


---
I am here: Google Maps

i think you need to go to settings and change the mail account from manual to every 15 mins when push is not available...i haven't had one single problem with mail and I've been using it since the first beta

 

[Richd5481]

I have no issues with my iCloud accounts, but they're set to Fetch. Like I wrote earlier, iCloud email isn't push email. Apple's notifications server pushes a notification that you have iCloud email, that's what so many are missing, and iCloud email in the iPhone Mail app doesn't support IDLE for email (though it does for other providers). Apple's Mail app also doesn't support refreshing the email message count for iCloud email when set to Push. Delivery of the iCloud email is only effected when set to "Push" and only when the Mail app is open and active (as the frontmost app). Not picking nits here, but its whether Apple's notifications server is working as intended, and we don't know what Apple's polling period is (like RIM tells us BIS's polling is at most 15 minutes).

I set mine to Fetch, with a 15 minute interval, and I get email to all of my accounts without issue and on time and with resolved/reconciled accounts. QED. I have a tablet with an email client capable of IMAP IDLE for all of my accounts (including iCloud/MM accounts) and get notifications on it about the same time as my two iPhones running Fetch. Let's hope Apple figures out how to work out XMPP notifications sometime soon...

It all seemed to work fine when I had MobileMe. All notifications stopped one I migrated to iCloud. The issue is I didn't have to have the mail app running in the background the get my emails but with iCloud I do. Per apple there would be no change when migrated

 

[biggjoe]

Very interesting...now I need to go back and set my iCloud settings to 'Fetch'. Thank you

 

[bonesb]

It all seemed to work fine when I had MobileMe. All notifications stopped one I migrated to iCloud. The issue is I didn't have to have the mail app running in the background the get my emails but with iCloud I do. Per apple there would be no change when migrated

Apple's marketing hype/spin is just that - they made no warrant about a change in service delivery. Sorry, but I personally read past the spin and read through my Console files to find out *exactly* what's going on with my devices. Apple changed their notification servers, and how iOS interacts with Apple's servers is whole different cat altogether. I'm not defending them and I want their stuff to just work too. FWIW, there were some problems with notifications pushed to the Mail badge (which is what people are griping about without realizing the Mail "Bing" for iCloud is Apple's notification server pushing a notification to the Mail badge) - they're not pushing iCloud email to your iPhone!!!!!!!!!!! When we open the Mail app - for iCloud mail, the app refreshes if it hasn't as designed by your Fetch setting.

Apple issued an update - 5.0.1 - and I've installed it on my two iPhones. I can offer that Apple's indicated bug fix - notifications are working better for iCloud-related notifications - is working hugely better.

I'm as twitchy about my email as anyone here, and I'm pleased with the progress Apple has made with 5.0.1 and it's only been about 4 hours. Notifications are popping in even when the Mail and Messages apps aren't working in the background - I checked...

 

[bonesb]

Very interesting...now I need to go back and set my iCloud settings to 'Fetch'. Thank you

Read my latest post. Keep in mind that the Mail app "fetches" iCloud email updates regardless of the Push setting. What doesn't happen - and I have no explanation for this one - Push does not reconcile/refresh the Mail badge for iCloud Mail - Apple's servers do not update (deprecate) the email count for email. Short version, your email will reconcile but your badge count won't deprecate - for iCloud email, which is handled very differently than other providers - my Google and personal server accounts deprecate on my Mail badge when set to push or fetch, but my iCloud accounts do not deprecate the mail badge count but do reconcile according to my account activity and fetch schedule.

Look, Apple iCloud push is like RIM BB BIS (which I used for years) - your account gets polled, email shows up in the polling, the server then pushes a *notification* that there's new email - you open the email client and the client refreshes (either when you open it up or according to the fetch schedule - for BIS it's the refresh action). You might actually have email, but the polling notification is what we're really looking for. Complicating this - is the carriers: I have an ATTWS device and a VZW device - my ATTWS iPhone 4 regularly notifies me first consistently I have something new going on, and I found that to be true with my BBs as well 9 times out of 10, but we're only talking a matter of minutes; our phones go into network sleep mode all of the time, partly to save power and partly because we're not the only ones hooking up to an antenna for a cell phone signal.

For the iPhone, and iCloud, they're still working on it. 5.0.1 came out tonight and it's working better already for notifications - two of my attorneys are pinging me tonight and both devices are working much better than just yesterday with the same settings.... I'm sticking with Fetch with 15-minute polling, FWIW. Back to work...

 

[anon(153966)]

Well, I've done some serious testing over the past week or so, and thanks to bonesb, I've learnt a lot, too.

For now, since my current @me.com email address isn't even 'out there', I'm simply going to stick with GMail. Me being a gadget person that I am, it is probably a very good idea in case I even want to switch to another OS, and not have any hassle with data, i.e. Calendar, Contacts, etc.

All that to say, I hope as bonesb has said, that iOS 5.0.1 is\will work much better, and will allow iCloud email to work 'better' all round.

 

[tourstagefan]

Wow, I thought I was the only one experiencing issues with my "mac/me.com" e-mail account.

My iCloud e-mail messages are not being pushed to my iPhone, I have to manually "pull" them on a periodic basis to ensure I am not missing or replying to e-mails late.

My Gmail messages are being pushed just fine on a real-time basis.

I too, have been a paying MobileMe customer for 7 years and was hoping iCloud would improve upon, not make the e-mail service worse! Grrrrr.......

 

[bonesb]

Wow, I thought I was the only one experiencing issues with my "mac/me.com" e-mail account.

My iCloud e-mail messages are not being pushed to my iPhone, I have to manually "pull" them on a periodic basis to ensure I am not missing or replying to e-mails late.

My Gmail messages are being pushed just fine on a real-time basis.

I too, have been a paying MobileMe customer for 7 years and was hoping iCloud would improve upon, not make the e-mail service worse! Grrrrr.......

Like I just wrote, Apple pushes notifications for iCloud/MM - not email itself. Apple's APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) isn't working well, and it hasn't had a stellar record (just like BIS).

The iOS Mail client supports push email for Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail/Live, and EAS - and push *notifications" for iCloud/MM. It's clear to me - the workaround is fetch polling. For those out there that think that push is all "it", there's tens of millions out there that are thrilled and so proud of their BIS-supported BB devices, and the BIS poll period is 15 minutes. Constant polling burns through battery life quickly. Apple just signed up millions of new iPhone users, and iOS 5 is a x.0 release - it's bound to be buggy. Deal with it, and I'm not being snarky to anyone. Apple's email shouldn't be mission-critical for anyone, including myself. For the record (and anyone who cares?), I've been with Apple's email since day one with iTools, over a decade, using Apples since the IIe - I don't trust Apple's new servers either. iCloud's been up and running for about two weeks, I had to restart my iMac so Mail would work again today - got a shot of Maker's Mark during the reboot and got back to work. And, Mail was working again. And both of my iPhones are getting email at different times despite being on the same WiFi network and fetch schedule (my VZW iPhone is lagging again).

Keep in mind that it's not all Apple - network issues and carrier data hiccups can interrupt notification delivery. I was bent today when my VZW iPhone wasn't on top of things and almost missed some texts from a client - reading through the iPCU Console, VZW was having data problems today in my area for 4 hours, so it's on them and I spend THOUSANDS on their services each year for my company. So, tourstagefan, be sure it's on Apple before you growl...