How are e-mails downloaded?

[friskies64]

When an e-mail is received on an iPhone, when is it saved to the phone for offline viewing? Is it when the notification is received or after it has been opened once? Also, are attachments saved to the phone as well for offline viewing? Thanks!

 

[Just_Me_D]

Good question. After reading your post, I performed a little test. From my MacBook, I sent an email message to one of the accounts configured on my iPhone 4S and as soon as I received notification of received email, I turned off "network data" as well as "Wi-Fi" and then initiated the mail app on my iPhone. Of course, I got the message about needing to turn on data in the settings, however, the test message I sent myself was indeed present and the body of the message was readable. So, to answer your question, I'd say that the email message is available for offline viewing upon receipt of notification. At least that is the result of my test.

 

[friskies64]

Would you happen to know how long a message is stored?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Email messages are stored until you delete them or run out of storage space, in my opinion. They are also still on the ISP's server until you delete them. If you think your email messages have disappeared or have been deleted automatically, go to Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars and then scroll down to the "Mail" section. The very first submenu should be "Show". You can change the setting to show the amount of recent messages from your mail accounts. For instance, if it is set to 50, it will only display the 50 most recent messages despite how many you actually have. To show more, change the settings to a greater number. See the attached screenshot.

 

[KenL]

Also check Fetch New Data setting

While on the subject of e-mail downloading you might also check your setting for "Fetch New Data" located here: Settings app -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Fetch New Data

This setting will determine if Push (new data is automatically sent to your iPhone) is turned On or Off, as well as the schedule for how often to check for mail if Push is turned Off. With regard to the later, the less frequently you have your iPhone check for e-mail (and I have mine set to Manually) the better your batter life. By setting Fetch to Manually, my iPhone will only go out and grab my new e-mail when I launch the Mail app.

Hope that helps.

 

[friskies64]

Email messages are stored until you delete them or run out of storage space, in my opinion. They are also still on the ISP's server until you delete them. If you think your email messages have disappeared or have been deleted automatically, go to Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars and then scroll down to the "Mail" section. The very first submenu should be "Show". You can change the setting to show the amount of recent messages from your mail accounts. For instance, if it is set to 50, it will only display the 50 most recent messages despite how many you actually have. To show more, change the settings to a greater number. See the attached screenshot.

Oh. I meant how long the message data is saved, not how long the messages stay in my inboxes. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[icebox93]

Only a set amount of data is downloaded with the message when it pushes on to the device and you're notified. Longer messages will require a check back to the server that holds the message to get the rest of the message, which will then be stored on the phone as long as the message is on the device. But if the message is deleted from the email server (e.g., you downloaded the message to your desktop email client and delete messages on the email server when that happens) and you then later try to open the message for the first time, you won't get the rest of the message. This isn't a problem with webmail accounts.