MobileMe mail mysteriously missing
Email is always tricky. In this case, some people are experiencing issues with MobileMe emails disappearing from their inboxes. Some people believe this may be related to MobileMe issues or perhaps a bug in Apple's Mail application. Other people suggest t
From Apple Support discussions user andrew1575:
"Over 3800 emails have disappeared from my inbox between yesterday and today. Everything from before Feb 18 is gone. I didn't do anything to cause that to happen, except perhaps running the software update and installing the updates available.Possible fixes
I just noticed that the previous 'last' emails in the inbox have disappeared as new posts come in to the top... as if it is only showing the first page of the inbox and pushing older mail off the bottom into some void."
The first place to look is the email settings you have in place for handling messages. In the Mail application when dealing with a POP3 account, users have the option of setting whether or not to leave messages on the server when read and how long they would like their messages to remain on the server before being deleted.
If your messages are disappearing, check your settings to be sure you have not told the server to delete messages after a certain amount of time. For POP3 mail accounts, you must check the settings on every device that you access your email-- your iPhone, other computers, and so on. Settings for each device vary slightly and can cause email to be taken from the server in different ways. You may find that an inbox on a different device contains the emails you are missing. In that case, just select the messages you would like and forward them back to your account.
Change the way you access your email. MobileMe email offers the capability to retrieve your messages on all your devices via IMAP. IMAP may be the best option for managing the same email account on more than one device. By default, IMAP messages are stored on the mail server and are only deleted when one of the devices deletes it. Each time you connect to the mail server, your messages are synced so that your device content matches the server's content.
Resources
Read this Apple Support Discussions thread regarding disappearing email issues with MobileMe.
Read this Apple KB article about issues with POP3 messages disappearing.
Read this Apple Mail 3.0 help article about the differences between POP and IMAP email.
Experiencing problems? Have feedback? Let us know!
Resources