Emails not permanently deleting on mobile phones

[Techsent]

Hi All,

I setup my built-in email client program on my mobile phone to send/receive emails. I discovered that when I delete emails on my phone, they are not deleted on the sonic.net email servers. As a result, the next time I check my email, all the previous emails that I deleted are re-downloaded back onto my phone.

Why does this happen? = The built-in email program on my phone only uses the IMAP protocol. This protocol does not support the deletion of emails on the email server when they are marked for deletion locally on the phone.

What's the fix? = Download and use a different email program on your phone. The email program on the phone must offer the POP3 protocol. Once you setup the POP3 protocol settings instead of using IMAP, the sonic email servers will then successfully delete the previously deleted emails. The one that I'm now using is called AquaMail.

The sonic.net POP3 email settings are...

Incoming server = pop.sonic.net using port 110 with no SSL. Also, include your username/password.

Outgoing settings mail.sonic.net using port 25 with no SSL. Also, include your username/password.

Techsent

[thulsa_doom]

IMAP can delete messages off the server just fine, though we've seen a consistent misbehavior in the Samsung Galaxy S3 built-in mail client where it acts like it has deleted a message but in fact has not. Most IMAP clients don't have this problem.

[techsent]

Hi John,

Thanks for the correction and clarification.

Techsent

[lucido]

IMAP can delete messages off the server just fine, though we've seen a consistent misbehavior in the Samsung Galaxy S3 built-in mail client where it acts like it has deleted a message but in fact has not. Most IMAP clients don't have this problem.

John, I'm having the same issue with a Samsung GS4. My previous device, a Galaxy Nexus, did not have this problem with the built in Android Email app.

There also does not appear to be any control over "Special Folders" like Sent, Junk, Deleted, etc. Sent items get stored on the local device and NOT sync'd with any IMAP folder. Note: Outlook 2013 had a similar issue. By adding "Inbox" to the root folder path in Outlook's IMAP configuration solved the "sent item" sync problem. Maybe there is something similar for the Galaxy S4's Email client configuration. I tried adding "Inbox" to the root folder in the S4 configuration, but it will not accept it.

BTW, the S4's Android Email client works great with Exchange.

There must be something with the way that Sonic.net's mail server enumerates the IMPA folders, because this issue does not happen with other service providers in the same way.

So, has anyone found a resolution to this? Other than going and installing another Email client.

Sal

[kgc]

I can confirm this problem with the built in email client on my Galaxy S4 as well. It is clearly an issue with the client not detecting the namespace prefix and not saving it when it is manually configured. This would affect the client anytime it was talking to a server that was configured with a prefix. This seems to be a common issue for Samsung's mail app.

I'd suggest using K9.

Code: Select all

write(14, "UPDATE-CMD\t11f58a0717cfd6524c65000009becc7e\t15\t\tSTATUS\t\"Trash\" (UIDVALIDITY)\tucpu=0.0\tscpu=0.0\tminfl"..., 231) = 231
setsockopt(13, SOL_TCP, TCP_CORK, [1], 4) = 0
write(13, "40 NO Client tried to access nonexistent namespace. (Mailbox name should probably be prefixed with: "..., 109) = 109
setsockopt(13, SOL_TCP, TCP_CORK, [0], 4) = 0

[lucido]

My Samsung Galaxy Nexus, on the other hand, deletes email properly but does not identify the Sent Items folder correctly.

Aggravating at best. Thanks for your input.

Do you think renaming folders or experimenting with the prefix in the Client's manual config may solve this problem?

With the shear number of S3's and S4's out there, you'd think Samsung would get this right. The native client handles Exchange Beautifully and supports HTML. Nice client, except for the flaw.

[kgc]

Supplying the prefix "INBOX" would fix it but the app wouldn't save it on my S4.

I think there is a possibility that we'll be reconfiguring our servers to no longer use the prefix, but this has the potential to be significantly disruptive to existing clients.

[lucido]

My S4 didn't hold the prefix either. I had to set the Prefix in Outlook 2013, which resolved all of the IMAP folder mapping issues I was having there.

Maybe sonic.net could roll out a separate beta IMAP mail server that doesn't use the prefix. something like IMAP-BETA.sonic.net for testing purposes?