[DigitalEl]

I have a couple of issues. I'll number them. Please chime in if you have any insight. Thanks.

1. On my Macs, using Mail.app, I have my main IMAP Inbox, with +/- 700 messages. I also have 4 Smart folders for Family, Friends, Business (Correspondence) and Work.

So when syncing my iPhone, shouldn't I see the same 4 folders, in addition to the main Inbox? I don't. I only see that main Inbox. That's the only folder shown on the iPhone.

2. Those 700 or so Inbox e-mails are dated anywhere from 2001 to 10 minutes ago. When selecting the "Show 50 Recent Messages" option in Settings > Mail, on the iPhone, I would expect to see the 50 newest messages. I don't. I see a message or two from today, then it skips to 5/2/07. At the bottom of the mail list on my iPhone is a message from 12/15/01.

Why is it picking seemingly random e-mails from the past 6 years instead of just showing the 50 newest messages?

Note: Using .Mac webmail, it shows all my most recent e-mail.

3. When deleting e-mail from the iPhone, I would expect that deleted message to show in the Trash. Instead, a new folder called "Deleted Messages" shows in both Mail.app and in Webmail. WTF?
___________________

Solving any or all of these problems would go a long way to upping the usability of e-mail on my iPhone.

[Neo.cmg]

1. When creating smart folders you're usually asked where you want to store them and the messages which they contain (e.g. On My Mac or .Mac--your e-mail address is usually used to indicate the latter). If you happen to have created these 4 folders On My Mac, then they are probably not going to be synched to your iPhone. On the other hand, you could try re-creating them server side on .Mac and see if that changes anything if you haven't already.

2. I don't keep so many messages and is not something I can test to help troubleshoot.

3. I don't see this behavior. When I delete a message from my iPhone it gets moved from my inbox or junk mail folder on my Mac to the trash the next time Mail.app queries for new mail (i.e. connects to the .Mac server). Again, there are two separate trash folders: one server side and one local. The messages I delete from my iPhone get put into the server-side Trash bin and those that I delete in Mail.app get sent to the local Trash bin. I figure this is only because I have a preference set in Mail to keep items I delete for 7 days before purging them completely. But in the end, everything gets deleted as I would expect whether I delete it from Mail.app or my iPhone.

[DigitalEl]

Thanks for the above, but my #1 frustration right now is why doesn't the iPhone show my 25/50/100 most recent e-mails? Instead, it seems like it's picking random e-mails from the past several years.

[kman42]

I don't think you can put a smart mailbox on the server.

I have about 800 messages in my inbox and only the 50 recent show up. I'm not sure why yours is fubar. Try changing the number of recents a few times and see if it figures it out.

kman

[icruise]

Originally Posted by DigitalEl 

Thanks for the above, but my #1 frustration right now is why doesn't the iPhone show my 25/50/100 most recent e-mails? Instead, it seems like it's picking random e-mails from the past several years.

That's very odd. I've never had that issue myself. You could try removing the account from the iPhone and re-addding it to see if that does anything.

BTW, the iPhone doesn't do smart folders, so if you want the messages to be sorted like that on the phone, you're going to have to set up some rules on your desktop and have the messages actually moved to folders on the IMAP server. (Of course, this won't do anything for messages that you receive on the iPhone first, before the desktop, since you can't make any rules for the iPhone itself. One somewhat clunky solution is to simply have a desktop computer that you leave on all the time, getting mail every 5 minutes or so and applying the rules to the messages that come in.)