Just when you think you've escaped the darkened woods of firmware
2.0.2 and previous ilk, along comes
2.1, wrapped in faster-loading-contacts-finery to convince you all is well in the iPhone world. That isn't entirely the case, it seems, if you're user of POP or IMAP mail accounts which are set to fetch messages. Apparently, a maddening bug exists in the new software which -- in the interest of battery power conservation, we assume -- stops the device from pulling down new emails while sleeping... unless the phone happens to be plugged in and charging. An ever-growing thread on Apple's support forums has been barraged with reports of the problem, and editors here at Engadget have certainly felt the burn. So we're putting the question to you, dear readers (and hoping the folks in Cupertino are paying attention). Are you noticing email issues with firmware 2.1? Let us know in the poll below!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted Oct 6th 2008 5:58PM
no no no.. there is no 'bug' on the iphone software... YOU are doing it wrong, not Apple
/sarcasm
Good one!
/sarcasm
Apple uses a lot of tricks to make their phone seemingly better than it really is
e.g. pictures are reduced in resolution before transfer, meaning when you load pictures they load and manipulate quickly, because your 6 megapixel pictures are now only little better than VGA.
This is just another example - improve battery life by trying sleight of hand. I imagine Steve Jobs saying "just stop polling in sleep mode. The sheep will never notice!"
I don't understand why IMAP on the iPhone/iPod Touch isn't push to begin with, like it is with every other email program/device. IMAP was designed as a push email service, right? Shouldn't it be push email on the iWhatever too?
@Surur - I'm not an apple fan, but if I were putting 6mb pictures on my phone I'd probably want it to reduce to about the size of the screen (or have an option for doing this easily). That makes sense to me, at the same time, I might want the pictures to be the original size for the purposes of sending them to others or downloading them to another machine, in which case, I'd want that option too.
The limitations on the iphone and its closed nature keep me from getting it.
@ Suru
What you pointed out about the picture management is actually really smart.
Why do you need 6 megapixel pictures on your iPhone if the max resolution of the screen is 480x320? (max output via component A/V cables is 640x480)
@ Andrew:
Read the comment above you before posting?
@ Malweran - I posted at the same time as the other post so I didn't have time to read it.
Regardless what Eddie W is describing is better suited for a laptop not a cell phone. The iPhone resizes photos so that you can fit a couple thousand on your phone vs a couple hundred at full resolution. iPhone is for showing pictures to friends not a full res photo vault.
In the rare case you do need to carry around full res photos you can download a file management apps like the awesome AirSharing app which allows you to do everything Eddie W was asking. AirSharing lets you shares files from the iPhone over WiFi with OSX, Windows, Linux or anything with a browser. Not bad for a limited closed device.
Don't worry you guys will come around soon.
@Andrew: I believe that what you describe is exactly what people are complaining about. If I want to use an iPhone as a photo vault then who are Apple to tell me that I can't. I can understand the logic behind reducing the resolution of images to save space but would it kill Apple to give people the option? Why is the option only suitable for PCs?
my phone has had this problem since 1.0.1 when i first got the phone. It will fetch only if i click the mail icon regardless of settings if its been idle for a while.
Wait- Is this why my battery lasts so much longer now? If so, it's fine the way it is. Although, I noticed I only get my emails half the time when it's sleeping.
Ha! Mine gets it while it's asleep and still has great battery life!!
Maybe that's because I have 2.1.1?
@who? Of course you do....
"Who?" gets emails from the future.
Active polling is for the 1980's. It's a hurry up and wait technology. That's why push was invented.
Yes I have witness this on my 2G 32GB iTouch. Delayed count refresh etc.
My iPod touch (1st Gen) only checks email when I force it to. It's awfully annoying, and I wish I could have made the call about this "feature" that saves battery life. My guess is that MobileMe Mail comes in right when it's suppose to, eh?
we've been struggling for an answer to this forever. there's this insanely long thread on it over at apple's discussion board. as always the moderators have been editing any posts that make the company look bad while ignoring our questions. mediocrity at its finest.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1708956&start=465&tstart=0
If you buy a real phone you won't have to put up with this crap from Apple.
zomg totally only teh apple has bugz
seriously? we're giving highest ranking to troll posts now? what's going on here?
Says the photoshopped Santa.
Now I know why that LG Vu was in my stocking instead of the iPhone...
Maybe it has some truth in it?
Because i think the Troll-o-meter of the engadget visitors is working good enough
Wow, is that a post with phanbouy ranked low?
I'm taking a screenshot!
YES and it annoys the hell out of me. 2.2, where art thou?!?
hidden under an NDA.
This is common with Apple...
New features ! yay!!
Oops! Some bugs in here...
Bugs fixed! What? New ones found !!
Fixed everything... Added features.... Oops! Still loop-holes.!?!?!!!
I kinda wondered why it hadn't been updating right lately. Glad to know I'm not alone
From the article, it sounds like this "bug" is pretty much confirmed; Apple changed it to work this way to conserve battery life. Fetching email on POP or IMAP during sleep will not work so that battery life is conserved, right? If this is the case, then in my opinion, the poll is irrelevant; a better poll would be "Would you prefer this battery-saving 'feature' or the previous feature of fetching emails during sleep at the cost of battery life?"
No, I would prefer to have the device actually tell me about emails, something it claims to be able to do in the settings screen. Not pretend it's doing it, but actually ignoring the *built in* option.
I'm sure thousands are furious about this persistent bug, because let's not call it anything else, too.
Then there can be a third option in the poll telling Apple to allow people to choose in the settings between the battery-life feature and the email fetching feature, which should have been what Apple did in the first place. Either way, the current poll seems pretty pointless to me: it just gets a rough estimate of how many iPhone users have noticed the change; it doesn't really poll people's opinions of the change.
@zomg0t
And here I thought most people would use their iPhone to have anywhere-access to their email/etc. I guess Apple cares more about covering its ass over a non-removable battery by decreasing functionality than, oh I dunno, improving functionality as every other company is doing.
Think about it: what good is extended battery life if you can't keep track of your emails? If Apple cares so much about battery life, don't you think this all could be avoided had Jobs listened to his customers in round 1 and designed a removable battery for the 3G?
@fh
Yes, I think Apple could have prevented this, but my comment was towards the article itself and Engadget's use of statistics and polling, not towards Apple's design flaws. I think Apple should have better batteries, user-replaceable batteries, the OPTION to turn off email-fetching while sleeping instead of FORCING people to go offline while sleeping, but I'd also like a more efficient 3G radio, and several other features that are not relevant to this article.
Well for one, Engadget's polls were never scientific.
For another, while it would be nice to see some proper polling, I doubt it would really do any good. Unlike a company like T-mobile (which responded immediately to the negative commentary over its 1GB cap), we're talking about Apple, which despite over a year of endless criticisms of lack of video/MMS/copypaste/etc has continued to ignore its customers.
But hey, +1 for the Android effort. Being able to choose between fetch-at-intervals and fetch-on-demand is definitely a good idea (for people who have differing email habits), so I'm sure devs will add it into Android if it isn't already available.
Yes Engadget, Yes. You know I sent this email to you begging you to run this story weeks ago. Why has it taken three weeks for you to actually report on something?
Internet journalism...
My guess? "internet journalism" involves a little more research than copy-pasting some random internet dude's e-mail...
anyway, on topic, does the device not download messages and "Catch up" when it's brought out of sleep, THAT seems like the bug, not that it isn't constantly updating while it's in sleep mode...
Did you send the email from your iPhone? maybe the email is still stuck in the iPhone. I've had this happen to me.
Copy paste? I'll stop you right there.
@ Archr5
"''internet journalism' involves a little more research than copy-pasting some random internet dude's e-mail..."
No, that's exactly what 'internet journalism' is.
Whine, whine, Daniel. Go write your own tech blog, bitch.
for being hailed as the phone that "just works" it sure does break a lot
You're bad at reading, aren't you? I mean for one thing, "It just works" was an ad campaign for the Mac, not the iPhone, and that was years and years ago. Second, it's not broken. It goes to sleep to conserve power, so it's actually doing exactly what it's supposed to.
There, now you're not ignorant any more. Want to try again?
@Zak Actually, as much as I hate the flamebait parent, you are incorrect. Even if this is an intentional feature (which by the poll indicates something is broken with 50% of surveyees) it doesn't change the fact that it has broken a standard feature that a LOT of us rely on day-to-day.
Give it up. I love apple as much as the next guy, but perpetuating the "fanboy" meme, only harms innovation.
I'm sorry, what part of "it's doing exactly what it's supposed to" don't you understand? The key to understanding this argument is understanding the meaning of the word "broken". Nothing is broken, because the feature is doing exactly what it's supposed to. It's a power saving measure. To "un-break" this, it would then have to break the power saving routine. You see how it works now?
You people make it seem like Apple had no idea this was going to happen, or is some unintended side effect. Really? Are you that naive? Yes, putting it to sleep prevents it from receiving email. It also saves battery life, which is why it was implemented. Calling it "broken" is ignorant, and it mis-identifies the issue.
@zak:
So, how about Apple just stops all incoming calls and sms's, you know, to conserve power. Because email can be just as important, if not more important to many people as receiving a phone call. All this proves is that Apple is still a little league smartphone maker, trying to hang with the big leagues. If the phone can go to sleep and still receive other types of incoming communications, then that means that Apple f'ed up and didn't program their email's ability to push while in low power mode.
@Zak. Okay, i'll bite. You're an idiot, Zak. The feature is fetch email (that gives you a choice between 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour.)
It is not currently working as advertised, thus not fetching emails reliably under these specific conditions. It occasionally works, then it stops working sporadically.
The feature isn't doing what it states, thus, broken..
Gee, I don't know. Did Apple stop all incoming calls and SMSes? Oh look, no they didn't. What was your point again? Oh, right: "blah blah blah little league blah blah".
Because selling over 10 million units of a single model of phone in a single year is "little league". Riiiight.
@Zak:
"This Apple discussion thread chronicles the problem at length. It's possible it'll be fixed in the next update—a reader tells us that Apple confirmed it's a "known problem" and that they are looking into it, but in the meantime, don't lean too hard on fetch."
It is broken you douchebag. An intentional break is still a break.
Blackberrys have no problem fetching your email while still staying in sleep mode. Can you guess why?
Thats right. Blackberry knows how to make their shit work. Sure they didnt make it all pretty like the iPhone (until now), but when you need to get shit done, you get a device that gets shit done.
its not a bug its a feature... /sacrasm
Zak is the single and sole reason why Apple puts out such buggy shit. The thing could spaz out and erase everything on the phone and dipshits like Zak would flock to their rescue, because god forbid Apple be criticized for putting out shit. Asshats like you are the reason I'm getting the hell off Apple next month. They put out HIGHLY buggy crap and I'm certain internally they shrug and go oh well we'll fix it later. Because they know there are enough fanboi zealots out there who will buy it no matter what. So they never lear anything and repeat the cycle.
Congratulations zealots. You've turned Apple into something WORSE then Microsoft ever was.
You people disgust me to the very core of my soul. Grow a brain, and think for yourself for once instead of towing the corporate line of we are Apple.
Jon Doe: Speaking of growing a brain, when are you going to start thinking for yourself instead of letting me do it for you? I'm the reason you're going to stop using Apple products? Really? That is the worst reason I've ever heard. I don't see how you're going to get very far in life when you let internet strangers make your decisions for you.
Daniel: Sporadiacally? You're obviously not paying attention. It works when the phone is not sleeping, and it stops working when the phone goes to sleep. Since the sleep is a specific time interval, how is that "sporadic"? Do you even know what that word means? And since this is a change that Apple made intentionally, knowing specifically what the consequences were, calling it "broken" is a misnomer. Are you still unclear on that point? By the way, the name calling is real classy. Good job with that.
Speaking of name calling, you never learn, do you Ruben? Of course it's a "known problem", they knew it was going to happen when they implemented the change. And I'm guessing Blackberries can do it because they have shorter battery life than the iPhone. Oh, you hadn't heard? Yeah, the iPhone 3G has the best battery life of any 3G enabled phone on the market. Period. Yeah, battery life, remember that? The reason for making this change in the first place? It's all coming together for you now, isn't it?
As far as getting shit done, my iPhone gets shit done just fine, thanks. That's why I use it every day. If it didn't work, I wouldn't be using it. Funny how that works, huh?
Well boys it's been fun but you're going to have to do better than that. Remember, these things are always easier for me because I have the facts on my side, and you're just a bunch of Apple-hating reactionaries.
How about you take a damn CS degree, before spouting shit. Every piece of software has bugs.
Zak...
Jeez, you really are the archetypal fanboy, huh? Before you start throwing faeces my way, I own a MacBook and an iPhone 3G (and before that the original iPhone), and I love them both, but that doesn't stop me being pissed off at this.
Nowhere in the settings does it say "Fetch my email every 15 minutes BUT...", it doesn't say "Conserve power by breaking essential functionality", it doesn't say "WE ARE APPLE YOU WILL LOVE US". I paid a lot of money for the damn thing, I want them to not break really basic functionality like this. It's not fucking cool.
Oh, and please stop making out that they knew what they were doing. Saying "it's a known problem" doesn't mean it was intentional - it means that it broke, someone reported it, and that error report was verified by someone at Apple. Not that it's a 'feature' (seriously, could you possibly be any more blinkered if you tried?).
@Zac
If I broke your leg on purpose, would your leg still be broken?
@Zak:
You are right when you say this is a design decision and not 'broken', but look at the iPhone's behavior vs. other smart phones in the market. Apple seems to be in a loop of making feature changes to support their poor hardware choices. Any device is going to have bugs and compromises, but the very point of a smart phone is to be connected anytime, anywhere. WinMo devices have no problems checking e-mail while asleep and conserving battery power. They even have honest push e-mail. If this affects Apple's Exchange Push functionality, its another fail for business users. "Sorry boss, my iPhone fell asleep."
It's easy for any device to get awesome battery performance when asleep by shutting everything off. Apple was forced to make this unpopular change to improve battery life- because you can't warm-swap batteries in it. Before you call everyone an idiot, maybe you should try and understand where they are coming from.
Apple has some innovative features and introduced an engaging product to the market in the iPhone. Apple seems dis-interested in conversing with users over the perceived flaws/bugs/lack of features in the iPhone. Does any of this really surprise anyone familiar with Apple? This is what Apple does. As long as the sheeple keep buying them thinking it is the be-all, end-all mobile device, Apple will keep making them and selling them.
I think Zac just likes to debate over crap. I know some people like that, very sad, very sad....... =(
it works for me except the fact that it drains the hell out of my battery.
I was thinking about this earlier today, I only ever seem to get POP3/IMAP mail when I check the Mail application - pre-2.1 my iPhone would chirp with mail notifications all the time.
I thought it was all just a big coincidence that I was getting emails shortly after unlocking my phone.... I guess now I know otherwise
I haven't had imap or pop accounts setup since the new update. Only my ohh so lovely mobileme :) /sarcasm. That would be annoying as hell though. One day in the far far distance maybe there will be a firmware that works.... Oh ya 1.1.4 was perfect and we thought 2.1 one was too. Apple isn't stupid though. They hear what people want and will give it to us but it's much more enticing to slowly offer it than to throw it all on at once. Here is to the never ending upgrade process...
It hasn't affected fetch for me... but it's messed up almost everything else. Now, the battery life is terrible. It uses about a quarter of the battery overnight, when it's not even in use. I have to turn it off overnight or it won't make it through the day. It also uses WAY more battery life when using the web.. it's come to the point where I can't even use the web at all during the day if I want the battery to have enough juice to make it through the day. On top of that, Safari is downright unusable. It went from never crashing to crashing 4-5 times per use. Plus, it's SLOW.. In fact, the whole phone is much slower. It's worse now than with 2.0. I don't know if it's just me, but 2.1 has made my whole iPhone suck.
Heh,
And my ATT Tilt keeps its long battery life while checking all my email accounts......
I also now a have pretty face I put over windows so about 90% my use can be done with a finger versus stylus and keypad!
I don't even have to turn off 3G/HSPDA connection to save battery like the iPhone.
It would be nice if Apple just let the user decide if he/she wants the email constantly updated while sleeping or not. I get that choice.....Android users will get that choice....even S60 (symbian) users get that choice.
Yes, but you have to have an ATT Tilt.
Swings and roundabouts..
Too many uninformed posts here.. the iPhone _does_ allow users to select whether they want their email updated or not - you can just turn polling on or off. For example, I have it off because I only want to see new emails when I am opening the mail program. I am wasting enough time on email as it is.
All this outrage here is directed at the fact that the email polling, when on, doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. It's a bug and I am sure they'll fix it.
It also will not synchronize your calendar or contacts when Push mode is off.
It just Works!
/sarcasm
Congratuations you dildo. You're the first to ever say that on the Internet.
I'm not sure if my fetch is breaking (I've kinda turned off my fetching... cuz I'm not on a data plan), but the mail app keeps screwing up and telling me i've got my username and password wrong. Power cycle on/off seems to work fine in resolving the issue though.
It seems that the phone doesn't actually "save" the password. And when you get out of the settings menu, it just goes back to "Required", when instead, it should have the dots.
Frustrating =/.
I don't suppose that's with Yahoo Mail? I get that same problem and I use WinMo. Annoys the hell out of me, but I think it's Yahoo's fault. Either that or I don't have it set up right, but why does it work sometimes and not others?
I love how Engadget became the MAC haters blog...Even the Poll is just silly "....in the same, totally average manner it always has!";)
If you got so mant problems just get the G1. i am sure that it's flawless!
The poll choices are a joke.
Really old news. Engadget needs to be a little more up to date. Not breaking news, not even week old news. This has been covered on other blogs, weeks ago. I enjoy reading Engadget for up to date stories. Please try to keep it that way.
no mock black mock turtleneck? must be laundry day.
He *was* wearing black in that photo. It's the shitty, world-famous Engadget DSLR, with crappy white balancing and color correction.
Nah, the picture was just taken with an iPhone.
Wow, no wonder. I was curious why I kept getting emails only after unlocking my phone, or glancing at the clock, and never while it was just in my pocket, doing apparently nothing.
I thought something was wrong but it turns out that I suddenly got a lot less popular.
OLD!
This has been happening with Exchange accounts on the iphone.
PUSH email doesnt do anyone anygood unless they have their iphone on never sleep!
if you do that your phone has horrible battery life.
Once your phone goes to sleep... no more push.
Apple better fix this.
They need to concentrate on that crashy little twunt known as goddamned iPhone Safari browser instead of worrying about this push crap.
OMG! Steve Jobs Is Wearing A Red Shirt!
Nope
I already typed this but someone at Engadget deleted it for some reason..
He was wearing black that day. It's the crappy Engadget camera's white balance, or color correction. Check out the gizmodo images. They show him wearing his usual black
On a side note Engadget, why did you delete this?
I'm just pissed that my 2G iPhone can't find my location as accurately now that 2.0 is out. It's like they're trying to force me to upgrade to the 3G phone just to make Google Maps work properly again. That's just plain evil.
If they give me mms and video recording like other phones maybe I can ignore this. Come on apple bribe us iPhone owners. If I could get mms I would be happy with that plz...
Give me 3.0!
Man all these guys with the Iphone getting all the hot chicks must have caught some kind of bug. Sometimes it pays to be PC Shiite.
My iPod Touch 1stGen 8GB 2.1 Firmware is Pushing My E-Mails Right, I Haven't Noticed When Is Sleeping But When I'm Using It I Get The Notification On The Icon Right Away, I Tested Myself And Works Great But I'm Going Test It Again And Leave A Comment, Love Apple...
(Come On Apple, Give Me A Tablet, Come On...) Oct 14...?!?!?!?
Is anyone else also finding that Safari is crashing a lot more now?
I thought it was just me. It seems to crash a lot more since 2.1.
Yes. It's always been bad but now it's even worse. Funny how it comes right after Steve promised us less crashes. :rolleyes:
Still love my iPhone, but it needs a lot of work.
Queue the Blackberry Thunder...
This is horrible timing for the iPhone to continue having email problems. RIM can capitalize on iPhones email problems, dropped 3G signal, dropped calls, no MMS, no cut & paste, non-replaceable battery with poor battery life and a browser that still crashes. The Storm can do all of these things with expandable memory and replaceable battery. Not that a replaceable battery is needed since we know how well BBs do email while maintaining good battery life. Something Apple can't seem to get right.
Sure the Storm won't have the cool looking GUI like the iPhone. If its anything like other Blackberries, the Storm it will work well. I can't wait to switch... even if the Storm is full of bugs it can't be any worse for my needs than the iPhone.
Anyone else losing connection (3g or EDGE) continuously?? I have had to reconnect my iphone to ROGERS at least 20 times a day in the last week. Anyone else experiencing this? My phone is not jail-broken, not sure if it would help if I did jailbreak it...
I would be happy to know if this is common... Also wondering if 100+ apps causes this issue? :P
There is a fix that has worked for me . Here it is go into settings>general>reset>reset all settings.Once the phone has reset all settings then adjust them back accordingly. Dont ask why but since this i have noticed my phone actually goes on standby hence a diffence between standby and usage time in the usage menu.My battery life has been better and email fetch on schedule and this with yahoo push on and mobile me push on for calenders bookmarks and contacts. I tried it on a friends phone and it worked. I hope it works for you also but i cant say that 100% as ive only seen it work twice.
It looks like iPhanatics are finally waking up to the fact that Apple had a bunch of glitzy features but focused little on the function of the phone. Email has never worked well on this device. Leaving off cut/paste & MMS was a mistake from day one. The browser still crashes on mine at least once a day - but it is a great browser when it works. I still drop several calls a week and still have 3G connection issues. The non-removable battery may have worked for iPod users who had no other media player option (iTunes DRMed music) but it just doesn't fly on a device that is needed for communication.
That new Blackberry Storm is looking better every minute. It may not play videos or music as well as my iPhone but at least I know I won't drop a call, I'll get all my emails immediately, I'll be able to stay on 3G (VZW > ATT in my area), have MMS and the list goes on.
For me, the bloom has come off the rose on the iPhone long ago & now I am done with all form and no function.
this iPhone is 1 buggy piece of shit
Sent from my iPhone
I don't think it's a bug. It seems like it's intentional. You can't recieve an email unless your iPhone is on and not on sleep mode. I've noticed it and I'm pretty sure this is used to save battery.
Intentional or not... that sucks. What good is a communication device that I have to keep turning on to check for new emails? Unfortunately I have a real job and need to reply to emails quickly. This "intentional" feature makes me constantly have to leave the phone on to eventually go dead or have to turn it on every so often to check messages because I'm paranoid. It definitely doesn't make my life any easier to worry that my phone may not be getting the message I need when I need them.
I would think maybe I was spoiled after having a Blackberry. But even my old Treo 650 would check my email when it was off and warn me when a new email arrived. Sure I had to schedule a pull every few minutes but it worked without draining my battery. That was on a phone about 4 years ago. I'm sick of this iCrap
Well I have some good news. My iPhone 3G was on sleep mode and it alerted me of the email I had received to alert me that you replied to my comment. :D
It works sometimes when on sleep mode. I hope they fix this for the business users. Or at least give you an option.
I hope they fix it too. I had big expectations for this phone & enjoy some of the other features. But the other features aren't more important than taking calls and getting emails. If its not fixed by the time the Blackberry Storm is released I am leaving and won't look back no matter what glitz Apple releases next. I've learned its all flash and no substance with Apple.
With a Blackberry at least I know the phone and email will work even if the rest of the features don't. I can't say the same about the iPhone for both email and phone. In fairness to Apple I think the dropped calls & 3G signal phone problems are more due to the crappy 3G AT&T network than their device.
The way I see it Apple has about a month to get their act together with this phone before they see business users - most of that 30% that came from Verizon & many more users - jump ship to the better network (VZW) and more reliable phone manufacturer (RIM).
The good thing about these new phones releasing soon is competition for Apple will make them focus more on the core features that still aren't working right. Consumers will win in the end. Apple, the clock is ticking with business users - that market you are so desperate to break into.