Poll: Is iPhone firmware 2.1 breaking fetch for email accounts?

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]

Is iPhone firmware 2.1 breaking fetch for email accounts?

Yes. Why are you doing this to me Apple?No. Works in the same, totally average manner it always has!Hard to tell. It's either that, or I'm way less popular than I used to be.Vote

[John @ Oct 6th 2008 6:05PM]

no no no.. there is no 'bug' on the iphone software... YOU are doing it wrong, not Apple
/sarcasm

[Andrew @ Oct 6th 2008 6:07PM]

Good one!
/sarcasm

[Surur @ Oct 6th 2008 7:17PM]

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!"

[BrokenMonkey @ Oct 6th 2008 7:39PM]

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?

[Eddie W @ Oct 6th 2008 7:49PM]

@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.

[Andrew @ Oct 6th 2008 8:00PM]

@ 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)

[Malweran @ Oct 6th 2008 8:41PM]

@ Andrew:
Read the comment above you before posting?

[Andrew @ Oct 6th 2008 11:31PM]

@ 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.

[jakem @ Oct 7th 2008 4:02AM]

@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?

[Falcom @ Oct 7th 2008 11:52AM]

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.

[Nick K. @ Oct 6th 2008 6:05PM]

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.

[who? @ Oct 6th 2008 6:45PM]

Ha! Mine gets it while it's asleep and still has great battery life!!


Maybe that's because I have 2.1.1?

[Daniel @ Oct 6th 2008 6:49PM]

@who? Of course you do....

[JR @ Oct 6th 2008 8:37PM]

"Who?" gets emails from the future.

[alex kessaris @ Oct 7th 2008 1:03AM]

Active polling is for the 1980's. It's a hurry up and wait technology. That's why push was invented.

[TheGeektoriousBIG @ Oct 6th 2008 6:06PM]

Yes I have witness this on my 2G 32GB iTouch. Delayed count refresh etc.

[Seth @ Oct 6th 2008 7:27PM]

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?

[tf @ Oct 6th 2008 6:06PM]

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

[Argot @ Oct 6th 2008 6:08PM]

If you buy a real phone you won't have to put up with this crap from Apple.

[phanbouy @ Oct 6th 2008 6:18PM]

zomg totally only teh apple has bugz

[lostarchitect @ Oct 6th 2008 8:15PM]

seriously? we're giving highest ranking to troll posts now? what's going on here?

[avirji @ Oct 8th 2008 8:58PM]

Says the photoshopped Santa.

Now I know why that LG Vu was in my stocking instead of the iPhone...

[Malweran @ Oct 6th 2008 8:46PM]

Maybe it has some truth in it?
Because i think the Troll-o-meter of the engadget visitors is working good enough

[nerdtalker @ Oct 7th 2008 12:34AM]

Wow, is that a post with phanbouy ranked low?

I'm taking a screenshot!

[Mars @ Oct 6th 2008 6:10PM]

YES and it annoys the hell out of me. 2.2, where art thou?!?

[Shan @ Oct 6th 2008 7:02PM]

hidden under an NDA.

[Jash Sayani @ Oct 6th 2008 11:36PM]

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.!?!?!!!

[Byzil Mystwing @ Oct 6th 2008 6:10PM]

I kinda wondered why it hadn't been updating right lately. Glad to know I'm not alone

[zomg0t @ Oct 6th 2008 6:13PM]

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?"

[Daniel @ Oct 6th 2008 6:16PM]

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.

[zomg0t @ Oct 6th 2008 6:27PM]

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.

[fh @ Oct 6th 2008 6:29PM]

@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?

[zomg0t @ Oct 6th 2008 6:56PM]

@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.

[fh @ Oct 6th 2008 7:35PM]

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.

[Daniel @ Oct 6th 2008 6:14PM]

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...

[Archr5 @ Oct 6th 2008 6:32PM]

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...

[Anand D @ Oct 6th 2008 6:38PM]

Did you send the email from your iPhone? maybe the email is still stuck in the iPhone. I've had this happen to me.

[Decoy @ Oct 6th 2008 7:40PM]

Copy paste? I'll stop you right there.

[Tony @ Oct 6th 2008 8:11PM]

@ 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.

[cameron @ Oct 7th 2008 1:00AM]

Whine, whine, Daniel. Go write your own tech blog, bitch.

[Cardbored @ Oct 6th 2008 6:14PM]

for being hailed as the phone that "just works" it sure does break a lot

[Zak @ Oct 6th 2008 6:20PM]

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?

[Daniel @ Oct 6th 2008 6:32PM]

@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.

[Zak @ Oct 6th 2008 6:57PM]

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.

[Darkest Daze @ Oct 6th 2008 7:08PM]

@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.

[Daniel @ Oct 6th 2008 7:25PM]

@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..

[Zak @ Oct 6th 2008 7:25PM]

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.

[Ruben @ Oct 6th 2008 7:39PM]

@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.

[Surferseth @ Oct 6th 2008 7:55PM]

its not a bug its a feature... /sacrasm

[Jon Doe. @ Oct 7th 2008 1:05AM]

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.