iPhone OS 3.0 bug allows deleted emails to rise from the dead
By Nilay Patel 
posted August 17th 2009 5:31PM
posted August 17th 2009 5:31PM
posted August 17th 2009 5:31PM
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It's not a bug. It's a hidden feature!
bag of hurt.
The title is rather misleading. The issue here is Spotlight search not clearing its cache. Mail app is working fine!
No, the title is NOT misleading. This is a bug with iPhone OS 3.0. The title says nothing about the mail app.
Face palm*
I've known about this for a while...?
Oops
Face Palm?!
Face Palm Pre?!
...
The very best in security. You can always trust Apple.
Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac.
PC: And I'm a PC.
Mac: What are you doing, PC?
PC: Oh, just playing around with the new Apple iPhone 3GS.
Mac: Oh, I see, that's great. So you've switched too?
PC: No, no, this is your phone. I still need my Windows Mobile phone because I sometimes need to do more than one thing at once.
Mac: My iPhone? So, you like it?
PC: It's pretty slick. Especially this universal search thing....hmm, I seem to have found a few emails that weren't in your inbox or trash...
PC: ...
PC: ...omg
Um, isn't it pulling from the Trash folder?
I was always hoping they'd make Time Machine for my iphone
it pulls from the trash folder, and Junk E-mail folder in Gmail.
I don't see this being that big of a deal except for corporations... or cheating husbands/wives.
It is definitely a bug. But a bug that only affects a handful of shady emailers.
you just listed 3/4 of all America!!!
Except it's taking up everyone's memory. Will this sell higher capacity iphones; the world will never know.
@fastm3driver: Sure, it'll take up more memory, but keep in mind how big a typical email is. You're talking on the order of hundreds of thousands of emails before you start really getting hit hard.
It's only sticking around in the cache because it's *not* taking up a lot of memory. The cache likely flushes itself as a function of memory use so that it never grows more than a certain size.
Good point!
It's not a bug. I mean - when I move an item to the trash I fully expect and want it to remain on my device. That's why I moved it to the trash to begin with.
Sincerely,
All Apple Apologists
Apple sucks.
@bjsguess: Umm, I don't think you fully understand. Even after emptying the trash, the email is still found in spotlight. I tried this myself, and it is indeed a bug.
@ssoltero
When I actually empty the trash on my accounts, it totally wipes it and no longer shows up in the search. It works the same way on my Mac- trashed items can still be searched for, but on my iPod touch (same as in this video) this doesn't happen at ALL.
Then again, maybe I'm just one of the people confirming that this is fixed in the update (I'm running 3.1). If so, the problem has actually had a fix for quite some time, and the solution will be distributed shortly. I really don't see this as being newsworthy... when was the last time a Windows Mobile flaw was pointed out and took up an entire article, eh Engadget?
This has not been fixed as of iPhone OS 3.1 beta 3. I just tried it.
Just kidding, it has been fixed. Just wanted to make you sweat a little.
Thanks for clearing that up nub.
You're stupid.
I fail to see how using Gmail would help, they still keep all of your old emails, just don't let you see them!
Oh no.. better tell my buddy. His lady has a tendency to go snooping...
Spotlight appears to search my Trash folder on Exchange. When I both delete an email AND remove it from the trash, after a restart Spotlight sees it no more.
Are you sure the emails aren't just in the Trash folder on your email client's site?
lulz.
Looks like a mini-version of Time Machine is now included in iPhone OS 3.1, but released accidentally on 3.0 :(
Rise from your grave...
... and bring me some grapes.
Never give up.
Never let down.
I really want to delete the mail app from my iPhone, it's neigh-useless for gmail. =/
Actually, I *really* wish that the app store would allow a gmail app -- competition is good for everyone! RAWWRRRRR!
I hear ya there man, while the gmail mobile web thing is very useful the fact that I can't read emails offline kills the usability there.
Come to think of it, why hasnt' google done a native app for gmail? Guess its that whole bullshit about apps duplicating iPhone functions?
So... a deleted message can be found on the iPhone... how is this a security bug? If I loose my iPhone the least of my concerns are the messages I deleted. How about the rest of the email on the phone that wasn't deleted. Not to mention that email you deleted is still out there on the person's computer that sent the email. Seems like a silly thing to worry about and not a real good reason to tell people to stop using the built in email client.
excellent point
How about the fact that the email is in the trash is because you wanted it to be deleted. If I wanted to keep a copy of a message around I probably wouldn't have gone to the trouble of deleting it and emptying the trash. Regardless of the implications of breaches of privacy or embarrassment, there is still a bug with the system. So if you don't want zombie mail in your spotlight search I would agree that not using the built in email client would be a reasonable work around to the issue.
...and what if you wanted that offensive spam you deleted resurface at just the right time?...we have an app for that.
wow, the email app only has a few basic tasks it HAS to do right, and the extras that it's allowed to mess up. deleting email is really a rudementary function that should have been tested thoroughly. Oh yeah I am a software developer so I'm allowed to be on this soap box.
@rogelio if you were a software developer you would understand that Mail and Spotlight are two completely separate apps, one of which is working properly and the other of which is not. I think you just lost the right to be on that soap box.
I've realized that a long time ago, but never took it this way....exactly as someone said, if you send it or received it, some also has it! so what's the big deal on this???
maybe if you delete the message from your "deleted mail" folder they wiil go away???
such a waste of time!!
It's fixed in 3.1.
Has any one else had the bug where the email app makes old deleted emails pop as new? This is extremely annoying and I've had to live with about 28 emails marked as new even though they're over a month old. Once deleted other older ones keep popping up as new. Extremely annoying.
Yeah that happens to me often. Emails that I read get tagged as new at random times. Ans sometimes when I delete an email the come back like the phone wasn't sure I really wanted to send them to the trash.