Have you ever tried to look at an e-mail on your iPhone only to find that it seems to take forever to display the content of the message as you watch a wheel spin at the top of your screen, and then when something finally does appear, it is just an error message? Sometimes your iPhone tells you that the message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Other times it tells you that this message has not been downloaded from the server. Here is an example of one such error message that I encountered yesterday:
Once you get an error message like that, even if you go to another e-mail and then come back, you’ll still see the error message.
The solution: restart the Mail app. To force a restart of any app on your iPhone, hold down the Sleep/Wake button until a red slider appears, but don’t touch that slider. Instead, next hold down the Home button for a few seconds. This will force the app to quit. You can then tap the Mail icon to launch the app again and Mail will try again to download the content of that message.
In my experience, the most likely cause of this problem is a poor data signal. I encountered this problem yesterday the same place that I encounter it most of the time — at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, right after my plane landed while taxiing to the gate. I frequently have a hard time getting a reliable AT&T data signal on the runways of that airport, which means that it often takes a long time for new message to appear, and even when I finally see my list of new messages, I sometimes run into error messages like the one noted above.
Here are two related tips. First, sometimes you will see the content of an e-mail message, but your iPhone will have trouble downloading an attachment. After trying for a while, it will give up, and instead of seeing the correct icon for the attachment (such as Word file icon) you will see a blank box. Tapping that blank box does nothing. The solution is the same; restart the Mail app, and then let the iPhone try to download the attachment again.
Second, when you are in an area with poor data coverage and you get tired of waiting and waiting for Mail to appear, I often have good luck putting the iPhone into Airport Mode for a few seconds. (Go to the Settings app and then Airport Mode is the first option at the top.) Then turn off Airplane Mode, and the iPhone will try to get a new 3G signal. In my experience, I often have luck getting a better 3G signal for at least a little while, although sometimes in an area like an airport where there is heavy demand for limited resources, the signal will get worse over time. When that happens, I just use this same trick again and turn on Airplane Mode for a few seconds.
By the way, for new readers of iPhone J.D., here are some of the prior iPhone tips that I’ve covered on this website:
- My favorite iPhone shortcuts: 11/24/08
- More iPhone Shortcuts: 12/12/08
- Tips on iPhone Software 3.0: 6/23/09
- More iPhone 3.0 tips and shortcuts: 7/6/09
- Create an Apple folder: 6/30/10
- Vanity mirror: 7/1/10
- Create a folder with a color Emoji icon: 7/5/10
- How many apps do you have?: 11/15/10
- Zoom: 12/14/10
- Invite out-of-town relatives to the party: 1/18/11
- The iPhone as a boarding pass: 2/15/11
- Track changes metadata: 5/16/11
Jeff,
You can also quit an app by clicking the home button to get to the home screen, then double tapping the home button. This brings up the app switcher at the bottom, sim ky hold down your finger on any of the apps to get in jiggly mode and you can quit any app by clicking on the minus sign. To get out of jiggly mode just click anywhere on the homescree above or hit the home button.
“The solution: restart the Mail app. To force a restart of any app on your iPhone, hold down the Sleep/Wake button until a red slider appears, but don’t touch that slider. Instead, next hold down the Home button for a few seconds. This will force the app to quit. You can then tap the Mail icon to launch the app again and Mail will try again to download the content of that message.”
In case you aren’t aware of it, a better way to do this is to just double-click the Home button, to bring up the quick app-switching panel. Once the app-switching panel is up, touch/press on an icon for 2 seconds and the apps will vibrate and a red close icon will appear in the corner. You can then kill any app you want.
Works Like Magic!
Thank you very much.
Restarted , still won’t work!!!
Thanks very much, just the answer I needed.
BTW, you may wish to correct “Airport Mode” to “Airplane Mode.”
Thanks again.
“Airport Mode” – fixed. Thanks.
-Jeff
Thanks for your suggestion. Worked on my iphone and my ipad. Different problems, different apps. Solution worked on both. Will use this technique again when irritants develop on my devices.
Regards,
Terry
Thanks a million for the help!
Thanks for this, sorted out some mails I needed to read – still getting error messages about not connecting to server. This problem seems to have coincided with getting a software update option….
thanks very much, worked a treat
Thank you! Worked for me. Just FYI for me, the message still stated “No contents….” when I looked at the list of email messages BUT the content was viewable once I opened the email.
Wow, it works. I did fix my email problem just by rebooting iPhone 5 the body messages now showing again.
I am getting loads of emails telling me to print of coupons from asda m&s tesco eBay group on but when I open the mail it has no content there is no email address to let me unsubscribe to these how can I stop them
This worked perfectly!
I did this and still get the message. I’ve also restarted my phone… Any other way to fix this annoying stupid problem?
Even though I posted this tip years ago, it still works for me, so I don’t have any other suggestions.
-Jeff
Hello, I’M not a wizard and hope you can help me. Since this morning I have been receiving those messages in my mail:
Cannot send Mail – An error occurred while delivering this message
What I do I press OK and then the message appears
Cannot get Mail – the connection to the server failed
What I do I press OK and I get my messages
Why do I get these boxes? It’s annoying to get these pop ups. I really do hope you can help me out. Thank you.
That’s usually an issue with your mail server, so there isn’t much that you can do from your end, at least not to my knowledge. Sorry that I don’t have something specific to recommend.
-Jeff
The solution: restart the Mail app. To force a restart of any app on your iPhone, hold down the Sleep/Wake button until a red slider appears, but don’t touch that slider. Instead, next hold down the Home button for a few seconds.
*** WORKED FINE, THANKS A LOT !!!
Thanks so much for the tips. They worked!!
Started having this issue yesterday, and unfortunately restarting the app has not worked. I have 6 messages that have the “This message has not been downloaded from the server” error message. Anyone find any other solutions?
I have 2 email accounts on my iPad. One is Ok but the other is showing the above message on ad-hoc emails, even though they downloaded OK initially and have been OK until recently. I want to try to restart the email app but before I do, can anyone assure me I won’t lose my emails.
I had a file attached to an email I received yesterday. Today I tried to open that same file and received a message that the file was not downloaded from the server. This was just after an update was performed. Now what do I do. I tried the sleep/wake button and home button refresh trick with no success. Any ideas?
The solution: restart the Mail app. To force a restart of any app on your iPhone, hold down the Sleep/Wake button until a red slider appears, but don’t touch that slider. Instead, next hold down the Home button for a few seconds.
Worked the very first time. Problem solved. Thanks!
I have tried the above and still no luck.
Any help Please.
tried it and still getting the message that the message hasn’t been downloaded
Solution did not work
How do I fix my IPad please? These solutions are only for iPhones.
Solution did not work for me either
Why is Apple not aware of this problem in view of multiple complaints for both I-pad and I- phone? I cannot retain important messages..
The solution didn’t work for me either. It is so frustrating… Come on Apple sort it out!
Having the same issue my problem was that I did not have the app to go with the attachment – in this case Adobe Reader. After downloading it I forwarded the original mail to my other yahoo address and that worked.
Feel this problem relates back to the update.. If I ever get it sorted, I will never run an update again!!!!!
Thank you!
In my case there were two accounts configured one for outlook and exchange. The accounts were restored from backup. outlook account wasn’t getting connected. deleted the account and the issue was resolved
Worked like a charm – many thanks!
Solution is usefull for me