iCloud Mail (@me.com) not syncing as "read" across all devices

[Apothacarion]

I know this has been a problem in the past with MobileMe and is the sole reason I have not switched to iCloud/MobileMe mail now and in the past. I use all of my devices (iPhone/iPad/iMac/PC) at various time during the day and read email on all of them. However, if I read an email on my iPhone, it does not mark as read on my iPad until I open up mail and it checks manually. If I check my mail on the PC or iMac it does not mark it as read on my iPad/iPhone until I perform the same function. I currently use the Gmail Exchange server and that works perfectly in regards to that.

Does anyone know if Apple plans to implement the "syncing mail across all devices" like the exchange servers work? I have not found a tremendous amount of complaints or posts about this problem, but I can't imagine this does not bother anyone else. iMessage works perfectly in that regard. I hope this eventually is implemented.

 

[r0k]

I know this has been a problem in the past with MobileMe and is the sole reason I have not switched to iCloud/MobileMe mail now and in the past. I use all of my devices (iPhone/iPad/iMac/PC) at various time during the day and read email on all of them. However, if I read an email on my iPhone, it does not mark as read on my iPad until I open up mail and it checks manually. If I check my mail on the PC or iMac it does not mark it as read on my iPad/iPhone until I perform the same function. I currently use the Gmail Exchange server and that works perfectly in regards to that.

Does anyone know if Apple plans to implement the "syncing mail across all devices" like the exchange servers work? I have not found a tremendous amount of complaints or posts about this problem, but I can't imagine this does not bother anyone else. iMessage works perfectly in that regard. I hope this eventually is implemented.

I have noticed this as well. I attribute it to the fact I have some of my mail accounts set to "fetch" rather than "push". My work email saps my iPhone battery if I leave it set to push. By setting it to fetch, it only checks when I open mail on my iPhone.

The unread count "badge" I see is the sum of all the email addresses I check. All are set to IMAP/push except my work email which is set to fetch. I have a mobile me and a gmail account among the accounts my iPhone checks. I also notice the badge on my Macbook takes "a few minutes" to change to the correct read count even when mail.app is running minimized. Is this what you are asking about? Just the badge? The badge doesn't bother me at all. Now if individual messages I had read were showing up as unread, that would drive me nuts. I have not seen this at all.

I have held off on iCloud because I have multiple Apple IDs. One for iTunes, one for the developer program and one for mobile me. I really don't want them all merged so I'm waiting to decide what I should do. But I've never been bothered by the performance of mobile me email. It got slightly worse when I added my work email which is what I expected.

 

[Apothacarion]

Well, I can say that I set up the phone with only one email account, the iCloud account. It does not update as read across all devices unless I either manually open the mail client or I get another email and it updates the current badge account. I am sure this is just how it works, however, I don't know why apple has not addressed this. I can only assume Apple employees must not be using iCloud mail!

 

[d21mike]

This has been discussed many times since MobileMe was released and it is simply how it was designed to work. A lot of people have complained about it. My only guess is that they feel it would reduce battery life but I have not heard a reason from Apple.

 

[whsbuss]

Never having MobileMe, I find this annoying. I will not switch my google stuff until this is resolved.

 

[Apothacarion]

Same thing here. This is very annoying. Until Apple adds this feature, I will not switch over as well.

 

[d21mike]

I really hope Apple decides to add features that you get with Google and Microsoft in this regard (IE Supporting Exchange Features). I also hope they support domains other then me.com which Google Supports as well. But Apple does not seem to care what Google or Microsoft does so you could be waiting a long time. I got the original iPhone and was using Yahoo Mail because it was the only solution for Push Email. Then MM came out and it was the only solution for Push Mail, Contacts and Calendar (Yahoo did not add the other 2 for the entire year they had the lead, crazy). Now we have have Google and Windows Live that have Exchange Support. I tried Google for a while but I do not like their Labels vs. Folders design (as least at the time). I am sticking with Apple for now because it seems to have the least amount of negatives.

 

[thederby]

gmail via google sync (exchange/activesync) has the same limitation.

the only way to sync read/not read across all email clients is to use imap.

 

[sparkstsa]

gmail via google sync (exchange/activesync) has the same limitation.

the only way to sync read/not read across all email clients is to use imap.

That's incorrect. I have been using gmail exchange for a long time and it updates almost instantly on all my ios devices.

 

[thederby]

That's incorrect. I have been using gmail exchange for a long time and it updates almost instantly on all my ios devices.

nice, looks like they changed this behavior since the last time i looked at it. i might have to re-look at using that for my email instead imap.

 

[whsbuss]

That's incorrect. I have been using gmail exchange for a long time and it updates almost instantly on all my ios devices.

Yep same here. It works great when I'm using Thunderbird or Gmail web for emails - updates all my iDevices almost instantly. Yet, iCloud does not. I really hate having to see a badge indicating I have new email when in fact I already dealt with it on iCloud.

 

[powpow]

This is a huge problem and I can't believe Apple hasn't dealt with it.

I just started using iCloud mail and "Oh look, I have two new emails on my iPad......never mind, those are the two I read 30 minutes ago on my iPhone". Ridiculous.

I've read this happens because ICloud doesn't use "IMAP idle," but I'm no expert so don't quote me on that.

Apple needs to fix this ASAP.....

 

[d21mike]

This is a huge problem and I can't believe Apple hasn't dealt with it.

I just started using iCloud mail and "Oh look, I have two new emails on my iPad......never mind, those are the two I read 30 minutes ago on my iPhone". Ridiculous.

I've read this happens because ICloud doesn't use "IMAP idle," but I'm no expert so don't quote me on that.

Apple needs to fix this ASAP.....

I guess you did not read below but this is how Apple Designed it to work. They have Push Email so they could obviously Push out a notification that the Read Status needs to be changed. Again, this is NOT NEW. It has been this way since MobileMe was released and there have been many posts on this subject. Now, they could change this at any time but to say that Apple needs to "fix this ASAP" is a stretch since they obviously do not consider it a BUG.

 

[sparkstsa]

I think they could fix this. I got an email on my iphone and as soon as I read it the badge on my mac mail disappeared. So it does push to the mac, just not to ios devices.

 

[d21mike]

I think they could fix this. I got an email on my iphone and as soon as I read it the badge on my mac mail disappeared. So it does push to the mac, just not to ios devices.

Here is an Apple Support Document so you know that Apple does indeed know about this.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1795

 

[Weaselboy]

I think they could fix this. I got an email on my iphone and as soon as I read it the badge on my mac mail disappeared. So it does push to the mac, just not to ios devices.

I believe it is this way in purpose to conserve battery life.

 

[d21mike]

I believe it is this way in purpose to conserve battery life.

+1. This has been my belief as well.

 

[powpow]

I guess you did not read below but this is how Apple Designed it to work. They have Push Email so they could obviously Push out a notification that the Read Status needs to be changed. Again, this is NOT NEW. It has been this way since MobileMe was released and there have been many posts on this subject. Now, they could change this at any time but to say that Apple needs to "fix this ASAP" is a stretch since they obviously do not consider it a BUG.

OK, it might not be a new issue but it's new to me as a new iCloud user. I personally think it sucks and it might be the deal breaker that gets me to go back to Gmail (this is after three days with iCloud mail, yes it's that annoying to me). After you read an email it should be marked as read everywhere...very simple stuff.

That said, I love the contacts/calendar/bookmarks syncing and cloud backups so I'm not just a complainer.

 

[sparkstsa]

I can deal with it... I can't deal with push working on my iphone and mac, but not on my ipad. It worked on my ipad until today and I haven't changed anything.

 

[whsbuss]

I believe it is this way in purpose to conserve battery life.

Balony.... Yahoo/Hotmail/Google works just fine. Apple is touting iCloud as a "sync across all iDevices". Well if I do something on my iPad, it should reflect on my iPhone. Heck, I can start an iMessage on one device and pick up where I left off on the other one.

EDIT: be sure you send your feedback to Apple. We shouldn't accept this as normal just because MobileMe was like this.

 

[KenOzz]

That's incorrect. I have been using gmail exchange for a long time and it updates almost instantly on all my ios devices.

Yes it updates instantly on Gmail

I have all my .me mail forward to Gmail for that reason

 

[powpow]

So I just switched to back to Gmail through exchange on both iPhone and iPad and everything syncs instantly again.

Really disappointed that Apple hasn't solved this and I can't believe this was a paid "feature" of MobileMe.

Perhaps someone can update this thread when Apple fixes this issue with iCloud mail. Thanks.

 

[wetrix]

Add me to the list. I've switched back to Gmail for this same reason.

 

[whsbuss]

So I just switched to back to Gmail through exchange on both iPhone and iPad and everything syncs instantly again.

Really disappointed that Apple hasn't solved this and I can't believe this was a paid "feature" of MobileMe.

Perhaps someone can update this thread when Apple fixes this issue with iCloud mail. Thanks.

I don't think we will see this anytime soon.

 

[FloridaMac]

Add me to the list. I've switched back to Gmail for this same reason.

Me too. The most annoying thing for me is that it doesn't delete them on all devices. I keep thinking I have new messages when actually I deleted them hours earlier on a different devices. Can't believe Apple has done something about this.