Spotlight Search Pulling Up Old Deleted Emails

[thomas520]

I just downloaded OS 3.0 for my original iPhone. When I use spotlight search, it shows results for e-mails long since deleted off of my phone and Outlook/email servers. Are these emails being stored on the iPhone or is the search tool going out and finding e-mail off of the servers that I can not seem to delete permenantly?

TIA.

 

[serious damage]

What? Old emails!

I also found that (probably all) my old deleted emails pop up in the Spotlight search. When I select one of them it takes me to Mail app where that message still seem to be, even the attachments are still there!!! The messege appears to be in the inbox even though it won't show if you just manually go to Mail. Deleting that message doesn't help, it it will show up if you do the same search again.

What is going on?! Is my phone slowly filling itself with deleted junkmail?

 

[bytethese]

Are you guys clearing your trash folders after you delete emails? If not, that's why it's finding deleted emails.

 

[Xenious]

I'm having the same issue. It seems to just affect the POP3 email account I have setup. My Exchange and IMAP accounts are not doing this.

There are no emails in the Deleted Items/Trash or in any folder. Yet doing a search they show up in the Inbox of that account and if you tap on them you can read the email itself. (A few navigations later it crashed my Mail app.)

 

[thomas520]

I delete all of my e-mails daily and have the trash set up to empty deleted items after 1 day. Spotlight search is finding e-mails almost a year old!

 

[ravingdave]

This must be an issue which pre-dates 3.0, as it is finding emails from over a year ago. It's just that pre 3.0 there was no search function to show up this 'feature'. Ever since I got my ipod touch I've been trying to track down what is in 'Other', and why it is constantly growing - now I know - it contains all my deleted emails!

My 'Other' had grown to around 250MB. After finding out using Spotlight that all my old emails were still on the iPod I deleted my email account and set it up again, and hey presto 'Other' went to zero, giving me 250MB more useable space.

Guess I will just need to go through this maintenance step on a regular basis until Apple come up with a fix?

 

[Xenious]

now that is really a good clue, maybe it is some gathering of leftover files done during an OS upgrade?

 

[kAoTiX]

Maybe this is a feature of Spotlight? It can go back in time and find things you had previously removed off the face of the earth!

Apple should get an award for this kind of technology!

All jokes aside, I think this is a real oversight somewhere. If you deleted an e-mail you possibly didn't want someone to see and they happen to search your phone and find it after weeks (or even years as someone pointed out) then surely this is a major issue.

I have no idea what the iPhone does when you delete a message from the mail app but surely they are stored somewhere. Can someone with a jailbroken iPhone SSH on and see if they can find them. I might have a look later. I'm intrigued!

 

[John T]

I wonder if anyone has discovered a solution to this problem....

I've just looked in Spotlight in my 3GS and found masses of e-mails I had considered to have been completely deleted (i.e. deleted to trash and then trash emptied). Opening these "messages" reveals a blank page!

I realise that this is no big deal and these files must take up a minute amount of space. However, I don't look forward to the prospect of, over time, filling up my 'phone with hundreds of "useless" files

 

[vizkiz]

I wonder if anyone has discovered a solution to this problem....

I've just looked in Spotlight in my 3GS and found masses of e-mails I had considered to have been completely deleted (i.e. deleted to trash and then trash emptied). Opening these "messages" reveals a blank page!

I realise that this is no big deal and these files must take up a minute amount of space. However, I don't look forward to the prospect of, over time, filling up my 'phone with hundreds of "useless" files

A lot of my deleted files contains attachments, which means they are not taking up a minute amount of space. I wonder what Apple would say about this. I'm tempted to email them and ask if they know of this issue.

 

[John T]

A lot of my deleted files contains attachments, which means they are not taking up a minute amount of space. I wonder what Apple would say about this. I'm tempted to email them and ask if they know of this issue.

Some of mine did as well but I was fortunate enough to be able to eventually trash them. However, as I said earlier, the original "empty shells" still remain!

I too will endeavour to inform Apple. Let's hope they do already know of this obvious bug and find their way to doing something about it in OS 3.1. Fingers crossed!

 

[crayonshin]

Seems like somebody at Macworld also ran into this bug. Read about it here.

 

[John T]

Thanks for the info

It's nice to know that, by now, Apple should be aware of this bug and also that it's nothing that I've done to my 'phone!!

 

[McQ14]

I wasn't aware of the Spotlight finding old mail, but I've been having daily issues with "Boomerang Email". Messages long-deleted keep randomly coming back into my POP email account's Inbox. Not only that, but I'm getting some of my POP account email Pushed to me and I have Push turned off AND Fetch on Manual.

These emails are driving me crazy. I can't get rid of them. It only happens with my POP account though, I don't know why.

 

[DefineArt.com]

I wasn't aware of the Spotlight finding old mail, but I've been having daily issues with "Boomerang Email". Messages long-deleted keep randomly coming back into my POP email account's Inbox. Not only that, but I'm getting some of my POP account email Pushed to me and I have Push turned off AND Fetch on Manual.

These emails are driving me crazy. I can't get rid of them. It only happens with my POP account though, I don't know why.

This just started happening to me today. I deleted 43 new messages. Minutes later they show back up as new. I have done this 4 times. I have turned off the phone and back on. I have also synced it....

 

[McQ14]

This just started happening to me today. I deleted 43 new messages. Minutes later they show back up as new. I have done this 4 times. I have turned off the phone and back on. I have also synced it....

Weird, isn't it?

I had several hours available today to do a complete restore of the phone (not from a backup, but as a new phone). I haven't seen any boomerang emails yet...keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Resist]

Are you guys clearing your trash folders after you delete emails? If not, that's why it's finding deleted emails.

Actually this is incorrect.

Spotlight can find deleted email because that data has not been written over. Remember deleting anything on a computer doesn't really delete it, it just makes the space available to be written.

This is a feature written into Spotlight and has come in handy for me many times already.

 

[-aggie-]

Actually this is incorrect.

Spotlight can find deleted email because that data has not been written over. Remember deleting anything on a computer doesn't really delete it, it just makes the space available to be written.

This is a feature written into Spotlight and has come in handy for me many times already.

Well, I just deleted an email in my trash that spotlight showed in the trash, and after I deleted it from the trash, spotlight couldn't find it. So, don't know if that's true or not.

 

[Resist]

Well, I just deleted an email in my trash that spotlight showed in the trash, and after I deleted it from the trash, spotlight couldn't find it.

That is strange because I have found lots of my old and deleted emails from my phone. Did you add data to your iPhone after the delete, like some Apps? If so then your email could have been overwritten and is the reason why Spotlight now couldn't find it.

 

[-aggie-]

That is strange because I have found lots of my old and deleted emails from my phone. Did you add data to your iPhone after the delete, like some Apps? If so then your email could have been overwritten and is the reason why Spotlight now couldn't find it.

Nope, nothing added. Like I said, I deleted an email from the trash and then immediately went to look for it in spotlight. I had looked before to see that it was shown in trash.

 

[goinskiing]

It's Happening on my iPod Touch 2G

Just reporting that I am having the same issue. I have deleted deleted all my messages in each of my pop accounts (emptied trash and all) and my messages still show up in spotlight. I'm using iPhone OS 3.0. I am curious to see if anyone has found a solution or know why this is happening as every MB on my 8GB is valuable.

 

[3GEE]

Has a solution been found for this yet? I seem to have thousands of deleted emails that still show up in spotlight.

 

[Xenious]

Looks like it is getting some more press here Cult of Mac: iPhone search issue which says it is rumored fixed in 3.1

 

[ravingdave]

Seems to have been fixed in 3.1.1 on my iPod Touch. Deleted emails stay deleted and are no longer found by Spotlight search.

 

[Resist]

I think it was a great feature to be able to find old deleted emails. Many times this feature came in handy for me. If it really is gone then that is shame.