droid incredible deleting pop3 e-mail messages on server when deleting trash

[Mattls]

I have a pop3 email address on my droid incredible. It is set to not delete off server and has been working great up until today. It keeps on server if I delete on handset but once I empty trash it does delete off server. I use a pc to get email from this account and sometimes I dont need to keep on phone. Up until now even when I deleted trash on phone it still stayed on server and I received on my pc. Any one help why this just started happening. I kind of like to empy the trash folder.

Great phone though.

Thanks

[Scythe]

I have a pop3 email address on my droid incredible. It is set to not delete off server and has been working great up until today. It keeps on server if I delete on handset but once I empty trash it does delete off server. I use a pc to get email from this account and sometimes I dont need to keep on phone. Up until now even when I deleted trash on phone it still stayed on server and I received on my pc. Any one help why this just started happening. I kind of like to empy the trash folder.

Great phone though.

Thanks

POP3 was built to remove the email off the server when the email is downloaded. IMAP is built to keep the email on the server and download to your phone locally. If you empty your trash on your phone, it makes sense that it will delete off the server since it's a 1-1 relationship (you're telling the server you no longer want the email in the Trash folder, so delete it). Think of it as a sync.

I'm 99% positive you meant IMAP, otherwise you'd be telling us how your email doesn't exist at all on your server

[LunaticFringe]

If you were in fact talking POP, and you also access this email on a PC using Outlook, try the following:

Open Outlook > Tools > Email Accounts > View/change existing accounts > Next button > highlight the account in question > Change > More Settings button > Advanced tab > Check "leave a copy of messages on the server" box and specify time to leave them

[Mattls]

It is pop3 mail and I have my pc and phone not to delete off server. It was working fine for about a week. Checked all settings and they are still supposed to leave message on server. Now all of a sudden when I just delete on phone, everything works fine but when I go to empty trash on phone it then deletes off server. I like to empty emails that I do not require on my phone but want on my pc and I like to empty trash so it doesnt waste space on the phone. The fact on the incredible you can delete all the trash at once instead of having to click on each email makes it nice to get rid of everything. Previously even if I deleted trash from phone it still kept on server. I am not a newbie and know exactly what pop3 and imap are. So I do know what I am doing. The email program seems to now be acting funny after working great for about a week.

[Scythe]

It is pop3 mail and I have my pc and phone not to delete off server. It was working fine for about a week. Checked all settings and they are still supposed to leave message on server. Now all of a sudden when I just delete on phone, everything works fine but when I go to empty trash on phone it then deletes off server. I like to empty emails that I do not require on my phone but want on my pc and I like to empty trash so it doesnt waste space on the phone. The fact on the incredible you can delete all the trash at once instead of having to click on each email makes it nice to get rid of everything. Previously even if I deleted trash from phone it still kept on server. I am not a newbie and know exactly what pop3 and imap are. So I do know what I am doing. The email program seems to now be acting funny after working great for about a week.

Sounds like a bug then. You might want to submit a report to the bug tracker: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list

[LunaticFringe]

Have you downloaded any apps that might affect mail management since things started going downhill? One thing I've found with Android apps is that they can confilict with one another and with seemingly no rhyme or reason, one's settings can "win" over another's. Just a thought.

Can't think of anything else other than the bug theory like Scythe mentioned.

[sharky1226]

Mattls,
I found your post when searching for the same issue you are having. I want you to know you are not alone with that problem.
I am a Network Admin and like you are very knowledgeable in the way of emails and how it all works. Here at my company, I have an enduser with an Eris and he wanted to be able to send/receive our company emails. We host and manage our own server internally and it's POP3. He got his Eris several months ago and being that I'm a Blackberry user I didn't have much experience with the Android OS (at the time ver 1.5). It was easy to configure for him, very simple. Since we also use Outlook I mentioned to him that if he wanted to make sure he got ALL his messages to his phone (in addition to receiving them in Outlook) that we could turn on the option in Outlook to retain messages on our server. He didn't seem to care about getting his work emails on his phone if he had his Outlook open so we didn't turn that option on.
I should note that we did see that setting in Android about deleting messages off the server and we made sure that was off. Things have been fine for months until May came around. He upgraded to 2.1 and now he has the exact same problem as you are having.
Just to clarify for those reading this. This is a very strange issue and I have taken some time (just like I assume Mattls has) to test this all out. The email can be received by the phone and be sitting in the Inbox and the message will still be available to download in Outlook. I have confirmed this by looking at my POP server and seeing it there. The message can then be downloaded into Outlook.
However, doing the same test. If after receiving the message on the phone and you delete it and then delete it from the Trash, for some ungodly reason it is gone from the POP server (before opening up Outlook). Something in the code is telling it to go back to the server and either redownload it (without retention) and then delete it off the phone or it's just flat out deleting it.
From what I can tell, you can delete it from the Inbox on the phone, just don't delete it from Trash.

I think that sometimes a problem is so unbelievable to the eyes of others that their comments in an effort in trying to help is construed as insulting when they have a different opinion. I can see how everyone else who commented went down the wrong path, but I think they were just trying to help. Part of the reason for my post.

I also have enjoyed the Google link that was to see all the issues that have been posted. Mattls, have you posted this problem to that site? If so, I would like to read it and help you (and my enduser, and maybe me in the future) by seconding your post on the site. If you did, do you know the issue ID #?

[sharky1226]

I have a small follow up. I have found somebody else with the same problem who posted the issue on that Google issues list. It's ID # 8587 for those curious. I posted my comment as well (but made it first person as to not make it more confusing) ;-)

[schiche]

This bug isn't that weird actually since in outlook when I check "Leave a copy on the server" I also have the option to check "remove from the servers when deleted from the 'deleted items'". Since we don't have this later option in the incredible, I suppose it's simply checked by default, not really a bug in fact, but more like undocumented feature ;-)

what I am doing and it's working great:

1) have my outlook check on emails every 10 minutes and leave them on the server for 1 day

2) have my incredible check on emails every 10 minutes and "delete mail on server" is OFF

3) empty the trash on the incredible only when the most recent deleted email has already been received by outlook.

[sharky1226]

Schiche,
The problem here is not with Outlook. I know what you are talking about though, but imagine for a moment that you don't have a desktop email client such as Outlook. Imagine if you just had the phone and you are telling the phone to not remove messages off the server, yet when you delete the message from your Inbox and then the Trash it then deleted from your server.
Outlook, although involved in this issue, is not the problem here nor is changing settings in it the answer. Those settings in Outlook are great if you wanted to make sure your phone will get every single message because without those changes Outlook would download all the messages and you wouldn't get any to your phone.