Potentially catastrofic Mail flaw in iOS/macOS

[Svenisak]

Today, I found out (the hard way) about a very serious flaw in iOS. My ISP has problems with its mail servers. As a consequence all iOS units (iPhones & iPads) throws up an error message every 3 SECONDS, that they can’t verify the mail-in server!

This error message locks up the whole unit, and can only be dismissed by clicking “Cancel”. It then goes away, for about 3 seconds, when it returns and locks up the iOS unit again. And so it goes! Turning off notifications (as Apple support suggested) in the Mail app or turning on AirPlane mode. Nothing works. Nothing prevents the error from locking up you iPhone/iPad every three seconds!

It’s not only that you can’t use it for e-mail. You can’t use it for ANYTHING. This is serious. If you’re business relies on you using your iPhone or iPad (I don’t know about Apple Watch) in any capacity, you’re s*****d!

This is a serious flaw in iOS. When you’ve clicked on “Cancel” once, iOS should not continue nagging you and prevent you from using your iPad/iPhone, for other tasks!


Note that this issue isn’t iOS version specific, and affects mail in macOS as well. The difference is that in macOS, it stayed away after having been dismissed 5 or 6 times. In iOS it just keeps coming back, endlessly.

 

[adrianlondon]

You have to de-activate the mail account in settings until your ISP fixes their issue. If it is a certificate issue, then disabling SSL could be a workaround.

 

[mollyc]

If the mail account doesn’t work I’d delete it from my phone till it was fixed. It’s not Apple’s fault the isp has gone haywire. Put your phone in airplane mode so it stops looking for new mail then delete the account.

 

[Vlad Soare]

It’s not Apple’s fault the isp has gone haywire.

No, but it is Apple's fault that the app displays a disruptive error message over and over again, blocking the entire phone, instead of simply giving up and waiting for the connection to be restored, like other e-mail clients do.

 

[gwhizkids]

No, but it is Apple's fault that the app displays a disruptive error message over and over again, blocking the entire phone, instead of simply giving up and waiting for the connection to be restored, like other e-mail clients do.

No, I don’t think so. It is your ISPs fault for throwing these errors that are causing this. No errors, no problems.

 

[Ruggy]

Go to Settings>Mail>Accounts and at the bottom of the screen change 'Fetch New Data' to manually.
If it's set to push, it'll just keep on doing it.