Existing users, 
Fix For iPhone 2.1 Not Checking Mail in the Background
Posted 24 September 2008 @ 6am in Troubleshooting
Many users have reported an issue in which the iPhone’s mail application fails to retrieve messags in the background, no matter what checking interval is set and regardless of whether or not push is enabled. An Apple Discussions thread harbors more than 275 posts on the issue.
iPhone Atlas reader Anil Panigrahi writes:
“After updating to the latest iPhone firmware (2.1), many users, including myself, are finding that there is no email fetching while the phone is in standby mode. This is a major concern to many users, business users in particular.”
An Apple Discussions poster quips:
“This is the new fix Jobs implemented in 2.1 to fix the battery life”
Fix Some users have now reported that downgrading to iPhone OS 2.0.2, setting up email accounts anew, then updating back to iPhone OS 2.1 resolves this issue.
Visual instructions for downgrading can be found in this YouTube video (embedded below)
and links to old OS versions can be found here.
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8 Comments
Posted by jwardell
24 September 2008 @ 11am
I just noticed I have this issue this morning. But I really don’t want to go through all the trouble of reflashing firmware twice. I’ll wait a bit to see if other fixes come along.
Posted by nparik1
24 September 2008 @ 12pm
Can someone validate that this worked for them? I have great troubles downgrading let alone downgrading and then upgrading :)
Thanks,
Niket
Posted by mistersafety
24 September 2008 @ 6pm
could not get it to work after 4 re-installs. Guess I’ll have to wait for a fix. That’s if Apple admits there is a problem :(
Posted by mbbphoto
24 September 2008 @ 6pm
Well that was a big waste of time.
Couldnt downgrade, it would fail at the last moment of extracting the image.
BTW on a mac you hold down the option key when you restore.
Also I didnt get a blank screen on my iPhone G3 I got a USB cord image and the iTunes said the phone was in Restore Mode and HAD to be restored.
I was able to revert to 2.1 but my music and movies are gone…
Posted by grimace2k
25 September 2008 @ 6am
I had this problem after 2.1 as well, but deleting and recreating the accounts fixed it for me. My Gmail account syncs properly now.
Posted by PandemicSoul
25 September 2008 @ 2pm
This is not a fix, it’s a work-around. A fix is “It works. Right.”
Posted by Burbank
4 October 2008 @ 12pm
There is a simple fix for this if your iPhone or iPod Touch is jailbroken. Simply access the phone’s file structure using an SSH client and delete the ~/Library/Mail folder (archive it first). Then, when you launch Mail next it will let you re-create your accounts. From this point onward Mail works fine (for me) in the background.
Posted by JK3051
9 October 2008 @ 11am
I did a jailbreak on my phone, then installed Insomnia from Cydia.
Now works like a charm. Insomnia keeps the connection alive since then I always have email. The only draws back is remembering to use insomnia after a restart.