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Error in downloading mail on IMAP after ios 18 upgrade

I am unable to download my mail using the native mail app after upgrading to IOS 18. I am getting the following error; “Network Error (POSIX 96)”

The mail configuration is on imap with SSL.

iPad Pro, iPadOS 18

Posted on Sep 16, 2024 10:24 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 27, 2024 1:02 AM

Hi All,


I'm experiencing the same problem. No personal IMAP or POP3 accounts work, even though the SSL and TLS certificates are fine.


This is a very big problem. If Apple doesn't fix it quickly, I might go back to iOS 17 or switch to another brand.

I believe that for Apple and its development team, it should be quite simple to fix an issue like this, and I find it very concerning that a solution hasn't been provided yet. After all, what complex code could be behind a function you've been implementing for over 10 years? I strongly urge you to resolve this quickly, or many of us will be forced to leave a platform that has so far been both reliable and secure.


Thank you.

152 replies

Oct 15, 2024 2:52 PM in response to mangalapandi

mangalapandi wrote:

There are 2 error i have notice in my dovecot setup while my iPhone Mail app given POSIX 96 error.
May be i can help you to fix if you share the truncated logs while accessing Mail app to your server.

I saw nothing interesting in IMAP logs on dovecot server. I see the login with no error, and no errors following.


Not set to debug, but I think it will be less effort to wait until Apple fixes iOS mail.


Thanks for the offer of help.

Nov 4, 2024 1:07 PM in response to brucefromalta loma

I’ve been having the same problem. And it’s been going on for probably two years on and off. My email works just fine on my computer and my iPad but not my phone. I have a Comcast email account and sometimes I get a massive dump of emails and then other times it just says incorrect password and I can’t get anything for days. And then all of a sudden it will work for two weeks or six months and then it will happen again. Nobody can seem to fix the problem.

Nov 16, 2024 9:27 PM in response to Hari1975

My issue was fixed by going to IMAP settings and restyling over the greyed out forward slash after the IMAP server address.

I backed out of settings and shutdown the iPhone, and the restarted it a minute later. After the phone rebooted I went to mail and pulled down the mail to refresh it from the server. After a few seconds (which I think was the IMAP server resyncing with my mailbox, all my mail for the last few days came down. After two days it is behaving as it should with new mail appearing when it should. I note that this problem was not evident in my iPad which is iOS 17.x and not on my M2 MacBook Pro, nor on my partner’s iPad with iOS 18.1. I can only conclude that Apple can solve the mystery of this and the other issues with email that can’t be solved with this fix.

Nov 18, 2024 1:33 PM in response to Obi1net

Obi1net wrote:

Hi George. My apologies for not being clear.
Yes that greyed out slash was the one I meant. By typing over it I meant that I typed a slash to replace the one that was greyed out so that it was black as other text appears when you use the keyboard. It fixed my problem after I did this and rebooted. The exact solution was needed a few days later but so far the fix stuck this time. Sadly I think this is just one symptom of other issues.

Thanks very much for the crystal clear reply.

Nov 22, 2024 6:19 PM in response to Taco Bob

Thanks. This is good information. Yours is a much newer version of Dovecot than mine. Considering that and the fact that you are using certificates signed by a recognized authority further narrows the possibilities.


When my last post was upvoted I received an email saying that this thread has been viewed 24988 times. Clearly this is a widespread problem.

Error in downloading mail on IMAP after ios 18 upgrade

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