- If you aren’t getting emails on iPhone try refreshing, restarting, or reinstalling the Mail app.
- Ensure Background App Refresh is enabled and email addresses and passwords are correct.
- Check iOS Fetch, Mail and notification settings, and the outboxes of linked email accounts.
An iPhone’s inability to send or receive emails can be caused by a variety of problems — it might be a lost connection with the server, an old stored password, or incorrect mail settings.
Below are possible reasons why your email may not be working on your iPhone, and a few solutions to fix it.
Make sure your iPhone is connected to the internet
If you’re not getting emails on your iPhone, it could be that your phone is not connected to the internet, and you should make sure that it is.
You might need to reset your iPhone’s network settings, which control how your iPhone connects to your mobile network and Wi-Fi.
Try logging into your email on a different device
If you have more than one iOS device, try logging into your email on that device and see if it will update.
If your email still doesn’t update, the problem could be with the email service provider – maybe their system is temporarily down due to a fault or an upgrade. Contact them and find out when service will be restored.
Manually refresh the Mail app
After trying the basic steps, you can then try manually refreshing the app to see if the emails will update.
1. Open the Mail app.
2. Drag your finger down on the screen and release it once the spinning wheel becomes full. You will know it’s time to release your finger when you feel your iPhone vibrate as you drag the finger down.
3. Wait for the Mail app to refresh.
Restart the Mail app
By simply closing the Mail app on your iPhone and relaunching it, you can restart the app so it can communicate with the mail servers again correctly.
1. Unlock your iPhone and bring up the App Switcher.
- On iPhone X or newer, swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
- On iPhone 8 or earlier, press the Home button twice.
2. Find the Mail app’s card from the list of app cards in the App Switcher and swipe it up so it disappears.
3. Open the Mail app again – manually refresh it if you have to.
Make sure Background App Refresh is enabled
Sometimes, it could be that the app is not refreshing its content in the background, making it seem as if you’re not getting any emails. It’s best to check if you have enabled Background App Refresh.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Background App Refresh.
4. Check where it says Background App Refresh at the top. If it’s set to Off, tap the option.
5. Choose how you want the content of apps to be updated in the background – tap either Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi & Mobile Data.
Check that your email address and password are entered correctly
One of the most common problems with email is that your password is incorrect — if you changed your password on another device, you’ll need to change it on your iPhone, too.
When the Mail application prompts you to re-enter your password, ensure that you’ve entered it correctly.
Delete and re-add email account
It could be that not all the email accounts attached to the Mail app are failing to update, except for one or two. You can try removing the problematic accounts and re-adding them to see if they start updating again.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Mail.
3. Tap Accounts.
4. Tap the troublesome account.
5. Tap Delete Account.
6. Tap Delete from My iPhone.
7. You will then be returned to the Accounts page. Tap Add Account and follow instructions to re-add the email account.
Check iOS Mail Fetch
Your phone’s default settings for fetching new emails are based on the settings available through your email provider. If your provider doesn’t support Push notifications (where emails are sent to your phone as they arrive, in real time), it will automatically enable Fetch (where your phone retrieves emails regularly at preset times).
These settings impact how your phone receives emails. To adjust them:
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Mail.
3. Tap Accounts.
4. Tap Fetch New Data.
5. Make sure the toggle for Push is turned on – if it has a gray background, tap it so it becomes green, meaning it’s turned on. You can also adjust how often data is “fetched” on this page.
Check your Mail settings
Check that Apple has the right account settings for your email server provider.
Note: Backing up your mail through iCloud or iTunes only backs up your email settings, not individual emails. If you edit or delete your email account settings, emails that were previously downloaded onto your phone may be removed.
Though Apple automatically sets the email account settings, you can check that they’re correct. To do this:
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Mail.
3. Tap Accounts.
4. Tap your email account to select it.
5. Tap Account to see the email account’s settings.
6. Check the incoming and outgoing mail server settings, and make sure they match the recommended settings on Apple’s Mail Settings Lookup page.
Quick tip: To use the Mail Settings Lookup page on the Apple website, enter your email address in the text box and click Look up settings.
Check your notification settings
There’s a chance you might be receiving emails without being notified. To ensure that you’re receiving the email notifications you want, check your notification settings. To do this:
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Tap Mail.
4. Tap Customize Notifications.
5. Select the email account you want to customize notifications for.
6. Adjust alerts, sounds, and badges.
Check your outbox
If you’re not getting emails, you might not be able to send them either.
After you troubleshoot your email settings, check your Outbox, which stores unsent messages, to ensure that everything has been sent properly.
To do this:
1. Open the Mail app.
2. Your email accounts will be listed under separate headings – the account’s name will be the heading. Find the Outbox folder of the email account you want and tap it to select it.
Important: If there are no messages in your Outbox, your phone may not display an Outbox folder.
3. If you’re able to open your Outbox and see your unsent email, tap it to ensure that the recipient’s email address is correct.
4. Tap Send to try sending again.
If all else fails, contact your email provider or system administrator for additional troubleshooting assistance.
Uninstall and reinstall the Mail app
If all the above methods don’t work, try deleting the Mail app and then reinstalling it again.
1. Press and hold the Mail app’s icon on the Home screen.
2. Tap Remove App in the pop-up.
3. Tap Delete App.
4. Tap Delete.
Restart your iPhone
Finally, you should try restarting your iPhone to give everything a clean start – hopefully, this will get the email to start updating again.
1. If you’re using an iPhone X or newer, simultaneously press and hold the Side button and either of the Volume buttons. On iPhone 8 or earlier, press and hold down the Side button only. Do this until the power off slider appears
2. Drag the power off slider to the right to shut down the phone.
3. Press and hold the Side button to restart your iPhone.
