Whether you’re expecting an important message or rely on Apple’s Mail app for school or work, it’s never ideal when the app stops working. Here’s what to do when you’re not receiving emails on your iPhone.
Unfortunately, there isn’t one answer for why the Mail app might have suddenly stopped delivering emails. However, there are steps you can take to identify the issue and get it sorted quickly.
Keep reading to learn why you might not be receiving emails on your iPhone, along with how to fix it. Alternatively, visit our guides to setting a default mail app on iOS, using Apple Intelligence to make your writing better and changing your Apple ID email for more related tips.
Check if there’s a service outage
The first thing to do if you’re not receiving emails on your iPhone is to check with your email service provider to confirm there isn’t a service outage.
For example, if you have a Gmail address, you can contact Google directly or check a third-party site like DownDetector. Google also has a Workspace status dashboard to monitor outages for those with Workspace accounts.
If your service provider doesn’t seem to be experiencing any issues, move on to the next step. It’s also worth checking your device is connected to the internet before continuing.
Check your Mail app settings
If you’re receiving your emails late or they’re all coming through at once, you may want to change your Mail Fetch settings.
Open the Settings app on your phone, tap Apps and select Mail. Tap Mail Accounts and choose Fetch New Data. Then, ensure Push is enabled and change your Fetch setting to Automatically.
This will ensure that the mail app receives emails in real time rather than collecting them at regular intervals. Depending on your email service provider, you may not be able to use the Push setting.
Enable Background App Refresh
Likewise, if you only receive emails when actively using the Mail app, you might want to check your phone’s Background App Refresh settings.
To do this, open the Settings app, tap General, select Background App Refresh and ensure the feature is enabled for both Wi-Fi and mobile data browsing and that Gmail is toggled on.
Check for security features and restrictions
If you’re not receiving mail at all, it may be that you have more advanced security features and restrictions activated, such as two-factor authentication. If this is the case, you might be required to enter a special password in the Mail app or request device authorisation from your email provider.
To check if you need to take any further action, contact your email service provider.
Remove your account
Finally, if none of the above steps yield results, try removing your email account from the Mail app and setting it up again from scratch. Just be aware that this might clear your inbox so be sure to keep a backup saved elsewhere.
To remove your account, open the Settings app, tap Apps, select Mail and tap Mail Accounts. Then select the account you want to remove and hit Delete Account. It might also be worth deleting the Mail app and restarting your iPhone at this stage.
Finally, reinstall the Mail app and set up your account again to see if this fixes the issue.
