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New small Mail windows at bottom of app display?

Since installing iPadOS 15.3, when I have opened my Mail app, I notice some small windows at the bottom of the display, with miniatures of emails I have received. Apparently a preview of some mails that can be accessed quickly, and haven't seen yet. And one has a "+" so more windows can be added. The windows all go away when I poke the screen.


How can this be controlled so I can reduce the number of these windows, turn them off entirely, etc? So far I haven't found any instructions for them.

iPhone 8, iOS 15

Posted on Feb 9, 2022 10:13 AM

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Posted on May 1, 2022 11:56 AM

Those small windows at the bottom of Mail are super annoying! I want them GONE! I don’t understand their purpose for being other than a pure irritating distraction. I do not appreciate the inability to suppress, modify, or eliminate their presence. Hopefully, someone at Apple will soon realize these sort of annoyances are unwanted and will eliminate their presence or, at least, give the user the ability to suppress these in a future update!

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May 1, 2022 11:56 AM in response to jimpal

Those small windows at the bottom of Mail are super annoying! I want them GONE! I don’t understand their purpose for being other than a pure irritating distraction. I do not appreciate the inability to suppress, modify, or eliminate their presence. Hopefully, someone at Apple will soon realize these sort of annoyances are unwanted and will eliminate their presence or, at least, give the user the ability to suppress these in a future update!

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May 20, 2022 9:43 PM in response to ghardy3

Those windows can be eliminated. Open the mail app. The small windows are on the bottom. Begin on the left side and flick them upward to erase them. You’ll eventually get down to two windows that you cannot delete. Close the mail app and reopen it. Those small windows will be gone.

Those small windows seem to be old draft copies of mail messages.

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Mar 26, 2022 8:35 AM in response to Rare1111

Thank you. I have seen that I can swipe them away, as you suggest. But, it is annoying to have to do that all the time. Something we never had before. How can I prevent them from showing up at all?


Why are they there at all? They don't seem to provide a useful function.

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Jun 27, 2022 3:50 PM in response to Ebbets_Field

To rid yourself of those annoying little Klingon mail windows, do this:

Open the mail app and beginning on the left side start flicking them vertical to erase them. You will encounter two that you cannot delete. At that point, close the mail app then reopen it. All the windows will have been erased not to return again.

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May 20, 2022 10:31 AM in response to ghardy3

I agree with your comment. I am the original poster of this thread, and so far I haven't received an answer about the intended use of these windows or what they are even for. I just find them a continuing small annoyance. How do we make them stop showing up? Or someone tell me why I should like what they are intended to do

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May 7, 2022 12:42 PM in response to jimpal

Having updated to iPadOS15, you have now encountered the “Shelf” - this being a new feature of the now revised iPadOS multitasking environment. 


iPadOS permits you to have multiple “instances” of the same App - each instance being self contained. The shelf, when triggered, shows a thumbnail of each running instance of an App. 


For example, if you have three running instances of Safari, each with its own set of open tabs, you will see three thumbnails corresponding to each running instance of Safari - plus a button to open a new instance of Safari. Simply tapping a thumbnail will switch directly to that running instance of Safari. Each App - such as Mail, Safari, Notes, Calendar, etc. - has its own corresponding shelf.


Individual open instances of an App can be closed directly from the Shelf; just swipe the unwanted thumbnail off the top of the screen. Note however, that Multitasking and associated Shelf functions cannot be disabled.


This article from Appleinsider has a useful explanation of this new feature along with many of the updates to multitasking:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/08/12/how-to-master-multitasking-on-ipad-and-ipad-pro-in-ipados-15


The iPad User Guide is also a rich source of frequently overlooked information. The Guide is available both online using a web browser (such as Safari), or as an Apple Books download:

iPad User Guide - Apple Support

https://books.apple.com/book/id1567104892

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May 21, 2022 6:56 AM in response to ghardy3

Thanks for your good idea.


Also, it appears that Apple has provided a fix for the problem with their latest iPadOS update. I happened to open Mail after the update, before I saw your solution, and see that the little windows don't appear at all unless you press the small icon at bottom left center that looks something like two pieces of paper. Then the little windows show up. I still don't know what is intended to be done with them, and once there you are stuck with them until you close and reopen Mail, but it least they won't appear now unless you want them to.

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Jun 27, 2022 3:22 PM in response to jimpal

I have tapped the little button on the lower left hand side of the mail and indeed those annoying little boxes disappear. However, no messages show up and the app constantly crashes. If I leave those boxes alone after 30 long seconds mail appears. What in the world is the purpose of this. By the way this only happens on my iPad, not on my iPhone or iMac. Puzzled!!!

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Feb 10, 2022 9:29 AM in response to jimpal

Hello jimpal,


We understand that you have questions about Preview options in the Mail app, and we'd like to provide some information.


The following page has some great information about Preview and Preview options in the Mail app: Check your email in Mail on iPad


Please be sure to check out the "Preview an email and a list of options" and "Show a longer preview" parts of the above link for the steps to manage Preview settings.


Take care!

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New small Mail windows at bottom of app display?

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