If you can't receive emails on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
If you can’t receive emails in the Mail app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, there are a few things you can try.
Before you begin
There are a few things to bear in mind and check:
- When you make an iOS or iPadOS backup in iCloud or iTunes, it will back up your email settings, but not your emails. If you delete or change your email account settings, previously downloaded emails may be removed from your device.
- Make sure your device is connected to the Internet.
- Check with your email service provider to find out if there's a service outage.
- If you can't access your emails or can't send and receive messages with your @icloud.com email address, find out what to do.
Check your email address and password
If the Mail app asks you to enter a password for your email account, make sure your password is correct. To check your email address and password, sign in to your email provider's website.
If you're still experiencing a user name or password error, contact the email provider or system administrator.
Check Mail Fetch and Notification settings
By default, Fetch New Data settings are based on what's provided by your email service. If Push isn't available as a setting, your account will default to Fetch. These settings will affect how your device receives emails. To adjust these settings:
- Go to Settings > Mail, then tap Accounts.
- Tap Fetch New Data.
- Choose a setting – such as Automatically or Manually – or choose a schedule for how often the Mail app will fetch data.
With iOS 11 and later, and iPadOS, Automatically is set by default. Your device will only fetch new data in the background when it is charging and connected to Wi-Fi.
Make sure your Notification settings are correct for the Mail app:
- Go to Settings, then tap Notifications.
- Tap Mail, then tap an email account.
- Adjust your Alerts, Sounds and Badges.
Contact your email provider or system administrator
- Contact your email provider or check their status web page to see if there's a service outage.
- Ask your email provider or system administrator if you have turned on any security features or restrictions, such as two-step verification, for your email account. You might need a special password or you may need to request authorisation from your email provider to send and receive emails on your device.
- Check your email account settings with your email provider or system administrator to make sure they're correct.
Remove your email account and set it up again
- On your computer, sign in to your email provider’s website. Make sure all of your emails are there or make sure your emails have been saved somewhere other than your device.
- On your device, go to Settings > Mail, then tap Accounts.
- Tap the email account you want to remove.
- Tap Delete Account.
- Add your account again.
If these steps don't work, contact your email service provider for more information.
If you can't receive emails on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch – Apple Support (UK)
