how do I activate email on the ipad?

Have you set up your email account on both devices? If not, please read the instructions below and do so:

Add an email account - Apple Support

If you have already tried the set up process, then reply with answers to the questions below.

• Offer as many details as possible about the problem. When you open the Apple Mail app, does your email address appear?  
• Is there an error message when you try to open the Mail app? Did it include instructions? If so, what was the message and did you follow their directions? 
• When you open Mail, can you see a list of your emails? Can you open any of them? If yes, what happened? Was there an error message? Did it include instructions? If so, what was the message and did you follow their directions? 
• List any trouble shooting steps you have already tried. 

We want to help if we can.

Have you added your email account to your iPad and iPhone:

Add an email account - Apple Support

If you have added your email account(s) to your devices, start with initial fault finding:

• If you can't receive email on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
• If you can’t send email on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

What happens when you try to receive or send email? Do you see any errors - and if so, what do you see?

If email is failing to send or receive, you are likely to see indicative errors at the bottom of the mail sidebar - the wording of the error usually providing sufficient information to determine the nature of the problem.

Deleting and re-adding your email account is sometimes the easiest way to resolve a problem with a specific Mail account. After deleting the account, perform a forced restart before re-adding the email account to your iPad.

• Delete account:

Settings > Mail > Accounts > [Your Mail Account] > Delete Account

• Force restart the iPad:

Force restart iPad - Apple Support

• Add Mail Account:

Settings > Mail > Add Account

Also be aware that some email providers now require the use of App Specific Passwords when accessing mail over IMAP or POP3. If this applies to your email account, you will need to generate a unique password for your iPad email account - that will differ from your normal Account Password. As examples - AOL, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft all use App Specific Passwords when using anything other than their own email client Apps.

If you need to generate an App Specific Password, you’ll need to log-in to your Mail Providers account management webpage - using a web browser - and generate the Password from the appropriate account security page.

More information about AOL’s App Specific Passwords can be found here:

https://help.aol.com/articles/allow-apps-that-use-less-secure-sign-in?guccounter=1

For Yahoo, more information can be found here:

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN27791.html

For Gmail:

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/185833?hl=en-GB

Microsoft:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/using-app-passwords-with-apps-that-don-t-support-two-step-verification-5896ed9b-4263-e681-128a-a6f2979a7944