Mail not working on iPhone after iOS 18 Update

After testing and deciding to use Gmail on my iPhone SE (3rd Gen) because of the issues with iOS 18, I completely deleted the Apple Mail app. In Settings>>Apps>>Gmail you can specify the Default Email App, which I have set to Gmail. This last step may not be necessary if you do not have any other mail apps installed. This may help with the auto-launch issue.

Sorry but I have to laugh when people think that saying the problem is not happening for “most people” is the same as fixing a problem. How is that at all useful is beyond me. Clearly this version of mail has significant problems or there would not be a thread that has continued for months. What I am suggesting is that only Apple knows what they did to mail in IOS 18. Therefore it’s up to them to work with ISP to resolve whatever is wrong. One suggestion is that if they are using some aspect of SNMP/IMAP protocol that did not use in IOS 17 they could provide an option to fall back to how IOS 17 worked while they work out the incompatibility. It could very well be an ISP server issue.

as far as my mail client goes, some days it works fine. Other days it’s unusable.

First off how does anyone assume they know that it’s a small number of users with a problem. My experience with this sort of thing is that only a small number of people will post on the blog that they have a problem because they don’t want to deal with people bullying them. I am not bullied!

Thrre is definitely a serious problem with the iios 18 mail client. Some users can not get mail at all. Others like myself experience severe performance degradation.

asking us to find a fix for ourselves is clearly not working. I would think Apple would monitor these forums and get the message that mail is not working right for everyone.

my ISP is a common one … Comcast. If mail is working poorly with a large isp like Comcast it’s secretly should be addressed.

“you can bet though that if a large company like Comcast is having trouble there are many frustrated users out there. The problem will only get worse as new phones are purchased and /or old phones are upgraded to iOS 18.” - I use Comcast Xfinity email as well, am a long-time Comcast Xfinity internet AND Xfinity Mobile subscriber with 2 lines. When the iOS 18 versions were first released I was unable to utilize the Comcast email account via Apple Mail (I kept 17 on a couple of devices until I was certain the problem was fixed). Even my icloud mail accounts were functioning only so-so. I notified both Apple and Comcast of the problem and was told by Comcast that they expected to have the problem fixed at THEIR end within a couple of days (Apple customer support reps were clueless but passed my report on up their ladder). Sure enough Comcast resolved the problem, at least for my account, icloud accounts functioning gradually improved, and all’s been working fine for me ever since even with 18.2.1. So I suspect that the issue(s) is/are fairly complex if any Xfinity IMAP accounts are still not working correctly for Apple Mail across the country on all Apple devices running 18.

thank you the reply. I noticed it slowly getting better. I suspect that sometimes I may hit an email server that still has a problem with what iOS 18 mail is doing. Who knows how May actual Comcast email servers are out there. I am sure it’s not just one. Apple could help by being more transparent about the problem. They really should have came up with an option to turn off asynchronous IMAP requests (pipelining) as that sort of thing is notoriously tricky to code if you ever did any network programming.

Hello

I can confirm that not only does the iOS 18.3 update not fix the issue, but as far as I'm concerned it's worse than iOS 18.2. Until then, I felt relatively spared from total disaster with synchronization in reception and not in transmission. Since the iOS 18.3 update, there's been no synchronization and no message reception. It's a catastrophe!

Your emails and pics are probably not gone. You just can’t access them at the moment until Apple fixes their mail app in iOS. I suggest you use your pc and Outlook to connect and make sure you copy any emails and pictures that are important to you down to your local machine.

Hey everyone,

This is a bug in the iOS Mail app.

If the IMAP server returns an INTERNALDATE in this format:

👉 "12 Aug 2024 12:04:03 +0800"

the Mail app fails to connect to the server.

However, if the IMAP server returns the INTERNALDATE in this format:

👉 "12-Aug-2024 12:04:03 +0800"

the issue magically disappears, and everything works fine.

So, what’s next? Either Apple fixes this bug, or mail server software vendors will have to adjust their IMAP response specifically for the iOS Mail app.

For example, the mail server software I use (EvoMailServer) has an option in the user account settings to change the IMAP compatibility mode, and enabling it resolved the issue.

Why isn’t this a bug in the mail server?

Well, if the Mail app couldn't read the date properly, it should report an error related to the date format. But instead, it throws an error message about a completely unrelated issue. That’s why this is clearly a bug in the iOS Mail app, not the mail server.

Steven Casman wrote:

Folks should be very cautious in deciding whether or not to purchase the new iPhone 16e. iOS 18 was “not ready for Prime Time” right out the gate

I haven't had a single issue with iOS 18. In fact, most people haven't. Yes, there are people who don't like some of the changes but that doesn't mean there's something wrong with the update. It just means Apple can't please everyone all the time.

You have previously expressed this same ill-informed and incorrect position.

There is definitively a documented and significant architectural change to iOS 18 Mail that has completely disabled it for many people. It is foolish to characterize a completely disabled mail account as a change that a few people don’t like.

Your repeated comments to this same effect are unhelpful disinformation.

rjsqxxx wrote:

iOS 18 mail is awful. Hangs quite often. Apple should fall back to IoS 17 mail and figure out why it works so poorly.

Have you told Apple how you feel?

Product Feedback - Apple

Meanwhile, there are lots of other mail apps available in the App Store. Perhaps one of them would suit you better.

1. Is this your corporate iPhone? Then please contact the system administrator of your corporate
2. If it is your personal device, in that case, do you have any profile installed by your corporate/organisation/enterprise/School Management?
   1. Erase the profile added by you If you have installed a profile on your own --> Install or remove configuration profiles on iPhone - Apple ...
   2. Or please contact the system administrator of the organisation who provided the profile to you

It's crucial to emphasize that when you enable 2-step verification for your Outlook (Hotmail) account, you need to utilize a specially generated app password from Microsoft to access the same account through the iOS mail app. --> Manage app passwords for two-step verification

Using an app password is essential if you enabled two-step verification for your Outlook (Hotmail) account. Two-step verification adds an extra layer of security by requiring a code from your phone or authenticator app in addition to your password when signing in. Regular passwords won't work with apps that don't support two-step verification, which is why Microsoft created app passwords. Just generate an app password for your iPhone's mail app and you'll be good to go!

Here are some additional points you might find helpful:

• You can generate app passwords through your Microsoft account security settings.
• App passwords are unique and only work for the specific app they're created for.
• Consider creating strong and unique passwords for your Microsoft account and other online accounts.

This applies to Google, Yahoo and Aol too.

You may have enabled two step verification on Google --> Sign in with App Passwords - Google Account Help

You may have enabled Authenticator for Yahoo --> Generate and manage third-party app passwords | Yahoo Help

You may have activate 2-step verification for Aol --> Create and manage third-party app passwords - AOL Help

Here

TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 are being deprecated due to security concerns: 

• Security vulnerabilities
• TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 are vulnerable to a number of attacks, including POODLE, BEAST, CRIME, FREAK, and LOGJAM. These attacks can compromise encrypted communications and expose valuable data. 
• Compliance requirements
• Many organizations, including government agencies, must meet compliance requirements that mandate the use of TLS 1.2 or higher. 
• Evolving standards
• Internet standards and regulatory bodies are evolving to provide improved security. 

Here are some details about the deprecation of TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1: 

• Windows
• TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 will be disabled by default in Windows 11 Insiders Preview and Windows Server Insiders Preview releases in 2024. This change applies to both client and server devices. 
• Azure
• Azure will remove support for TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 for new and existing storage accounts by October 31, 2024. 
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
• The IETF officially deprecated TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 in March 2021. The IETF recommends that companies, government agencies, and software developers use TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3. 

Indeed. See my earlier post and you'll see I spent hours on a call with Apple Support and they had me install MS Outlook to confirm it wasn't some network issue, despite my sharing the email server logs that showed that the Mail app was not responding after making a connection. Super weird.

So, know we know that the following email clients work with iOS18 (and presumably iPadOS 18, because they are close cousins and both are exhibiting this problem):

• Microsoft Outlook
• Spark Mail
• Canary Mail

Someone a week or so noticed the forward slash "/" was "grayed out" at Setting>s>Apps>Mail>Mail Accounts>YOUR Mail Account>Account Settings>Advanced>IMAP Path Prefix / (the "/" is a light gray)

So the person suggested typing in a new forward slash over the gray forward slash, and then "backing out" with a "Done" to save the change. I did this, but my problem continued. So here is what I did instead:

• I again went to ... >Mail> ... "IMAP Path Prefix /" This time I typed a "/" next to the grayed out / and then using my backspace, I deleted the grayed out /, leaving the new one I typed.
• I then hit "Back" and then "Done" and got exited Settings.
• Lastly, I did a hard boot reset of my phone: 1. Press and release side button volume up. 2. Press and release side button volume down. 3. Hold right side power button UNTIL phone shuts down (DON'T swipe the shutdown switch) AND the phone restarts WITH the Apple. THEN, release power button, but only after seeing the Apple upon restart.

After doing this, my mail is working properly. Don't know if it is coincidence or if Apple remotely fixed the problem. I am inclined to think Apple has not resolved the problem yet, because I still see postings on this sight.