Native Email App - Sync/Fetch Issue - iOS 18

Upgraded my Iphone from iOS 17 to iOS 18. Native mail app was working fine under 17 but since updating to 18, there seems to be an issue with the fetching of emails. I have several emails setup with the native Mail app (yahoo email, gmail email, another AT&T email that utilizes yahoo) and it seems to be affecting them all, most definitely the yahoo based emails.

In a nutshell, I have no issues sending emails real time. If I access the Mail app, it will sync and receive any new emails. It's basically acting like I have Fetch setup for manual receipt versus automatic or at intervals. If I am not actively in the Mail app, it doesn't attempt to sync automatically under normal use.

Example, I could not have picked up my phone for 30 minutes to an hour and when I unlock the phone, the mail apps "App Badge" will still show the same number of unread emails as when I locked it. However, if I open the mail app, new emails will drop in. There are also times where the "App Badge" might actually show more unread emails compared to when I locked the phone, but when I open the app, none of the new emails have actually downloaded, only the notification indicating that the app at least detected more were out there.

I have deleted the accounts and re-added them with no change. I have adjusted the fetch settings with no change.

The one thing I have found that seems odd, and I don't know if the phone is just trying to do something weird with power consumption in attempts to maintain better battery life or if it's just a weird coincidence, but I have found that anytime my phone is on a charger (could be a cable charger, wireless charger, etc.), the mail app not only sees the emails but downloads them real time like it did in iOS 17. As soon as I remove the charging from the phone, it goes back to not fetching real time anymore.

I did report this via Apple's feedback system, but that was before I discovered the charging aspect to this equation. Figured I would post as an FYI to something I have found with my sync issues in case it helps in their troubleshooting as I don't expect many to have an actual resolution to some of these sync issues at this time.

iPhone 14 Pro Max

Posted on Sep 21, 2024 4:35 PM

Top-ranking reply

Thund3rMonk3y Author

Level 1

27 points

Posted on Feb 1, 2025 11:28 AM

Update 2/1/2025

Not perfect, but for me, 18.3 has improved the issues. As long as I have "Fetch" settings configured to fetch every 15 minutes, I appear to be having my emails pulled into my Mail app now. If I see the a number show up, or increase, on the "App Badge" now, when I go into the mail app, emails are now showing up as already downloaded, instead of having to wait for them to populate. Of course, anything between the 15 minute refreshes may then drop in when you access the app.

However, if I set the "Fetch" settings to 'Automatically', the emails do not appear to be automatically fetching like before iOS 18. Hopefully Apple will continue to tweak this and ultimately fix it altogether, but at least this is a positive step. Every 15 minutes doesn't help for when you need to see that one important email hit real time, but most of the time, 15 minutes fetches is not going to hinder too many things.

Hope for those experiencing similar, or slightly different issues, will also see an improvement with the 18.3 update.

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20 replies

Oct 29, 2024 12:57 PM in response to Thund3rMonk3y

Just confirming that I upgraded to 18.1 RC last week and same issues as when I originally posted. I have also made sure to report my findings again using the Apple feedback option. Included this discussion link with my feedback for more context and issues, hoping they'll review it. Unfortunately their feedback is character limited so can't be as detailed with the issues and findings.

Tom-Bola

Level 1

58 points

Nov 25, 2024 11:10 PM in response to Thund3rMonk3y

Is there any news about a fix for this bug?

It is driving me crazy that the Mail app has stopped sending notifications. I miss emails every day that I need to respond to immediately to avoid keeping my partners and clients waiting for important decisions.

The bug appeared immediately after iOS 18 was installed and has still not been fixed in iOS 18.1.1.

Sep 30, 2024 9:41 PM in response to Tom-Bola

I did perform every step you took and none of them worked for me.

Oct 28, 2024 8:18 PM in response to Taittinger1980

Just updated my Iphone 13 pro max to iOS 18.1 and this issue still persists. I get no sound notification from the native Mail app for Gmail for new email messages.

Tom-Bola

Level 1

58 points

Nov 4, 2024 2:12 AM in response to Tom-Bola

Twice? I did not say anything that harms others. What about freedom of speech?

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Native Email App - Sync/Fetch Issue - iOS 18