Apple Mail app not updating from unread to read emails on iPhone

I would like to help you but am confused about a few things. I have several gmails account on my iPhone, both free Gmail and paid Google workspace accounts, and they have all worked perfectly fine throughout all recent updates.

A few things that you have stated makes me wonder if you have issues related to your Google email account issues that are not related to iOS Mail at all.

Apple said, to delete my Gmail account on the phone then re downloaded it. It was a HUGE hassle! I had to jump through many hoops just to get it back on my phone. It was a Nightmare!! to say the least.

What specifically made removing the Google account, restarting the phone, and then adding the account back a huge hassle? I have done this recently and it took all of about 3 minutes total time for all steps.

Since doing that all of my emails I previously had blocked, have flooded my email inbox, and now the Blocked feature isn’t working!

How many emails do you have in your Inbox? Are you using the Archive feature in your Gmail account (https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9259770?hl=en#zippy=%2Clearn-how) to move old emails from Inbox to the Gmail All Mail folder? If not, you should be. The iOS Mail app makes Archiving emails as simple as a swipe left or right. Your inbox really is not intended to contain all of your past email. If you limit emails in your Inbox to those that you have not dealt with, then they would not "flood in" when the account is added back.

What types of email are your blocking? Blocking of most spam email is completely useless as a feature regardless of email account type of platform. Spammers rarely use the same spoofed sending address twice. Instead, you should simply be marking every piece of spam as Junk in Mail. That trains email anti-spam algorithms to recognize similar unwanted messages regardless of the faked from address. Over time, similar spam messages will start being moved to Junk or deleted automatically.

I appreciate your assistance. 

I had two Gmail accounts. I only use one. So the first time, I downloaded it back on the phone it was the account I don’t use. But all the passwords were a mess. 

Then I contacted Apple, and the rep was very helpful, she was able to help me get it switched to the correct account. All my contacts came back, and the sent folder started working again after she helped me adjust a setting on the phone that started deleting my sent receipts after the 18.3 upload. 

I only have 9 emails in my inbox. 

As far as previously blocked emails. Those are emails that are either spam emails, political emails or previous businesses, that I’ve dealt with in the past. I ended up having to block their email addresses, after they continued to send emails after unsubscribing. 

Well now, after 18.3 all those previously blocked emails started coming into my inbox. 

When I choose the block option at the bottom It’s NOT blocking them. I’m still getting emails from them, and the blocked emails are not listed in the mail app block list. 

I usually don’t have anymore that 8-15 emails in the inbox, I also delete my junk and trash folders several times a day. 

Have you done a side-by-side comparison of the mail setup of your iPad (which works) and your phone (which doesn't). That's mail account settings, mail server settings, privacy settings - every setting there is. I can't think of any reason that one device wouldn't work when others do and I'm sure you've not changed anything, so it's a long shot, but it's worth a check. It's what I'd do if I found myself in your situation.

I'm having an issue with my email as well. I had to update my iOS, something I hate doing because every time I do, there's an issue with something. When I updated to 18.3.1, my emails would no longer show a preview on my locked screen. I went through every setting, restarted multiple times, checked focus, checked every possible solution, even reverted back to the factory settings (and then went in and checked all the settings again and did multiple restarts again), but i simply CANNOT get the previews to show up when my phone is locked. This is a major hassle for me because I have three different work email accounts I have to manage and I can't see them all on my computer at the same time. The next step I'm going to try is to just undo the updated iOS and see what that does unless Apple can provide a solution.

I tried this, and now it messed up my sent folder again. Which occurred directly after the 18.3 upgrade it turns ALL email addresses into blocked emails, then sends them to the trash folder. It also put a red circle with a line through it next to each email.

so this absolutely, makes sense why the Blocked Sender feature doesn’t work anymore. Because we had to disable it in order it get my Sent receipt, emails to stay in the sent folder.

This is the exact reason I absolutely HATE Apple updates. Something ALWAYS gets screwed up, then Apple never fixes it. Then were just stuck, with less than par

This worked and email is populating again. However, on the Mailboxes screen, the number of new emails per email account is not working correctly. It says I have 1 email in an account, for example, but in reality there are over 100 unopened emails. Thank you.

FishingAddict,

Do you know how to fix the “block sender” feature that got messed up, on my iPhone 13 after the iOS 18.3 update?

I had to disable Block Sender for the mail app, because it starting blocking all email addresses, including my own.

Thank you, FishingAddict, for your continued suggestions. I have now removed all my Blocked Senders and turned the Block Sender Option OFF. I rebooted my iphone and ipad but it hasn’t fixed the problem.

My main issue was the time taken for incoming mail to appear on my iphone and ipad — it can take up to 10 minutes. But I wondered what happens to SENT emails, so I have carried out another set of experiments.

Using the Mail App on my iphone and ipad I have sent numerous test emails from one account to another (e.g. iCloud to Outlook, Outlook to Yahoo, Yahoo to iCloud).

On my Mac I had two windows open: (1) the Mac Mail App and (2) a Safari window logged into my Outlook account.

Every single email I sent from my iphone and ipad arrived on my Mac in 4-5 seconds. Brilliant! The emails I sent to and from my Outlook account showed up almost immediately in my Outlook account in Safari. So the emails are sent very fast, so I don’t think this is a wi-fi speed issue. But of more interest here is that none of these emails showed up in either the Inbox or the Sent box on my iphone and ipad — until around 10 minutes later.

So it’s not just a delay in receiving incoming mail on the ipad/iphone, I can’t see my sent emails either! But I can see on my Mac that they were sent OK. I despair of ever getting this fixed.

P.S. I have filed a report to Apple, but no response or acknowledgement.

When I do that, switch to list view, the screen will constantly refresh moving all visible mail items down. It looks like a drop down menu being opened then closed on repeat. I cannot search or select an email. Anyone else having same issue?

I recently had this issue on an iphone with 18.3.1 and noticed that the built-in VPN in settings was turned on.

I simply turned it off an now I receive all emails. If it is an option for you go to Settings>General>VPN & Device Management>VPN>.

Disconnect tour VPN from then click the info icon and un-flag “Connect on Demand”

Hopes this helps!

I had a similar problem for both my Yahoo and Gmail accounts in the main Apple Mail app. My Yahoo account showed no emails since 2/24 and nothing in Gmail since 2/21. With Gmail, like you, I realized they'd been routed to different categories (Promo, etc.), which was out of sync with how it's configured and shows on my Mac. I just got off the phone with Apple support, and the first thing they said was to make sure you've accepted the terms for the software update on the main Settings screen (I hadn't). After doing so, I deleted and reinstalled the accounts, and it's now perfect. I know you already tried that, but here's here's the exact path that worked for me: Settings/Apps/Mail/Mail Accounts. Good luck!

Update: I just realized I was wrong. I had switched from "Categories" to "List View" and thought that had fixed it, but it actually just shows EVERYTHING. That worked fine for Yahoo, as it never had categories, but not for Gmail. It appears Apple has once again geared changes to be compatible only with their products, i.e. Apple Mail. Even shared category names like Updates, Promotions, etc. sort completely differently. So Gmail (the top email provider worldwide), Outlook, Yahoo, etc. users have no option but to change categories manually, which still won't help future/new contacts from being routed who knows where. Crazy!

I suggest removing your email accounts from Apple Mail and downloading the provider apps directly. No more crazy Apple routing and mail should mirror what's on your other devices. The only difference not having everything in one list. I just made an Email folder on my home screen for mail apps, and it's just as easy.

Hi Polythene 123: "It appears Apple has once again geared changes to be compatible only with their products"

I have deleted all my non-Apple email accounts from my iPad. There is only iCloud mail now. Then I rebooted the iPad.

The problem still exists even with iCloud mail. My other half just sent a test email to my iCloud address - it just said "Hello". It appeared in my Mac Mail App in seconds but took 5 minutes to appear on my iPad. I sent some test mails from my iCloud account on my iPad -- they don't appear in the Sent folder on my iPad for about 5 minutes, though they do show immediately in the Sent folder on my Mac. I don't see that servers can be blamed for this -- if I can see the emails in my Mac Mail App, why not on the iPad?

Same issue on my iPhone.

I accepted Ts and Cs when I downloaded the software update. I've checked in Settings and there's nothing regarding accepting new settings so I assume it's done.

Another observation: if there is 1 email in an inbox on my Mac, it can take 5 minutes to appear on my iPad. But if there are 10 emails in my Mac inbox, then it can take 15-20 minutes for them to appear on my iPad. They don't appear 1 by 1, they all appear at once. At least I know there are emails waiting 'cos I can sit and watch the little wheel going round and round whilst eating my breakfast!! This is true for iCloud mail as well as non-Apple mail accounts.

I can see the emails straight away on my Mac, so there's something going on with the iOS update that's screwing things up on the iPad and iPhone.

When I updated to 18.3 the mail would not load for about a day, then it was ok. I just updated to 18.3.1 and mail is not loading again. I hope it will resume soon.