I am trying to change the colour of a flag in Mail in iOS 26.1 on my iPad Pro 2018. There appears to be no longer an option for changing flag colour, neither when flagging new mails nor on existing flags. They are stuck on the last used colour (teal in my case, orange for other users I have read)
Is that a bug or a bit of intrusive programming?
iPad Pro, iPadOS 26
It looks like you have customized the Mail toolbar. Mine doesn't look like that. In any case, I customized the toolbar to add the Flag icon and, just like you, the toolbar icon is only to turn on or off the flag; it doesn't change the color.
Now, even with toolbar customized (and with the Mail window in Full Screen or not), I still see the "curved arrow" icon at the bottom of the email (see screenshot). The screenshot was made after the flag was turned on (that's why you see the Unflag menu entry and the color palette). If no flag was selected, you'll see this instead:
In which case, tap the Flag menu to reveal the color palette.
It looks like you have customized the Mail toolbar. Mine doesn't look like that. In any case, I customized the toolbar to add the Flag icon and, just like you, the toolbar icon is only to turn on or off the flag; it doesn't change the color.
Now, even with toolbar customized (and with the Mail window in Full Screen or not), I still see the "curved arrow" icon at the bottom of the email (see screenshot). The screenshot was made after the flag was turned on (that's why you see the Unflag menu entry and the color palette). If no flag was selected, you'll see this instead:
In which case, tap the Flag menu to reveal the color palette.
Yeees. That’s where it used to be and still are on the phone. But as I say at the top I’m on iPad and it’s all changed there. Now those functions are at the top and you can flag or not but not select the colour. Teal is what I used last before updating to 26.1.
What? Customising a Mail toolbar in iPad OS? Is that even possible? No, all I have done is run the bloomin’ update. Once you do the same - on your iPad, not your phone - you’ll be faced with the same scenario. Honestly, all your screenshots are of an iPhone or the iPad in good ole 18.6.
Yes, you can customize the toolbar in iPadOS 26. You need to turn on Windowed Apps, slide you finger down from the top of the screen to real the application menu, then tap View > Customize Toolbar.
I use an iPad Pro 12.9" M1 (5th generation) with iPadOS 26.1 and all my screenshots were from that device:
This being said, I've participated in other discussions on this forum where other users could not either see the "curved arrow" icon. I admit that I'm confused and I have no idea why that is.
I can see the curved arrow icon, but if pressed it opens up another window to reply to the message, even if long pressed (which I used to do before to get the flag option including the colours)
Now, when I swipe down to customise toolbar as you suggested, I can only flag in the last colour I used (yellow)
Hi Noons11, my comment about customizing the toolbar was in response to a side question not related to the original question of flagging emails.
If your goal is to flag emails, please see my other replies, in particular those at the beginning of this thread. The "curved arrow" icon is confusing, I know. The one you sere at the top of an email is to reply to the email. The one at the very bottom of an email (scroll an email all the way down to see it) is for accessing other functionalities, in particular the one that flags the email. (I show a screenshot of this special "curved arrow" icon in one of my replies.)
I also stated that, for reasons I ignore, some users cannot see this icon. I can't think of any reason why this should be. My 2 iPads (iPad Pro M1 and iPad Air 3) on iPadOS 26.2 show the icon.
Thank you so so much 6x6!
It worked. Very grateful
6x6 wrote:
Hi Noons11, my comment about customizing the toolbar was in response to a side question not related to the original question of flagging emails.
If your goal is to flag emails, please see my other replies, in particular those at the beginning of this thread. The "curved arrow" icon is confusing, I know. The one you sere at the top of an email is to reply to the email. The one at the very bottom of an email (scroll an email all the way down to see it) is for accessing other functionalities, in particular the one that flags the email. (I show a screenshot of this special "curved arrow" icon in one of my replies.)
I also stated that, for reasons I ignore, some users cannot see this icon. I can't think of any reason why this should be. My 2 iPads (iPad Pro M1 and iPad Air 3) on iPadOS 26.2 show the icon
While this is not your problem in this case, it’s important to know for the future that not all email providers support different color flags. For providers that don’t all flags will be red after syncing. And Microsoft mail services like Outlook or MS Exchange accounts do not; all flags will be red.
That worked, thank you. It’s been a pain for days - I’d just started to experiment with flag colours before I updated to 26.
Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the email. Tap the “curved arrow” icon (bottom right) to show the email options, in particular the choice of flag colors:
Mail on iOS: Cannot change flag color
