Mail is taking up far too much storage space on my iphone. Any idea how I can free up space on it?

I had this same problem and spent a ton of time with online apple chat and many other sources, but I finally figured it out! Go to your settings, scroll down and click on "Mail". Delete all email accounts you have. Push the home button until you are on your home screen. Click on settings again, and then click on "iCloud" and scroll to the bottom and select "Sign Out". Push the home button until you are back on your home screen. Finally, delete the mail app, I mean the actual icon. You do this by holding your finger on the mail icon for a few seconds. When you remove your finger you will see an x in the left hand corner. Click this x. Your phone will ask you if you are sure you want to do this as it will delete all data stored on the app. Select "remove". Then restart your phone. When you turn your phone back on you will see your mail is no longer taking up any data. Now go to the app store and reinstall your mail app. Just type in "mail" and it will be the second option. Then you can click on this app icon and it will prompt you to log into your email accounts. You can choose to sign in to your iCloud this way, or from the settings menu. If you would like to sign into iCloud from settings simply clock on "iCloud" again. You will be prompted to sign in to your iCloud account and set your settings. If you need to add more than one email account, go to settings and click on "mail". Then click on "accounts". Next click on "add account" and proceed from there.

It seriously took me months to figure this out, so I really hope this helps somebody!!

I manage quite a few devices, so is there no way for iOS to say 'keep only the last 3 months mail' instead the only option I have over the multiple email accounts on the multiple devices is to delete all.... And have no emails at all ..... to start a fresh and have to do this Say annually!??? iOS not so smart!??? All or none option doesn't sound like APPLE!!!

I, too, am having the same issue. My Mail is taking 3.4GB of the available ~13GB of storage on my iPhone6. I walked through the steps you listed before actually deleting anything and I couldn't find an Apple "Mail" app in the App Store - only third-party mail apps. I also held my finger on the Mail icon, as you instructed, and it did nothing at all. Maybe the fix you provided has been "outdated" by Apple in a subsequent operating system update?

Regardless, I'm still searching for a solution to this. Like others, I've gone through all my email accounts and deleted as many attachments as possible, with no change in the storage attributable to the Mail app. And, BTW, the solution judysings provided above doesn't work either. I can find no "Attachments" mailbox in the Mail app. I'm guessing, as ProspectP did, there are hidden files somewhere that we can't access.

I tried the above solution and unfortunately it did not work for me. I now show 6 GB of email with just about everything deleted. I am having issues using some apps because of this. Any other suggestions????? Getting desperate.

When I started trying Sbillsy's solution, I was asked when signing out of iCloud if I wanted everything deleted from my device. I became concerned and did not proceed. If I choose to have everything deleted from device (calendar, contacts) will I get them back when I sign back into iCloud fire completing suggested solution?

thanks

I am also having the same problem and have tried all the suggestions to no available. I can't believe Apple has no solution to this issue.

Hi ProspectP,

The resource below will explain how to see how the storage space on your iPhone is being used by various applications, including Mail. For Mail and Messages especially, the photo and video attachments can take up a lot of space if you've saved them to your iPhone.

In the Mail app, in the list of Mailboxes, you will see a mailbox called Attachments, which shows you all of the emails that you have with attachments. Also, look at the settings for Mail. Tap on your primary mail account, and look in the Advanced settings. You can change the settings to removed deleted email from your device after one day, which will free up space.

See how much storage you've used on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201656

Attachments - iPhone
http://help.apple.com/iphone/8/#/iph845853585

Work with multiple messages - iPhone
http://help.apple.com/iphone/8/#/iph9db03b2f5

Hope that helps ...

- Judy

Thank you so much for your advice, it worked!! Been driving me potty for ages as I imagine it did for you!

all the best

Jonny (UK)