Email slow to load in mail app with iOS 11

Oh well, I spoke too soon :(. Outlook for iOS does not support Contact sub folders - just the main parent Contacts folder. That’s a deal breaker for me, as I have thousands of contacts accumulated in many sub folders. What was Microsoft thinking by supporting Mail sub folders, but not Contacts? What, people only want to be organized when it comes to emails, and not contacts? A child could design better - arghhh. So now I have to go back to the turtle slow Mail app included with iOS 🙁

You should able to install the Outlook App for your mail. Turn apple mail off in your settings so email will only go through Outlook but leave calendars on from within the Apple mail settings.You can find the apple settings under accounts and passwords, there you will see your mail accounts go in and turn the mail slider off. Hopefully this will give you the best of both.

Hi KlemisA,

When I go to Settings->Accounts and Passwords, I see the account named "Exchange Acct" which I created for the MS Outlook app. All the categories under that account are currently enabled (e.g. Mail, Contacts, Calendars etc). I'm a bit confused at this point, as how does one configure what app will handle say email, or contacts? I really only have one Exchange account, but want to use/assign it to both the Apple Mail app and the MS Outlook app. I'm sure I'm overlooking something simple?

Thanks,

Mike

Never mind - I decided to "Categorize" all my contacts that were in sub folders, and then move them to the main Contacts folder so that they will all show up in Outlook iOS... It's probably better to only have one app tied to my Exchange account...

Once you enter into your exchange settings within password and accounts just turn off mail and leave the others on. You can do similar within the outlook app by entering the app and click on settings. I’ve just seen your other mail sounds like you’ve sorted it.

The Outlook iOS app's Settings screen did not seem to have any settings that would let you decide which Exchange folders you want it to sync. Only place I saw that was under iOS Settings->Accounts and Passwords-><your Exchange account>. But on that screen it is totally unclear (to me) as to which app will be affected. Hmmm, can both Outlook for iOS and Apple's Mail apps *both* use this same Exchange account? As you saw, I skirted around this issue by categorizing all my contacts rather than keep them in sub folders. But the IT guy in me wants to understand how both mail apps can coexist when there's one Exchange account?

Your correct the only option is for mail on or off within passwords and accounts for Apple mail app. My understanding is you should turn mail off in there so you don’t get notifications from both and other possible sync issues. Your outlook app presumably will have all folders but no choice on what to sync. In terms of multiple apps accessing your exchange, I’m no IT guy but presumably it isn’t a problem as you could have outlook app running on iPad with Apple mail on your phone. I don’t think exchange would no if you have the apps on one device or spread over multiple.

That seems to match with my findings: there is no way to configure Apple Mail to only handle Contact type folders *and* have Outlook for iOS handle everything, but Contacts. And if one were to have both apps running concurrently, I suspect it would probably be consuming more resources on iPhone (battery?) and Exchange server...

Still boggles my mind that Microsoft didn't include support for syncing of Contact sub folders. What were they thinking (or not thinking)? And another oddity I noticed with Outlook iOS is that I cannot edit contacts. At least no obvious buttons or gestures. Maybe if I shake phone a certain way, an Edit screen will appear? 🙂

Correct no editing of contacts, I’m presuming that they thought we would do that through the phones native contact app so didn’t add it. Maybe it would have caused sync issues!! Who knows with IT, I prefer the turn it off and on again method for most issues 😆

Wow, this transition from Apple Mail app to Outlook for iOS app has been more difficult than I expected. Now my Apple Phone app does not contain any Contacts. I would have thought it would link to the Contacts (aka "People") in Outlook app, no? Back on my computer I Categorized all my many contacts and moved them from their sub folders to the main Contacts folder in Outlook, so that they would all show in the Outlook for iOS app (which they do). But why aren't then showing under Phone->Contacts on my iPhone? Arghhh

Have you left the contacts tab on in accounts and password>exchange account?

I have this on but mail tab off, as not to confuse this is turning the iOS mail app off and leave the contacts tab on. I then see contacts in both.

I did find a post that says you have to go into Outlook iOS Settings (menu option only shows when Mail is the focus - why?), click on your Exchange account, then move the "Save Contacts" slider to ON. It then prompts me whether to save 200 contacts to my iPhone - I click on <Save to My iPhone>. A message "Saving 200 contacts..." displays briefly. I then go to Phone app and there are 0 Contacts 😟 Not sure what I should do, other than throw my phone 🙂

Yes, in iOS Settings applet, Contacts is ON under Settings->Accounts & Passwords->Accounts <my Exchange account>. Mail is slid to the ON position too. At this point I'm confused as to exactly what this particular settings page does/means? Is it saying what Exchange folders to sync into the iOS's central database of contacts, calendars, email etc? Not sure it would have a database of emails, but Contacts, from what I read, are controlled by the iOS. I'll try a power cycle on my iPhone - can't hurt 🙂

Ok, I finally figured a method that worked, at least for me. This is based on the intuition I had, the way IOS 11 does indexing of data (emails) and how it deals with data that were sitting pre-upgarde and what it does with them post upgrade. They must have some bugs/performance issues in this area and I bet they never stress tested this to the extend folks are running into issues.

All I did was deleted all my accounts and added them back, vola, the performance returned back. The reason is that, when new data gets populated, indexing (or new storage format) kicks in and writes them in a new format that is optimized while if you had older email boxes IOS 11 probably has performance issues dealing with two formats.

net-net, remove accounts and add them back to avoid un-bearable slowness.

Well, here's what I did. It has improved, not to the point it was before, but it's much better. I just did the Reset my phone thing. Of course, you lose all your settings, but that was worth it for some improvement. Also, I updated to iOS 11.1 which just must have come out. The phone still doesn't scroll as smoothly as it once did so I'm not happy about that, but I guess because I have an old phone (5S) I should expect that.