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Email slow to load in mail app with iOS 11

After updating to iOS 11 my emails are taking a long time to load after they come in. The preview shows, but when I select the new message it just says loading for a long time. I am even having to leave the message and come back a few times.


This is on my exhange account with push.


Anyone else seeing this?

Posted on Sep 20, 2017 3:31 PM

Reply
341 replies

Sep 21, 2017 1:45 PM in response to kane_TO

Hello there kane_TO,

If I understand correctly you are able to receive the emails just fine, but it takes longer than usual to actually view the contents after updating to iOS 11. Let's start by forcing the Mail app to close with this article:

How to force an app to close on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Then restart the pone and test it out again:

Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

If that does not resolve the issue, we should next remove the account from the phone and re add it:

If you can’t send or receive emails on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch​

Remove your email account and set it up again

  1. On your computer, sign in to your email provider’s website. Make sure that all of your email is there or make sure that your email is saved somewhere other than your iOS device.
  2. On your iOS device, go to Settings > Mail > Accounts.
  3. Tap the email account that you want to remove.
  4. Tap Delete Account.
  5. Add your account again.


Thank you for using Apple Support Communities, let us know how that goes.

Sep 22, 2017 11:42 AM in response to kane_TO

Alrighty, thank you for the update kane_TO. Let's next delete the Mail app itself with the "Remove built-in app from your Home screen" section of this article:

Remove built-in Apple apps from the Home screen on your iOS 10 device or Apple Watch

Once that is done restart the phone and restore the app with the "Restore a built-in app that you removed" section of the same article.

If that does not get the issue resolved, then next let's go ahead and backup the phone:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Then use recovery mode to restore the iPhone and reinstall the iOS without deleting the data it has:

If you can‘t update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Put your device in recovery mode and set it up again

  1. Make sure that you're using the latest version of iTunes.
  2. If iTunes is already open, close it. Connect your device to your computer and open iTunes. If you don't have a computer, borrow one from a friend or go to an Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider for help.
  3. While your device is connected, force restart it with these steps:
    • On an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold the Side and Volume Down buttons at the same time. Keep holding them until you see the recovery-mode screen.
    • On an iPhone 6s and earlier, iPad, or iPod touch: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons at the same time. Keep holding them until you see the recovery-mode screen.
      User uploaded file
  4. When you see the option to Restore or Update, choose Update. iTunes will try to reinstall iOS without erasing your data. Wait while iTunes downloads the software for your device. If the download takes more than 15 minutes and your device exits recovery mode, let the download finish, then repeat these steps.
    User uploaded file
  5. After the Update or Restore completes, set up your device.

Once it is reinstalled test out the email accounts again to see how they behave. Thank you!

Oct 1, 2017 8:57 AM in response to kane_TO

LOL. Apple never wants to take responsibility for its crappy updates. Once upon a time, Apple's iOS and macOS updates were a thing to behold. Now they're just piles of hooey that need constant tweaks and reboots. Yes, I understand as the systems grow they get more complicated, but why in the world does one app fail after Apple tinkers with the foundation? Why can't they just get it right? We are all in abusive relationships with Apple (and with every other computer giant) who keep us constantly wanting better and more. Glitches happen all the time. That said, how is it possible that NO ONE at Apple noticed or bothered to say anything about how slowly mail uploads email or about the horrible battery life or about any of the other several tech glitches that make iOS 11 just like every other iOS update—useless and frustrating? I stopped using the mail app because since iOS 7 it won't handle threading correctly and NO ONE has been able to debug this? How hard is it to figure out a threading issue that we all have? Um, not that hard. I have an iPhone 6. I'll never buy another iPhone because Apple doesn't give a fig about the software. It only cares about gouging us by charging us $1,000 for a pretty phone whose insides might be superiorly advanced but whose operating system continues to SUCK with every passing update. I feel the same about the computer line of MacBooks as well. I love Apple and have never owned anything but, but this is getting absurd. F'ing fix the glitches before they f'ing happen and before they roll out to millions of users. It's insane really.

Oct 1, 2017 9:47 AM in response to raina_b22

This is generally a good "last resort" solution and becky_s22 describes the process well. But to save everyone the trouble, we've tried this on two devices running 11.0.1 and it has not helped. Unlike some of the other posters, we use all IMAP accounts and no Exchange services whatsoever. It appears to be an as-yet unresolved bug in iOS 11, and actually, I see similar behavior in multiple apps - not just Mail (i.e., many apps are slow to load or establish network connection).


I can literally login to my Mac, fetch mail, read my email, maybe send a short message, and logout before iOS 11.0.1 has fetched new mail.


If I watch on my WiFi and see what Mail is doing on iOS while it is spinning waiting to receive Mail, the answer is - not a thing (on the network at least). I see that with Photos, iTunes, and many Apple apps.


I do not see a stall in third-party apps. The couple games I tried hits those ad servers lightning fast. So I suspect it's a big in some library or code common to all the Apple apps.

Jan 27, 2018 3:36 PM in response to Zackelino

This may not help with Gmail, but we’ve noticed that trusting the certificate for the certificate authority (if not already a trusted public CA — internal CA for example) that issued the Exchange server certificate seems to help with this issue. To do this, install the certificate (send it via email and open or put on a website for download) then set it as trusted under Settings\General\About\Certificate Trust Settings). With IOS11 it seems you can no longer add an Exchange account on a server that has a certificate that is not trusted.

Oct 15, 2017 3:21 PM in response to kane_TO

Hi Kane

Yes get your IT dept to send you a certificate then install. Beware once installed and trusted you have to follow Ryggor's advice and go into to Settings General About - then down the bottom you will find certificates go in there and you will see your certificate. you have to toggle the button next to your certificate to on(green) then you are good to go

Sep 29, 2017 3:53 AM in response to kane_TO

I have exact the same issue since all betas of ios 11. Now I am on public ios 11.0.1 and the issue remains. I am using Exchange (with push) and Gmail accounts - on both I have this issue. I see email coming, I see preview of it (2 lines as I set), but when trying to open email it takes a looong time for the message body to load. Very, very annoying. What's interesting it doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes emails are loading quickly, but in general there is an issue with the speed of loading emails in ios 11.

Oct 2, 2017 7:39 PM in response to kane_TO

Yes.i pull down to check for new email and it says Checking for Mail and it stays on that a long Time then I wait and the screen times out and even when I sign back in 30 seconds later it’s still st the same point checking for Mail. Very very slow since I installed iOS 11. Deleted all of my extra email accounts in the hopes it would load faster and no change whatsoever. Relieved to see this is a bigger issue that Apple will need to address and not just my phone.

Oct 2, 2017 11:46 PM in response to princessathena2015

It is more like walk-around than a fix. Tried it. That is true Outlook app has no problem with getting emails fast. But first - in my case Outlook app has a problem with push notification with Exchange server, it doesn’t work as well as push on Mail app. Second Outlook app in my case has an issue with forwarding mails - it doubles the mail body - even when you edit mail before forwarding, it sends both - the edited and original body text. That makes this app useless for me. However I recommend everyone to test it by their own.

Email slow to load in mail app with iOS 11

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