The iPhone mail app is a convenient service for sending and receiving your mail. You can have multiple accounts on the app, and it supports a range of email domains. But Mail is one of the annoying iPhone apps that won’t update automatically, which can be very frustrating.
Plus, the mail app can sometimes fail to function altogether if you’re using an iPhone. If that happens, then here’s what’s probably causing the issue – and more importantly, how you can fix it.
iPhone Mail app not working? – What to do
The most common reasons why the mail app may have stopped working on your iPhone is your network connection, an issue with your device or in some cases, an issue with your iCloud. Here’s a run through of the most common issues that will affect your iPhone.
Internet Issues
For most people that are using the Mail app regularly, if you suddenly have issues then it’s likely caused by a lack of internet connection. If you don’t have access to the internet, you’re not going to be able to actively access your mail.
The best way for you to check whether the internet is working on your device is to try and use the internet on one of your apps. If the other apps don’t work on your device along with Mail, then it’s likely that your network connection is causing the issue.
If this is the case, then first try disconnecting your device from the Wi-Fi before reconnecting it again. After doing this, turn your Wi-Fi router off for a few minutes. Then, switch it back on again to give your home Wi-Fi network a reset.
You can also go and check the Down Detector to see whether there’s a specific issue with your internet provider in your area. You’ll be able to see other people reporting the issues that they’re having, and it makes it pretty easy to identify whether the network is down in your area.
Restart Device
There’s a chance that Mail may have stopped working because of your iPhone – to solve this, you can restart your device and re-open the app. To do this, you can start by holding down the lock button on the right hand side of your phone. After doing this, the power off button will pop up at the top of your display.
After you’ve held down the power button for 10 seconds, the slider will appear at the top of your screen – slide to the left to turn the phone off.
Update Device
You can also updated your iPhone too – an outdated software is a likely cause of issues, so updating the system is one of the best ways to resolve this. You can do this by heading into Settings, then General, and then finally Software Update.
Update App
When your app has become outdated, you can easily update the app to the most recent version, which will often resolve the issue – bugs could be the reason why Apple Mail isn’t working.
You can do this by going into the App Store and searching for Mail – you’ll find your Mail app pop up, which will have an update button to press if you do need to update it.
Log Out
It’s a good idea to log out of your email account, and then log back into it to see if this resolves the issue.
Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts.
Then, press into whichever accounts you’re having issues with. Or, if the app is having issues in general, log out of all accounts.
For Your Main iCloud Account:
For the iCloud account you used to sign into your device, press it and then press ‘sign out’.
After you’ve done this, you can log into your iCloud account and see whether the app is working or not.
For Your Other Accounts:
Press the account, and then press ‘delete account’.
Afterwards, you must add and sign into those accounts again.
Go to back to your list of accounts, or go to Settings>Mail>Accounts. Then, press ‘add account’ and press the email domain for the account you’re trying to add back.
A notice should then pop-up. Press ‘continue’ and sign into your account.
Repeat this process for your other accounts.
Reinstall App
If you’ve tried all of the different solutions we’ve suggested to no avail, the next thing you can do is to reinstall the app on your device. You can do this by holding down the Mail app icon on your phone – when doing this, a list of options will pop up with various different options for you to select from.
After doing this, you’ll be able to see another list of options. You can see the Delete app option, which you can use to force the app to uninstall.
You’ll then get a final few options to choose from – when done, press Delete and you’ll uninstall the app on your device.
Then, go on the app store and search ‘mail’ in the search bar. You should be able to find the Mail app here – you can select the cloud symbol on your phone to re-download the app.
Get in touch with Customer Support
If you’ve done this and nothing has worked, you can then reach out to Apple Support – https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=cups&SG=SG003.
Press ‘apps and features’, and then press ‘mail questions and troubleshooting’.
You can either press the chat option to message the support team, or the call option to talk to the support team.
After clicking into either option, a notice will pop-up asking you to sign in or input your device’s serial number.
If you know your device’s serial number, type it out. But, if you don’t know the serial number, click the sign-in option to log into your iCloud device.
Then, the notice for inputting your serial number should pop-up again. Scroll down until you see a list of devices registered under your account. Click on the relevant device.
Conclusion
After you’ve run through all of the above, you should have been able to get the Mail app on your device working again. If there’s an issue with your connection, you can get your Wi-Fi working again or switch over to mobile data.
If the issue is with your device, then you’ll want to make sure that the app has been reset and is up to date. When this is done, you should be able to use the Apple Mail app again.
