Mail not working on iPhone after iOS 18 Update

After trying absolutely everything I had to not just turn off my vpn but delete it from my phone entirely. I then restarted and it’s working again.

I have this issue also only on iOS devices that I upgraded to 18. BUT I can send new mail with that same account. So it CAN communicate and authenticate with the server.

something is wrong with the iOS and iPadOS mail app and it chokes with IMAP fetch new mail.

i have not upgraded my Macs yet but people that have say that macOS mail app has no troubles with imap accounts.

this is an iOS bug.

[Edited by Moderator]

polkamatic wrote:

True, but why is the macOS mail app working fine?

I’d think that a mail server not minimally offering TLSv1.2 and forward security would be a more interesting question to investigate and potentially address, but add a scan of the client connection offers here too, and you’ll know whether there are differences in that.

Wouldn’t be the first time (as mentioned by one of the folks in this thread) Zimbra (example) or some other mail server had issues, too. Check for updates there.

Mail servers are ongoing maintenance headaches generally, and not keeping them current just makes for a bigger mess.

And for completeness, this may be a bug in the iPhone mail client, too.

Searching a number of other Apple forums, this is an iOS bug and it has appeared in versions prior, but been fixed prior to it being released generally.

for myself, I went to my mail server, repacked all the certs it uses, validated using several online tests and yet iOS and iPadOS 18 still fail to fetch imap mail and the server log reveals that it’s an issue with those clients.

it a bit irritating that such a thing, after you see it’s been a known bug in the stack for the past two years - would get out in the general release.

it’s more irritating when you see what is planned for the mail client in the upcoming Apple intelligence release. There is no workaround for this bug if you want to use the features of the $1500 iPhone pro 16 and latest $2000 iPad pros.

Ios18 email fix. I finally found a fix to the email issue on Apple iPhone after downloading ios18. Go into settings and enable your email accounts. Mail is under apps now. Turn off your von. Turn airplane mode on and then off. It fixed for me.

My issue with a little different. Since the upgrade I was getting a “connect , just updated” message constantly but was not able to get any new emails. I began deleting each email app and reinstalling it. Until I hit the Gmail app. After reinstalling it, all issues got resolved.

For anyone still not getting emails since the iOS18 update I managed to figure it out if you’re on Hotmail. Delete it and re add an account. It used to be under “other” option. But I tried it through the outlook option. Which I didn’t think Hotmail/live account was. Then it worked! I’m back online. Seems the update changed things that were not broken for some. Apple did it again!

Just for fun... quit your iPhone email client and try compacting your inbox and sent and trash via your laptop/desktop email client or your host's webmail client. See if that makes any difference. It did for me... but my issue was a bit different from others here.

Can't hurt to try.

(I don't believe you can compact mail boxes in iOS.)

I'm not using an iPad, but, restarting my iPhone after deleting my Mail settings and then renewing it worked , as it did for others. Did you try that on your iPad? Just curious because the Mail problem wasn't the only issue I had with my phone.

I was able to temporarily fix my email issue. Instead of creating my email accounts as IMAP, I made them POP3 accounts.

It sucks because my emails won’t sync with my Mac email but at least I’m getting mail on my phone.

I hope Apple will get this fixed soon because there are many people having issues with the Mail app since iOS 18 was released.

My (hopefully temporary) workaround has been to use the Gmail app to sign in with my non Gmail account. At least I know I can reliably access my email. Seems to work better than the Apple mail app too.

wouterjoosten wrote:

Does anyone have a tip for a better mail-program than Mail that works on iPhone, iPad and on a MacBook?

Some have been able to get Gmail App to work, I unfortunately could not and did not want to waste more time on this issue. I did however get BlueMail to easily connect.

But as always be careful with what client is used. Be sure to review security and access provided no mater which app you select.

Here is a temporary fix. At least you’ll be able to download your mail without errors. On the advanced tab of your settings, for the inbox.

scroll down to incoming settings and turn off the SSL, that’s it. Mail flowed.

It goes against the whole idea of SSL but since Apple isn’t proactively making us feel like they have our backs, this solution worked and I was able to use the native mail app.

I tried the "/" fix but this didn't work for me.

I noted some folks tried different client apps other than Mail.

Gmail got the same error but MS Outlook worked fine so I am using that without any problems.

iPhone on 18.1.1

All recommendations in this thread didn't work for me. However, surprisingly, when I reduced the number of emails in my Inbox, it works as expected. I'm not sure what is the maximum number of emails in Inbox but it worked when the number is 1,300.