How to stop little email icons at bottom of Mail screen?

Question

How to stop little email icons at bottom of Mail screen?

I can flip them up to remove them but cannot stop new ones coming back. This is on my 2 yr old iPad which is up to date with its updates. Any advice please.

iPad, iPadOS 26

Posted on Oct 18, 2025 5:25 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

6x6

Level 6

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Oct 20, 2025 10:17 AM in response to barneyhairball

Yes, those are individual windows of the Mail application.

You'll need to close them in the App Switcher (i.e. Exposé). From the bottom of the screen, slide your finger upwards toward the center of the screen to open Exposé. You'll then see all the open applications and their windows. An application can have several windows open at the same time, such as the Mail application. Close every Mail window that you see.

Here you can see that I have 2 windows of the Mail application open in Exposé (they translate to 2 postage stamp icons in the Mail application):

To close those windows (and thus the postage stamp icons), I just flip them up in Exposé.

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 2

6x6

Level 6

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Oct 18, 2025 11:32 AM in response to barneyhairball

Open Exposé (Switch between apps on iPad - Apple Support) and close every Mail window you see (you should find at least 2 of them.)

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Answer 3

6x6

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Oct 20, 2025 9:47 AM in response to barneyhairball

New windows shouldn’t appear by themselves when you read your emails. You would need to tap the “+ New Window” postage stamp or long-press an email (in the email list) and choose “Open in New Window”.

This behavior hasn’t changed from iPadOS 18 to iPadOS 26.

You won’t see an “x” to close a window if you use “Full Screen Apps” in Settings > Multitasking & Gestures. You will see it if you use “Windowed Apps” and if the window is not full screen.

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Answer 4

Oct 18, 2025 12:01 PM in response to 6x6

Unfortunately this is not what I meant. They are literally little email icons at the bottom of my mails on my iPad. I can whosh them upwards and they vanish; but new ones return as and when I fully open more mails. I can't really send a screenshot as personal info won't be allowed. What do you think?

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Answer 5

6x6

Level 6

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Oct 18, 2025 4:39 PM in response to barneyhairball

Do send a screenshot but mask all the personal data.

To mask a block of data on the screenshot, tap the "+" icon (bottom right), select "Add Shape", select the square shape. Move it and resize it to cover your personal data. You can add as many shapes as you want to cover all the data.

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Answer 6

Oct 20, 2025 8:51 AM in response to 6x6

Why are the individual windows of the Mail application there in the first place? How can I stop them from appearing?

Is it because I am not closing my emails?

And with the new software update, I don't have a button or a 'x' to close each email with. So how do I close each mail? Can't recall how I did it pre-update.

Regards. Look forward to your answer. Is Expose just the name of the software that creates these little postage stamps? And, surely Apple does not expect us to whoosh each email to oblivion in such a lengthy way?

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Answer 7

Oct 20, 2025 10:31 AM in response to 6x6

After going into Multitasking & Gestures I have been able to rid myself of the little postage stamps at the bottom of the Mail screen. Thank you.

But ...... when I go into Expose on my ipad I see loads of the little postage stamps there. Can I stop this from happening? If I can't stop them in Expose, do I need to swoosh them up to lose them each day? If I don't, cos it takes a while, can I just leave them there? Do they clog the system up somehow?

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Answer 8

6x6

Level 6

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Oct 20, 2025 10:40 AM in response to barneyhairball

iPadOS takes care of managing the iPad memory. The open applications and windows are inactive per se and do not impact the performance of your iPad.

If too many applications and windows are open (there would have to be a very large number of them, a thing that I’ve never experienced), iPadOS will close them automatically.

You do not need to close those windows yourself. Let iPadOS take care of it. (That’s what I do.)

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