Recently I had an email with a few attachments that wouldn’t leave my iPhone’s outbox! It showed a spinning wheel and seemed to hang there for days. And that was utterly destroying my battery AND unnecessarily consuming data. If this situation sounds like you, here are some tips to remove stuck or unsent email from your outbox.
Contents
Related Articles
- Customize Your iPhones Mail Attachment Options
- Fix Unable to Move Message in Mail
- Customize Your iOS Mail Gestures
Emails sometimes get stuck on their way to the destination. You often find these emails stuck in your “outbox” folder. On its own, it is rarely a big problem however the problem can get magnified when the email size is huge in that it contains several attachments or photos, videos, music, and media files. This often leads to battery drain issues consumes lots of cellular data on your phone as well. You fix this problem relatively quickly by removing the “stuck” message from your iOS device by following the steps below.
Before you proceed to remove the email, please make sure that the account setting is right on your phone. If you are using Gmail, please Check your Gmail account settings to verify that you haven’t entered your account information incorrectly.
To do this, tap Settings > Accounts & Passwords (or for older iOS versions, check Settings and tap Mail or Mail, Contacts, Calendars.) Tap your Gmail account and verify the information on the screen. If your account settings are right and the phone is connected to cellular and wifi without any issues, you can proceed to these steps below.
Remove Stuck or Unsent Email From Your Outbox
Step -> 1. Switch your phone to Airplane mode
Step-> 2 Open Mail’s Outbox
Once your phone is in Airplane mode, open the Mail app and Go to the Outbox
Step ->3 Click the “Edit”
It’s the button on the top right of the screen, followed by checking on the circle next to the “stuck” email that you want to delete
Step-> 4 Click “Trash” or Swipe to Delete
Trash is on the right bottom of your screen to remove the message
Step-> 5 Rinse and Repeat (if applicable)
If you own multiple devices, perform steps 1-4 on all devices that connect to the problematic email account
Step-> 6 Turn Off Airplane Mode
Switch your device(s) out of the Airplane mode and return to the mail app.
You should no longer see the stuck message on your email outbox.
Step-> 7 Reboot
Finally, power down your iPhone and then start up normally.
If that’s not working, perform a forced restart:
- On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
- For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
- On an iPhone X or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
AND, if it does not work on your first try, try it again! It may take a few attempts
Reader Tips 
- Reader Jen reminds us to also turn off the mail feature on ALL your iDevices that are using the email account with the “stuck” email. I couldn’t get mine to delete until I remembered that I also receive emails on my ipiPadOnce I turned off email on my iPad and followed the steps above, I was finally able to get rid of that annoying stuck email!
- I fixed it by following these steps, in this order:
1. Go to mail account setting and turn off mail
2. Turn on airplane mode
3. Go to Mail and then you should be able to clear stuck message by sending to trash
4. Turn airplane mode off
5. Turn mail back on in account settings - I went into settings, turned on airplane mode, turned off both wi-fi and cellular data. Then I went into my mail app, found the edit function and swiped to delete
- A video file was stuck in my outbox for weeks. I deleted that particular email account from my phone and then reinstalled it. All of my emails came back as they were already on the email server. Once the reinstallation was complete, the file that was stuck in the outbox was gone!
- I completely shut off my phone and rebooted. Then turned it back on and after launching mail outbox, the edit button was available and was able to trash the message
- I had to close the multitasking windows, but once I did, the edit button displayed and I put that file in the trash!
- I Had the exact same problem as you did. What helped me was to reset the phone .. just close & restart the mail app (while in airplane mode) and it works
Please let us know if you had any issues in removing the items by providing your comments below.
Saiyeda says
This solved my problem instantly. Ingenious! Thanks.
Cheryl says
I have had a “Stuck” email on my ipad for some time now and was about to phone Apple for help after trying various suggestions when I came across this post. I turned off airplane mode and I was able to cancel the message and now I am again a happy ipad user. Thanks
Jen says
Also turn off the mail feature on ALL your IOS devices that are using the email account with the “stuck” email. I couldn’t get mine to delete until I remembered that I also receive emails on my ipad. Once I turned off email on my ipad and followed the steps above, I was finally able to get rid of that annoying stuck email.
SK says
Hi Jen,
Awesome advice! We love it. Thank you for sharing it with us–we’ll add it into the article, cause yeah, a lot of us have multiple devices (and Macs too!) Thank you again for sending us your insights.
SK
Anita says
How do I get rid of an old deleted email that keeps randomly attaching itself to outgoing emails?
Elizabeth says
Hi Anita,
Is it an actual email that gets attached or an old email address?
Liz
Elizabeth Evans says
Why is Apple constantly refusing my Apple I.D. Password? especially when there is an app requiring an update? I have removed the app. concerned, but Apple still ignores my password.
Also, there are some stubbornly recurring ‘sent’ emails that refuse to budge ……it’s about time Appple Inc sorted these problems out. It doesn’t inspire confidence in Apples’ security.
Elizabeth says
Hi Elizabeth,
Please go to Apple’s website for Apple IDs using a computer not a iDevice and verify that your Apple ID and password is correct and that there are no outstanding issues on your account.
If everything is okay and you are able to log in with no problems, please contact an Apple ID Customer Support Team and outline the problems you’ve reviewed here and anything else going on with your ID.
Good luck,
Another Elizabeth
Roxy Gondran says
Amazing, such a handy website
Dana says
The Airplane mode trick is not working. I have even tried turning off account on my phone, went to icloud deleted all drafts, tuned phone back on – turned email account back on, turned on Airplane mode again. The offending email just keeps spinning and the edit tab doesn’t work.
harry says
The mail I have in the outbox is continually trying to load documents from Scanner Pro. But the documents would not load up and now the mail is continually in a load up mode without ever doing so. Consequently the message is stuck in the Outbox and am unable to clear it in the normal Airplane mode way.
avi says
thanks for the tip! worked well!
Michelle says
Well, that was easy. And to think I’ve had this dumb email stuck on there for weeks… oh well, at least it’s gone now 🙂