Several users have found that their Mail app doesn’t refresh emails after updating to iOS 13.2 on their iPhone. The Mailboxes are slow to refresh and show the new emails. Some users still report seeing blank inboxes with a message at the bottom showing the mailbox is being updated.
Contents
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It appears that some Mail bugs reported in the prior version of iOS 13 were not addressed in a systematic fashion in the current update.
Update – 11/18/2019
The latest update iOS 13.2.3 and iPadOS 13.2.3 has solved a lot of the Mail related issues including Search feature and refresh issues. Before you proceed down the article, we suggest that you update your iPhone or iPad to this latest version.
Apple’s updated iOS 13.2.2, released this week fixes some of the RAM management issues that could have been behind some of the refresh issues. If you have not updated, please update your iPhone to iOS 13.2.2. and test the Mail app.
Force Restart your iPhone
Before attempting to troubleshoot the Mail app, try and perform a forced reboot of your iPhone and check if it solves your Mail issues. Sometimes a force reboot helps with numerous issues that show up following an iOS update.
If the Simple force reboot didn’t help you with your Mail issues, read on.
Mail not refreshing after iOS update
Here are some potential workarounds and fixes that might help you with Mail refresh and other related issues on iOS 13. Make sure your iPhone is not in Low power mode since that can cause issues with refreshing emails.
Follow each of the steps below:
- Close the Mail app on your iPhone
- Open Settings app and tap on Passwords & Accounts
- Under Accounts, tap on the account and turn off Mail
- Open Mail app
- Go back to Settings > Accounts & Passwords > Accounts
- Enable the Mail app back again
Now go back to your email account on the Mail app and check if the inbox refreshes correctly.
The other place to investigate when looking at problems with the Mail app is the refresh settings.
- Open Settings App
- Tap on Passwords & Accounts
- Tap on Fetch New Data at the bottom
- Scroll down and toggle from Automatically to manually a couple of times
- Change it to Automatically or ‘Every 15 Minutes’ and give it a try
Check if the refresh frequency is any better for your inboxes associated with your accounts. On this setting screen, make sure to choose ‘Push’ at the top to see if it makes any difference. 
Another way to fix Mail related issues on your iOS devices is to delete the Mail account, restart your iPhone and then re-add the accounts. You can follow this Apple support document and find the steps at the bottom of the article.
Many users have found some success with their Gmail and Yahoo accounts by deleting and re-adding their accounts back.
Delete the Mail app and reinstall it!
If you have iOS 12, iOS 13, or iPadOS 13, you can delete (and then reinstall) the Mail app from your device!
Deleting and reinstalling the Mail app often solves these types of issues. So give it a try!
How to delete the Mail app from your device
- On your iOS or iPadOS device, touch and hold the app
- Choose Delete App from the Quick Actions menu
- For earlier iPadOS and iOS 13 versions, tap Edit Home Screen or Rearrange Apps
- Tap the x in the upper-left corner to delete the Mail app
- Tap Delete
- Confirm you want to delete the Mail app
- For an iPhone X or later model, tap Done. On an iPhone 8 or earlier model, press the Home button
Reinstall and reconnect the Mail App
- Open the App Store
- Search for Mail
- Tap the cloud icon to install it
- Once installed, re-enabled your email accounts one at a time in Settings > Passwords & Accounts
Mail Notification Issues with iOS 13 /iOS 13.2
Other reported issues with Mail relate to how the notifications do not clear even after the Mail is read. We are not sure what is causing this even in iOS 13.2 but if you are experiencing this issue, try this.
When you open the email and scroll to the bottom of the email. Drag your finger down as if you are scrolling up on the mail. When you do this, for some reason the system marks it as ‘Read” and the notification goes away. That blue dot next to the email should disappear showing that the mail has been read.
Some users find that they are unable to see any email notifications on their locked screen. If you are seeing notifications related issue, check the settings for email notifications.
Start with Settings -> Notification -> Mail -> select the email account > make sure the desired alerts are selected and at the bottom select Show Previews and change it accordingly. Do this for each of your Mail accounts and check if your notifications show up correctly.
If you still continue to face issues, your best bet is to use a third-party Mail app like Spark or Outlook till these issues are addressed in the next iOS update. You can also try and use the Gmail app if you are using a Gmail account with the Mail app on your iPhone running iOS 13.
Please let us know if you have any questions or any tips that you would like to share what worked for you.
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
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My iPhone 8 Plus’ Apple Mail app has become virtually worthless since 13.2.2 came out. Numerous problems include:
(1) The app freezing. It shows emails, but won’t allow you to click on them. This occurs about half of the time.
(2) When I can actually open email, I get “There was a problem….” 95% of the time.
(3) I’ve tried restarting my phone, turning off and turning on the email accounts…. nothing has worked. I then tried deactivating all email addresses connected, deleting the Mail app, restarting the phone, then turning back on the mail connections. Once I did that, every email that was stored in the system showed “No Sender” as the sender of the email and “No Subject” in the subject summary. I again tried deactivating the email addresses, turning the device off, then reactivating — nothing. New emails come through normally, but the ones that were there before the upgrade are stubbornly stuck in this state.
Any ideas? Super upset that Apple continues to release versions that have serious issues like this.
I am experiencing all of these and have been since the release of iOS 13, plus I am also one of many reporting an issue where the last email read is shown every time the mail app is launched, regardless of it being read and gone out of before closing the app.
I have been a loyal Apple user for soooo long and have made $100’s worth of purchase on things I cannot take with me if I move to another brand of cell phone. It is so incredibly disappointing that the big brains there have let this go on for so long.
I have nearly lost my job due to missing an urgent request from my boss, and have missed notifications from the courts in my custody modification case which could have seriously jeopardized my child.
Any suggestions on who to hound at Apple?
Sorry to hear Carlene. Best bet is to chat directly with Apple support and see if they can help. You can reach them at support.apple.com or chat with their support directly by following steps in this article.How to Chat Directly with Apple Support
Good tips… but none worked for me though!
In the end, I deleted the app from my phone, then re-installed from the App store. Deleting it also switched off all my mail accounts, so I re-enabled them one at a time. That was a week ago, and my mail app has been working perfectly since.
I did not realize you could delete the app, so perhaps others don’t.
Email application in iOS 13.2 screwed up big time.
Not sure what kind of testing was done before releasing it but does all tricks by itself.
Right from opening an email by default to going to Sent or Trash folders at will instead of Inbox when the application is opened and even worse, deleting emails automatically..
I tried deleting some emails that I got and to my shocking, I saw other important emails also in trash.
What is even worse?
I tried moving those important emails back to Inbox and they are now deleted for good. I don’t see them in the Inbox/All Mail or anywhere.
This is where the standards of iPhone/iOS stand. For heaven’s sake, DO NOT enforce an upgrade unless it is thoroughly tested. Hope you understand that.
The email problem that started with 13 for me was opening the app and have it display an email message rather than the list. Now, with 13.2.2, it shows the list but it starts three screens down from the top. Screwy.
Since the IOS 13.2.2 update, when I send an email it automatically sends twice, but the recipient only get it once.
Since the last update on iPad Apple mail …
when you click on bcc for any mail you are sending, It does not show addresses to insert from your contacts list.
I feel totally robbed by ios 13. If I had known this would have happened I would not have upgraded my phone.
I wish there was a way to avoid seeing the software update notifications, but Apple doesn’t allow for that so eventually, you end up upgrading just to get rid of the software update notifications.
This is planned obsolescence at its worst. Really pissed off about this slow mail loading.
iOS 13.2 update and this steps worked bit better than previous
Just updated to 13.2.2 on iPad to get rid of the update flag reminder and it seemed to have totally redesigned how Microsoft Outlook mail depicts my mail screens. I used to be able to open an email to full screen using a button at the bottom of the screen and then shrink it back to side preview. Now when I want to open an email it opens in an entirely separate screen on my iPad. Any suggestions on how to get Microsoft Outlook mail back to the format I had previous to this apple upgrade? Very disturbed they changed this!