Apple Mail app not updating from unread to read emails on iPhone

Try the following:

1. Settings > Apps > Mail > Blocked Sender Options > select "Leave in Inbox"
2. Settings > Apps > Mail > Blocked Sender Options > select "Move to Trash"
3. Settings > Apps > Mail > Blocked Sender Options > Mark Blocked Sender > OFF
4. Settings > Apps > Mail > Blocked Sender Options > Mark Blocked Sender > ON
5. Settings > Apps > Mail > Blocked > Add New ... > manually add an email address to block
6. Restart the iPhone
7. Open the Mail app and see if using the "Block Sender" feature works normally

I am just guessing with the above suggestions but can tell you that I have seen cases before where iPhone settings simply needed to be toggled to a different setting and then back to begin working again. In addition, maybe manually adding one address to the blocked list will kickstart that list as well.

Hi Polythene 123: "It appears Apple has once again geared changes to be compatible only with their products"

I have deleted all my non-Apple email accounts from my iPad. There is only iCloud mail now. Then I rebooted the iPad.

The problem still exists even with iCloud mail. My other half just sent a test email to my iCloud address - it just said "Hello". It appeared in my Mac Mail App in seconds but took 5 minutes to appear on my iPad. I sent some test mails from my iCloud account on my iPad -- they don't appear in the Sent folder on my iPad for about 5 minutes, though they do show immediately in the Sent folder on my Mac. I don't see that servers can be blamed for this -- if I can see the emails in my Mac Mail App, why not on the iPad?

Same issue on my iPhone.

I accepted Ts and Cs when I downloaded the software update. I've checked in Settings and there's nothing regarding accepting new settings so I assume it's done.

Another observation: if there is 1 email in an inbox on my Mac, it can take 5 minutes to appear on my iPad. But if there are 10 emails in my Mac inbox, then it can take 15-20 minutes for them to appear on my iPad. They don't appear 1 by 1, they all appear at once. At least I know there are emails waiting 'cos I can sit and watch the little wheel going round and round whilst eating my breakfast!! This is true for iCloud mail as well as non-Apple mail accounts.

I can see the emails straight away on my Mac, so there's something going on with the iOS update that's screwing things up on the iPad and iPhone.

I can confirm it’s still happening today (4/1/25). Can take hours for IOS to sync with Outlook. Calendar and Mail being the most egregious.

It is a persistent bug and refresh doesn’t help.

18.3.2 on a 15.

Touch the three dots "..." icon in the upper right on Mail and choose "List View". That will disable the classification of emails and display all of them all in your Inbox as in the past.

While I certainly appreciate the method(s) outlined to fix this issue, it appears that "lack of organization/preparedness on the part of Apple software engineers is causing an inconvenience on mine". My work e-mail account (on the phone) will not recognize when an e-mail is read on my phone or when I am in Outlook on my computer. As it pertains to my (I know, outdated) Yahoo e-mail address - it won't even fetch new-mails from my phone. My phone is an iPhone 16 Pro. Interestingly, I updated my iPad Pro as well to 18.3 and both accounts work fine. I have turned my phone off, waited 5 minutes, and turned on again-to no avail. I know that I will be advised to delete and re-add one or both of the accounts as noted here on the board, but why the inconsistency? I'm back to my opening - (and irrefutable) - statement... Ticks me off.

I also have 18.3 update and it has completely screwed up all my email accounts. From my list of all email accounts it will say it's updated on the bottom, but there is no new email when I go to open that account. Yet on my desktop or laptop I see 20 new emails. I tried deleting the email accounts then reinstalling them. This does not work at all. Today I discovered that my primary mail is getting routed to the other mailboxes like "promotional" or "transactions". This is unacceptable. In the past two days I have lost precious time sensitive emails to this update deciding what should have been primary emails were sent to promotional aka Junk mail.

So now what?

Now They just came out with the 18.3.1 after the nightmare I’m having with my email. I’m scared to download it.

They update, doesn’t mention anything about fixing the email bugs from 18.3.

I was reading old posts, where some people’s email accounts got screwed up with the 18.0 back in August 2024. And Apple never did anything to fix it

I would like to help you but am confused about a few things. I have several gmails account on my iPhone, both free Gmail and paid Google workspace accounts, and they have all worked perfectly fine throughout all recent updates.

A few things that you have stated makes me wonder if you have issues related to your Google email account issues that are not related to iOS Mail at all.

Apple said, to delete my Gmail account on the phone then re downloaded it. It was a HUGE hassle! I had to jump through many hoops just to get it back on my phone. It was a Nightmare!! to say the least.

What specifically made removing the Google account, restarting the phone, and then adding the account back a huge hassle? I have done this recently and it took all of about 3 minutes total time for all steps.

Since doing that all of my emails I previously had blocked, have flooded my email inbox, and now the Blocked feature isn’t working!

How many emails do you have in your Inbox? Are you using the Archive feature in your Gmail account (https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9259770?hl=en#zippy=%2Clearn-how) to move old emails from Inbox to the Gmail All Mail folder? If not, you should be. The iOS Mail app makes Archiving emails as simple as a swipe left or right. Your inbox really is not intended to contain all of your past email. If you limit emails in your Inbox to those that you have not dealt with, then they would not "flood in" when the account is added back.

What types of email are your blocking? Blocking of most spam email is completely useless as a feature regardless of email account type of platform. Spammers rarely use the same spoofed sending address twice. Instead, you should simply be marking every piece of spam as Junk in Mail. That trains email anti-spam algorithms to recognize similar unwanted messages regardless of the faked from address. Over time, similar spam messages will start being moved to Junk or deleted automatically.

I appreciate your assistance. 

I had two Gmail accounts. I only use one. So the first time, I downloaded it back on the phone it was the account I don’t use. But all the passwords were a mess. 

Then I contacted Apple, and the rep was very helpful, she was able to help me get it switched to the correct account. All my contacts came back, and the sent folder started working again after she helped me adjust a setting on the phone that started deleting my sent receipts after the 18.3 upload. 

I only have 9 emails in my inbox. 

As far as previously blocked emails. Those are emails that are either spam emails, political emails or previous businesses, that I’ve dealt with in the past. I ended up having to block their email addresses, after they continued to send emails after unsubscribing. 

Well now, after 18.3 all those previously blocked emails started coming into my inbox. 

When I choose the block option at the bottom It’s NOT blocking them. I’m still getting emails from them, and the blocked emails are not listed in the mail app block list. 

I usually don’t have anymore that 8-15 emails in the inbox, I also delete my junk and trash folders several times a day. 

I've done everything you have (admittedly - in a helpful tone) advised to do. Fact is, my work e-mail was fine before this update, as was my personal Yahoo account. They still don't work properly. The Yahoo account doesn't receive most e-mails, the work account doesn't acknowledge that I've read e-mails on my computer or on the phone. The overarching question for me is this: Why do I need to fix this? Apple caused it. Some snot-nosed kid in his mom's basement (and who wrote the update) isn't worried about this - likely in the Republic of California. I'm one really ****** red-neck. **** I hate Apple with every cell of my being, hate Apple.

I'm having an issue with my email as well. I had to update my iOS, something I hate doing because every time I do, there's an issue with something. When I updated to 18.3.1, my emails would no longer show a preview on my locked screen. I went through every setting, restarted multiple times, checked focus, checked every possible solution, even reverted back to the factory settings (and then went in and checked all the settings again and did multiple restarts again), but i simply CANNOT get the previews to show up when my phone is locked. This is a major hassle for me because I have three different work email accounts I have to manage and I can't see them all on my computer at the same time. The next step I'm going to try is to just undo the updated iOS and see what that does unless Apple can provide a solution.

Apparently not. I’ve seen posts as far back as August 2024, stating their email issues are not resolved. They’re not accepting responsibility. They’re placing blame on the email servers.

This thread, clearly shows, the problem resides with Apples update.

Another fun fact, when people reply to this thread, a preview of the Apple notification email shows up on my locked screen. But so far all other test emails, even from accounts not on my phone, do not show up. This is fun. Thanks Apple!

I tried this, and now it messed up my sent folder again. Which occurred directly after the 18.3 upgrade it turns ALL email addresses into blocked emails, then sends them to the trash folder. It also put a red circle with a line through it next to each email.

so this absolutely, makes sense why the Blocked Sender feature doesn’t work anymore. Because we had to disable it in order it get my Sent receipt, emails to stay in the sent folder.

This is the exact reason I absolutely HATE Apple updates. Something ALWAYS gets screwed up, then Apple never fixes it. Then were just stuck, with less than par

This worked and email is populating again. However, on the Mailboxes screen, the number of new emails per email account is not working correctly. It says I have 1 email in an account, for example, but in reality there are over 100 unopened emails. Thank you.