Rotating from landscape to portrait orientation no longer provides full screen email in iOS26 Mail app for iPad.
iPad mini 5, iPadOS 26
I just found a workaround for the issue - not a fix, and not ideal, but it is helpful.
• switch the list view from “categories” to “All Mail”
• long press the message you want to read in full screen view - a menu appears
• select “open in new window”
Now you can read it in full screen! But there is no navigation to the next or previous email message from this new window.
You just have to close it and repeat for the next message that you want to see. Annoying, but useful in a way.
Please give feedback to Apple so they will understand how incredibly inconvenient this update to Mail is and hopefully fix it soon.
There is not an option for feedback for the Mail app. So I reported it through the iPad feedback link.
Why is this happening!?!
What a HUGE hindrance to my day! I so NEED FULL SCREEN EMAIL VIEW.
Now I have to spend over half an hour a day doing mindfulness meditation just to control the anxiety this change is causing me!!!!!
@Apple FIX THIS P L E A S E !!!!
Has anybody found a way to close a full-screen e-mail? There is no 'X' in the corner, leaving me with options only to reply, forward, archive, or delete the mail.
A family member uses this as very low resolution, and this new behavior is just another way that seems to conflict with Apple's supposedly renewed commitment to embracing accessibility
Adding additional steps unnecessarily and changing a view that's been available since iPads & iPhones were first introduced. Its as though the developers aren't users or simply have their own preferences for viewing. It's enforcing a "Preview" of the whole email in an adjacent pane making any choice of 1-3 line preview meaningless.
Apple Mail - Full screen, Minimise and Close
To open - Double tap the email
To close - Tap top left corner, for red, yellow and green highlighting symbols to close, minimise and full screen respectively.
This doesn’t open it full screen for me. Instead it opens it in a new window that is centralised and 35/40% of the overall screen.
I can obviously resize this screen or expand it to full screen but the setting of this resized window is not remembered the next time an email is opened.
What is even more frustrating is that when I close an email window that has been expanded to full size, it reverts to the Home Screen, not the email app! To read the next email, I have to open the mail app again. 😡🤬🤯
Really daft, flawed and deeply irritating!
I have obviously left feedback for Apple and would encourage anybody else that is frustrated with this new workflow to do the same.
Feedback sent. Many thanks
This workaround does it work for me…ok, tried again and got it to work. But…I also reported the problem to Apple.
Thank you for this workaround! Feedback sent to Apple via for iPad. Crazy that Mail wasn't included in the list of apps to submit product feedback!
Thanks.I just sent feedback requesting Apple to return the old full width viewing functionality.
Thank you!!!
This is the answer, thank you!
OK, but how do you then close it when you're finished and return to the list?
Yes, mail portrait mode very very inconvenient. We don’t need to see the inbox while reading emails, we lost half the real-estate in the mail app. Apple please fix this ASAP. I sent feedback too
That's not a workaround, just more unnecessary steps to fix an introduced bug which actually removes a feature.
I can't imatine why anyone would use [Category View] since Apple does such a poor job of sorting emails into categories, but I guess with some folks, it's a case of YMMV.
How to see iOS26 mail on iPad full screen in portrait mode?
