How to Fix iPhone Not Receiving Emails After iOS 26 Update

• If you aren’t getting emails after iOS 26 update, make sure the message wasn’t marked as spam and check your internet connection.
• Try refreshing, restarting, or reinstalling the Mail app.
• Ensure Background App Refresh is enabled and email addresses and passwords are correct.
• Check iOS Fetch, Mail and notification settings.

If you can’t receive email on your iPhone after updating to iOS 26, it might be a lost connection with the server, an old stored password, or incorrect mail settings.

Below are possible reasons why your iPhone is not receiving emails after iOS 26 update, and a few solutions to fix it.

Did it go to junk folder?

This might seem obvious in hindsight, but many people forget to check their junk filter when waiting for an important message. It’s far from uncommon for messages to be sent to junk in error, so double check to see if it got filed there.

1. Open the Mail app on your iPhone.
2. Go to your list of Mailboxes.
3. Scroll down and look for the Junkfolder under your email account (e.g., iCloud, Gmail, or another provider).
4. Tap Junk to view emails marked as spam.
5. To move an email back to your inbox, swipe left on the message and tap Move, then select Inbox.

Make sure your iPhone is connected to the internet

If you’re not getting emails on iOS 26, it’s possible that your iPhone is not connected to the internet. To check if you are connected, try to open a web page in a browser. If you can’t load any web page, your phone is having internet problems.

If you are using Wi-Fi, reboot your wireless router (unplug your wireless router from the power source, leave it powered off for at least two minutes, and then plug it back in again). After the network is fully restarted, test your connectivity again. Still down? Check out our guide on how to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity problems on iOS 26.

If you are using cellular data, make sure cellular data is turned on and that you have Data. Also make sure cellular data is on for Mail app. Go to Settings > Cellular. Tap Show All, and make sure Mail is turned on. If Cellular Data is not working on your iPhone, learn how to troubleshoot the problem.

Manually refresh the Mail app

If you have a reliable internet connection but you’re still not receiving email on your iPhone, try manually refreshing the Mail app to see if the emails will update.

1. Open the Mail app.
2. pull down from the top of the screen using your finger
3. Release your finger and you should see any new emails.

Restart the Mail app

If you’re still not receiving emails on your iOS 26 device, close, and restart Mail. You can’t just exit out of the Mail app, because Mail leaves services running in the background. To make sure Mail is fully closed, use the App Switcher.

1. Unlock your iPhone and swipe up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the App Switcher.
2. Find the Mail app’s card from the list of app cards in the App Switcher and swipe it up so it disappears.
3. Open the Mail app again – manually refresh it if you have to.

Make sure Background App Refresh is enabled

Background App Refresh allows content in apps to stay up to date, even when you’re not using them. When the Background App Refresh is enabled, the Mail inbox stays updated, even when you’re not actively using Mail. It’s possible that the Mail app is not refreshing its content in the background, making it seem as if you’re not getting any emails. It’s best to check if you have enabled Background App Refresh.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Go into General.
3. Tap Background App Refresh.
4. Check where it says Background App Refresh at the top. If it’s set to Off, tap the option.
5. Choose how you want the content of apps to be updated in the background – choose either Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi & Cellular Data.

Check that your email address and password are entered correctly

One of the most common problems with email is that your password is incorrect — if you changed your password on another device, you’ll need to change it on your iPhone, too.

When the Mail application prompts you to re-enter your password, ensure that you’ve entered it correctly.

Delete and re-add email account

It could be that not all the email accounts attached to the Mail app are failing to update, except for one or two. You can try removing the problematic accounts and re-adding them to see if they start updating again.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap Mail.
4. Tap Mail Accounts.
5. Tap the account that’s not receiving emails.
6. Tap Delete Account.
7. Tap Delete from My iPhone.
8. You will then be returned to the Accounts page. Tap Add Account and follow instructions to re-add the email account.

Check iOS Mail Fetch

Your phone’s default settings for fetching new emails are based on the settings available through your email provider. If your provider doesn’t support Push notifications (where emails are sent to your phone as they arrive, in real time), it will automatically enable Fetch (where your phone retrieves emails regularly at preset times).

These settings impact how your phone receives emails. To adjust them:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap Mail.
4. Tap Mail Accounts.
5. Tap Fetch New Data.
6. Make sure the toggle for Push is turned on – if it has a gray background, tap it so it becomes green, meaning it’s turned on. You can also adjust how often data is “fetched” on this page.

Check your Mail settings

Check that Apple has the right account settings for your email server provider.

Note: Backing up your mail through iCloud or iTunes only backs up your email settings, not individual emails. If you edit or delete your email account settings, emails that were previously downloaded onto your phone may be removed.
Though Apple automatically sets the email account settings, you can check that they’re correct. To do this:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap Mail.
4. Tap Mail Accounts.
5. Tap your email account to select it.
6. Tap Account Settings to see the email account’s settings.
7. Check the incoming and outgoing mail server settings, and make sure they match the recommended settings on Apple’s Mail Settings Lookup page.

Quick tip: To use the Mail Settings Lookup page on the Apple website, enter your email address in the text box and click Look up settings.

Check your notification settings

There’s a chance you might be receiving emails without being notified. To ensure that you’re receiving the email notifications you want, check your notification settings. To do this:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Tap Mail.
4. Tap Customize Notifications.
5. Select the email account you want to customize notifications for.
6. Adjust alerts and badges.

Uninstall and reinstall the Mail app

If you are still not receiving emails on iOS 26, try deleting the Mail app and then reinstalling it again.

1. Press and hold the Mail app’s icon on the Home screen.
2. Tap Remove App in the pop-up.
3. Tap Delete App.
4. Tap Delete.

Restart your iPhone

Finally, you should try restarting your iPhone to give everything a clean start – hopefully, this will get the email to start updating again.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Go into General.
3. Tap Shut Down.
4. Drag the power off slider to the right to shut down the phone.
5. Press and hold the Side button to turn your iPhone back on.

Try logging into your email on a different device

If you have more than one iOS device, try logging into your email on that device and see if it will update.

If your email still doesn’t update, the problem could be with the email service provider – maybe their system is temporarily down due to a fault or an upgrade. Contact them and find out when service will be restored.

See also: How to Fix iPhone Emails Not Updating After iOS 26 Update