As much as we love or hate email, there's no denying it — email is a necessity for both work and personal lives. It's the best way to reach a coworker or long-lost family or friends. And our iPhones have a built-in Mail app that lets us communicate with others all over the globe.

In iOS 16, the Mail app is getting some significant improvements that will align it with some of the best third-party email apps. The new features allow us to schedule emails, undo a sent email, and even "snooze" an email to a later time that is more convenient for us to respond. You can use these cool new features if you have iOS 16 on your iPhone or iPad. It's a big improvement over the days when saving an email as a PDF was a huge deal.

Here's how to schedule and undo sending an email in the Mail app in iOS 16.

Apple occasionally offers updates to iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS as closed developer previews or public betas. While the betas contain new features, they also contain pre-release bugs that can prevent the normal use of your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, or Mac, and are not intended for everyday use on a primary device. That's why we strongly recommend staying away from developer previews unless you need them for software development, and using the public betas with caution. If you depend on your devices, wait for the final release.

How to schedule an email in the Mail app in iOS 16

Have you ever wanted to email someone but didn't want to disturb them because they're in a different time zone and could be sleeping? Or perhaps you want to ensure that a work email is seen first when you know the recipient will be at their desk? That's when the new scheduling feature comes in handy and is easy to use.

1. Launch the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Compose in the bottom right to start a new message.
3. Type in a contact for the To: field.
4. Make sure you send from the correct email address if you have multiple emails.
5. Type in your email subject.
6. Type in your email message.
7. Press and hold on the Send button to bring up a contextual menu.
8. Select when you want to send the email. Your options are as follows:
   • Send Now (default if you just press the Send button)
   • Send 9:00 PM Tonight
   • Send 9:00 PM Tomorrow
   • Send Later. This is the option you want to pick if you need to set a custom time with the date and time picker.
9. Tap Done if you were in the Send Later screen.

Voilà! Your email will now be sent at the time that you selected.

How to view and manage scheduled email messages in the Mail app in iOS 16

If you have scheduled a few emails, you may decide that you want to make some changes after it's been scheduled. Thankfully, there's a way to view all the email messages you have waiting to be sent out.

1. Launch the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Navigate back to the Mailboxes screen if you're not already there.
3. Tap the Send Later box.
4. Tap a scheduled email to view it. A banner at the top lets you know when the email will be sent.
5. Optionally, you can tap Edit to make changes, including scheduled time, or tap the Delete button in the bottom left corner to trash it.

How to unsend an email in the Mail app in iOS 16

You just sent an email, but then you realize you forgot something, like a necessary attachment (we've all been there). The new Unsend Email feature gives you only 10 seconds, so you need to be quick.

1. Launch the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Compose in the bottom right to start a new message.
3. Type in a contact for the To: field.
4. Make sure you send from the correct email address if you have multiple emails.
5. Type in your email subject.
6. Type in your email message.
7. Tap Send to immediately send the message.
8. At the bottom of the screen, tap Undo Send.
9. Make the necessary changes to the email before sending it again or discarding it.

The Undo Send feature works by delaying your message by 10 seconds. This is unlike the Undo Send functionality in Messages in iOS 16, which gives you up to 15 minutes to edit or unsend.

How to use Remind Later to snooze an email in the Mail app in iOS 16

A popular feature in a lot of the greatest third-party email apps is the ability to "snooze" a message to remind yourself of it later. It resurfaces a particular message to the top of your inbox so you don't forget about it. Now the feature is in the native Mail app with iOS 16.

1. Launch the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Find an email message that you want to resurface for later.
3. Swipe right on the message to reveal the Mark As Read/Unread and Later options.
4. Tap Later.
5. Select when you want to be reminded. Your options include Remind me in 1 hour, Remind Me Tonight, Remind Me Tomorrow, or Remind Me Later…. The last option allows you to pick a custom date and time.

Once you pick a later time, it will be moved to a separate "Remind Me" box, similar to the scheduled messages.

Managing your email is easier than ever

These new tools in the Mail app give you the best iPhone and iPad experience when it comes to managing your hectic inbox. For example, scheduling emails means no more disturbing recipients in the middle of the night with work things, and undo send lets you attach those necessary attachments you always forget about.

What you need to know

• Apple has released its redesign to iCloud Mail on the web.
• The design is similar to what the company has released on the Mac and iPad.
• Apple also released its Hide My Email and Custom Domain features for iCloud+.

While it might be easy to be distracted by iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15 today, Apple also released an important update to iCloud on the web.

Today, the company released its redesign to iCloud Mail on the web. The redesign has been in beta since June and, earlier today, Apple brought it to the main iCloud website for all iCloud Mail users. The new design is very similar to the iCloud Mail app that now exists on the Mac and iPad.

In order to access the new design, just log into iCloud on the web and navigate to the Mail app. You'll automatically get upgraded to the new design which features new fonts, a cleaner user interface, and a smaller popup window for when you compose an email in your browser.

Apple also released some updates to iCloud Mail for any iCloud+ customer today, including its Hide My Email and Custom Domain features. Hide My Email allows you to create a customized email that forwards to your personal email but that can be deleted at any time. Custom Domains allow you to send and receive an email at your own domain with support for up to three email addresses per domain.

iCloud+ is Apple's premium iCloud service that any customer who pays for a tier of iCloud gets access to.

iCloud Mail also got a small redesign on the iPhone and iPad with iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. Both software updates are available to download for free now.

What you need to know

• iCloud Mail for the web is getting a design refresh.
• The design in the latest beta for iCloud on the web matches that of macOS Big Sur and iPadOS 14.

iCloud Mail on the web is updating its design to match macOS Big Sur and iPadOS 14.

As reported by 9to5Mac, the latest beta for iCloud on the web has updated the user experience for iCloud Mail. The updated experience looks similar to the refresh that iCloud Mail received when Apple released macOS Big Sur and iPadOS 14 to users in the fall of 2020.

In addition to the design refresh, composing an email in the beta opens in the same window as well instead of pushing you to a new window or tab.

It appears that the Mail app is the only part of iCloud on the web to get a major design refresh as of yet. The rest of the apps still sport their old design, even on the beta website.

It's currently unclear when Apple plans to roll the new design of iCloud Mail for the web out to all users. If you want to try out the new design on the web, you can do so by logging on to the iCloud beta website. Of course, you can also just use the Mail app on macOS Big Sur or iPadOS 14 as well.

If iCloud isn't your thing and you're looking for an email client for your Mac, check out our list of the Best Mail Apps for Mac 2021.

What you need to know

• Find My and iCloud Mail are experiencing issues right now.
• iCloud Contacts and signing into iCloud are also affected.

Update, May 4 (9:00 pm ET): Apple has resolved issues with Find My, Contacts, and iCloud Account & Sign In

If you are having issues with Find My or iCloud Mail, you aren't alone.

Apple has confirmed that a number of its services are currently experiencing "issues." The company has updated its System Status page on the Apple Support website to show which services have been affected. As of this article's writing, the current services experiencing a problem are the following:

• Find My
• iCloud Account & Sign In - Issue
• iCloud Contacts - Issue
• iCloud Mail - Issue

Apple has not said exactly what kind of "issues" are happening with the services, but users could expect performance problems, connectivity issues, or problems logging in.

We'll be sure to update this article once Apple has announced that the issues have been resolved.

Update, May 4 (9:00 pm ET) — Apple has resolved issues with Find My, iCloud Contacts, and iCloud Account & Sign In

According to the System Status page on the Apple Support website, Apple has resolved issues with Find My, iCloud Contacts, and iCloud Account & Sign In.

According to the updates, Apple says that some users may have not been able to access Find My and that iCloud Account & Sign In may have been slow or unavailable for some users.

The Mail app for Mac lets you use any email account you have without having to go to that service's website constantly. You can sync your Gmail accounts, Outlook accounts, carrier-specific accounts, school accounts, work accounts… well, you get the picture.

All you have to do is set things up. Here's how in macOS Big Sur!

Mail setup: How to set up an email account

The first step to using the Mail app for Mac is to set up your email account to start receiving email in the Mail app.

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Click an email provider based on what type of email account you have. If you have an email address with a domain other than what's provided (like a school or work email address that's not based in any of the big providers), click Other Mail Account.
3. Click Continue.
4. Enter your email address and password.
5. Click the checkmark next to each app you'd like to use with this account.
6. Click Done.

If you have multiple email accounts, you can repeat the process to see them all in the Mail app.

Mail setup: How to set how often Mail checks for new messages

Since the Mail app has to go and fetch your email from whichever service you use, you can set how often it checks for new messages.

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Click Mail in the menu bar on the top left of your screen.
3. Click Preferences.
4. Click the General tab if you're not already there.
5. Click the dropdown menu next to Check for new messages.
6. Click a frequency. You can have it check as much as every minute or as infrequently as every hour. You can also choose to check only manually.

Mail setup: How to select Mail notification sounds

You can choose which sound alerts you to a new email.

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Click Mail in the menu bar in the upper left corner of your screen.
3. Click Preferences.
4. Click the General tab if you're not already there.
5. Click the dropdown menu next to New messages sound.
6. Click the sound you'd like to hear when a new message arrives. Each time you click a sound, it'll play a preview.

Mail setup: How to add a signature

Your email signature is what appears beneath the body of your email in every single message you send: If you customize yours, you'll never need to type your name at the end of an email again.

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Click Mail in the menu bar on the top left of your screen.
3. Select Preferences.
4. Choose the Signatures tab.

5. Click the account to which you'd like to add a signature.
6. Choose the + button on the lower center of the window.
7. Type your signature in the window on the far right. It can be whatever you like.
8. Click the center window to change the name of your signature.
9. Select the dropdown menu next to Choose signature.
10. Click an option:
    • None
    • The signature you've just created
    • At Random
    • In Sequential Order

Mail setup: How to send a new email

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Click the Compose button.
3. Enter the email address of the person to whom you'd like to send a message. You can enter multiple email addresses.
4. Enter a Subject for your email.
5. Type the body of your email.
6. Click the Send button. It looks like a paper airplane on the top left of the message window.

Mail setup: How to reply to an email

If you've received an email, you likely want to answer it. Here's how to reply:

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Click the email to which you'd like to respond.
3. Click the Reply button, which looks like a single curved arrow. If there are multiple recipients of the email, you can also choose to reply to all of them but click the Reply All button, which looks like two curved arrows. You can also forward the email if you want to share it with other people by clicking the Forward button, a right-pointing arrow next to the reply buttons.
4. Write and send the email.

Mail setup: How to view and download email attachments

Half the fun of sending and receiving email is getting photos and videos, especially those that are too large to send via iMessage. Oftentimes, a photo will appear right in the email, but you can download them as well.

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Open the email that contains the attachment you want to download.
3. Double-click a document in the body of the email to view it. Photos usually appear in the body of the email.
4. Click the downward arrow next to the number on the little menu that pops up.
5. Click the name of the attachment file.
6. Click Save after choosing the save location and titling the file the way you want it.

Mail setup: How to search for specific email messages

1. Launch the Mail app from your dock or Finder.
2. Click the search bar on the top right of the window.
3. Type your search query. It can be an email address, subject, name, or even just specific words from an email.
4. Optionally click a search option in the drop-down that appears.

5. Optionally click a folder to search. You can search specific folders or just search All.
6. Click the email message you'd like to open.

Mail setup: How to filter email by Unread

If you receive a ton of email, it can be hard to keep track of which ones you've read and which ones you haven't. But it doesn't have to be; you can filter your email by Unread.

1. Launch Mail from the Dock of Finder.
2. Click View in the menu bar on the top left of your screen.
3. Select Sort By.
4. Choose Unread.

Alternatively, you can click on the filter button next to Sort By above the inbox section's top. By default, it will only show you unread emails.

Mail setup: How to mark an email as Unread

If you'd like to revisit an email but don't want it to get lost among the others, you can mark it as unread so that it appears at the top of your inbox.

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Right-click on the email you'd like to mark as Unread.
3. Click Mark as Unread.

Alternatively, if you have a Magic Mouse, you can swipe right on the email and click Unread, just like on iPhone or iPad.

Mail setup: How to delete an email

After a while, your inbox can get to be pretty full. Delete some of the stuff you don't need anymore!

1. Launch Mail from the Dock or Finder.
2. Click the email you would like to delete. If you would like to delete multiple messages, you can click one, hold shift and click another. All messages between each clicked message will be selected. If you do not want to delete messages in a row, you can hold command as you click.
3. Click the Delete button at the top of the window. It's the trash can.

You can alternatively right-click on your inbox and click delete, or, if you have a Magic Mouse, you can swipe left and click the trash can.

In the market?

Apple's lineup of laptops and desktops continues to grow. When it's time to buy, consider our favorites.

Questions?

Do you have any questions about Mail setup? Have a question about setting up and using the Mail app for Mac? Let us know in the comments below!

Need some help with the Mail app for iPhone? Check out our ultimate guide to Mail.

Updated December 2020: Includes macOS Big Sur information.

The Mail app on iPhone and iPad has been around for ages. And throughout those years, Apple has updated the app and made a bunch of changes to make it easier and more efficient to use, even in smaller displays.

Now, most of us know how to check or send emails right from our iPhone or iPad. But that's only the surface of what you can do with the Mail app on iPhone or your iPad. Changing settings, save emails as PDF, and even sending messages without moving a finger — there are many things that you can still learn from Mail. Fortunately, we've got you covered.

Consider this page your one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about the Mail app on iPhone. You can learn how to do things you've never even tried, not even on your Mac.

So if you want to master your Mail app, or you know someone who's maybe switching to iPhone for the first time, make sure to bookmark and share this page. We'll keep updating it and giving you the latest tips and tricks for your Mail app on iPhone and iPad.

How to set up the Mail app on iPhone and iPad

First things first: before you start using the Mail app, there are some things you might want to set up first. You can set up and manage several email accounts, set up your contacts and your calendars, and so much more.

• How to set up mail, contacts, and calendars on iPhone and iPad
• How to manage accounts in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad
• How to manage settings for the Mail app for iPhone and iPad

How to use the mail app on iPhone and iPad

Now that everything is set up to fit all your needs, you can start using the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad. There are a bunch of features that help you manage your inboxes and send emails with the help of Siri.

• How to manage email and mailboxes in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad
• How to send email from Mail app for iPhone and iPad
• How to send an email using Siri

How to use contacts in the Mail app on iPhone and iPad

Connecting your contacts to Mail is a great way to communicate easily with others or get rid of contacts you're not using anymore.

• How to create relationships for contacts on iPhone and iPad
• How to remove suggested contacts in the Mail app for iPhone

How to use attachments in the Mail app on iPhone and iPad

Sending files, notes, or images through the Mail app is a must-have skill, especially in today's day and age. Here you'll find how to send and save attachments right on your iPhone or iPad.

• How to send photos and attachments on iPhone and iPad
• How to save email attachments on iPhone and iPad

How to make the most out of the Mail app features on iPhone and iPad

Now that you know the basics, it's time to step it up a notch. The Mail app has many helpful features that make it a great tool for work or your everyday life. There are some cool shortcuts, a few secret workarounds, and settings adjustments that will make your email experience the best it can be.

• How to save an email as a PDF on iPhone and iPad
• Mail shortcuts for iPhone and iPad: 11 gestures to speed up your email!
• How to disable image loading in Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, and more

Checking emails isn't something you do on your Mac anymore. Most people prefer to check and send emails on the go. Fortunately, you can easily send an email from Mail App on iPhone and iPad with just a few taps. You might think this is simple to do, but there might be some tricks you probably didn't know about. Here's how you can start mastering your Mail.

How to create and send an email from the Mail app on iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the compose button in the bottom right corner of your screen.
3. Enter the email address or name of the person to whom you'd like to send a message. You can also enter the email addresses of people you'd like to CC or BCC.

4. Choose the Subject field, add your subject.
5. Tap the message field and type your message.
6. Select Send in the top right corner of your screen when you're finished with your message.

Once your message has been sent, it will say so in the status bar at the bottom of your screen.

How to select an email address from your Contacts in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Mail app from your Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the compose button in the bottom right corner of your screen.

3. Choose the + sign in the circle to pull up your contacts.
4. Select the contact you would like to add. They will be automatically added to the email.

How to access drafts in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad

If you begin composing an email but don't finish before tapping the send button, the email goes to your Draft folder. Later, you can continue editing your email, then send it like you usually would.

1. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap and hold the Compose button in the lower right corner. This will bring up the drafted emails.
3. Choose the email draft you'd like to edit.

4. You can also go to your mailboxes and tap on the Drafts folder.

Once you're done, you can send the email. That's all there is to it.

How to stack drafts in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad

You can have multiple drafts open at the same time, or you can hide a draft you're working on to check something else in the Mail app. Here's how!

1. Launch the Mail app from your Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the compose button in the bottom right corner of your screen.

3. Hold and drag downward on the top of the message window where it says New Message. It will appear at the bottom of your screen.
4. Tap New Message at the bottom of your screen again to reopen the draft.

If you have multiple drafts on the go, they'll all appear when you tap New Message at the bottom of your screen. Just tap the draft you'd like to continue working on to access it.

Congratulations! Learning how to send an email from the Mail app on iPhone is the first step to master the Mail app. But if you're looking for other options to discover, here's our full list of the best mail apps for Mac..

Questions?

Do you still have questions about how to send an email from the Mail app on iPhone and iPad? Let us know in the comments below!

Updated October 2020: Updated for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.

When you send an email using the Mail app for iPhone, iPad, or Mac, it uses pre-saved autofill results to suggest addresses based on your recent messages. But "recent" can be relative: You might see an outdated address appear in the suggestion list even though you've updated the person's information in your Contacts app, or an address you don't recognize and don't want auto-populating. Luckily, there are a few ways to remove suggested contacts in Mail right on your iPhone or iPad, or by using your Mac or Windows PC. Here's what to do.

Why does Apple store these contacts?

When you receive an email, Apple stores the metadata for those contacts in the Mail section of your iCloud account even if you don't add them to your Contacts app. It does this so that you can quickly address new emails without having to either have the person in your contacts list or manually type out the entire address. The information is stored in metadata, which you can find while you're logged in to iCloud.com.

How to remove suggested contacts in Mail

If you have removed an email address from your Contacts app but it still appears when you address a new email message, you can remove it with just a few clicks or taps.

1. Open the Mail app.
2. Tap the Write mail icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.

3. Start typing a name.
4. Find the old contact when the list of suggested emails appears.
5. Tap the info icon next to the name.
6. Tap Remove from Recents.

You can also remove suggested contacts in Mail from your Mac or PC computer. It'll just take a few extra steps. Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to icloud.com on your web browser of choice.
2. Enter your login credentials (and two-factor information if you have it set up).
3. Click on the Mail app.

4. Select the Compose button in the upper right corner.
5. Type in the email address or contact name you wish to delete.
6. Mouse over the contact and press the red delete button.
7. Confirm by pressing Remove from Recents.

How to delete all contacts from recents in the Mail app on your Mac

You can use the following free tool from developer Sabri Haddouche to clear all your recent contacts, though it currently requires a bit of tech meddling in Safari's developer console.

1. Open Safari.
2. Go to the Safari menu from the menu bar.
3. Select Preferences.

4. Click on the Advanced tab. Make sure Show Developer Tools has been checked.

5. Go to icloud.com on your web browser of choice.
6. Enter your login credentials (and two-factor information if you have it set up).
7. Click on the Mail app.

8. Select the Compose button in the upper right corner.
9. Go to the Develop menu.
10. Select Show JavaScript Console.
11. Execute the code featured on Haddouche's Github repository to list all your contacts.
12. Use the delete code to remove all recent contacts.

How to update a contact with a new email address in the Mail app

If an old contact sends you an email with a new email address, or if you want to update the current information of your contacts, you can do it easily within the Mail app. Here's how!

1. Open the Mail app.
2. Tap the email with the new contact.
3. Tap the email address.

4. If you want to update the email address to a contact you already have, you can tap on Add to existing contacts and select a contact you already have.
5. If you just want to update the information of the same contact, tap on Update on the upper right corner of your screen.
6. Make all the changes you need and tap Done in the upper right corner of the screen.

Once added, the new email address will show up as a suggested option in autofill in the Mail app.

Anything else?

Is there anything more you want to know about removing recent contacts from the Mail app for iPhone? Add your questions below and we'll let you know.

Updated October 2020: Reflected latest iOS and macOS versions.

So you think you know how to use the Mail app? But do you know how to send photos or attachments on iPhone and iPad? Don't worry, it's actually easier than you might think. Just follow these steps.

How to insert a photo or video into an email in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad

Trying to send photos or attachments on iPhone and iPad can be tricky if you've never done it before. Fortunately, once you know what to do, it's a pretty straightforward process. Follow these steps:

1. Launch the Mail app from your iPhone or iPad's Home screen or app drawer.
2. Tap on the Compose button in the bottom right corner.
3. Type in the sender info, subject, and body fields just as you would for a normal email.

4. Tap in body. A menu will appear.
5. Choose the Photo icon.
6. Select the photo or video you'd like to insert. You'll see a preview of the image.
7. Tap the Send button in the upper right corner once you've finished writing your email.

How to add an attachment in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Mail app from your iPhone or iPad's Home screen or app drawer.
2. Tap on the Compose button in the bottom right corner.
3. Tap and type in the sender info, subject, and body fields just as you would for a normal email.

4. Tap in the body. A menu will appear.
5. Choose the Attachment icon.
6. Select the file you wish to send. You'll see a preview of the image.
7. Tap the Send button in the upper right corner once you've finished writing your email.

Congratulations! You can now send photos or attachments on iPhone and iPad without using a Mac or a laptop. You're one step closer to mastering Mail.

Any questions?

Still have questions about how to send photos or attachments on your iPhone or iPad? Let us know below.

Updated October 2020: Updated for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.

You might be using the Mail app, but there are many tricks you can learn to start using it like a pro. You can do all sorts of things, like managing your mailboxes, create VPI lists, and many other shortcuts that are easier to do on your iPhone than on your Mac. Here's how you can manage email and mailboxes in Mail for iPhone and iPad.

Here are a couple of ways that you can master your mailbox for your iPhone and iPad

How to mark an email as read or unread on iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Edit in the upper right corner.

3. Choose any email messages you'd like to mark as read.
4. Select Mark in the lower left corner.
5. Tap Mark as Read. If the messages you chose were already read, you can instead tap Mark as Unread.

How to flag an email message on iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Edit in the upper right corner of your screen.

3. Select the message(s) you'd like to flag.
4. Choose Mark in the lower left corner of your screen.
5. Tap Flag. If the messages you chose were already flagged, you can instead tap Unflag.

Once you have a message (or messages) flagged, a special Flagged mailbox will appear in your Mailboxes list. Tap on it to see a list of all your flagged messages.

How to add new mailboxes on iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Edit in the upper right corner of your screen.
3. Choose New Mailbox in the lower right corner of your screen.

4. Type a name for your mailbox in the Name field.
5. Tap the Mailbox Location field to attach your new folder to an account.
6. Choose a main mailbox in which you'd like to locate your new mailbox.
7. Select Save, followed by Done.

How to manage email and mailboxes in Mail for iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Choose the mailbox where the message you want to move is located.
3. Tap Edit.

4. Tap the message(s) you'd like to move.
5. Choose Move.
6. Select the mailbox to which you'd like to move the message(s).

How to add contacts to your VIP list on iPhone and iPad

For those you email often, you may want to add to your VIP list. By doing so, their messages are stored in a separate location in the Mail app, making them easier to find.

1. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Choose the VIP directly underneath your regular inbox.
3. Tap Add VIP.

4. Select a person from your Contacts list to add to the VIP list.
5. Choose Add VIP to add more.

Through the Notifications Settings, you can set custom alerts for VIP mail. To do so:

1. Tap VIP Alerts on the VIP List page.
2. Toggle on Allow Notifications at the top.
3. Make changes to Alerts, including Banner Style, Sounds, Badges, and how Show Previews are performed.

How to filter inboxes in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad

To better organize your emails, you can apply filters. In addition to the Unread/Read, Flagged/Unflagged options mentioned above, you can also filter by emails addressed directly or CC'd to you. You can also filter by only emails that have attachments or only emails from your VIP list. To help narrow it down even further, you can select which inboxes you want to be filtered.

1. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Choose your mail account under Mailboxes.
3. Tap an inbox (or tap All Inboxes).

4. Choose the Filter button in the bottom left corner of the screen. It looks like a circle with three lines inside of it.
5. Tap Filtered By in the bottom center of the screen.
6. Select the category you want to filter. You can filter by Unread, Flagged, To: Me, Cc: Me, Only Mail with Attachments, Only from VIP, and Only Mail Sent Today.
7. Tap Done in the upper right corner of the screen.

How to unsubscribe to mailing lists in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad

You can unsubscribe to mailing lists that you, for whatever the reason, are subscribed to. Instead of going through the rigamarole of tapping through a half-dozen web pages asking why you are leaving, you can unsubscribe in literally two taps.

1. Open the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Select an email from a mailing list that you don't want to receive anymore.
3. Tap Unsubscribe at the top of the email.
4. Choose Unsubscribe when prompted to confirm.

Questions?

Do you have questions about how to manage email and mailboxes in Mail for iPhone? Let us know in the comments below.

Updated October 2020: Includes iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 settings.

You might think using the Mail app on your Mac or MacBook has more advantages, and you're partially right. But there are tons of mail shortcuts for iPhone and iPad in the Mail app, sometimes it's easier and faster to control your emails. Try these gestures and start mastering your Mail app.

Quickly add Documents to your email

You can attach files to your mail messages by touching and holding the message to bring up the edit menu. Once it appears, tap the right arrow to get more options, then tap Add Document. You'll see your most recent documents, or you can also quickly browse your iPhone, or your iCloud folder.

Pull to refresh your Mailboxes

Pull-to-refresh, originally created by Loren Brichter for Tweetie, is now one of the most necessary and basic mail shortcuts for iPhone and iPad. Any time you want to check for new messages, just touch the mailbox screen and pull down until you see the refresh spinner.

Swipe to go back

Another system-wide gesture, any time you're in a message or mailbox, you can swipe from the left side of the screen to the right to go back to the mailbox the message is in, or the account the mailbox is in. It's especially handy for those with bigger phones.

Mark an email as unread

To quickly mark a message as read, touch it and swipe from left to right. To mark it as unread again, just repeat the gesture. You can swipe just far enough to see the big blue button, but if you keep swiping all the way across, you can skip the tap and really speed things up!

Quickly Flag and Archive an email

To quickly archive or flag a message, touch it and swipe from right to left. You can tap the red flag button to flag it, or the purple Archive button to delete it. You can also just swipe all the way across to save yourself a tap and send it straight to the Archive folder.

More options

When you touch and swipe a message from right to left, in addition to flag and archive, you can also tap the big gray More button for additional options, including reply all, forward, flag, mark as unread/read, move message, and notify me...

Hide the keyboard while writing an email

Sometimes, where you're responding to a message, you want to see more of it. Maybe you forgot the exact question you're trying to answer, or you want to refer to something specific. No matter the reason, all you have to do is touch the message above the keyboard and swipe down to hide it.

Stack multiple drafts at once

When composing a mail message, touch the title bar — where it says New Message — and swipe it down to temporarily store it as a draft while doing or checking something else. You can create a new draft and repeat the process to stack them. You can see your multiple draft cards open at a time, and tap them at the bottom of your screen in the Mail app to open them up to get a Rolodex interface just like tabs in Safari.

See your drafts instead or writing a new email

You can tap the compose button any time to start a new mail message, but if you tap-and-hold on the compose button, you'll be shown a list of your recent drafts so you can pick up right from where you left off.

Move an email address to a different field

If you have a contact in the To: field but you want to move it to CC: or BCC:, you don't have to delete and re-add it. Instead, just touch it and drag it right to where you want it.

How to change swipe settings in the mail app

Flaggin or Archiving your email is just one of the many options you have when you swipe an email left or right. You can customize these mail shortcuts for iPhone in the Mail app Settings. Here's How!

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap on Mail.

4. Tap on Swipe Left or Swipe Right and change the action.

Any questions?

Now you know more mail shortcuts for iPhone and iPad than ever. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below!

Updated October 2020 The post is up to date with the latest version of iOS.

Even after you've set your email account, there are still some changes you can make to get a handle of the Mail app. The best part is, you don't need to use a Mac or a MacBook. You can change email acount settings for iPhone or iPad right on your devices. Here's how!

How to set a default email account on your iPhone and iPad

One of the first things you'll want to do when you start to change email account settings for iPhone or your iPad is to set an email account as the default one. This can help you with things like sending an email from the right email address. Here's how you can do it.

1. Launch Settings from your Home screen.
2. Tap Mail.
3. Scroll down and tap Default Account.
4. Tap the account you would like to use as your default mail account.

Even though this change is made in a Contacts menu, your iPhone or iPad will remember which account is the default for sending emails.

How to switch between email accounts on your iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Mail app from your Home screen.
2. Tap the Compose button. It looks like a paper and pencil in the bottom right corner of your screen.
3. Tap the From field.
4. Tap the account from the picker that you would like to use.

Go ahead and write your message in the Message field. Your email will now be sent from the account you selected.

How to disable an email account on your iPhone and iPad

1. Launch Settings from your Home screen.
2. Scroll down and tap on Mail.
3. Tap on Accounts.

4. Select the email account you want to disable.
5. Toogle Mail off.

To enable this account again, you will simply toggle Mail back on.

How to delete an email account on your iPhone and iPad

1. Launch Settings from your Home screen.
2. Scroll down and tap on Mail.
3. Tap on Accounts.

4. Select the email account you want to delete.
5. Tap on Delete Account.
6. Tap Delete from My iPhone.

Any questions?

Congratulations! You've now mastered the basics of how to change email account settings for iPhone and iPad. Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments below!

Updated October 2020 The post is up to date with the latest version of iOS.

Many people only use Siri to do basic tasks, like quick Google searches, open some apps, or ask some jokes. But the truth is, Siri can make much more than that. Not only can Siri send emails, but it can also read your emails and even respond to them. Learn how to master use Siri to control the Mail app on your iPhone and iPad.

How to ask Siri to send a new email

Messaging with Siri is not limited to sending text messages; Siri can also send emails to individuals and multiple recipients.

1. Say "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
2. Tell Siri you want to send an email and, to save time, to whom. For example, "Send an email to Heather" or "Email Chris and Bobby."
3. Tap the email address to which you'd like to send a message if Siri gives you more than one option. Alternatively, you can say something like, "send an email to Leslie at work," and Siri will know where to send it.

4. Tell Siri the subject of the email. For example: "Apps", "Lunch", or "Vacation plans".
5. Tell Siri the contents of the email.
6. Wait for Siri to confirm the content of your messages.
7. Tap Send or say Yes to send your email.

8. If you're not happy with the email, instead of confirming it, say, "change subject", "add", or "change the message". You can also tell Siri to "cancel" to abandon the email entirely.

How to get Siri to read your unread emails

1. Say "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
2. Ask Siri to "Read my unread emails." Siri now checks for new emails and gives you a brief audio overview of them.
3. Tap on any email to view it directly in the Mail app.

You can also ask Siri to check for unread emails from a specific contact. For example, you could ask, "Do I have any new emails from Rick?"

How to ask Siri to respond to an email

1. Launch the Mail app from your home screen.
2. Tap on the Inbox.
3. Tap on the email message you want to respond to.

4. Say "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
5. Ask Siri to "Respond to this email".
6. Tell Siri what you would like the email to say.
7. Siri will ask you if you're ready to send the email. Say Yes so Siri can send it or tap on Send when you are done and happy with the email.

8. You can also respond to an email that Siri is reading to you. While the email subject is being read, press the microphone icon on your screen to activate Siri's listening mode and say, "Respond." Siri will automatically start a response to that email.

Can Siri send emails on your Mac?

In case you were wondering Siri can also help you write, read and respond to emails on your Mac computer. You can follow these exact same steps to use Siri in the Mail app on Mac.

Any questions?

If you're having trouble or need additional help with Siri or the Mail app, drop your questions in the comments!

Updated October 2020 The post is up to date with the latest version of iOS.

If you're looking to save an email as a PDF, the built-in Mail app is perfectly capable of doing so. It's filled with helpful tools for your everyday life so you don't need to consider a third-party app.

Crucially, thanks to its feature-rich bunch of options, it means you can easily save an email as a PDF on your iPhone or iPad without having to worry about digging out your Mac instead.  The process only takes a few minutes to complete and you can do it on as many emails as you need to save.

Not sure where to start? Don't worry. We're here to tell you all about what to do so you'll be ready with a bunch of PDFs in no time.

How to save an email as a PDF on iPhone and iPad

1. Click the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad
2. Tap the email message that you wish to save as a PDF.
3. Tap the action button which looks like a reply arrow. It's also used to reply to or forward email messages to other recipients.

4. Scroll down through the options, then tap Print to open the printer settings.
5. Pinch open the thumbnail image of the first page of your email.

6. Tap the Share button in the upper right corner of the screen.
7. Select the app you want to save or share your PDF-converted email to. In our example, the PDF is saved to iCloud.

The Mail app makes it easier than ever to save an email as a PDF. It also makes it simple to do a lot more with the newly created PDF. It's possible to send it to a nearby person using Dropbox, save it to your Notes app, copy it to Books, or simply forward it to someone else. You could even AirDrop it to a different device of yours if that's all you're aiming to do.

In many cases, third-party apps like DropBox, Messenger, and Slack also support the sharing and storing of PDF emails, further adding to your options. 

If you're the type of person who prefers to have more concrete (in a virtual sense) copies of things than just regular emails, being able to save key messages as PDFs can give you a lot more functionality and peace of mind.

The iPhone and iPad's built-in Mail app is, in many ways, fantastic. It's got many tools you can use on the go without having to depend on any Mac or laptop. That being said, it's not perfect. It's still has some issues that can make it annoying to use at times. And the connection errors in Mail are the perfect example of these issues. Fortunately, there's a fix for them. If you're plagued with any of these messages, here are some steps that can help you troubleshoot and resolve the problem in no time!

Step 1: Install the latest version of iOS or iPadOS

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap General.
3. Choose Software Update and follow the directions on the screen.

How to update your iPhone and iPad: The Ultimate Guide

Step 2: Force quit Mail and restart your device

Either or both of these steps are always worth a try, even if you can never be sure exactly what form of voodoo was employed to solve the problem.

To force quit Mail:

1. On iPhones and iPads with Face ID, open the app switcher by swiping up from the bottom of the screen and pausing until the app switcher appears. Otherwise, double-click the home button.
2. Touch and hold the Mail app, then swipe up on the Mail app so that it leaves the screen.

To restart your iPhone or iPad:

1. On iPhone X or later, press and hold either volume button and the side button until the power off slider appears. On the iPhone SE (2020), 8, 7, or 6, press and hold the side button until the power off slider appears. On other iPhones, press and hold the top button until the power off slider appears. To restart an iPad that has Face ID, press and hold either volume button and the top button until the power off slider appears. To restart an iPad that has a Home button, press and hold the top button until the power off slider appears.
2. Swipe to power off.
3. Restart by holding down the on/off button until the Apple logo appears.

Step 3: Be sure you have an active internet connection

Rare is the person who turns off the cellular connection on an iPhone, but it does happen. It might sound silly, but this could be the reason why you're getting those annoying connection errors in Mail. Perhaps you turned on Airplane Mode and forgot to turn it off, or you're creeping toward your monthly data limit and turned off cellular data to make sure you did not blow through the cap.

1. Tap Settings.
2. Make sure Airplane Mode is off.
3. Tap Cellular.
4. Make sure Cellular Data is on.

After you're sure cellular is turned on, you might be the victim of weak signal strength. In the status bar, you may see fewer bars or dots than usual, indicating a less-than-full-strength connection. Or, instead of LTE, you might see 4G or (worse) 3G in your iPhone's status bar.

In some cases, a prolonged cellular connection can cause a mail server to time out, resulting in a dreaded error message. If you can, try turning off mobile data and sending your messages via wi-fi to see if the cellular connection is the issue. Just don't forget to turn cellular data back on once you're back in a location where the signal strength won't cause more connection errors in Mail.

Step 4: Delete and re-add the problem account

If you're having problems with one of the common email accounts that iOS can configure itself (e.g., iCloud, Google, Yahoo), your best solution may be to delete the account and re-add it. The email provider may have made some changes behind the scenes that aren't reflected in your account. Deleting the account and re-adding it will make the account settings current.

1. Choose Settings.
2. Scroll down, tap on Mail.
3. Tap on Accounts.

4. Select the email account that is having trouble connecting.
5. Tap Delete Account.
6. Tap Delete from My iPhone.

1. Choose Settings.
2. Scroll down, tap on Mail.
3. Tap on Accounts.
4. Select Add Account and follow the directions and provide the username and password for your email account.

Step 5: Manually configure your account

Every once in a while, your iOS device may lose track of an email account password, perhaps after restoring data and settings from a backup. In most cases, you should be prompted to reenter the password for the mail account. Except for some optional password fields for mail servers that send mail, recent updates to iOS have removed the ability to enter email passwords and other settings for standard email accounts (that is, those in the list of standard accounts, such as iCloud, Google, Yahoo, etc.)

But if you set up an email account using some "Other" service with a custom domain, take a look at the account settings and make sure no password fields are blank. If they are, plug in your password. You'll also need to do this any time you change the password for the account.

1. Choose Settings.
2. Scroll down, tap on Mail.
3. Tap on Accounts.
4. Select the email account you want to configure.

5. Tap the email address for the account.
6. Enter any missing password, if applicable.

Depending on who your email provider is, you'll need to check their website and FAQ for information on configuring POP and IMAP accounts on your iPhone or iPad manually. You can typically perform a Google search containing your email provider's name (such as Comcast) and then the words mail setup iPhone iPad to get the results you need. Make a note of the names of incoming and outgoing mail servers as well as port numbers, authentication protocols, and whether or not the mail server uses Secure Socket Layers (SSL) in case you need to enter this information.

Step 6: Contact your email provider

If you're still getting connection errors in Mail and can't get your email working correctly on your iPhone or iPad, it's time to contact your email provider or system administrator. If a hosting company provides the account you're using, contact it directly. If you have an account that was given to you for work, you most likely have a system administrator or IT help desk you can contact.

Your tips for troubleshooting iPhone and iPad mail errors?

If you've encountered any weird errors with the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad, what were they and how did you manage to solve them? Be sure to let me know in the comments!

Updated October 2020: Updated for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.

If you're like me and many people, you use the Mail app for everything work-related, and there's nothing wrong with that. Your email is such an important tool, especially now that working from home has become more common. However, it can be tricky to keep your Mail app organized. If you get many emails a day, you'll need to find a system to declutter your digital workspace. Enter the flagging feature. You can flag emails on iPhone and iPad to organize them and give them a priority to know what's urgent and what can wait.

There are many ways to flag emails on iPhone and iPad. Here's what you need to do:

Why should you flag emails?

Flags are simply a means of marking messages. Why would you flag a message? Here are a few reasons:

• As a reminder to come back to the message later and follow up on something in it.
• To mark a message that applies to a particular project or topic.
• To mark time-sensitive messages.

How to flag emails on iPhone and iPad

It's really easy to flag emails on iPhone and iPad. You just need to follow a few steps:

1. Open the Mail App.
2. Open any email message. It can be located in any mailbox, not just the inbox.
3. Tap the Action button. It looks like a reply arrow.

4. Tap Flag.
5. Choose the color of the Flag you want to use.

1. Open the Mail app.
2. Select the email message you want to flag.
3. Instead of entering, swipe the email to the left.
4. Tap on Flag

Flagging emails can take too much time if you're doing it individually. Fortunately, you can flag several emails at once right on your iPhone and iPad. It's straightforward to do!

1. Open the Mail app.
2. On your Mailbox or Inbox, tap on Edit in the top right corner.
3. Select all the emails you want to flag.
4. Tap on Mark on the bottom left corner.
5. Now tap on Flag

Display the flagged emails on iPhone and iPad

Built into Mail is a Flagged mailbox that will present all flagged email messages from all your mailboxes, which is super-convenient.

If it doesn't already appear in your list of mailboxes, here's how to display it.

1. Open the Mail App.
2. Tap on Mailboxes on the top left corner
3. On the list of mailboxes, tap Edit.
4. Tap the circle for the Flagged mailbox.

5. Tap Done.
6. Tap the Flagged mailbox to see all the messages you've flagged.

Congratulations! Now you can flag emails on your iPhone and organize your emails with just a few taps. You're ready to master your Mail app.

Raise the Flag

What uses have you found for flagging email messages? Let us know in the comments below.

Updated October 2020: Updated for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.

Long gone are the days when you needed your Mac to customize your email the way you liked it. Now you can set up Mail on your iPhone or iPad, with a couple of taps. The best part is, there are all sorts of ways to customize your accounts and make them your own. There are a lot of useful features that you can find if you manage Mail settings for iPhone and iPad.

That includes how they're previewed, what swipe actions do, the style of flags displayed, how threading works, your email signature, and more!

How to get a notification when someone replies to your email

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
2. Tap on Notifications. Scroll up until you find Mail.
3. Tap on Mail.
4. Select on the switch beside Allow Notifications. This will turn it from gray to green.

5. Tap the on the **email address* you wish to adjust.
6. Tap on Sounds.
7. Select the sound you'd like to have.

You can choose to adjust and customize your notifications to add sounds, notifications in the notification center, badge app icons, or to have notifications appear on your lock screen.

How to manage email accounts

Before you can manage Mail settings for iPhone and make changes to any of your email accounts, you need to know where to look.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Scroll down in the Settings menu until you see Mail.
3. Tap on Accounts
4. Tap on the email account you want to manage.

How to change preview lines

The number of preview lines lets you choose between more text per message, or squeezing in more messages. Choose the amount that's right for you.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Choose Preview and select the number of lines to change the Mail preview display.

How to Show To/Cc labels

If who sent or who was copied on an email isn't vital first-glance information for you, you can hide it and then expand it only when/if you really want to see it. Otherwise, you can make sure it's always visible immediately.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Show To/Cc Labels so that it turns green.

How to change swipe options

Swipe gestures make it super fast to triage your email, especially on the go. Pick the options that best match how you use email.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap Swipe Options.

4. Tap Swipe Left or Swipe Right to adjust the slide options.
5. Tap Flag or Move Message to set the slide direction.

How to toggle Ask Before Deleting

Ever delete an email by accidentally tapping in the wrong place? You can force iOS to ask before deleting a message or, if that's too slow, make sure it deletes immediately.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Ask Before Deleting so that it turns green.

How to Load Remote Images

Remote images are pictures store on the server that make email better looking or more informative, but also take time and bandwidth to download. They can also sometimes contain tracking pixels, so newsletters or deal mails know, for example, that you've opened the email.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Load Remote Images so that it turns green.

How to organize emails by thread

Some people want all their individual emails shown in chronological order. Others want all emails from the same conversation grouped together. Pick the option that works best for you.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Organize by Thread so that it turns green.

How to Collapse Read Messages

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Collapse Read Messages so that it turns green.

How to move a thread's most recent message to the top

Threads can be convenient but also confusing. Sometimes, in a conversation, you lose track of which message was the most recent. If you want to, though, you can make sure the latest message is always on top.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Most Recent Message on Top so that it turns green.

How to turn complete threads on and off

To save space, you can choose only to see the latest messages in a thread. If you want to see all of them, all the time, there's an option for that.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Complete Threads so that it turns green.

How to turn Always Bcc Myself on and off

Want to makes sure you always get sent a copy of your own email? It's not just for POP email anymore; you can get a blind copy every time.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Always Bcc Myself so that it turns green.

How to mark addresses

If you want to make sure you're sending an email from or to people at a specific domain — for example, if I want to make sure I'm sending from my futurenet.com address to my colleagues at futurenet.com, I can have iOS mark (i.e., highlight) those addresses. It's a way to avoid mistakingly sending from or to the wrong address or people.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap Mark Addresses.
4. Type the type of address you would like to mark.

How to turn Increase Quote Level on and off

Email has evolved to include a quote system that tries to distinguish your reply from their reply from the previous reply... and so on. One quote level is the previous message, two the message before that, three — you get the idea. If you need to make it clear who said what, you can adjust the quote level to make it super obvious.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap Increase Quote Level
4. Tap the switch next to Increase Quote Level so that it turns green.

How to set your signature

Want to make sure all your emails finish with your preferred flourish? Add a signature!

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen
2. Tap Mail. You may have to scroll a little to find it.
3. Tap Signature.
4. Add your new signature.

Any Questions?

Is there anything you would like to learn about how to manage Mail settings for iPhone or iPad? Let us know in the comments below!

Updated October 2020 The post is up to date with the latest version of iOS.

You might wonder why you'd need to disable image loading on your mail. Well, the answer is simple: Advertisers and spammers are getting smarter each day. And they love sending emails with images on them. At best, it's just an annoying email offering a product you don't need. At worst, someone could use these images to detect when the email is opened and potentially collect other information. To protect your devices from snoopers, you can disable image loading in your favorite mail app on both your computer and mobile device.

How to disable image loading in Gmail

In Gmail, you have the choice of always having email images load or disable image loading automatically, and having the system ask you before doing so.

1. On your computer, log into your Gmail account.
2. Click on the Settings wheel at the top right.
3. Select See all settings.

4. Under the Images section, click the Always display external images toggle.
5. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen.

1. On your computer, log into your Gmail account.
2. Click on the Settings wheel at the top right.
3. Select See all settings.

4. Under the Images section, click the Ask before displaying external images toggle.
5. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen.

When Ask before displaying external images is selected, Gmail disables dynamic email. When activated, at least through the web, you can complete specific tasks without leaving a message, such as filling out surveys or responding to comments.

1. Click on an email with remote images.
2. Select Display Images Below.
3. Click Always Display Images From to enable pictures to display automatically on future messages from this contact.

If you mainly use your iPhone or iPad to check your mails, you might want to disable image loading right from the Gmail app. Here's what you need to do:

1. Open the Gmail app.
2. Tap the Menu on the top left corner.
3. Scroll down and select Settings.

4. If you have multiple Gmail accounts, you'll need to select the email address you want to change.
5. Tap on Images.
6. Select Ask before displaying external images.

How to disable image loading in Apple Mail on Mac

Regardless of your email provider, you can disable image loading in the Mail app on your Mac:

1. Open the Mail app on your computer.
2. Click Mail on the Mac Toolbar.
3. Select Preferences under Mail.

4. Click the Viewing tab at the top of the screen.
5. Uncheck Load remote content in messages.

You can check the box to enable image loading once again.

On an email-to-email basis, you can still load remote content in the Mail app on Mac:

1. On those emails, click Load remote content at the top of the screen.

You can now see the remote content on the email.

How to disable image loading in Mail on iPhone and iPad

To disable image loading from your iPhone or iPad, follow these steps:

1. Tap the Settings app on your mobile device.
2. Scroll down and select Mail.
3. Toggle off Load Remote Images under Messages.

To see images on these emails:

1. Tap on the email in the iOS Mail app.
2. Select Load All Images at the top of the email.

How to disable image loading in Outlook on Mac

Much like you can do on the native Apple Mail app on Mac, you can also disable image loading on the official Outlook app.

By default, images aren't loaded on emails in Outlook. To change this:

1. Go into the Outlook for Mac app.
2. Click on Microsoft Outlook on the Toolbar.
3. Select Preferences.

4. Click Reading under Email.
5. Under Security, click Never so pictures aren't automatically downloaded from the internet. You can also select In all messages and In messages from my contacts, depending on your preference.

To see images on these emails:

1. Click on the email in the Outlook app for Mac
2. Select Load All Images at the top of the email.
3. Choose Download pictures.

To view images on the official Outlook iOS app:

1. Tap on an email in the app.
2. Tap Download Images at the top of an email.

How to disable image loading in other email programs

If you're using another email system on Mac or through the web, you can disable image loading by looking into the settings for that service. Most likely, this is listed as Settings or Preferences.

For a more straightforward approach, use the Apple Mail app for Mac for all of your email accounts. However, if you're not into the Mail app, you can always use other mail apps. Here are our top picks for the best mail apps for Mac..

Questions?

Let us know in the comments below!

Update October 2020: Added new details about the Gmail app on the iPhone and iPad on iOS 14.

On the Mac, you can use Mail's preferences to create multiple rich signatures that contain stylized text in different colors, images, links, and even your vCard, and assign them at will to different email messages and separate accounts.

The Mail app on iOS doesn't offer anywhere near as many options, but you can set up separate signatures for each email account you have, and you can include a rich HTML signature. If you want to change signatures on iPhone or iPad, you can do it without any hassle. You just got to do the following.

How to change signatures on iPhone or iPad for each email account

Out of the box, every email account created on an iPhone or iPad defaults to the signature, "Sent from my iPhone" or "Sent from my iPad," respectively. However, you can do much more than that. If a simple plain-text signature works for you, here's how to change signatures on iPhone or iPad.

1. Tap the Settings apps.
2. Scroll down, choose Mail.
3. Scroll down, select Signature.

4. Tap Per Account. Notice each of your email accounts can now have a separate signature.
5. Type a new signature, when applicable.
6. Tap Mail.

Your new signature will be included at the bottom of all new email messages you create.

How to create rich HTML signatures on your iPhone and iPad

Although Mail on iOS can display rich HTML email messages, you can't do much more than add bold, italics, and underlines to message text. There is, however, a way to enhance your signature with rich HTML formatting. You can use any app that can create rich HTML text, but probably the easiest way to do this is to use the rich text signature from the email app on your computer.

• How to create rich HTML email signature on your iPhone and iPad

Once you've created an HTML signature on your Mac or another device:

1. Send yourself an email that includes your rich HTML signature.
2. On your iOS device, tap Mail.
3. Open your inbox.
4. Tap the email message to open it.

5. Select the signature and tap Copy.
6. Switch to your Home screen and tap Settings.
7. Tap Mail.
8. Choose Signature.

9. Tap and hold the existing signature, then choose Select All.
10. Tap Paste. When you paste your signature, Mail will automatically strip it of your original formatting.
11. Select Mail to save the new signature.

Your new signature will be included in any email messages from that email account. As a bonus, if your signature consists of an email address or phone number, you'll be able to send an email to that address or dial that number by tapping it.

If you don't want to do all these steps to get a rich HTML signature, you can always try another mail app for your iPhone or iPad. Here's our list on the best email apps for iPhone and iPad.

Questions?

Let us know if you have any questions about email signatures in the comments below.

Updated October 2020: Updated for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.

What you need to know

• A major bug has been discovered in iOS 14.
• Restarting your iPhone apparently resets your default browser and mail app choices back to Apple's own apps.
• Multiple users have reported the issue.

Reported by CNET, one of Apple's big features of iOS 14 is being rendered difficult to use when you restart your iPhone. According to reports from multiple users, restarting your iPhone removes your default app selections for the browser and mail app.

According to the reports, users have been able to set their default browser to Chrome or another third party as their default mail app. However, when they restart their phone, both defaults are set back to Apple's own Safari and Mail app.

According to Maria Henyk on Twitter, developers are recommending that people delete Apple's Mail app as a way to ensure that their third-party app stays the default.

Of course, if you need the Mail app as well, this workaround isn't too useful. This also isn't even an option for those trying to use a different browser, as Safari is unable to be fully deleted on the iPhone.

Bugs are expected when new software hits millions of users, so hopefully, Apple will be quick to react and patch this issue.

If you use Apple's Mail app on your Mac, you've probably had times when the application slows down. Messages in mailboxes are slow to appear; searches take longer than usual to perform. This can happen when Mail's mailboxes (or folders, if you prefer) accumulate thousands of messages — which is all the more likely if you're among the majority of the human population and you don't discard old email.

The best thing you can do is be ruthless with old email. Once you're finished with a message, move it to the trash and then empty the trash every so often. Try to think about it this way. We all receive tons of junk mail in our physical mailboxes — advertising circulars from the local supermarket, catalogs, credit card applications. If you don't save any of that stuff, why would you hold on to old email, particularly when it takes less effort to press the delete key than it does to carry paper-based mail to the recycle bin?

Still, some of us accumulate email that is valuable and merits keeping. That's fine, too, but over time it still may slow the Mail app down.

Lucky for all of us, there's a solution to the slowdown.

Scripting to the Rescue

There's a built-in tool on your Mac called vacuum that you can use to clean up the database that stores all of your emails. The vacuum command copies the contents of your mail database to a temporary file and rebuilds it so that it uses less space on your disk. The vacuum command eliminates gaps, defragments the data, and cleans up the database file structure.

Normally, the vacuum command is accessible only through the Mac's command-line interface using an app such as Terminal. But thanks to the wonder of Automator, an app that ships with your Mac, you can create a simple three-step script that will run the vacuum tool. And you don't have to know how to write a script, use the command line, or even understand how the vacuum tool works.

Here's how to do it.

First Things First

Apple has been improving the security of macOS every year. One of Apple's more recent security features is called Full Disk Access, introduced with macOS 10.14 Mojave. Normally applications do not have the ability to access all the files on your Mac, including data from other apps. Enabling Full Disk access for an application grants that app the ability to fiddle with data from other apps.

To make this Automator script work properly with macOS Mojave or macOS Catalina, you'll need to enable Full Disk Access for Automator. Here's how:

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

2. Click Security & Privacy.

3. Click Privacy.

4. If the preference pane is locked, click the lock to make changes. When prompted, enter the user name and password you use to log in to your Mac.

5. Click Full DIsk Access.

6. In the list that appears on the right side of the Privacy window, check the box for Automator.

7. Click the lock to prevent further changes.

Meet Otto

Open the Automator app which is located in your Mac's Applications folder. Its icon looks like a robot refugee from Earth, circa 2805.

1. In the Finder, choose Go.
2. Click on Applications.

3. In the Applications window that appears, locate the Automator app and double-click it to open it.
4. In the window that appears, click New Document.

5. In the sheet that appears, click Workflow.
6. Click Choose.An empty Automator document will open. To build our Automator script, we will drag actions from the left side of the window to the right side. As a first step, we want to quit the Mail app if it is open to make sure Mail's database does not change while we are cleaning it up.

7. In the search field type the word quit.
8. Drag and drop the action named Quit Application to the right side of the window.

9. From the pop-up menu in the Quit Application action, choose Mail.
10. Clear the search field above the list of actions and type the word run.

11. Drag and drop the action named Run Shell Script beneath the Quit Application action.
12. In the empty field in the middle of the Run Shell Script action, copy and paste the command below that corresponds to the version of macOS that is running on your Mac. Don't forget the semi-colon at the end of the line.
    • For Snow Leopard (10.6): sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index vacuum;
    • For Lion (10.7), Mountain Lion (10.8), Mavericks (10.9), or Yosemite (10.10): sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
    • For El Capitan (10.11): sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V3/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
    • For Sierra (10.12): sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V4/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
    • For High Sierra (10.13): sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V5/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
    • For Mojave (10.14): sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V6/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
    • For Catalina (10.15): sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V7/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;

13. Clear the search field above the list of actions and type the word launch.
14. Drag and drop the action named Launch Application to the right side of the window beneath the Run Shell Script action.

15. From the pop-up menu in the Launch Application action, choose Mail. The script is now complete, but you'll need to save it.
16. Click on File in the Menu bar.
17. Choose Save.

18. In the sheet that appears, give your workflow a name, and pick a place to save your new Automator script.

To run your new workflow, just open it with Automator and click the Run button in the upper right corner of the script's window. If Mail is running, it will quit, the script will run, and Mail will re-open with a rebuilt database behind the scenes which should lead to improved performance.

Hoover it Up!

Has this easy-to-make Automator action helped with your Mail slowdowns? Let us know in the comments below.

What you need to know

• Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk claims his email system was disrupted by an update from Apple.
• Musk complained about the software changes during the Satellite 2020 conference.
• While he didn't offer specifics, Apple's iOS 13 was widely criticized for having a number of bugs at the time of launch.

Apple launched iOS 13 back in September 2019, and while many were excited about the introduction of a system-wide Dark Mode, that excitement was soon dampened due to an overwhelming number of bugs found in the software. After updating, many iPhone users, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, noticed apps had become a little unstable.

During an interview at the recent Satellite 2020 conference, Musk recalled his experience with Apple's update while answering a question on the importance of software and the role it plays in his projects, according to a report from Business Insider.

The interviewer mentioned a previous comment Musk made regarding the gradual decay of technology, before asking the CEO whether he thought this would impact his Mars mission since much of the technology involved is powered by both hardware and software. Musk quickly responded to clarify the comment but ended up taking a tiny jab at Apple in the process.

Musk didn't offer much else about his experience with the buggy software, but he did go on to stress the importance of constantly hiring fresh talent in the tech industry.

The full interview is below. You can watch the entire thing or just skip ahead to the 13:00 minute mark to hear Musk discuss his email issues.

What you need to know

• Apple says it is aware of an email encryption bug in macOS Catalina.
• It plans to fix the problem in a future update.
• The problem meant that in certain cases, emails were being stored locally as unencrypted files.

Apple has said it is aware of an email encryption bug in macOS Catalina, and that it plans to fix the problem in a future update.

As reported by The Verge, a vulnerability was discovered by Apple IT-specialist Bob Gendler in Apple's Mail application for macOS. Whilst exploring how macOS and Siri curates information to suggest to users, he discovered that Mail and other apps store information which Siri uses to tailor its suggestions. One file, snippets.db, was apparently storing unencrypted text of emails that should have been encrypted. Even after removing the private key so as to prevent him reading encrypted emails, he found that the text of the email could still be viewed in snippets.db. The problem reportedly affects Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, and Sierra.

According to the report:

The Verge also notes that the issue, whilst concerning, may have only affected a very small number of people.

You can stop Siri collecting emails in snippets.db by going to System Preference > Siri > Siri Suggestions and Privacy > Mail. Simply unselect "Learn From this App." Gendler suggests that this will not remove any older emails that may have already been stored, those will need to be deleted manually. Turning on FileVault will also ensure everything on your Mac is encrypted.

As The Verge notes, this vulnerability won't affect many people but does call into question Apple Mail's encryption. Gendler also said:

There is no indication as to a timeline for Apple's fix, so if you're concerned about this bug just now, FileVault and Siri's Privacy settings are the way to go.

What you need to know

• Apple moved the trash icon in iOS 13's Mail app.
• It's now where the button to replay to an email used to be.
• Can you guess what people keep doing by mistake?

Apple does sometimes like to make changes to its core apps. And when it does, you can be sure that there will be people who don't like it. But sometimes it's more than a preference thing. Sometimes it causes real issues. Like moving the trash icon in iOS 13's Mail app.

As NBC News (via Cult of Mac) noticed, plenty of people have taken to Twitter to complain that they're accidentally deleting emails when they try to reply to them. Why? Because the trash icon is now where the button to reply to emails used to be.

Sure enough, people are accidentally deleting emails when they try to reply to them. And beause they've been pressing the same area of the screen to reply to emails for a while, they just can't quite quit.

That's muscle memory for you!

It's not just a few people, either. Twitter seems to be full of people accidentally deleting emails. Tons of them, in fact.

Apple presumably had its reasons for the change and ultimately people will get used to the new button placement. But this is another reminder to interface designers everywhere that a change you might think is a relatively minor, probably isn't to your users.

What you need to know

• Apple Support has released two new how-to videos to its YouTube channel
• The videos focus on features built into the Mail app on iOS 13
• Learn how to block an email address and how to add a photo to your email

The Apple Support YouTube channel is a great place to pick up some tips on how to take your Apple devices and the software on them to the next level, and they have just updated it with a couple of new videos today. Both of the videos are how-tos designed to help you make more out of the built in Mail app on iOS.

The first how-to video shows you how to block a sender's email address. Spam mail, or any mail you don't want to receive, is a problem that we all have to deal with. While Apple does have some filtering that help automatically sort certain mail directly to the junk folder, you have the ability to block mail from an email address manually as well. The video instructs you how to mark an email address as blocked and what to do with emails from that sender.

The second video teaches you how to attach a photo to an email you are composing. The way to do this has changed with iOS 13, so this should help those who noticed that things have changed when it comes to attachments in the Mail app.

Both of these videos show off nice features of the new Mail app in iOS 13 and will not only help you get less unwanted mail, but send better looking mail as well.

The official Mail app is perhaps the most used software title on macOS. To maximize your Mail experience, you should consider customizing your email settings. Here are the ways you can customize the email app on Mac.

Check for new messages frequency

You can adjust the Mail app to check for new emails automatically, according to a schedule, or manually. With a schedule, you can decide how much time should pass before the system looks for new mail again.

1. In the app, click on Mail in the macOS menu bar.
2. From the Mail pulldown menu, select Preferences.
3. Click on the pulldown to the right of Check for new messages.

Your choices are: Automatic, Every minute, every 5 minutes, every 10 minutes, every 30 minutes, every hour, or Manual.

By default, the system checks for new mail automatically. You may want to change this setting if you don't want to be disturbed by receiving further emails, have a slow connection or some other issue.

Change new message sound

When you receive a new message in Mail, you can get a sound alert on your Mac. To adjust this setting:

1. Select Mail from the Mail menu bar.
2. Click on Preferences.
3. Go to the General tab.
4. Click on the pulldown to the right of New messages sound.

You can select from a list of over 10 built-in sounds. You can hear a sample by clicking on them.

Change new message notifications

Perhaps you don't want to be alerted when every new email arrives. Instead, you only want to know when new emails arrive from specific individuals or groups.

1. Select Mail from the Mail menu bar.
2. Click on Preferences.
3. Go to the General tab.
4. Click on the pulldown to the right of New message notifications.

Your choices are Inbox Only (the default), VIPs, Contacts, or All Mailboxes.

With VIPs selected, you'll only get alerted when your most important contacts send emails. By contrast, when Contacts is selected, you'll receive a notification every time any of your contacts sends a message. With All Mailboxes, you'll receive notifications whenever a new (but unopened) message is dropped into any folder in Mail.

Change dock unread count

By default, the unread email count on the macOS dock is based on the number of unread messages in the Inbox. However, you can change this -- at least slightly.

1. Select Mail from the Mail menu bar.
2. Click on Preferences.
3. Go to the General tab.
4. Click on the pulldown to the right of Dock unread count.

Your choices are Inbox or All Mailboxes. Selecting the latter means you'll see a count of all unread emails across all the folders in Mail -- including your junk folders.

You can turn the unread count off completely by doing the following:

1. Click on System Preferences in the macOS dock.
2. Select Notifications
3. Click on Mail on the left side of the screen.
4. Uncheck Badge app icon.

Make the Mail app more your own by using its built-in customization tools.

Enhance your Mac with these solutions

Your Mac could be even more useful with one of our favorite accessories.

Das Keyboard 4 Professional ($169 at Amazon)

If you're more into mechanical keyboards, the Das Keyboard 4 should be what you're looking for, with options available for Cherry MX Blue or Brown switches. There's even an option for RGB backlighting, as well as media keys with a built-in volume knob.

Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones ($350 at Amazon)

These over-ear headphones provide a significant sound alternative to AirPods while being just about as easy to use. Like the AirPods, connect easily to your Apple devices thanks to the built-in W1 chip, which allows the pairing to sync across devices logged into iCloud.

Questions?

Let us know in the comments below if you have any more Mail tips or have questions about the email app in general!

If you use the Mail app on your Mac for work, or just want more security in your messages, then you will want to look at encrypting them. But how do you do this in Mail for Mac? It's a little complex, but we'll show you how to do so in this guide.

• How do I obtain a personal certificate?
• How to send digitally signed and encrypted emails on Mail for Mac
• How to receive digitally signed and encrypted emails on Mail for Mac

How do I obtain a personal certificate?

Before you are able to start sending and receiving encrypted emails, you will need to have a personal certificate in your Keychain. To get one, do the following:

1. Launch Keychain Access on your Mac (Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access).

2. Click Keychain Access in the menubar.
3. Hover over Certificate Assistant and click Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority.

4. Fill out the request form with your own information.
   • For CA Email Address, you should check services like VeriSign, Inc. or RSA Data Security Inc. These are companies that verify the identities of computers on a network and issues certificates.
5. Choose whether or not you want the certificate emailed to the CA or Saved to Disk.
6. Click Continue.

7. If you chose Saved to Disk, specify the location to save to.
8. Locate the certificates and open them with Certificate Assistant.

9. Select the Issuing CA from the drop-down menu.
   • You can choose to override the defaults if need be.
10. Click Continue.

11. Select the Create a certificate for yourself option.
12. Click Continue.

13. Double check the information, and then click Create.
    • You should select Self Signed Root as the default.
    • Certificate type should be S/MIME (Email).

14. It will prompt you for confirmation. Click Continue.
15. Your certificate has been created, so click Done.

Once you create your certificate, it is automatically added to Keychain.

How do I send digitally signed and encrypted emails on Mail for Mac

When you have your certificate, it means that your recipients can verify you as the sender, adding another layer of security. However, to send encrypted messages, the recipient's certificate must be in your keychain.

1. Launch Mail on your Mac.
2. Click on the Compose button, or File > New Message to create a new message.

3. In the From field, click and choose the email account that you have a personal certificate for in your keychain.
4. In the subject line, there will be a checkmark box at the end on the account with a certificate. Click the checkmark button to turn on your digital signature.

5. Address the email message to your recipients.
   • The Encrypted symbol (closed lock) will appear next to the Signed icon if you have a certificate for every single recipient that the message is being addressed to.
   • If you do not have the certificate for all recipients, then the message must be sent unencrypted.

How to receive digitally signed and encrypted emails on Mail for Mac

Again, remember that you need to provide senders with your own verified certificate in order to receive encrypted messages.

Mail for Mac has a Security field in the header area that indicates whether a message is signed or encrypted.

• For signed messages, you will see a signed icon (checkmark) in the header. If you need to, just click the icon to view certificate details.
  • Messages that are altered after they've been signed will have issues with verification.

• For encrypted messages, a lock icon appears in the header. If you have your private key in Keychain, the message will be decrypted for viewing. Otherwise, it won't be decrypted.

Always have these necessities on-hand

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB ($50 at Amazon)

You should always be backing up your computer. This Seagate portable drive goes up to 5TB in space and will work flawlessly with your Mac. It's highly affordable, so there's no reason why you shouldn't be backing up regularly. Keep your certificate copies on this secure drive!

Gesture-based email ($99 at Amazon)

The Magic Trackpad lets you swipe and tap away with ease! This will help make managing your email easier due to easily accessible gestures.

Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad ($139 at Amazon)

If you're going to be dealing with email all day, then make sure you have the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. It comes in the awesome space gray color, and the number pad makes it easier to type in numbers when you need them.

Questions?

Having digital signatures and encryption on email may seem like a lot of extra work, but if you want security and peace of mind when it comes to important email messages, then it's the best way. After all, who wants just anyone to see their top secret plans and whatnot?

Any questions, drop them in the comments and we'll do our best to help.

Whether we like it or not, email is an important necessity for us in terms of communicating with others, especially for work and other professional settings. A lot of us probably also have multiple email accounts (one personal, one work, etc.), and one way to help differentiate what email address we're sending mail from is to have an email signature. Setting one up is easy in the Mail app on Mac, and we're going to show you everything you need to know in this guide.

• How to create a signature
• How to delete a signature
• How to automatically add a signature to emails
• How to add signatures to emails yourself
• How to remove a signature from emails

How to create a signature

1. Launch the Mail app on your Mac.
2. In the Menu Bar, click Mail.
3. Select Preferences (or press ⌘, on the keyboard).
4. Click the Signatures tab.

5. In the left column, select the email account you want to create a signature for.
6. Click the + button underneath the middle column.
7. Give a name for the signature that you're about to create.
   • This name will appear in the Signature pop up menu when you write a message.

8. In the right column (the preview area), you can create your signature.
   • You can use the Edit and Format menu items in Mail to change things like Font or Layout, turn text into links, and check spelling.
   • Images can be added by dragging-and-dropping into the Preview area.
   • You can choose to have your signature match the default message font.
   • You can choose to have your signature appear above quoted text when replying or forwarding messages by checking the box.

How to delete a signature

1. Launch the Mail app on your Mac.
2. In the Menu Bar, click Mail.
3. Select Preferences (or press ⌘, on the keyboard).
4. Click the Signatures tab.

5. In the left column, select the email account that your signature is in, or check All Signatures.
6. Click on the signature in the middle column that you want to delete.
7. Click on the Remove (-) button underneath the middle column.
8. Confirm that you want to delete the signature.

If you were in All Signatures, the deleted signature is removed from all email accounts that were using it.

How to automatically add a signature to emails

1. Launch the Mail app on your Mac.
2. In the Menu Bar, click Mail.
3. Select Preferences (or press ⌘, on the keyboard).
4. Click the Signatures tab.

5. In the left column, select an email account.
6. Click in the Choose Signature drop down menu at the bottom of the Signature Preferences.
7. Select the name of the signature that you want to use.
   • There is also the option for Random or Sequential Order if you have several signatures to rotate between.

If you change your mind later and don't want to automatically add a signature, just select None from the Choose Signature drop-down menu.

How to add signatures to emails yourself

1. Launch the Mail app on your Mac.
2. Click on the Compose button or press ⌘N on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Signature pop-up menu in the Compose window (in the same line as From).
4. Choose your signature.

How to remove a signature from emails

1. Launch the Mail app on your Mac.
2. Click on the Compose button or press ⌘N on your keyboard.

3. Click on the Signature pop-up menu in the Compose window (in the same line as From).
4. Select None for your signature, or select the signature text and press Delete on the keyboard.

Questions?

That's all there is to it behind making a custom signature in Mail on your Mac. If you need more help with signatures, drop a comment below and we'll do our best to help you out!

Markup is one of the more useful little tools that Apple has brought to iOS and macOS in recent years. It's great for making notes on your own documents, but it can be especially useful for files that you send to others. Whether it's a PDF document, a photo, or something else, adding your own thoughts to an existing file can be very helpful to other people viewing it.

One of the more useful aspects of the Markup tools in macOS is that you can use them right before you send someone an attachment via email, right from the Mail app. Whether you need to write out some notes, highlight something with shapes, or zoom in on a particular detail, you can do that all without heading to another app.

Here's how to mark up email attachments in Mail for Mac.

How to mark up attachments in Mail for Mac

1. Open Mail from your Dock or Applications folder.
2. Click the Compose New Message button.

3. Fill out the recipient details for your email.
4. Click the Attach button.

5. Click on a file to attach.
6. Click Choose File.

7. Click the arrow that appears when you hover over the attachment.
8. Click Markup.

9. Click on one of the following Markup tools:
   • Sketch: Add freehand drawings or markings to your document.
   • Shapes: Add shapes like rectangles, ovals, lines, and arrows.
   • Zoom: Magnify select portions of your attachment
   • Text: Add text to your attachment
   • Sign: Add your signature to a document
10. Mark up your attachment using your chosen tool.

11. Click Done.

You can now finish your email or just send the attachment as you would any other email message.

Apple AirPods ($160 at Apple)

These earphones will connect easily and wirelessly to your Mac, and can quickly switch between your various Apple devices.

Das Keyboard 4 Professional ($169 at Amazon)

Get your Mac a better keyboard by picking up this mechanical option from Das Keyboard.

Questions?

If you have any other questions about marking up attachments in Mail for Mac, let us know in the comment.

There are many ways to share data digitally. Sometimes, however, keeping a physical copy for future reference is best. Doing so through the macOS Mail app is a relatively process as you can see here.

How to print an email from the macOS Mail app using the Print icon

1. Go into the Mail app and highlight the email you'd like to print.
2. Click on the Print icon that's on the Mail toolbar.
3. Or select File > Print.
4. Click Print.

How to print an email from the macOS Mail app using the toolbar

1. Go into the Mail app and highlight the email you'd like to print.
2. Select File > Print. If necessary, change how you want your page(s) to print using the printer interface that's unique to each machine.
3. Click Print.

How to print an email attachment from the macOS Mail app

Unfortunately, there's no way to print an email attachment from the Mail app directly. Instead, you must do it through the app that supports the document you'd like to print.

1. In the Mail app, highlight the message that has attachments that you want to print.
2. Right-click on the attachment.
3. Select Open With and choose the app to open the attachment.

From there, you'll need to print the document using the app that was specified. Most likely, all you have to do is go File > Print.

Enhance your Mac experience

There's a long list of awesome accessories for Mac, including these two:

Samsung T5 SSD ($130+ at Amazon)

This solid state drive from Samsung is speedy, tiny, and portable. It also connects using USB-C, making it a perfect companion for your new Mac.

Bose Companion 20 ($250 at Amazon)

These beautiful speakers offer a balanced sound in a stylish package. With no knobs on the front, a small pod attached to the right speaker controls volume, which also holds the ports for your headphones or other audio devices.

Any questions?

Having trouble with Mail for Mac or have any additional questions? Let me know in comments!

If you're anything like me, you get a veritable flood of emails every day from countless different senders: your significant other, your boss, newsletters, marketing spam, you name it. How do you sift through it all? Well, if you use a Mac, you can take advantage of Mail's built-in organization tools to help you sort through your email, from creating folders to creating a Smart Mailbox.

Here's how you can organize all of your emails using Mail's tools.

• How to create a folder in Mail for Mac
• How to sort mail into folders in Mail for Mac
• How to create a Smart Mailbox in Mail for Mac

How to create a folder in Mail for Mac

1. Open Mail from your Dock or Applications Folder.
2. Click Mailbox in the Menu bar.

3. Click New Mailbox.
4. Click the drop-down next to location to choose where to set up your new mailbox folder.

5. Click on an email account to choose where your mailbox will go. You can choose from any of your existing email accounts, such as iCloud or Gmail. Select On My Mac if you only want this mailbox on your Mac
6. Name your mailbox.

7. Click OK.

Your new folder will be located under the name of the email account into which you placed it in the Sidebar.

How to sort mail into folders in Mail for Mac

There are two methods Mail gives you for sorting email into folders manually.

1. In Mail, click-and-hold on the email you want to sort.
2. Drag the email to the folder on the sidebar.

Alternatively, Mail for macOS Mojave gives you a big ol' button to push so you don't have to click and drag.

1. In Mail, click on the email that you want to sort. Optionally, hold down the Command Key on your Mac's keyboard, then click multiple messages to sort more than one email into a folder at once.
2. Click the Move to... button.

3. Click on the folder to which you want to send the message or messages.

How to create a Smart Mailbox in Mail for Mac

If you've ever created a Smart Playlist in iTunes, Smart Mailboxes follow a similar principle. You set a series of parameters, and email that comes in that fits those parameters is automatically sorted into your Smart Mailbox.

So you can set one up that, for instance, catches any message from a set of four specific Amazon.com email addresses. Any email from those addresses heads to that mailbox, letting you successfully keep track of any Amazon order you place from beginning to end.

Here's how you set up your own Smart Mailboxes.

1. In Mail, click Mailboxes in the Menu bar.
2. Click New Smart Mailbox.

3. Name your Smart Mailbox.
4. Click the drop-down to choose if messages will need to follow all of your chosen parameters to end up in the Smart Mailbox, or if they can follow any of the parameters.

5. Click the left-most drop-down menu to select your first parameter. This could be who an email is from, who date received, whether or not it's flagged, and more.
6. Click the central drop-down to select your conditional parameter. This could be "contains," "does not contain," "begins with," "ends with," or "is equal to."

7. Enter the full or partial email address that the Smart Mailbox is supposed to address. E.g. if you want a mailbox that catches any email from Amazon, enter "@amazon.com" into this field.
8. Click the + button to add any additional parameters in the same manner as the previous steps.

9. Click OK.

Your Smart Mailbox has now been created. Unlike standard mailboxes, with a Smart Mailbox, you don't select a particular account with which to associate these emails. They'll catch everything that comes into Mail that fits your parameters, no matter which of your accounts an email is bound for.

Samsung T5 Portable SSD ($88 at Amazon)

This tiny, speedy solid state drive is the perfect way to expand your Mac's storage.

Das Keyboard 4 Professional ($169 at Amazon)

Get your Mac a better keyboard by picking up this mechanical option from Das Keyboard.

Questions?

If you have any questions about sorting email in Mail for Mac, let us know in the comments.

Marking certain contacts as VIPs in Mail is a great way to further sort your messages between those that belong in your general inbox, and those that are really important, coming from the people that matter most. On both Mac and iOS, you can open a special inbox that just shows emails from your VIP contacts.

But how do you add a contact as a VIP in Mail on your Mac? Well, the process is very similar to the one on iOS, and involves just a few clicks in Mail.app to set up.

How to set a contact as a VIP in Mail on your Mac

1. Open Mail from your Dock or Application folder.
2. Click on an email from the person that you want to mark as a VIP.

3. Click on the arrow that appears when you hover over the contact's name in the From: field.
4. Click Add to VIPs.

And that's it. That contact's emails will now appear in your VIP folder, and will be subject to all VIP-related notification settings on your Mac. To remove someone from your VIP list, simply follow these same steps, only you'll click "Remove from VIPs".

Samsung T5 Portable SSD ($88 at Amazon)

This tiny, speedy solid state drive is the perfect way to expand your Mac's storage.

Apple AirPods ($160 at Apple)

These earphones will connect easily and wirelessly to your Mac, and can quickly switch between your various Apple devices.

It might not seem like it, but email is much more than a depository for spam. It's also a great way to share photos and other attachments with family, friends, and acquaintances. In this article, you'll learn how to send and save these files using the Mail app on Mac.

• How to send attachments in Mail
• How to save photos or documents in Mail to your Mac

How to send attachments in Mail

You can include photos, documents, and more when you write messages. You can even use Markup in the Mail app.

1. In the Mail app, start a new message.
2. Click the Attach in the toolbar.
3. Next, locate the file you want to send as an attachment.
4. Click Choose File.
5. If your attachment is an image, you can change the size by using the Image Size toggle on the right of the screen. By default, Mail inserts images at their actual size.

Note: You can also drag files from the desktop, the Finder, or an app into your Mail message.

You can also attach photos to your email that are located in the native Photo app. To do so:

1. In the Mail app, start a new message.
2. Click the Photo Browser button at the top right, then click Photos.

3. From here, find and drag your image(s) to your message.

If your iPhone or iPad is using the same Wi-Fi connection as your Mac, you can use your mobile device to take or scan documents that are then sent in Mail:

1. In the Mail app on your Mac, start a new message.
2. Click on the Photo Brower button, then select Take Photo or Scan Documents.
3. Follow the directions on your iOS device.

Ideally, you should save attachments to the bottom of your message. However, this isn't turned on by default.

1. From anywhere in Mail, click on Edit from the toolbar.
2. Choose Attachments > Always Insert Attachments at End of Message.

How to save photos or documents in Mail to your Mac

When you receive photos or other documents in Mail, you can save them to your Mac with ease. To do so:

1. Right click on the item you'd like to keep.
2. Click Save Attachment to send a copy of your file to anywhere on the Mac. Another option is to select Save to Downloads Folder.
3. If this is a photo, you can also Save to Photos app to save the image for use on the native Photos app.

Enhance your Mac with these solutions

Your computer could be even more useful with these add-ons.

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB ($70 at Amazon)

Seagate's Backup Plus Slim 2TB is a reliable external hard drive for everyone's needs. It's great for storing a lot of photos and videos, making it an excellent drive for your Photo Library.

iCloud Storage (Starting from $1 month)

Apple's iCloud storage is simple and reliable, especially for your iCloud Photo Library. Prices start at $0.99 a month for 50GB of space, or you can go for 200GB or 2TB for $3 and $10 a month, respectively.

Questions?

Let us know in the comments below!

A team of European researchers claim to have found critical vulnerabilities in PGP/GPG and S/MIME. PGP, which stands for Pretty Good Privacy, is code used to encrypt communications, commonly email. S/MIME, which stands for Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension, is a way to sign and encrypt modern email and all the extended character sets, attachments, and content it contains. If you want the same level of security in email as you have in end-to-end encrypted messaging, it's likely you're using PGP / S/MIME. And, right now, they may be vulnerable to hacks.

Danny O'Brien and Gennie Genhart, writing for The EFF:

And:

Dan Goodin at Ars Technica notes:

Werner Koch, on the GNU Privacy Guard Twitter account and the gnupg mailing list got a hold of the report and retorts:

The topic of that paper is that HTML is used as a back channel to create an oracle for modified encrypted mails. It is long known that HTML mails and in particular external links like are evil if the MUA actually honors them (which many meanwhile seem to do again; see all these newsletters). Due to broken MIME parsers a bunch of MUAs seem to concatenate decrypted HTML mime parts which makes it easy to plant such HTML snippets.

There are two ways to mitigate this attack

• Don't use HTML mails. Or if you really need to read them use a proper MIME parser and disallow any access to external links.
• Use authenticated encryption.

There's a lot to sift through here and the researchers aren't releasing their findings to the public until tomorrow. So, in the meantime, if you use PGP and S/MIME for encrypted email, read the EFF article, read the gnupg mail, and then:

• If you feel the least bit concerned, temporarily disable email encryption in Outlook, macOS Mail, Thunderbird, etc. and switch to something like Signal, WhatsApp, or iMessage for secure communication until the dust settles.
• If you're not concerned, still keep an eye on the story and see if anything changes over the next couple of days.

There will always be exploits and vulnerabilities, potential and proven. What's important is that they're disclosed ethically, reported responsibly, and addressed expeditiously.

We'll update this story as more becomes known. In the meantime, let me if you use PGP / S/MIME for encrypted email and, if so, what's your take?

For a lot of people, the built-in Mail app on their iPhone or iPad is a perfectly fine way to get their email. But even though it's easy to use and a fine, barebones email app, problems can still arise. People often run in to connection problems when sending or receiving mail, with those issues cropping up for reasons like a bad or missing internet connection or server errors.

Here's what you can do to fix connection problems that might crop up in Mail on your iPhone or iPad.

• Check your internet connection
• How to manually configure your account
• How to delete a problematic account

Check your internet connection

First, you're going to want to check to make sure you have an internet connection. Take a look at the top-left (iPhone 8 or earlier) or top-right (iPhone X) corner of your phone to make sure you've got an active cellular connection, Wi-Fi connection, or both.

If you need to connect to Wi-Fi or manage your connection, you'll want to follow this guide for setting up and dealing with Wi-Fi on your iPhone or iPad.

• How to enable Wi-Fi on your iPhone or iPad

How to manually configure your account

You might need to check various settings for your afflicted email account. Apple provides a tool that shows you what the proper settings for your given email address ought to be, Mail Settings Lookup. You can then enter these settings in the appropriate fields in the Accounts section of Settings on your iPhone or iPad.

1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Accounts & Passwords.
3. Tap on the mail account that you want to check.

4. Tap on the account email address.
5. Tap SMTP if you think you need to switch the SMTP server.
6. Tap on a new SMTP server connected to the service you're using (Gmail servers will look like 'smtp.gmail.com').

7. Enter your account password.
8. Flip the switch next to Server to the 'on' position.
9. Tap Done.

10. Tap Account.
11. Tap Advanced.
12. Set a new IMAP Path Prefix or Server Port as needed.

How to delete a problematic account

If an account keeps giving you trouble, you can always delete it, then add it again to your iPhone or iPad.

1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Accounts & Passwords.
3. Tap the account that you want to delete.

4. Tap Delete Account.
5. Tap Delete Account.

You'll then want to add the email account back to your phone, which you can set up using this guide:

• How to set up mail, contacts, and calendars on iPhone and iPad

Questions?

If you've got any more questions about fixing connection errors in Mail, let us know in the comments.

The Mail app is one of those polarizing apps where people either really enjoy using it, while others want to set it on fire and erase it from existence.

Regardless of your view on the original Mail app, there have been plenty of other email-based app alternatives available for download… so have you ever tried something different? Why or why not?

So, what about you? We're chatting email, the Mail app, and more in the iMore forums!

Jump on into the iMore forums and join our discussion about whether the default mail app is king or if there are way better alternatives out there!

Join the discussion on the iMore forum!

Apple has some big changes coming in iOS 10, including a complete remodel of the Messages app, an all-new design of the News app, Memories in the Photo app, and much more.

iOS 10 is also polishing up a few apps with features that may not seem like much on the surface but really make a difference where it counts.

The Mail app is getting one such polishing. Nothing major is changing, but the few features that have been added are going to make your daily email activities much better.

Filter inboxes all the live-long day

Apple added an inbox filter feature that allows you to quickly filter any inbox by Unread, Flagged, emails to you, emails CC'd with you, only emails with attachments, or only emails from VIPs. You can also filter your inboxes by different accounts. So, for example, if you have two work email accounts and one personal, you could filter your inbox so that you only see unread emails from your work accounts.

Get those email threads under control

In iOS 10, you can organize emails within a conversation thread without having to perform the same action on all emails. When you select a conversation thread, you will have access to a thread edit button that will allow you to mark, move, or trash one or more selected emails.

Stop searching for the right mailbox, it's right here!

The Mail app will start offering suggestions when you want to move certain emails to a specific mailbox. This will only work if you've set your Swipe Options to Move and if the selected email comes from a recipient that you have frequently moved emails for in the past. It's so much nicer than scrolling through dozens of folders until you find the right one.

Let 'em know where you're at

Whether you're starting a new email or reading something from a week ago, you can share your location with any email contact (that is also on iOS) for a specific amount of time or indefinitely. So, you can email your co-worker about your lunch meeting and share your location for an hour, or email your best friend from high school and share your location for as long as you have your iPhone. It's up to you.

Why email when you can Message or FaceTime?

Apple is making iOS smarter – Siri-level smarter – by integrating some useful communication features that even include third-party apps like Skype or WeChat. In the Mail app, when you tap on a contact to view a person's information, you'll have the opportunity to switch from the email you were about to send to simply call, text, or video chat with him or her instead.

Stop sending me junk!

Probably my favorite feature in the Mail app for iOS 10 is the ability to unsubscribe to mailing lists. This feature is available in Microsoft's Outlook email app for iPhone and its one of the main reasons I don't use the built-in Mail app nearly as often. When you receive an email that is part of a mailing list, you'll get a notification at the top of the screen. If you tap the "Unsubscribe" link, Mail will send an email on your behalf to unsubscribe to the mailing list. No more scrolling to the bottom, looking for the Unsubscribe button or tapping through a half dozen questions asking why you are leaving. Just two taps from inside the Mail app and you're done.

What do you think?

Are you excited about the new features in iOS 10? If you weren't already using the built-in Mail app before, are these features enough to make you switch?

Mail's VIP — short for Very Important Person — feature is great. It lets you "star" the people most important to you, thus enabling sound, vibration, and Lock screen notifications solely for them. It's a terrific way to make sure you're alerted when you get email that matters, yet avoid being interrupted when it doesn't. It's so good that it's a pity it's currently limited to just the Mail app. But maybe iOS 10 could change that?

Imagine a VIP setting that existed on the system-level, as a part of Contacts far beyond Mail. That way, you could make sure those same VIPs get priority notification status in Messages and conceivably Twitter, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, LINE, and any and every other service capable of tying into it.

The line between notification and interruption is fuzzy. To paraphrase a line from The Incredibles, when everything is special, nothing is. When everything gets your attention, you lose the ability to focus.

VIP, yeah you get through to me

Right now, my iPhone and iPad only beep or buzz when a VIP Mail comes in. That way, I can be reasonably certain that if they do beep or buzz, it's because something really does need my attention, and in short order. Messages, in contrast, has no VIP setting, making notifications all or nothing. And since my friends, family, and and colleagues use iMessage and SMS to contact me when things are urgent or they need to make sure I see something, I can't turn those notifications off — it has to default to all. And that includes the carrier offers, fake cruise contests, and all the other spam that comes in from time to time.

Likewise Twitter, Messenger, Snapchat, Skype, et al.

If the VIP feature was system-wide, once you set a contact as a VIP, they could contact you using any method available to them and you'd be able to see their message without also having to tune into the notifications firehose.

VIP could also fold in Phone Favorites, which are currently a separate list that, unlike VIP, doesn't sync with iCloud. Conversely, VIP could be made capable of punching through Do Not Disturb, the way Favorites does. That way, if you choose to enable it, you won't miss critical calls or critical messages.

Watch it scale

All of this is even more important on Apple Watch, of course, where the lack of granularity in notifications beyond Mail VIP makes some apps unmanageable.

Overall, VIP moving from a Mail feature to a system-level based in Contacts available in all apps feels like not only a more functional solution, but a more consistent one. And that's why I'd love to see it in iOS 10.

I've filed this as a feature request with Apple's bug reporter: rdar://19198048. Let me know what you think about it in the comments below!

Exchange is Microsoft's corporate email, calendar, and contact service, built on top of the company's lightning-fast ActiveSync protocol. Many companies use Exchange for their email services; if yours happens to be one of them, we've got the guide to help you set it up on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Even if you don't have a company Exchange account, you may still be able to take advantage of Exchange syncing on the iPhone through a paid Google account. Google licenses Microsoft's technology so that it can provide Google Sync service for Gmail, Contacts, and Calendars; if you have a paid Google account, you can set up Google Sync through an Exchange account on the iPhone, as well.

No matter whether you use Exchange via Microsoft, Google, your company, or a third-party service, it's all set up the same way: All you need to know are your credentials.

How to set up a mail, calendar, and contacts Exchange account on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account.
4. Tap Microsoft Exchange.
5. Enter your Exchange ActiveSync account settings (see your IT administrator or service provider if you don't know them).
   
   
   

6. Tap Next.
7. Select what you want to sync (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders).
8. Tap Save.

You can go back to Settings and configure how many days of mail you want to sync, along with advanced settings like SSL and S/MIME as well.

How to set up Google Sync on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

The Google Sync setup is nearly identical to Exchange: You just need to have a paid Google account and enter the following settings.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account.
4. Tap Microsoft Exchange.
5. Under Email, enter your full Gmail or Google Account email address (i.e. name@gmail.com or name@mygoogleaccountdomain.com).
6. Enter m.google.com as the Server.
7. Leave the Domain field blank. (Really.)
8. Enter your full Gmail or Google Account email address as the Username. (Yup, just like above.)
9. Enter your account password next to Password.
10. Tap Next.
11. Select what you want to sync (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders).
12. Tap Save.

Running into problems with Exchange sync? Let us know and we can try and help you out.

Rene Ritchie contributed to an earlier version of this article.

The pain of an increasing inbox count can be felt many a day here at iMore Boston HQ, but thanks to a tip from RjakActual on Reddit, I can now entertain the glorious thought of having it all vanish into the digital wind.

Yes, thanks to iOS 9, you too can delete ALL your email from a given inbox with just three taps. (You can also mark everything as read, but that's less fun.) Here's how to go about it.

How to delete all your email on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

1. Open the Mail app.
2. Tap the inbox you'd like to relieve of its unread count.
3. Tap Edit.
4. Tap Trash All (or its less-fun cousin, Mark All).
   
   
   

5. Tap the Trash All/Archive All confirmation alert (or, if you're Marking All, tap Mark as Unread).

Just like that: Your email woes have vanished. I will note that you can currently only do this inside inboxes; inside individual folders and smart mailboxes, you're stuck deleting things piecemeal. And, you know, just for safety: If you delete all your email, you may have a devil of a time getting it back. Technically it goes to the Trash folder, where you can then move it out or delete it permanently... but I wouldn't risk it just to play around.

In any case, while I may never actually use this wondrous feature, I'm certainly going to think about it now and again, when my inbox climbs to an unmanageable amount.

A setting in Apple's Mail app for OS X that makes it more convenient to view your emails may also be telling scammers that you're reading your emails. To make your Mac more secure from potential threats, you can disable the remote content loading function. Follow along and we'll walk you through how!

Back in the good old days, emails used to contain text, and that was it. Now they're chock-full of complex graphics and HTML-based layouts. Most of the content you see isn't actually in the email: It's stored on a remote server and loaded when you view the message. Most of the time that process is pretty fast and doesn't cause any problems. But it also gives email spammers and scammers a good insight about whether or not your email address is active, because they're seeing traffic from it.

If you'd like to avoid giving out that kind of information about yourself, you can turn off the Mail app preference that enables remote content loading.

Just remember that this is going to make any email you get that relies on remote content to not load completely until you click a "Load remote content" button, so you're going to notice pretty fast that emails start looking "incomplete," because you're going to see blank boxes or placeholders where HTML and graphics might have been.

Email might suddenly look "broken" to some of us, but there's a practical benefit there too: Mail will load faster (and will use less bandwidth) since it's no longer dependent on loading that remote content each and every time. This gives you control over what email loads on your Mac and what doesn't.

To turn off remote content loading in Mail

1. Open Mail.
2. Click on the Mail menu and select Preferences... (alternately, type command and ,)
3. Click on the Viewing tab.
4. Make sure Load remote content in messages is unchecked.
5. Close the preferences window to save changes.

That's all there is to it! When you get e-mails that include content from remote servers, you'll see a "Load remote content" button appear in the e-mail. Click it to populate the email.

(Hat tip: Chris Phin)

By default, OS X Yosemite's Mail app won't "load remote content" such as the types of images typically requested by marketing emails and spam. You can change that in preferences if you really want to see remote images in your emails — such as the products being advertised by Apple, Best Buy, or other retailers in their mailings — but if you accidentally or deliberately click on spam, those images will load too. Even with "load remote content" left off, however, if any such marketing or spam email shows up as a Spotlight search result, Heisse reports that such remote content will load. So, what's going on and what can you do about it? ITWorld translates:

When you visit a website, that website gets information about you. That includes your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the type and version of computer operating system and browser you're using, and other technical details. Your IP address can be used to determine your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the general area where you're located. If you've ever used something like Google Analytics — which most sites, including iMore, use benignly to figure out how many readers come here, from where, and what they're reading the most — then that's the type of information that can be collected.

As described above, email can be turned into a pseudo webpage by requesting server-side images — including tracking pixels — be loaded into them. Instead of attaching an image, which embeds the image in the email, they pull it from a website: http://example.com/image.gif. If "load remote content" is enabled, that image will be pulled as soon as you open the email, and the website will get your IP address and other information just as if you visited the site directly.

The issue here is that even if you have "load remote images" turned off in Mail, Spotlight will still load them. So, if a search you type into Spotlight returns a marketing or spam email message as the Top Hit, it will automatically load those images, and if it returns it as a Mail & Messages hit, and then you click on it, it will load those images.

I typically leave "load remote content" on, so I'm not overly concerned about this. I find it annoying to have to click on the "Load Remote Content" button every time I want to see an Apple or B&H or other product email I've subscribed to. A combination of Gmail, iCloud, and Mail.app anti-spam means I almost never see spam anyway, and I don't click on them when I do. I also delete my spam messages frequently. So, I've also never, in all the years Spotlight search has been available, had a spam mail message return as the first, automatically previewed, result.

My guess is most people are similar, and won't run into this problem either. That said, it is a problem, and some people are really and rightly concerned about online tracking, especially those being stalked. It would absolutely behoove everyone if Spotlight, when providing Mail results, honored the "load remote content" setting in Mail.

Hopefully Apple will implement that as soon as possible. In the meantime, if tracking pixels are a concern, you can disable Mail as a result type in Spotlight. It's less convenient, but that's typically the price we pay for security.

Although Apple has almost certainly been notified about this issue, I've also filed a bug report with Radar, should anyone with access want to dupe it.

Bug report: rdar://19439666

Sending files by e-mail attachments can be a big old P.I.T.A. thanks to restrictions imposed by service providers, corporate I.T. policies and a host of other things that can get in the way. Mail Drop on the Mac makes the pain go away.

How to use Mail Drop to send large files on Mac

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
2. Select System Preferences from the drop down menu.
3. Click on iCloud.
4. Sign into your iCloud account if you aren't already.

That's all there is to it! There's nothing to configure or set up in order to use Mail Drop. As long as you're signed in to your iCloud account your Mac will handle the rest!

How it works

Mail Drop simply acts as an intermediary, temporarily hosting your file attachments so you don't actually have to push them through the e-mail server. That way nothing is going to get in the way of sending that big file you need to, whether it's pictures of you and the family on vacation or an updated presentation that your boss needs for his Shanghai business trip.

Many mail servers impose strict limits on the size of a file you can attach to an e-mail — it's usually measured in megabytes, and usually not that many megabytes at that. If your file enclosure is larger — if you're sending big media files, for example — you're stuck relegating yourself (and the recipient) to another file sharing method, such as Dropbox, OneDrive or a host of other systems that will require both you to maintain an account.

Mail Drop, on the other hand, works with files up to 5 GB in size. The files are uploaded to iCloud, instead. What's more, it's seamless, especially on the Macintosh. If you're sending the file to a Mac user, they're going to see it attached just like they would with any other file.

People who aren't using the Mac won't have a hard time, though - they simply see the file attachment as a file marker in their mail message. When they click on the attachment, iCloud begins to download the file onto their computer.

I've mentioned iCloud, and you may be wondering if the file attachment counts against your total file allotment in iCloud, and I'm glad to say that it does not. So attach away! 5 GB is your new file size limit, thanks to Mail Drop!

Have any questions? Let me know in the comments.

Markup is a new feature in the OS X Yosemite Mail app that lets you easily annotate and edit images inline. While you'll still want advanced graphics program for heavy editing, Markup makes it extremely easy to get your point across without having to launch Photoshop, Acorn, or something similar.

How to use Markup in OS X Yosemite Mail

1. Launch Mail on your Mac running OS X Yosemite.
2. Create a new message and click on the paperclip icon to attach an image — alternately, you can just drag and drop an image if you'd like.
3. Hover your cursor over the newly inserted image and a dropdown arrow will appear in the top right corner of it.
4. Click on the dropdown arrow and select Markup.
5. You can now use any of the tools to add text, magnify a part of an image, add shapes, and much more.
6. Use Markup to edit and annotate your image as much as you'd like. Once you're happy with your edits, click Done in the Markup toolbar.
7. Once you're done, fill out the rest of your email if you haven't already and send it on its way like normal!

That's all there is to using Markup. One important note about Markup — it's not limited to just the Mail app. Markup can be accessible to any Mac app that uses Apple's standard protocols for managing text and images. So if you've attached an image in TextEdit or any other app, click on it and check for the Markup menu dropdown!

Apps that use the built-in text editing features of iOS, including Apple's own Notes and Mail not only lets you do the basics — cut, copy, and paste — but also let find replacement words if the one you typed didn't autocorrect exactly right, look up definitions to words you aren't sure about, and even add or remove different dictionaries depending on which languages and dialects you want to use. All of it is contained in the popup menu, and all of it is simple and easy to do once you know how.

• How to replace words on iPhone and iPad
• How to look up words on iPhone and iPad

How to replace words on iPhone and iPad

1. Tap on the word you want to replace to select it and activate the popup.
2. Tap on Replace.
3. Tap on an alternate word for the options presented.

Note: The popup menu can change depending on which options are available.

• If you don't see Replace immediately, but do see an arrow to the right, tap on it to reveal Replace.
• If you don't see Replace and don't see an arrow, iOS isn't detecting any available replacement words and you'll have to manually correct the word.

How to look up words in Notes for iPhone and iPad

1. Tap on the word you want to define to select it and activate the popup.
2. Tap on Define to call up the dictionary. If you don't see it immediately, tap the arrow to the right to reveal more popup options.
3. Tap on Done when you're finished.

A bug has been discovered in iOS 7 that causes email attachments to not be encrypted. Before anyone panics, however, in order for an attacker to exploit the bug they'd need to a) steal your device and, b) brute force or jailbreak-bypass the passcode or password, which c) currently means there's no risk to iPhone 4s and later devices running iOS 7.1 or later software. When reached for comment about the bug, Apple provided us with the following statement:

"We're aware of the issue," an Apple spokeswoman told iMore, "and are working on a fix which we will deliver in a future software update."

The bug was first reported by Andreas Kurtz:

Kurtz claims he successfully duplicated the tests on an iPhone 5s and an iPad 2 running iOS 7.0.4, though he makes no claim of testing them successfully or unsuccessfully on iOS 7.1.1. Given the requirements, anyone running an iPhone 4s or later (Apple A5* chipset or later) and iOS 7.1.x or later should not be vulnerable to this bug.

That means the only current, updated hardware affected is the iPhone 4, and an attacker would still need prolonged access to your device to perform this attack, which also means preventing Find my iPhone from wiping it. They'd also need to get around the passcode or password. (If you don't have a Passcode set they could just launch Mail.app and see all your attachments, and everything else on your device, anyway.)

With iOS, Apple has made the iPhone and iPad amazingly strong crypto bricks but bugs like this need to be squashed and fast to keep them that way.

Nick Arnott contributed to this story.

Almost 8 years after it was introduced, you still can't attach files to emails in iOS. While iOS 6 has introduced a method to attach photos and videos to in-progress emails, it suffers from poor discoverability, and only works with content from the Photos app. If you want to attach any other file to an email, it's a usability disaster. That's because iOS has an ImagePicker but no broader DocumentsPicker, so it can't handle a broader range of attachments. So why is that such a bad thing?

The current method for adding photo or video attachments to in-progress emails is done via the same pop-up menu originally introduced in IOS 3 for cut, copy, and paste. You tap the screen to get the popup, tap a tiny, obscure arrow button to get more options, and then tap to add the attachment.

An easy to find, easy to use attachment button would be simpler. It's a solution employed by third-party apps like Gmail. Maybe a paperclip is obscure as well, but it's discoverable.

Emailing, and including files as attachments in email, is a common task and something that takes only a few seconds on the Mac with OS X. Trying to attach a non-photo or video file on an iPhone or iPad with iOS takes an annoying amount of time and causes an unreasonable amount of frustration. Here's some blog-theater by way of example:

"Hey, Rene, can you email me the dates for that trip?"

"Sure, Kevin." I grab my iPhone, open the [Mail](/mail "Apple Mail app for iOS and OS X) app, add Kevin as the recipient, add the subject "Trip", paste in the dates, then--

"Could you also attach that outline for discussion topics?"

"Um..."

My only option now is to copy the contents of the email, trash it, go to the app I wrote the topics in, find the file, tap share, tap email, add Kevin again, add the subject again, paste in the dates again--

Crap. I deleted the app I wrote the topics in. A hotter, newer app came out and I started using that instead, and even though both use iCloud, neither has any idea the other exists so... I re-download the old app and pray the data is either still there, or magically comes back from the cloud.

"And those two PDF files about that thing?"

Double crap. Both those PDF files are in different PDF apps, one in a simple reader, the other one in an app that supports annotation. Now I have to send the discussion topics from one app, and each of the PDF files from their apps. That's three separate emails, and nothing approaching a thread.

Oh, wait. I have copies in Dropbox. I can share from Dropbox... Only no, each file is in a different directory and I can only share from one directory at a time! I'm back to three separate emails again!

Now Kevin is laughing his ass off at me and asking me to tell him again how the iPhone is easy to use, and I want to punch things.

And the reason for all this goes back to the violation of a cardinal principle of design: the attempt to keep things simple can ultimately cause ridiculous levels of complexity.

Apple already uses a blue + button to add contacts. They already use a gray camera icon in Messages. Something like that could work for attachments as well. Especially if, as I've been asking for the last 4 years, iOS added a DocumentsPicker controller that works the same way the current ImagePicker controller works.

A DocumentsPicker controller for iOS would remove unnecessary cognitive load from users and solve a wide swathe of current usability problems with iOS, including email attachments. Any file could be attached to any in-progress email, without the need for a Share Sheet, or for the user to remember app ownership. And it would do so in a way that's consistent with how iOS already works and increasing simplicity at the same time.

And it would make iOS more powerful without alienating the mainstream user base Apple is so good at embracing.

Note: This post was originally written prior to the announcement of iOS 7 but has been updated for iOS 8.

If you're running low on disk space on your Mac, especially SSD space, every extra bit can count. One of the places you can often scrape out a few extra megabytes or even gigabytes is Mail Downloads. Any attachments you open in Mail or Quick Look gets saved right to that folder. Chances are you don't need them, especially the old ones, and trashing them will free up some valuable space.

How to find and delete old Mail Download files to free up space

1. Open Spotlight Search
2. Type in Mail Downloads and click on the folder when it shows up to open it.
3. Here you'll see a list of files that Mac Mail has saved. These are all attachments that you've either opened in Mail or viewed in Quick look.
4. Delete the files you don't need and then close the Mail Downloads folder.

If you send and receive a lot of email, it's very easy for the Mail Downloads folder to get extremely large. Checking it every few weeks or months, whatever is appropriate for your use case is a good idea.

Give your Mail Downloads folder a quick look at let me know in the comments how much space you were able to save on your Mac!

If you need to reclaim even more space on your Mac, check out:

• Running out of hard drive space on your Mac? Here's how to fix it!

On Tuesday Apple pushed live OS X Mavericks 10.9.2. Among the changes are improvements to Apple's Mail app. Apple's certainly moved Mail in the right direction, but it hasn't solved everyone's problems. Are you one of them?

Mail has had a tough row to hoe since the release of Mavericks last October. Users with Gmail accounts in particular have had loads of problems right from the start, not the least of which are exacerbated by Gmail's non-standard implementation of the IMAP protocol.

Apple soon released a Mavericks Mail update that was meant to the address the problem. Then Apple released OS X 10.9.1 in January, and that was supposed to help Gmail users especially, but they soon found that problems persisted.

10.9.2 tackles head-on many of the problems Mavericks users have had with Mail. Among the fixes in 10.9.2, according to Apple:

• Includes general improvements to the stability and compatibility of Mail
• Improves the accuracy of unread counts in Mail
• Resolves an issue that prevented Mail from receiving new messages from certain providers
• Improves VoiceOver navigation in Mail and Finder
• Improves compatibility with Gmail Archive mailboxes
• Includes improvements to Gmail labels

That all sounds promising, if, in some cases, maddeningly vague. Only two of these line items mention Gmail specifically, but some of the others (like Mail receiving new messages) were certainly problems that Gmail users encountered. Apple's wording suggests that the fixes weren't Gmail-specific, but perhaps were related to other problems.

Prior to 10.9.2's release, I was having trouble with Mail not retrieving e-mails in a timely fashion from Gmail accounts. I would also have pretty consistent trouble simply quitting Mail — it would hang when doing routine maintenance on various mailboxes prior to quitting. So I was quite anxious to give 10.9.2 a try as soon as it was available. As near as I can tell, the update has corrected the problems I was having.

Alas, not everyone is having the same positive experience. Users on Twitter and various support forums — including Apple's own support forums — report issues with Mail, including hanging when checking Gmail accounts, management of messages in Smart Folders, crashing and other issues that haven't been resolved after applying the 10.9.2 update. In some cases users have deleted and recreated their IMAP accounts, which has fixed problems for some but not for others.

Joe Kissell has been out in front of Mavericks Gmail trouble from the start. And he's documented a number of Mail app changes for Gmail which he's discovered in 10.9.2, so make sure to check out TidBITS.

In the interim, what's your experience with the Mail app in OS X 10.9.2? Has it fixed your issues or are you still having trouble? Let me know in the comments — I want to hear from you.

Google has never had anything approximating what you could call a normal IMAP implementation for Gmail. However, under Mail in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and previous versions, many of us learned to work around and otherwise live with it. No longer! OS X 10.9 Mavericks changes the way the Mail app works, and in doing so, is less forgiving of Gmail's idiosyncrasies than ever before. Joe Kissel on TidBITS:

Gmail in Mail over IMAP has always been a pain for me. I never hid All Mail, so that's not a problem now, but it uses a ton of disk space and up until recently kept generating simultaneous connection and bandwidth usage errors.

I have a paid Google Apps account, so on iOS I simply use Exchange for Gmail via Google Sync, which works much, much better, and faster. Sadly, Google doesn't seem to allow for Exchange connections on OS X.

So, unless and until Apple changes Mail for Gmail's sake, or Google figures out how to better serve IMAP, we'll stay caught, painfully, in the middle.

Check out Joe's article for some small amount of relief, and if you're struggling with Gmail in Mail.app, let me know how it's going for you.

Source: TidBITS