Getting connection errors in Mail for iPhone or iPad? Here's how to fix them!

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

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 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.

    Open Settings, tap Accounts & Passwords, tap account

  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').

    Tap account address, tap SMTP, tap new server

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

  9. Tap Done.

    Enter password, flip switch, tap Done

  10. Tap Account.
  11. Tap Advanced.

  12. Set a new IMAP Path Prefix or Server Port as needed.

    Tap Account, tap Advanced, set new IMAP prefix or server port

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.

    Open Settings, tap Accounts & Passwords, tap account

  4. Tap Delete Account.

  5. Tap Delete Account.

    Tap Delete, then again

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

Questions?

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

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