Add your email account in Settings

Open Settings on your iPhone, then scroll down and tap Mail. Next, tap Accounts, then tap Add Account. Your iPhone will show you a list of email providers — Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, and others. If your email provider appears in the list, tap it and enter your email address and password. If it doesn't appear, tap Other at the bottom and follow the manual setup steps below.

When you select your provider, iPhone will try to set up your account automatically. This usually takes a few seconds. If it works, you'll see a confirmation screen. Tap Save and you're done — your email will start downloading to your phone within a minute or two.

If automatic setup fails, you'll see a message asking you to enter more details. This happens most often with work email accounts or less common providers. Don't close the app — just move to the manual setup section below.

Key Takeaways

  • Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Add Account and choose your email provider from the list if it appears there.
  • If your provider isn't listed, tap Other and enter your email address, then choose whether your account uses IMAP or POP3 — IMAP is the better choice for most people because it syncs across devices.
  • You will need your email address, password, and sometimes your mail server addresses, which your email provider can tell you if automatic setup fails.
  • After you add the account, go back to Mail > Accounts and toggle on the types of data you want synced — Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Notes are separate switches.

Set up manually if your provider isn't listed

Tap Other at the bottom of the provider list. Enter your full email address in the Email field, then tap Next. iPhone will ask you to choose between IMAP and POP3. Choose IMAP unless you have a specific reason not to — IMAP keeps your emails synced across all your devices, while POP3 downloads them only to your phone and deletes them from the server.

Enter your password in the Password field. For the Incoming Mail Server and Outgoing Mail Server fields, you'll need the server addresses from your email provider. If you don't know them, go to your email provider's website and search for "IMAP settings" or "mail server settings." Common examples are imap.gmail.com for Gmail or imap-mail.outlook.com for Outlook, but these vary by provider.

Fill in the server addresses, then tap Next. iPhone will verify the settings. If verification fails, double-check that you copied the server addresses correctly and that your password is right. A common mistake is including extra spaces before or after the password.

Turn on the data types you want to sync

After your account is added, go back to Settings > Mail > Accounts and tap the account you just added. You'll see toggles for Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Notes, and sometimes Reminders. Each one is separate — you can sync your email but not your contacts, for example.

Turn on Mail if you want your emails to appear in the Mail app. Turn on Contacts if your email account stores contact information and you want it on your phone. Turn on Calendars if you use calendar invitations through this email account. Most people turn on Mail and leave the others off unless they need them.

Check your mail settings if emails aren't arriving

If you added the account but emails aren't showing up, go to Settings > Mail > Accounts, tap your account, then tap Account at the top. Scroll down to Mailbox Behaviors and make sure Archive Mailbox is turned off — if it's on, your emails are being moved to an archive folder instead of staying in your inbox.

Also check that Fetch New Data is set to something other than Manual. Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and choose Automatic or Every 15 Minutes. Manual means your phone only checks for email when you open the Mail app, which is why you might not see new messages right away.

If emails still aren't arriving, try removing the account and adding it again. Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts, tap your account, scroll to the bottom, and tap Delete Account. Then add it again from the beginning — sometimes a fresh setup fixes connection problems that automatic setup couldn't solve.

Use different email accounts for different purposes

You can add as many email accounts as you want to your iPhone. Each one appears as a separate account in the Mail app, and you can switch between them by tapping the Mailboxes button at the top left of the Mail app. You can also set a default account — the one that Mail uses when you start a new message — by going to Settings > Mail > Default Account.

If you have a work email and a personal email, adding both means you can check both without switching apps. The Mail app will show you all your inboxes in one place if you tap All Inboxes, or you can view each account separately by tapping its name.

Fix common setup problems

Your password keeps being rejected: Make sure you're using your actual email password, not a PIN or security code. Some email providers, like Gmail, require you to create a separate "app password" for your phone instead of using your regular password. Check your email provider's security settings if the password you know isn't working.

The server address won't verify: Copy and paste the server address directly from your email provider's website instead of typing it. Even one wrong letter will cause verification to fail. Also check that you're using the right protocol — some providers have different servers for IMAP and POP3.

Your account was added but Mail won't open: Force-close the Mail app and reopen it. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or swipe down from the top right on newer iPhones) to see your open apps, find Mail, and swipe it up to close it. Then tap the Mail icon to reopen it. Sometimes the app needs to restart to recognize a new account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add a work email account to my personal iPhone?

Yes. Your work email will appear as a separate account in the Mail app. You can add it the same way you add a personal email account. If your company uses Microsoft Exchange or has special security requirements, your IT department can provide the server settings you need.

What's the difference between IMAP and POP3?

IMAP syncs your emails across all your devices — if you read an email on your phone, it will show as read on your computer too. POP3 downloads emails only to your phone and removes them from the server, so you won't see them on other devices. Use IMAP unless your email provider only supports POP3.

Why does my email take a long time to arrive on my iPhone?

Check your fetch settings. Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and make sure it's not set to Manual. If it's set to Automatic, your phone checks for new email whenever it can. Automatic is slower than a push connection, which some providers support — check your email provider's settings to see if push is available.

Can I delete an email account from my iPhone without deleting it from my computer?

Yes. Removing an account from your iPhone only removes it from that device. Your emails stay on the server and on any other device where you've added the account. Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts, tap the account, scroll down, and tap Delete Account.

What if I forgot my email password?

Go to your email provider's website and use their password reset tool. Once you've reset it, go to Settings > Mail > Accounts, tap your account, tap Account, and update the password field with your new password. Then tap Save.