How to Add Email to iPhone
When setting up your iPhone, a useful function you’ll want to access is checking your email through Apple’s native Mail app.
iPhones allow you to add your email accounts to the Mail app through a variety of different methods. An automatic setup will be enough for most people, but if you need to, you can enter your account settings manually as well.
In this guide, we’ll explore:
- How to automatically set up your email account
- Ways to configure your account settings manually instead
- Some ways to fix certain problems you might run into.
Let’s dive right in!
How to Add Email to iPhone
Automatic Setup for Your Email Account
For the most part, adding your email accounts can be done automatically and shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.
This is especially true if you’re using common email service providers, such as Google, Yahoo, and iCloud.
- Go to your “Settings” and find “Mail”
- Under this setting, tap “Accounts”
- Tap “Add Account”
- Select your email provider
- Sign in to their service by entering your email address and password
- You may need to confirm permissions with your email service provider (as is the case with Google)
- If you see “Next”, tap it. The same goes if you see “Save”.
Manual Configuration for Your Email Account
Your email provider might not be part of the services that can be automatically set up. In that case, you’ll need to manually set up your account:
- Enter your email address at the official Apple Support webpage for Mail and click “Verify”. This will show you your email settings. If it doesn’t work, you can try contacting your email provider
- On your iPhone, open the Settings app and navigate to “Mail”
- Tap “Accounts” then click “Add Account”. This time around, tap “Other” and proceed to “Add Mail Account”
- Enter your name, your email address, your password, and a description of your account
- Tap “Next”.
Manually Input Account Settings
The Mail app will attempt to detect your email settings automatically. If it can’t, you’ll need to input them yourself.
- Select whether to use the IMAP or POP protocol
- IMAP lets you access your inbox synced across your devices, while POP will download your emails to your phone. IMAP is more popular and convenient these days
- If you aren’t sure which one to use, try contacting your email provider.
- Enter the details for the Incoming Mail Server and the Outgoing Mail Server
- You can see these details by entering your email address at the official Apple Support webpage for Mail
- The host name should be your service provider’s domain
- The user name should be your email address. This is optional for the outgoing mail server
- The password should be your email password. This is optional for the outgoing mail server.
- Tap “Save”.
If the Mail app doesn’t understand your settings, you’ll be asked to edit them. If you don’t know what the correct settings should be, you can try contacting your email provider for help.
If the Account Remains Inaccessible on the Mail App, Examine the Following Factors
Verification
Sometimes, you need to verify your login when signing into your email account on a new device.
- Check the inbox for the email account you’re trying to set up in the Mail app. Sometimes, you’ll receive a verification email to check that it’s actually you who’s trying to log in
- Check another device your email account is logged into. That’s another place you might be sent a verification message
- If you use a two-factor authentication app, you might need to enter a code or press a confirmation there.
Connection
You might be having problems with connecting to the internet. To resolve connection issues:
- Check that your iPhone’s Wi-Fi or mobile data is turned on
- Check that the network you’re connected to is able to access other websites
- Try reconnecting and disconnecting, restarting your router, or simply waiting a while for your connection to return.
Restart
Restarting your iPhone can help with temporary problems which might prevent you from accessing your email.
- Press and hold your power button until the power-off slider appears
- If you have an iPhone X, 11, 12, 13, or later, you’ll need to hold one of your volume buttons and the side button
- If you have an iPhone 6, 7, 8, or 2nd or 3rd generation SE, you can just hold the side button
- If you have a 1st generation SE, iPhone 5, or earlier, you’ll need to hold the top button.
- Drag the slider and wait 30 seconds so that your device will turn off properly
- Press and hold the side button or the top button, depending on which you have, until the Apple logo appears.
Key Takeaways
It’s very easy and convenient to allow the Mail app automatically set up your email accounts. Alternatively, you can add your account manually as well.
It’s possible that you may run into some problems while adding email to your iPhone. If that happens, try verifying your login, checking your connection, or restarting your phone.