Why Emails Get Stuck in Mail on iPhone
There’s more than one possible reason for emails getting stuck and not sending from the Mail app on iPhone. In some cases, you may run into more than one issue.
📌 One of the biggest culprits of emails not sending is an internet connectivity problem. If you have an unstable connection or no connection at all, this can direct an email you send to your Outbox rather than your recipient’s Inbox.
📌 Another potential problem is email provider restrictions. For instance, you may have a daily sending threshold, a restricted number of recipients, or a limit on how many emails you can send within a time period (e.g., per hour).
📌 One more reason messages can become stuck involves misconfigured email settings. This can include an incorrect outgoing mail server address, SMTP port, or encryption method, as well as missing or outdated authentication details.
The Undo Send Dilemma
While not as common as the above reasons, there is another scenario where an email can mistakenly end up in your Drafts. This can happen when using the Undo Send feature.
If you send an email and quickly tap the Undo Send option at the bottom, this reopens the message, allowing you to edit it before sending. However, if you decide not to make changes or simply tap Cancel on the top left, this closes the message without sending it and moves it to your Drafts.
💡 Tip: Check out how to recall an email in Outlook or how to take back a message in Yahoo Mail.
How Clean Email Can Help
When emails you thought you sent end up in the Drafts folder using the Undo Send feature, it can take some time before you realize it. To remedy this problem, turn to Clean Email, an advanced mailbox management application.
Using Clean Email’s Auto Clean feature, you can create a rule to manage these messages so that they don’t go unnoticed. For example, when an email lands in Drafts, you can label it so it’s easy to spot, move it to a folder you check regularly, or send it to a newly created folder just for this situation.
How to Find, Retrieve, Resend, or Delete Unsent Emails
As mentioned earlier, unsent emails on iPhone usually end up in one of two places: Outbox or Drafts. Once you locate the message, you can take steps to retrieve, resend, or delete it.
Outbox
To access the Outbox in Mail, go to the Mailboxes screen using the back arrow on the top of any inbox. If you have unsent messages, you’ll see Outbox in the list, which you can select to view the emails.
📌 Note that the Mail app only displays the Outbox when you have unsent messages.
Additionally, if you connect a provider such as Outlook, you can expand that mailbox in Mail to view the Outbox.
Drafts
To access the Drafts in Mail, go to the Mailboxes screen and select All Drafts.
If you don’t see this option, tap Edit on the top right, mark All Drafts, and tap Done.
Like the Outbox, you can also expand a mailbox to see the Drafts for a particular email provider.
Retrieve, Resend, or Delete
Once you find the unsent email you need, simply tap to open it. From there, you can resend it by tapping the blue Send button on the top right. Note that you can edit it first if needed.
If you prefer to delete the email without editing or resending it, either swipe it from right to left in the message list and tap the Trash Can or long-press it and tap Trash Message.
Wondering how to get rid of unsent emails on iPhone in one fell swoop? You can move multiple emails you no longer wish to send to the trash. Tap Select at the top of the message list, pick Select All, and choose Trash at the bottom.
How to Prevent Future Unsent Email Issues
With the potential reasons for unsent emails on iPhone mentioned earlier, you can take precautions to ensure your messages reach your recipients without delay.
- Confirm your network connection: Make sure that you’re using a stable internet connection, especially if you’re sending important or multiple emails. As an alternative, you can compose the messages and purposely save them to your Drafts to send when you have a reliable connection.
- Review your provider restrictions: Many popular email service providers put restrictions on message sending to prevent spam. Check with your particular provider if you’re concerned about sending or recipient limits.
- Check your email settings: Double-check the email configurations for your connected accounts to confirm all necessary details are present and correct. Go to Settings → Apps → Mail → Mail Accounts and choose an account to view or update its settings.
Additional Measures
Again, consider using the Clean Email app to automatically handle the emails that get directed to the Drafts folder. Along with the Auto Clean feature, Clean Email provides additional tools for effortless mailbox management.
✅ Using Smart Folders, you can quickly view related emails in one spot. You’ll see pre-made folders for things like Online Shopping, Travel, Newsletters and Magazines, Seasonal Sales, and more. These auto-generated folders make mailbox organization a breeze.
✅ Low on time but need a good inbox cleanup? With Cleaning Suggestions, you receive recommendations for managing groups of messages. Whether it’s marking, archiving, or deleting, these suggestions are based on your previous actions or those most common among other users for a quick cleaning.
Wrap-Up
Now that you know where to find, how to retrieve, and how to resend unsent emails on iPhone, be sure to take the necessary steps to prevent this type of problem again.
And remember that if it does reoccur, you can use Clean Email to more easily get to the messages and maintain an organized mailbox at the same time.
💡 For additional help, look at our full guide for how to recall an email in Gmail.
