Use mailboxes to organise email messages on your iPhone or iPad

Find out how to organise your email messages with custom mailboxes, VIP mailboxes and flags. Or, use categories to sort your emails in iOS 18.2.

How to use mailboxes

A mailbox is a folder that you can use to organise your email messages. In the Mail app, you can use standard mailboxes — like Inbox, Sent, Bin, Remind Me, Follow Up and Send Later. Or you can create custom mailboxes. You can also use VIP and flags to make specific email messages stand out.

Create custom mailboxes

1. In the Mailboxes list, tap Edit in the top right-hand corner, then tap New Mailbox.

2. Give your mailbox a name. If you have more than one email account set up on your device, tap Mailbox Location and choose the account where you want to create a mailbox. Find out how to add an email account to your device.

3. Tap Save, then tap Done.

   

You can find your new mailbox in the Mailboxes list under the account where you created it.

Move your email messages to a mailbox

1. Go to your Inbox in Mail.

2. Tap Select in the top right-hand corner.

3. Select the email messages, then tap Move.

4. Tap Move Message.

5. Choose a mailbox to move the email messages to.

   

Delete mailboxes

When you delete a custom mailbox, it will permanently delete all of the email messages inside the mailbox and from your account. Before you delete a mailbox, you can move your email messages to another mailbox.

To delete a custom mailbox:

1. Go to your Mailboxes list and tap Edit in the top right-hand corner.

2. Tap the mailbox you want to delete.

3. Tap Delete Mailbox.

4. Tap Delete, then tap Done.

You can only delete custom mailboxes.

Find out how to delete individual email messages on your iPhone or iPad.

How to use the VIP mailbox

In the Mail app, you can specify certain people as VIPs to help keep track of messages they've sent. Your VIPs have the star icon next to the names in the message header. Your VIP mailbox is in the list of your mailboxes.

If you can't find your VIP mailbox, make sure it's turned on. Go to Mail, tap Edit, then make sure VIP is selected in the list of mailboxes.

Add a VIP

1. Go to an email message.

2. Tap the sender's name or email address in the message header.

3. Tap Add to VIP.

   

Change VIP alerts

1. Open Mail.

2. Tap the Info button next to VIP.

3. Tap VIP Alerts.

4. Select the alerts you want to set.

How to use email message flags

You can mark your email message with a flag to help you keep track of your messages. You can even colour code your different flags. When you flag an email message, you'll see the flag icon next to the email message thread.

Find your flagged email messages

1. In the Mail app, go to your Mailboxes list.

2. Tap Edit in the top right-hand corner.

3. Select Flagged.

4. Tap Done. Your Flagged email messages mailbox will now appear in your Mailboxes list.

Use categorisation in iOS 18.2

In iOS 18.2, you can use categories and Mail automatically sorts your emails into four categories:

• Primary includes urgent emails or recent messages from contacts.

• Transactions includes receipts and order updates.

• Updates includes news and social media.

• Promotions includes emails from businesses and organizations.

You can still move individual email messages into specific mailboxes when you use the categories layout.

When you use categories, the badge alert for Mail on your Home screen only shows the number of unread messages in your Primary category. Find out more about Mail notifications on your iPhone.

To see all your emails at once when you use categories, swipe left on the categories menu to reveal All Mail. Or, tap the More button and choose List View to switch the overall layout.

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