Use mailboxes to organize email messages on your iPhone or iPad
Learn how to organize 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 organize your email messages. In the Mail app, you can use standard mailboxes — like Inbox, Sent, Trash, 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
In the Mailboxes list, tap Edit in the upper-right corner, then tap New Mailbox.
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. Learn how to add an email account to your device.
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
Go to your Inbox in Mail.
Tap Select in the upper-right corner.
Select the email messages, then tap Move.
Tap Move Message.
Choose a mailbox to move the email messages to.
Delete mailboxes
When you delete a custom mailbox, it permanently deletes 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:
Go to your Mailboxes list and tap Edit in the upper-right corner.
Tap the mailbox you want to delete.
Tap Delete Mailbox.
Tap Delete, then tap Done.
You can only delete custom mailboxes.
Learn 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 send. 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
Go to an email message.
Tap the sender’s name or email address in the message header.
Tap Add to VIP.
Change VIP alerts
Open Mail.
Tap the Info button
next to VIP.Tap VIP Alerts.
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 color code your different flags. When you flag an email message, you’ll see the flag icon
next to the email message thread.
Use the default flag:
Go to the mailbox that has the email message that you want to flag.
Swipe left over the email message.
Tap Flag.
To change the color of a flag:
Go to an email message thread.
Tap the Reply button
.Tap Flag, then select the color you want to use for that flag.
If you use the categories view for Mail in iOS 18.2, you cannot flag emails that have been categorized as Promotions, Updates, or Transactions.
Find your flagged email messages
In the Mail app, go to your Mailboxes list.
Tap Edit in the upper-right corner.
Select Flagged.
Tap Done. Your Flagged email messages mailbox now appears in your Mailboxes list.
Use categorization 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. Learn more about Mail notifications on your iPhone.
To see all your emails at once when you usecategories, swipe left on the categories menu to reveal All Mail. Or, tap the More button and choose List View to switch the overall layout.
To use categories in Mail, you need an iPhone with iOS 18.2.
