Checking and Reading Email

The Mail icon shows the total number of unread messages in all your inboxes. You may have other unread messages in other mailboxes.

Mail application icon with a number in the corner

Check for new messages: 

Choose a mailbox or tap Reload icon at any time.

On each account screen, you can see the number of unread messages in each mailbox.

The account screen for a MobileMe email account showing a list of mailboxes. At the top of the screen is the title bar with the Accounts button on the left. Below the title bar is a list of mailboxes showing from top to bottom: Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Trash, Friends, Projects, and Travel. At the far right of the row for the Inbox and Projects mailboxes are numbers indicating the number of unread messages in those mailboxes.

Tap a mailbox to see its messages. Unread messages have a blue dot Blue dot next to them.

The Inbox screen for a MobileMe email account showing a list of messages. At the top of the screen is the title bar with a MobileMe account button on the left and an Edit button on the right. Below the title bar is the messages list. In the messages list, a blue dot at the start of a row indicates an unread message. Each row shows the name of the sender, the subject, when the message was sent, and two lines of message text. A greater than symbol at the end of a row displays the whole message when tapped. Below the messages list at the bottom of the screen from left to right are: the Check Messages button, the date and time the messages list was last updated, and the Compose button.

When you open a mailbox, Mail loads the number of most recent messages specified in your Mail settings, if the messages haven’t already been loaded automatically. (See Mail.)

Load additional messages: 

Scroll to the bottom of the list of messages and tap Load More Messages.

Read a message: 

Tap a mailbox, then tap a message. Within a message, tap Up arrow or Down arrow to see the next or previous message.

Zoom in on part of a message: 

Double-tap an area of the message to zoom in. Double-tap again to zoom out.

Resize any column of text to fit the screen: 

Double-tap the text.

Resize a message manually: 

Pinch to zoom in or out.

Follow a link: 

Tap the link.

Text links are typically underlined and blue. Many images are also links. A link can take you to a webpage, open a map, dial a phone number, or open a new preaddressed email message.

Web, phone, and map links open Safari, Phone, or Maps on iPhone. To return to your email, press the Home button and tap Mail.

See a link’s destination address: 

Touch and hold the link. The address is displayed, and you can choose to open the link in Safari or copy the link address to the clipboard.

iPhone displays picture attachments in many commonly used formats (JPEG, GIF, and TIFF) inline with the text in email messages. iPhone can play many audio attachments (such as MP3, AAC, WAV, and AIFF). You can download and view files (such as PDF, webpage, text, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents) attached to messages you receive.

Open an attached file: 

Tap the attachment. It downloads to iPhone and then opens.

The top portion of the message screen showing a message that contains an attachment to tap. To the right is another screenshot of the same message now showing the downloaded image.

You can view attachments in portrait or landscape orientation. If the format of an attached file isn’t supported by iPhone, you can see the name of the file but you can’t open it. iPhone supports the following document types:

.doc: 

Microsoft Word

.docx: 

Microsoft Word (XML)

.htm: 

webpage

.html: 

webpage

.key: 

Keynote

.numbers: 

Numbers

.pages: 

Pages

.pdf: 

Preview, Adobe Acrobat

.ppt: 

Microsoft PowerPoint

.pptx: 

Microsoft PowerPoint (XML)

.rtf: 

Rich Text Format

.txt: 

text

.vcf: 

contact information

.xls: 

Microsoft Excel

.xlsx: 

Microsoft Excel (XML)

Save an attached photo to your Camera RollSaved Photos album: 

Tap the photo, then tap Save Image. If the photo hasn’t been downloaded yet, tap the download notice first.

Save an attached video to your Camera RollSaved Photos album: 

Touch and hold the attachment, then tap Save Video. If the video hasn’t been downloaded yet, tap the download notice first.

See all the recipients of a message: 

Tap Details.

Tap a name or email address to see the recipient’s contact information. Then tap a phone number, email address, or text message to contact the person. Tap Hide to hide the recipients.

Add an email recipient to your contacts list: 

Tap the message and, if necessary, tap Details to see the recipients. Then tap a name or email address and tap Create New Contact or “Add to Existing Contact.”

Mark a message as unread: 

Open the message and tap “Mark as Unread.”

A blue dot Blue dot appears next to the message in the mailbox list until you open it again.

Open a meeting invitation: 

Tap the invitation.

A meeting invitation attachment showing a rectangle with an icon of a calendar, the name of the meeting, the size of the attachment. An arrow on the right side opens the meeting invitation when tapped.

You can get contact information for the organizer and other attendees, set an alert, add notes to the event, and add comments that are included in your response emailed to the organizer. You can accept, tentatively accept, or decline the invitation. See Responding to Meeting Invitations.

Turn Push on or off: 

In Settings, choose “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” > Fetch New Data, then turn Push on or off. See Fetch New Data.