Add a mailbox by opening Settings and selecting Mail

To add a new mailbox on your iPhone, open the Settings app, scroll down and tap Mail, then tap Accounts. At the top of the Accounts screen, tap Add Account. You'll see options for common email providers like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and AOL. If your email is from one of these, tap it and enter your email address and password. If your email is from another provider, tap Other at the bottom of the list.

After you select your provider or choose Other, iPhone will try to find your email settings automatically. This usually takes a few seconds. Once it connects, you'll see a list of what iPhone can access — typically Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Notes. You can turn any of these on or off depending on what you want synced to your phone. Tap Save in the top right corner when you're done.

The new mailbox will now appear in your Mail app's inbox list. You can switch between mailboxes by tapping the back arrow at the top left of your inbox, or by swiping left on the screen to see all your accounts at once.

Key Takeaways

  • Open Settings, tap Mail, then Accounts, then Add Account to start adding a new mailbox.
  • Choose your email provider from the list, or tap Other if your provider isn't shown.
  • Enter your email address and password, then let iPhone find your email settings automatically.
  • Toggle Mail, Contacts, Calendars, or Notes on or off based on what you want synced to your phone.
  • Your new mailbox appears in the Mail app's inbox list once you tap Save.

What happens if iPhone can't find your email settings

If iPhone shows an error message or says it can't connect, you may need to enter your email settings manually. This is common with corporate email accounts or smaller email providers. When you see the error, tap Manual Setup or Next to continue.

You'll be asked to choose between IMAP and POP3. IMAP is almost always the right choice — it keeps your emails synced across all your devices, so if you delete something on your phone, it's gone from your computer too. POP3 downloads emails only to your phone and removes them from the server, which can cause problems if you use multiple devices. Ask your email provider which one they support, or try IMAP first.

After you choose, you'll enter your incoming mail server address (usually something like imap.yourprovider.com), your username, and your password. Then you'll enter your outgoing mail server address (usually smtp.yourprovider.com). Your email provider's website or support page will have these details. Once you enter everything correctly, tap Save.

Using multiple mailboxes in the Mail app

Once you've added more than one mailbox, the Mail app shows you options for viewing them. At the top of your inbox, you'll see the name of the account you're currently viewing. Tap the back arrow or swipe left to see a list of all your accounts and a combined inbox that shows mail from all of them.

The combined inbox is called All Inboxes and it's useful for quickly scanning everything that's come in. However, if you're trying to find an email from a specific account or keep work and personal mail separate, you'll want to tap into individual mailboxes. You can also create folders within each mailbox by tapping Edit in the Mailboxes view and then New Mailbox.

Removing a mailbox you no longer need

If you add a mailbox by mistake or stop using an email account, you can remove it from your iPhone without deleting the account itself. Go to Settings, tap Mail, then AccountsDelete Account at the bottom of the screen. A warning will appear asking you to confirm — tap Delete again.

Removing an account from your iPhone only removes it from your phone. The account still exists, and you can add it back later if you need to. Your emails remain on the provider's servers.

Checking your password if Mail won't connect

The most common reason Mail can't connect to a new mailbox is an incorrect password. If you haven't used the account in a while, you may have forgotten it or changed it without realizing. Go to your email provider's website and use their password recovery tool to reset it, then try adding the account again on your iPhone.

Some email providers, especially Gmail and Microsoft Outlook, use special security settings that prevent regular passwords from working in Mail. Gmail calls this an App Password, and Outlook calls it a similar feature. If you have two-factor authentication turned on for your email account, you'll need to generate a special password just for your iPhone. Your email provider's help page will walk you through this process.

Why you might want separate mailboxes instead of forwarding

Some people add a new mailbox because they want to check multiple email addresses on one phone. Others forward all their email from one address to another and only add one mailbox to their iPhone. Forwarding is simpler if you only care about seeing everything in one place, but adding separate mailboxes gives you more control.

With separate mailboxes, you can reply from the correct email address — if someone emails your work account, your reply comes from your work address, not your personal one. You can also organize mail differently in each account and see at a glance which address received something. If you're managing multiple identities or want to keep work and personal mail visually separate, separate mailboxes are worth the extra step.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add the same email address twice on my iPhone?

No. If you try to add an account that's already on your phone, you'll get an error message. If you want to access the same email address with different settings — for example, IMAP on one device and POP3 on another — you'll need to use a different device.

Will adding a mailbox use a lot of data?

When you first add a mailbox, iPhone downloads your recent emails, which uses some data. After that, it only downloads new messages as they arrive. If you're on Wi-Fi, this won't matter. On cellular data, you can limit how much mail iPhone downloads by going to Settings, Mail, and changing the "Load Remote Images" and "Mail Preview Lines" settings.

What's the difference between IMAP and POP3?

IMAP keeps your emails on the server and syncs them across all your devices, so deleting an email on your phone deletes it everywhere. POP3 downloads emails to your phone and removes them from the server, which means they only exist on one device. IMAP is better if you use multiple devices.

Can I change which mailbox is my default for sending email?

When you reply to an email, it automatically sends from the mailbox that received it. When you start a new email, iPhone uses your primary account by default. To change your primary account, go to Settings, Mail, then Accounts, and tap Default Account at the bottom of the screen.

What should I do if I see a "certificate" or "SSL" error?

This error usually means your email provider's security settings don't match what iPhone is trying to use. Go back and check that you chose the right incoming and outgoing servers — a typo in the server address is the most common cause. If the address is correct, contact your email provider's support to confirm their server settings.