How to Check for New Email on iPhone or iPad

This guide shows you how to check for new email in the Mail app on an iPhone or iPad, and how to control how often your device looks for new messages. Checking for mail is sometimes called refreshing, syncing or fetching your inbox: they all mean the same thing, asking the mail server whether anything new has arrived. You will learn the pull-down gesture for an instant manual check, the difference between push and fetch delivery, and where to set the fetch schedule so new mail arrives as quickly as you need it to.

Last reviewed: 27 July 2026, against iOS and iPadOS 26 (latest stable). This article reproduces the official Apple procedures for checking email in the Mail app and adjusting the Fetch New Data settings. Apple releases updates frequently, so always cross-reference the current version of the official documentation before starting: direct links to every section used in this guide are provided below.

Official Documentation Reference

• Check your email in Mail on iPhone (iPhone User Guide, iOS 26)
• Check your email in Mail on iPad (iPad User Guide, iPadOS 26)
• Change your Mail settings on iPhone (iPhone User Guide, iOS 26)
• If you can't receive email on your iPhone or iPad (Apple Support)

Prerequisites

• An email account already added to the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad. Mail cannot check a mailbox that has not been set up on the device.
• A working mailbox on your hosting plan, for example [email protected] (replace with your own address). If you host with Noiz and have not created one yet, see How to Create an Email Address in Plesk.
• An active internet connection on the device, over Wi-Fi or mobile data.
• Your mailbox password to hand, in case Mail prompts you to re-enter it.

Check for New Email Manually

The quickest way to check for new mail at any moment is to refresh the message list by hand. This works regardless of your fetch or push settings.

Open the Inbox You Want to Check

1. Open the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. If you are viewing an individual message, tap the back arrow in the top-left corner until you see the Mailboxes list.
3. Tap All Inboxes to check every account at once, or tap the inbox for a single account, for example the one holding [email protected].

Refresh the Message List

1. Touch the message list, drag it downwards until a spinning refresh indicator appears at the top, then release.
2. Mail contacts the server and downloads anything new. New messages appear at the top of the list, and the status text at the bottom of the screen updates to show when the mailbox was last checked.
3. If nothing appears, there is simply no new mail waiting on the server. You can confirm this by logging in to webmail from another device and comparing the two.

Mail also checks for new messages automatically every time you open the app, even when the fetch schedule is set to Manually.

Understand Push and Fetch

Between manual checks, your device receives mail in one of two ways:

• Push: the mail server sends new messages to your device the moment they arrive. Push is only available if your email service supports it. Most standard hosting mailboxes use the IMAP protocol, which does not offer push to iOS devices, so those accounts fall back to fetch. This is normal behaviour, not a fault.
• Fetch: your device contacts the server on a schedule and asks whether anything new has arrived. You choose the schedule: every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, hourly, automatically or manually.

By default, Apple sets fetch to Automatically, which only checks in the background while the device is charging and connected to Wi-Fi. If your mail seems to arrive only when you open the Mail app, this default is almost always the reason, and switching to a timed schedule fixes it. A shorter fetch interval uses slightly more battery, but for most people Every 15 Minutes is the best balance between speed and battery life.

Change How Often Your Device Checks for Mail

Open the Fetch New Data Settings

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Apps, then tap Mail. On iOS 17 and earlier, Mail appears directly in the main Settings list instead of under Apps.
3. Tap Mail Accounts, then tap Fetch New Data.

Choose a Delivery Method and Schedule

1. At the top of the screen, turn on Push if you want push delivery for accounts that support it. If your account only supports fetch, this toggle makes no difference to it.
2. Under the list of accounts, choose a fetch schedule: Automatically, Manually, Hourly, Every 30 Minutes or Every 15 Minutes. For prompt delivery to a standard hosting mailbox, choose Every 15 Minutes.
3. Optionally, tap an individual account in the list to set a different method for that account alone, for example push for one account and fetch for another.

Remember that Automatically only fetches in the background while the device is charging and on Wi-Fi, and Manually only checks when you open the Mail app or pull down to refresh.

Check Your Notification Settings

If new mail arrives but you are never alerted, the fetch schedule may be fine and the notifications switched off instead.

1. Open the Settings app and tap Notifications.
2. Tap Mail.
3. Adjust the Alerts, Sounds and Badges options to suit you.

By default, the unread count badge on the Mail icon only reflects messages in the Primary category. To count every unread message, tap Customise Notifications on the same screen, then turn on All Unread Messages.

Troubleshooting

Mail only arrives when you open the Mail app: the fetch schedule is set to Automatically or Manually. Go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts > Fetch New Data and choose a timed schedule such as Every 15 Minutes.

New mail is delayed by up to an hour: the fetch schedule is set to Hourly. Choose a shorter interval on the same Fetch New Data screen.

There is no Push option for your account: your email service delivers mail over IMAP, which does not support push on iOS. The account uses fetch instead, so set a 15-minute schedule for near-immediate delivery.

A message arrived but you cannot see it in the inbox: Mail in iOS 26 can sort incoming messages into categories such as Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions. Check the other category tabs at the top of the inbox, or tap the more button in the top-right corner of the inbox and switch to List View to see everything in one list.

Mail shows on webmail but not on the device: confirm the device has an internet connection, pull down to refresh, and re-enter your password if Mail prompts for it. If it still fails, follow Apple's steps in If you can't receive email on your iPhone or iPad to remove the account and add it again, after confirming your messages are safe on the server.

Mail keeps asking for your password: the stored password no longer matches the mailbox password on the server. Check the password by logging in to webmail, then enter the working password on the device.

Everything in this guide happens on your own device, so it is quick to work through yourself. If your mailbox still does not receive new email after following these steps, the problem may be on the server side: open a support ticket with the Noiz support team, include your email address and a description of what you have tried, and the team will investigate the mailbox for you.