The availability of mobile devices offers a lot of benefits to many people these days. As a matter of fact, smartphones are now becoming a necessity. Various tasks now have mobile versions. Good enough reasons for anyone to not last the day without using a smartphone. Personal and business transactions for example, are now made quicker and easier with mobile devices. So anyone can do any of these transactions or close business deals at anytime and anywhere for as long as their mobile phone is present and active.
These are just a few of the many reasons behind the existence of the mobile applications. Nevertheless, mobile devices wouldn’t be able to deliver positive outputs all the time. It is because of the many factors that can interfere apps functions in mobile devices. Even mobile devices that belong to the highest tiered category are not exempted to this. Apple’s special edition iPhone, widely known as the powerful iPhone SE also suffers the same dilemmas to-date. Evident issues including texting, calling, and email processing are plaguing users of this iPhone since its official rollout. Problems with mobile email processing through the iPhone’s Mail app surfaced among the most prevalent issues relayed by end-users worldwide. And it is more likely the main reason as to why you’ve came across this page. If so, then read on and feel free to refer to this content.
Now, before we proceed with our troubleshooting, if you have other concerns with your new iPhone SE, drop by our troubleshooting page for we have already published some guides and tutorials. You may also contact us by completing our iPhone issues questionnaire. This is a free consultation servicer we offer and all we need is information about the problem. So please give us that so that we can help you better.
Possible causes of email (Mail) problems on the iPhone SE
When it comes to email problems in mobile devices like Apple’s iPhone SE, the blame is usually on the software. Network errors, bugs and glitches, incorrect email account setup or settings, and account problems are the usual triggers. Here’s why and how exactly each of these factors can trigger some problems to manifest while trying to process emails or use the Mail app on your iPhone.
Network errors
An active and stable connection to the network is among the key requisites for you to be able to send and receive emails. With no connectivity, intermittent connection to the network, network outages, and other forms of network errors, you are most likely to succumb into relevant problems with the iPhone SE email services. Emails won’t sync and sending and receiving of emails won’t be working as intended.
Software bugs/glitches
Software malfunctions are inevitable with mobile apps including the iPhone’s built-in Mail application. Most of these are triggered by some files that get corrupted or small bugs inflicting minor inconsistencies to the app’s functionality. Often times, minor glitches get rectified by a restart either on the glitching app or the device itself. However, there are also other cases where software glitches are tough enough to withstand a reboot or soft reset. This is usually what happens when software bugs have penetrated the main system and causing serious problems to various services including the Mail app. The same thing can happen if the Mail app or email service you are using gets corrupted after installing faulty updates.
Incorrect email account setup
Expect that emails wouldn’t work as intended if the email account was set up incorrectly. This likely happens when setting up email accounts manually on the iPhone. There is a tendency for you to mess up or use incorrect server settings, port numbers and selecting wrong options. To prevent this from occurring, verify and ensure that all information you’ve entered when setting up your email account is correct. Server settings vary depending on the type of email you are trying to setup — corporate or personal email account. If necessary, contact your email service provider or network carrier to ensure that all information you input are correct.
Account-related issues
Your account status can also be the underlying cause for issues affecting outgoing services. For example, you may not be able to send or receive emails because your network provider or carrier is imposing some restrictions to your account or issued a soft disconnect due to unsettled balances. As a result, your network is momentarily unavailable and other network-related services like emails won’t be working as well. Everything shall resume once the account issue has been resolved.
Hardware damage
There are also other cases of email problems inflicted by a faulty component on the iPhone. These issues are tagged among other iPhone problems that are hardware-related. Unfortunately, most hardware-related issues on emails would already require a technician’s aid in order to get fixed permanently — either through a repair or replacement.
Although this may sound a bit bizarre, it is not impossible. Note that both software and hardware components must be in good state for apps and services to work properly. Thus, if something goes wrong with the hardware, it is also possible that the software won’t be able to operate normally or won’t work at all. Consider this a possible cause especially if the symptoms started to show up after incidents of dropping or liquid exposure on the iPhone SE. Symptoms inflicted by physical or liquid damage can manifest earlier or later.
Solutions and Workarounds to deal with email problems on the iPhone SE
Should you wish to troubleshoot email problems on your iPhone, feel free to refer to the subsequent guide. It highlights generic solutions and some recommended workarounds used by other iPhone users who have dealt with pertinent email issues on their respective devices. After completing each step, be sure to create a test mail to see if the problem has been fixed and that you are already able to send and receive emails on your iPhone SE.
First Solution: Verify network status and ensure network connectivity is good and active.
As mentioned earlier, network connectivity is essential for email services to work on your mobile device. Thus, you should consider checking on the network status if you are trying to deal with issues on sending or receiving emails. Be sure that your network is active and stable. If you are using Wi-Fi, check the Wi-Fi settings and make sure everything is properly set. Do the same with you Cellular Data network.
- To verify and configure Wi-Fi settings on the iPhone SE, go to Settings-> Wi-Fi menu. Make sure that the Wi-Fi button is turned on or enabled. Another way to get to the Wi-Fi menu is through the Control Center. To do so, swipe up from the bottom of the Home screen. Once you’re in the Control Center panel, locate and tap the Wi-Fi icon to turn toggle the feature on or off.
Meanwhile, if you’re on Cellular Data, verify and ensure that Cellular Network is enabled on your device.
- To verify and configure Cellular Data or Cellular Network on your iPhone SE, go to Settings-> Cellular Data menu. If necessary, toggle the switch to turn the feature ON.
Note: You may incur extra charges for using Cellular Data services. To verify terms of using Cellular Data or avoid incurring extra charges, contact your service provider beforehand.
Second Solution: Power cycle modem/router.
The term “power cycle” depicts a process of hard reboot on the modem or router. The main source of your home network is the router or modem. This equipment is responsible to receive signal from the main tower or line and transmits or distributes the signal to other devices connected to the home network. Should the problem is triggered by minor flaws on the network connection, a hard reboot or power cycle on the modem or router will likely take care of it. It won’t hurt to give it a try this time and see what happens after doing so. Just follow these simple steps:
- Power off your modem or router and then unplug it from the power source.
- Leave it unplugged for at least 30 seconds.
- After the elapsed time, plug it back in and then turn it back on.
- Wait for the modem/router to complete the reboot process.
- After it reboots, restart your iPhone.
Network providers highly recommend this method especially when dealing with network-related issues because doing so allows the modem/router to re-establish fresh connection with the network server. To ensure that your network connection is restored and is already working, try to open Safari browser on your iPhone and navigate to a website. If you can browse properly, open your email through webmail and see if it’s also working fine. If it does, then you should be able to process mobile emails with your preferred email app on the iPhone SE.
Third Solution: Quit and restart the iPhone SE Mail app.
Applications can become corrupted sometimes. This usually what happens when you opened some email contents that are also corrupted or implementing updates to email app. Minor glitches like this are usually fixed by restarting the faulty application. Just like what you usually do with a computer program that fails to work at first. Just quit the app and then open it again. It may not be able to load or operate properly at first but works perfectly fine the next time it reloads.
Here’s how:
- Double-press the Home button on your iPhone.
- Look for the Mail app preview when the multitasking view appears.
- Swipe the Mail app preview up and off the screen. Doing so will quit the Mail app.
- Press or tap the Home button.
- Tap the Mail icon to re-launch or re-open the app.
Create a test mail to see if restarting the app has fixed the glitch and email is already working on your iPhone as intended.
Fourth Solution: Reboot your iPhone SE (soft reset).
If quitting the application won’t be able to rectify the software glitch and the Mail/email app is still not working properly, then your next option is a soft reset on the iPhone SE. In other words, reboot or restart your device. It’s by far the simplest solution used to deal with software-related problems with mobile apps and services. Here’s how it’s properly done:
- Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for at least 10 seconds until the red slider appears.
- Drag the slider to power off the iPhone completely.
- Wait for at least 30 seconds.
- After the elapsed time, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.
After reboot, try to open the Mail/email app and see if it is already working properly.
In the case where the Mail app stops and the iPhone itself becomes unresponsive, a force restart would be necessary. It is another type or reboot using the hard keys since the iPhone is not responding to touch inputs. Here’s how to force your iPhone SE to reboot:
- Press and hold the Sleep/Wake (Power) button and the Volume Down button simultaneously for at least 10 seconds until the Apple logo appears.
- Wait for your iPhone to reboot completely.
Open the Mail app once the iPhone boots up and then create a test mail to see if you can now send and receive emails without any problem.
Fifth Solution: Verify server settings for the email account are correct.
This must be done if you happened to set up your email account manually on your iPhone SE. Make sure that everything you input in the incoming and outgoing server settings are the correct information. If you are not sure of which information to use, then you better contact your email service provider or network administrator (for work emails) to verify the correct server information to use.
To access and verify server settings on your iPhone SE, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Mail.
- Select Accounts.
- Tap the email account you want to verify.
- Navigate to the Account section.
- Tap your email address. Doing so will open the account details including the incoming and outgoing server settings.
Check and ensure that what you have in there are the correct settings for your email account. If necessary, you can use the Mail settings lookup tool and try to compare the server information.
Also ensure that you are using the appropriate port number for your email account. If you set the port to 25, you will only be able to send email when you are connected to your email provider’s network.
Sixth Solution: Delete and set up the email account again.
Consider this a potential solution if problem persists and that you’ve ran out of options. So you’re going to remove the email account that you’re having trouble with and then add it back to your device. Doing so will possibly erase and correct all flaws or incorrect settings configuration. Although it’s time consuming but often yields positive result.
Follow these steps if ever you wish to give it a try on your end:
- Go to Settings-> Mail-> Accounts.
- Select the email account that you’re having problem with.
- Tap Delete Account.
- Confirm action by tapping on the option to Delete from My iPhone.
- Restart your iPhone.
- Once the restart is complete, set up and add the email account again with these steps:
- Tap the Mail icon. Doing so will open the Mail app.
- Select the email account type you want to create.
- If prompted, enter all necessary details including your name, email address and password, and account description.
- Follow the onscreen instructions that pop-up next.
- Make sure you have entered the correct information required.
Note: If you would prefer, you can just set up the account automatically.
Once you’re done setting up the email account, email should automatically start populating your Inbox folder. These emails are the same ones coming into your webmail account. Considering that the setup is done correctly, the iPhone SE Mail app should be able to sync with your webmail server and fetch emails from the webmail to the email client you are using.
Specific Errors and Solutions
Email error: “Email was not sent or not delivered!”
To fix the error, you can try to resend the email. Unsent or undelivered emails will be routed to the Outbox folder. So head over to the Outbox folder and then locate the message. Here’s how it’s done:
- Open the Mail app.
- Tap Mailboxes in the upper-left corner.
- Tap Outboxes. If you do not see the email in the Outbox folder, then it means that your email was sent.
- Otherwise, tap an email in the Outbox, make sure the recipient’s email address is correct and then tap Send.
Email error: “Incorrect Password!”
As the message denotes, the password you’ve entered is not correct thus you cannot access your email account. As resolution, be sure to enter the correct password for your email account. Or you can try to log in to your webmail account by opening a browser and then navigate to your webmail. If you can sign into your webmail account using the same password you used when attempting to sign into your email account on the phone, then try to check the account settings and make sure the password set for the account matches.
If that won’t work, contact your email service provider and have them reset the password for your account instead.
Other Recommendations
Updating to the latest iOS version is also recommended to keep your iPhone’s operating system optimized. Doing so is also a way to implement new fixes to certain bugs including those that have caused problems to the Mail app or email services on your iPhone. To check for available updates on your iPhone SE, go to Settings-> General-> About section. You will get a notification if an update is available. To proceed with iOS update implementation, select the option to Download and Install. Follow the rest of the onscreen instructions to complete the entire process.
Using other email application is also another thing to reconsider. It is possible that problem is only isolated the current email service and so other email apps are likely just fine. Just be sure to pick the most credible and compatible software for your iPhone SE.
If all the aforementioned solutions failed to fix the problem and you’re still unable to send or receive emails on your iPhone SE, then you should now escalate the problem to your email service provider or contact Apple Support if it’s a post-update issue. You can consider it a post-update problem is the symptoms start to surface after installing a software (iOS) update on your device.
Connect with us
Visit our troubleshooting page to view more solutions to other iPhone problems we have addressed in our prior posts. If you wish to reach our iOS support team for further assistance, then you may do so by filling up this form with all the required information. Be sure to provide us with the significant details of the issue that you need help with so we would be able to give you the best possible solutions and recommendations to try on.