Apple Mail is a useful app for managing email on iPhone, but its default settings are not optimized for the best experience. Luckily, you only need to make a few adjustments to reduce battery drain, save on data usage, and unlock handy features you'll never want to be without again.
1. Convert Mail from Push to Fetch
By default, the Apple Mail app uses the “Push” setting. This setting helps the application continuously connect to the email server to retrieve new emails in real time. While convenient for instant updates, this feature can drain your battery and network resources. If you don't need instant notifications, you should switch to the “Fetch” option.
With “Fetch”, the app will check for new emails at different intervals – 15 minutes is a good balance. This helps reduce the frequency of checking, saving battery and data on the iPhone. To switch, open the Settings app, go to Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and turn off “Push”.
2. Adjust the data collection interval
When changing from “Push” to “Fetch”, by default the iPhone will only fetch new data from the server when connected to Wi-Fi and charging. Otherwise, it will pull data whenever you open the Apple Mail app. However, you can set it up to pull data at specific intervals, like Hourly, Every 30 Minutes or Every 15 Minutes.
This adjustment reduces the frequency of background checks, saving battery and data while ensuring you receive regular emails and don't miss important updates. To set your preferred data collection interval, go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and choose the time period that best suits you.
3. Turn off remote image loading
When you open an email in Apple Mail, remote content such as images, videos, or stylesheets is automatically downloaded from the Internet. This could expose you to inappropriate content, allow malicious code to run, and put your email account or device at risk. It also drains your device's battery and uses bandwidth, and can even notify the sender that you've read the email.
You should turn this feature off to enhance your iPhone's privacy, security, and performance. To turn off remote content loading in the Apple Mail app, open it Settings > Mail > Privacy Protection and turn off the switch next to “Protect Mail Activity”.
4. Modify undo send delay
We have all encountered the situation of accidentally sending an incomplete email, containing errors or missing attachments. Although Apple Mail allows you to undo sent emails, the default undo time is only 10 seconds, which is not enough. Luckily, you can extend this time to 20 or 30 seconds.
By increasing the delay, Apple Mail will keep the undo option visible for up to 30 seconds, giving you enough time to recall emails before they leave your outbox. To extend the undo delay, enter Settings > Mailthen select the “Undo Send Delay” option in the Sending section. Select “20 Seconds” or “30 Seconds” and you're done.
5. Customize swipe actions
Apple Mail lets you perform several actions with swipe gestures. By default, swiping left will archive the email, and swiping right will mark the email as read or unread.
While you can't change the default left swipe to anything other than archive, you can add secondary actions like “flag,” “mark as read,” or “move messages” and apply them manually after swiping left.
For the right swipe, you can change the action to “flag”, “move message” or “archive”. If you select “archive” for the right swipe, the default left swipe will automatically change to “delete”.
To adjust these gestures, open Settings > Mail > Swipe Options. From there, tap “Swipe Right” and “Swipe Left” to modify the actions for each swipe direction.
6. Select the default email account
When you add multiple accounts to Apple Mail, iPhone will automatically use the default email account when sending attachments outside of the Apple Mail app. For example, if you send a photo from the Photos app through the Mail app, the default email address will be filled in the “From” field.
If you often have to manually change the “From” field to a different email address, you can eliminate this inconvenience by adjusting the default account in your Mail settings. To do this, open the Settings app, navigate to “Mail”, scroll down and tap “Default Account”.
Now, select the email account you want to use as default when sending messages from other apps.
7. Update default signature
Do you see “Sent from my iPhone” whenever you start composing an email in the Apple Mail app? This is the application's default signature. If you don't want your signature to appear, you can easily update your email signature to include your name, title, or other relevant details, turning it into a digital business card.
Apple Mail even lets you set different signatures for each account. To update your signature, go here Settings > Mail > Signature. To apply the same signature to all accounts, select “All Accounts” and make your changes.
Alternatively, you can select an individual account and update that account's signature separately.
If you don't want to use a signature, leave the signature box blank and your email will be sent without a signature.
8. Turn off mobile data for Mail
Apple Mail uses a Wi-Fi connection to retrieve data, sync emails, and perform other tasks. If Wi-Fi is not available and mobile data is enabled, the app will switch to mobile data and use it to perform its operations.
If you want to restrict the Mail app to Wi-Fi mode and prevent it from using mobile data to avoid additional charges, you can turn this feature off.
To prevent Apple Mail from using cellular data, open the Settings app, go to “Mail” and turn off “Cellular Data” or “Mobile Data.” While this will help save data and avoid charges, you may miss out on important updates because your iPhone will only check for new email and notify you when you're connected to Wi-Fi.


Here are some examples of how Apple Mail's default settings are not well optimized, and how adjusting them can greatly improve your experience. If you've never made these adjustments, give them a try, but don't be afraid to change them again if they also hinder your overall experience.