Why Am I Not Receiving Emails

If you are not receiving emails, first work out whether one message is missing, emails from one sender are missing, or all new emails have stopped arriving. Search your mailbox, check Spam or Junk, and then sign in directly through your email provider’s website.

If the missing emails appear on the provider’s website but not on your phone or email app, your account is receiving them and the problem is more likely to be with the app or device. If they are missing everywhere, check your storage, filters or rules, forwarding settings and whether the sender used the correct email address.

What to check first if you are not receiving emails

The quickest way to narrow down the problem is to identify what is actually missing.

• One email is missing: Search for it and check Spam or Junk.
• Emails from one sender are missing: Check Spam, blocked senders, filters or rules, and confirm that the sender has your correct address.
• All new emails have stopped: Check your account storage, forwarding, filters or rules and your provider’s service status.
• Emails appear online but not on your phone or email app: Concentrate on the app or device rather than the email account itself.

This distinction prevents you from changing account settings unnecessarily when the problem affects only one message or one device.

Check whether the email is missing or just has not arrived yet

If one expected email has not appeared but other messages are arriving normally, the problem probably does not affect your whole account.

Wait a short time before changing settings, especially if the message was only just sent. Then search your mailbox using the sender’s name, email address or words from the subject.

If you still cannot find it, check Spam or Junk and any other folders where incoming messages might have been moved.

Search your whole mailbox

An email that does not appear in the Inbox has not necessarily failed to arrive.

Start by checking:

1. Spam or Junk
2. Trash or Bin
3. Other folders or categories
4. Archived messages
5. Search results for the sender or subject

Spam filters can move legitimate messages away from the Inbox. If you find expected mail repeatedly being treated as spam, understanding how spam email is handled can help explain why it keeps happening.

An archived message is also still in your account even though it has been removed from the Inbox. Archiving an email is different from deleting it.

If you are not receiving emails from one sender

If other emails are arriving normally but messages from one particular person or company are missing, start with that sender rather than changing settings for your whole account.

Search your mailbox for their email address and check Spam or Junk.

Then check whether you have:

• blocked the sender
• created a filter or rule affecting their messages
• moved their previous messages into another folder
• entered their address into another setting that changes how their mail is handled

If the sender has been blocked accidentally, review your blocked email settings.

You should also ask the sender to check that they used your complete email address correctly and whether they received a failed-delivery message.

If you are not receiving verification or password-reset emails

Automated emails can include verification links, login codes, password-reset messages, booking confirmations and account notifications.

If one of these is missing, check Spam or Junk first. Also make sure that you entered your own email address correctly when requesting the message.

If possible, wait briefly before requesting another copy. Some services also limit how frequently the same automated message can be requested.

If all other email is arriving normally, there is usually no reason to start changing the settings for your entire email account just because one automated message has not appeared.

If you are not receiving any emails

If all new emails have stopped coming through, check for an account-wide problem.

The most useful things to check are:

1. your email or account storage
2. filters or rules
3. forwarding
4. whether messages appear through webmail
5. whether your provider is experiencing a service problem
6. whether your account is showing a security or sign-in warning

Check your email storage

A full mailbox or account storage allowance can prevent new email from arriving with major email providers.

Google says that if your Google Account storage is full, you may not be able to send or receive Gmail messages. Gmail storage is shared with other Google services, including Google Drive and Google Photos.

Microsoft says Outlook.com cannot send or receive email when Microsoft cloud storage is full. Messages sent to you while the storage is full are bounced back to the sender and cannot be recovered later.

Yahoo also says you cannot receive or send new emails while the mailbox is full, and incoming messages sent during that period are not stored.

If you use iCloud Mail, Apple says that running out of iCloud storage prevents new messages from being received at your iCloud Mail address until storage becomes available again.

The exact storage system therefore depends on your provider. Check the storage information for your account rather than assuming that deleting a few emails from your Inbox will always solve the problem.

Check filters and rules

Filters and rules automatically decide what happens to certain incoming emails.

For example, a rule might move emails from a particular sender into another folder. A Gmail filter can also skip the Inbox or move messages to Bin.

If emails seem to disappear as soon as they arrive, review any filters or rules you have created.

This is particularly important if only certain senders or types of email are affected.

Check forwarding

Email forwarding automatically sends incoming messages to another email address.

If you previously enabled forwarding, check what happens to the original copy of each message. Depending on the provider and settings, it may remain in the Inbox, be marked as read, archived or handled in another way.

Gmail specifically recommends checking forwarding and connected POP or IMAP settings when messages appear to be missing because these settings can affect whether Gmail keeps, archives or deletes its copy.

If you discover that your email is being forwarded to an address you do not recognise, treat that as a possible account-security problem rather than simply turning the setting off.

Check whether the problem is your email account or your email app

Your email account and the app you use to view it are two different things.

The provider receives and stores the email. An app such as Apple Mail, Outlook or another mail app then connects to that account and displays the messages.

A useful test is therefore to sign in directly through your email provider’s website.

For example:

• Gmail users can check Gmail in a web browser.
• Outlook.com users can check Outlook on the web.
• Yahoo Mail users can check Yahoo Mail on the web.
• iCloud Mail users can check iCloud Mail through iCloud.com.

If your new emails appear there but not in the app, the email account itself is receiving them.

Concentrate on the app or device instead.

If the emails are missing from both the website and the app, continue troubleshooting the account.

Apple uses the same approach when troubleshooting Mail on an iPhone or iPad. It recommends signing into the email provider’s website to check the account before removing and setting it up again on the device.

Why Gmail is not receiving emails

If Gmail is not receiving emails, search the whole account rather than looking only at the Inbox.

Google recommends checking storage, Spam and Bin and then searching across Gmail for the missing message. Gmail supports the in:anywhere search operator, which includes locations outside the normal Inbox search.

If you still cannot find the email, check your filters. Gmail filters can automatically delete messages or skip the Inbox.

Also review:

• forwarding
• POP or IMAP settings
• other email apps connected to Gmail
• Google Account storage

Another email program connected to Gmail can sometimes archive or delete messages depending on how it has been configured.

If the email may simply have been archived, the steps for finding archived emails in Gmail can help you check whether it is still in the account.

So, if Gmail is not receiving emails or Gmail messages appear to be missing, check in this order:

1. Search all of Gmail.
2. Check Spam and Bin.
3. Check Google Account storage.
4. Review filters.
5. Review forwarding.
6. Check other apps or email programs connected to Gmail.

Why Outlook is not receiving emails

If Outlook is not receiving emails, first distinguish between an Outlook.com email account and the Outlook app.

If you have an Outlook.com account, Microsoft recommends checking the Other tab, Junk Email, forwarding and email rules when expected messages cannot be found.

Also check your storage. If Microsoft cloud storage is full, Outlook.com cannot receive new email. Messages sent to you while it is full are returned to the sender rather than waiting to appear after you free some space.

The main Outlook.com checks are therefore:

1. Check Junk Email.
2. Check the Other tab if you use Focused Inbox.
3. Check your storage.
4. Review email forwarding.
5. Review your rules.
6. Check Outlook.com through a web browser.

If Outlook.com contains the emails but the Outlook app on one device does not, the problem is with the app or its connection to the account rather than incoming email delivery.

Microsoft also notes that connected third-party mail services need compatible authentication and IMAP support to continue syncing correctly with Outlook Mobile and Desktop.

Why Yahoo Mail is not receiving emails

If Yahoo Mail is not receiving emails, Yahoo recommends checking Spam, blocked addresses and email filters. A filter may have sent the expected message into another folder instead of the Inbox.

If one sender is affected, check whether their address was blocked accidentally and ask them to confirm that they used your correct email address.

Storage can also stop new mail arriving. Yahoo says you cannot send or receive new emails once the mailbox is full, and messages sent to you while it is full are not stored for later recovery.

The main Yahoo Mail checks are:

1. Check Spam.
2. Search the mailbox.
3. Review email filters.
4. Review blocked addresses.
5. Check your mailbox storage.
6. Check Yahoo Mail on the web if the problem appears only in an app.

Why iCloud Mail is not receiving emails

If your @icloud.com address is not receiving emails, Apple recommends checking that iCloud Mail is enabled, your device is connected to the internet and iCloud Mail is currently available.

You should also check your iCloud storage. Once your storage limit has been reached, your iCloud Mail address cannot receive new messages until space becomes available.

To distinguish an iCloud account problem from a device problem, check your mailbox through iCloud.com. Apple specifically recommends this when diagnosing whether an iCloud account can receive mail.

If the emails are on iCloud.com but not on your device, concentrate on the Mail app and its settings.

Why am I not receiving emails on my iPhone or iPad?

If email is not coming through on an iPhone or iPad, first check the same account through your provider’s website.

If the messages are there, the account is working.

Then check:

• that the iPhone or iPad has an internet connection
• that the Mail app is still signed into the account correctly
• whether the account is asking for an updated password
• the Mail app’s Fetch New Data settings
• whether the email provider is experiencing an outage

Apple explains that Push and Fetch settings determine how new messages are delivered to the Mail app. If Push is unavailable for an account, Mail uses Fetch instead.

Removing and adding the email account again should normally be a later step rather than the first thing you try. Apple recommends checking that your mail still exists through the provider’s website before removing the account from your device.

What if an email was there before but has disappeared?

An email that used to be in your mailbox is a different problem from an email that never appeared.

Search the entire account first. Check other folders, Spam or Junk, Trash or Bin and archived mail.

If the message has been deleted, the options for getting it back depend on the provider and how long ago it was deleted. Deleted email recovery works differently from troubleshooting an email that never arrived.

If emails are still not coming through

If you have searched the account, checked Spam or Junk, reviewed storage, filters, rules and forwarding, and confirmed that the problem also exists through your provider’s website, narrow the issue down one final time.

If one sender is affected, ask them to confirm your address and check whether their email was returned or rejected.

If one automated message is affected, confirm that you entered your address correctly, check Spam or Junk and try requesting it again after a short wait.

If all senders are affected, check your provider’s storage, account notices and service status.

If emails appear through webmail but not on one device, troubleshoot that device or email app.

If the message used to exist but has disappeared, search other folders and check whether it was archived or deleted.

The main question is whether the email never reached your account, reached the account but was moved somewhere unexpected, or reached the account normally but is not being shown by one particular app or device.

Once you know which of those has happened, it becomes much easier to identify why you are not receiving emails and what needs to be fixed.