Dear Apple Tech Talk, I just updated my iPhone 16 to the latest version of iOS (18.2) which has completely changed the Mail app on my phone. I really don’t like how the mails are now broken up into categories. I know that I can swipe to the left and get an option for all mail but I hate to have to do that every time I open the app. Also, I have the mail app in the dock on my phone and it used to show the count of all of my unread messages. Now, it only shows 3 or 4 unread messages when I know I have 30 or 40 unread messages. Is there any way to go back to the old version of the mail app?
The new mail app in iOS 18.2 did bring a lot of changes to the way mail gets organized and while there is no way to go back to the old Mail app, it is fairly easy to make the new version of Mail behave much like it did before you upgraded to iOS 18.2. Let’s tackle your issues one at a time.
When you upgrade to iOS 18.2, the Mail app uses the new Categories view by default. This view separates your emails into the following categories; Primary, Transactions, Updates, Promotions and if you swipe all the way to the left, All Mail. However, the All Mail option is only available when you are on the Primary setting.
You are correct that you have to swipe to the All Mail view every time you open the app and we agree that can get frustrating. Fortunately, there is an easy fix for this.
At the top right of the Mail app screen is an icon with three dots. Click on that to reveal Category Selection option. Instead of the Categories view, click on the List View.
This will now eliminate the Categories view and return the Mail app to showing all of your emails in a single list.
Now, what about the mail count?
Just like the new Categories view, the new default setting when you are in the Categories view is to show the count of emails in the Primary category on the Mail icon. Even if you change the setting to the List view, the icon still only shows the Primary count.
No matter how hard you search in the Mail app settings, you won’t find any way to change that. To get a complete count of the Unread Mail, you need to go to the Notifications menu in Setting. On your iPhone, open Settings and scroll down to Notifications. Once in Notifications, scroll down to Mail. At the bottom of the Mail screen, you will see an option for Customize Notifications.
When you open that menu, you will see the option to show the Unread Mail count for just the Primary Messages, or All Unread Messages. Just select the All Unread Messages option and the count on the Mail icon will update.
Making these two changes should make your Mail app look and act like it did before the iOS 18.2 update.
The best part is, you can easily change all of this back, should you decide you want to use categories and or the modified Unread Mail count.
What do you think of the new changes to Apple Mail in iOS 18.2? Are you sticking with the categories or are you going back to the List view? Why not join the conversation and leave a comment below?
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