Apple Intelligence Mail “Priority Messages” enabled but never prioritizes any email (iPhone/iPad/Mac)

Hi everyone,


I’m having an issue where Apple Intelligence Priority Messages in Mail doesn’t seem to work at all. Nothing ever gets prioritized.


Devices / software


  • iPhone 15 Pro: iOS 26.2
  • iPad: iPadOS 26.2
  • Mac Studio: macOS 26.2 (Mail app)
  • Macbook Pro M5: macOS 26.2 (Mail app)
  • (Issue is the same across all devices.)



What I’ve enabled / verified


  • Apple Intelligence is enabled on each device
  • In Mail on Mac: Show Priority Messages is enabled
  • In Mail on iPhone and iPad: Show Priority is enabled
  • I’m viewing Mailboxes where that option is available (e.g., not “All Mail” on Mac)


Expected behavior


Priority Messages should automatically surface time-sensitive/action-required emails.


Actual behavior

No messages are ever prioritized, nothing is marked.


Steps to reproduce


  1. Open Mail
  2. Enable/confirm Priority Messages is enabled
  3. Receive emails that should be obvious candidates (e.g., calendar invites, “action required”, travel confirmations, Urgent emails, etc)
  4. Result: still nothing gets flagged as Priority


Troubleshooting already tried


  • Restarted devices
  • Toggled Apple Intelligence / Priority Messages off and on
  • Confirmed the behavior is consistent across iPhone, iPad, and Mac
  • Contacted Apple Support, but couldn’t resolve it. They say they can't do anything as apple intelligence is in beta.


Question


Has anyone seen this before, or is there a known reason Priority Messages wouldn’t work (account type limitations, server-side indexing, language/region settings although I'm in English in an accepted location where it should work, Focus/notifications interactions, etc.)? Any specific steps to reset/rebuild whatever Priority relies on or if there's a way to see any logs for me to pinpoint the problem would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro (M5, 2025)

Posted on Dec 13, 2025 10:31 AM

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Apple Intelligence Mail “Priority Messages” enabled but never prioritizes any email (iPhone/iPad/Mac)

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