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
- Open Mail
- Enable/confirm Priority Messages is enabled
- Receive emails that should be obvious candidates (e.g., calendar invites, “action required”, travel confirmations, Urgent emails, etc)
- 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)