Mail not working after update iOS 18.1.1

After talking to my email server guys, they are saying that even though I have the password correct in my phone its not arriving at the server correct. They are changing my password and it should fix the problem. So if you can access your email from difference methods, change your password and then change the password on your phone and see if it works

This began with the iOS 18 Update.

After upgrade to iOS 18, all seven (7) of my IMAP accounts stopped receiving/sending messages.

The error on all accounts is:

"Cannot get Mail" The mail server xxxx is not responding. Verify that you have entered the correct account info in Mail settings"

"Unable to create a secure connection to the server ("bad certificate format" -9,808).

This was on a 2020 iPhone SE. I have tried all suggestions, restarts, " adding slashes /" deleting/reinstalling.

I have spoken to my ISP, where I host my own domain and they clearly expressed they were aware of the issues and that it was an "APPLE Problem".

18.1.1 has not corrected anything and all IMAP accounts are not functional.

I have attempted wiping and installing on a different iPhone (iPhone 12 mini running 18.1.1) and EXACTLY the same problem.

The last email I was able to receive using Apple Mail on an iPhone was in September?

I installed the GMAIL APP, added standard settings exactly as they are in Apple Mail and all emails appear on GMAIL App.

I am struggling to believe that Apple has not acknowledged this issue or allowed it to go on this long?

It's obviously a bigger issue.

The silence is deafening...

MächtigeKatze wrote:

After updating iOS to 18.1.1, the mail app is not working. It is totally malfunction and can’t receive nor send email. Start the mail app, it just pops up a white screen. I have tried to offload the app and reinstall it. It’s the same. When I hard reset the phone, it can pop up the mail account list but freezes. How do I fix it?

I did the password reset dozens of times! Still not working on iPad! This is ridiculous! I am not downloading the 18.1.1 to my phone or iPad until there is a resolution! My husband did and I am sick of hearing that he’s not getting his emails on iPad! He doesn’t know how to fix the issue so here I am over and over again trying everything!

KWDragon wrote:

It’s been more than a week. Has Apple announced any plans to fix this issue?

Given that you seem to have internet access, I suspect you have as much access to the news media as the rest of us.

KWDragon wrote:

It’s been more than a week. Has Apple announced any plans to fix this issue?

No, because it is an issue with YOUR PHONE, not one that affects the other roughly 500 million iPhones that have been updated.

CheechLaPort wrote:

When is Apple going to fix this problem, I’m have email issues as well. This is frustrating

When you contact Apple about the problem with your phone. This is not a problem affecting hundreds of millions of of iPhones; it is a problem with YOUR iPhone and a few other people’s and from reading this thread it is many different problems, not one problem that affects everyone.

Contact Apple support, using the Support link at the bottom left on this page.

Why on earth would they change the workflow to update an important function like email passwords???

To update the email passwords, go to Settings. Go to Apps (at the bottom). Click on Mail. Then click Mail Accounts. Then you can update the email password.

[Edited by Moderator]

The issue with using POP is that if you delete the email off your iOS device it removes it from the server of your 3rd party webmail and you will not be able to download it onto your laptop/desktop for archiving purposes. If you’re using this email for work this can be an issue.

Also if you turn off SSL in POP your messages are no longer secure.

According to what I’ve read online Apple has stepped up the security on IMAP and rolled it out under iOS 18.0. They have no intention of changing or ‘fixing’ it. It’s up to each 3rd party provider to update their IMAP protocols to match what they’ve done. Who knows how many will actually do this and if Apple is sharing the necessary information to complete this process.

Thank you, meterstick, for the information. Now I know to pressure my internet/email provider. While this account isn’t used for work, out of curiosity I checked my laptop to see if the emails (that I was able to download to iPhone after changing it to POP) I deleted were also deleted on my MacBook , and I found that they were not. All the emails are still there.

I have tried everything, but still cannot get emails on the Apple email app, iCloud, sky and yahoo will not work, and will not let me reinstall email account without deleting the originals therefore i would lose all saved emails. yahoo will only work if I go through the yahoo app this is after 18.1 iPhone update. Please can anyone help

I found this online but Apple won’t let me paste the link.

I think the only solution is to contact your third party email provider with this information below and demand they fix the issue at their end. I’m not sure why some users are having a problem with iCloud.com accounts since that’s an Apple product.

A lot of users have pointed out that the problem seems to stem from how Apple Mail handles connections with IMAP servers after the iOS 18 update. 

The heart of the issue? It looks like iOS 18 has become a bit pickier with security certificates — especially if you’re using a self-signed certificate.

Essentially, the system may no longer trust these certificates, even though they worked just fine in iOS 17.

The strange part is that it’s not only the self-signed certificates causing trouble. Even users with legitimate SSL certificates (the kind you expect to work without issues) are facing the same syncing errors. 

The Mail app seems to have difficulty “talking” to the IMAP servers, and in some cases, it’s flat-out refusing to fetch new messages.

Possible Culprits

While Apple hasn’t officially commented on the situation, there are a few things that could be contributing to this glitch:

Stricter Security Requirements: iOS 18 may have tightened its policies on how it handles email server connections, particularly with certificates. 

This could explain why previously accepted certificates are now getting rejected.

TLS Version Issues: Some users have speculated that the issue might relate to TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols. If your email server is using an older TLS version, it might be incompatible with iOS 18’s updated standards.

Mail now working after contacting Apple help, the steps they advised were, 1 turning off vpn, 2 Removing wifi, 3 Turning off phone, restarting phone manually entering wifi code. Go to apps, mail - deleting then reentering email accounts, I did this separately for each account first was sky(yahoo) then ICloud after a short while all the outstanding emails came through (envelope) mail app the first since 7th October and have continued downloading since. Thank you for all your help and suggestions.

Thanks to a great Apple support representative, i did finally just delete the Mail app (had to change the default Email application to something other than Mail, like Gmail or YAHOO first). But after doing that and then reinstalling it by download it from the App Store, everything seemed to sync back up and all my mail started to work again correctly with no significant ongoing drain on my power and battery. Hope this helps other people & happy holidays!

Like others after the update to iOS 18.1.1 the sound notification no longer works for incoming mail. I checked all the sound setting and went to mail and to the advanced mail setting and to check the setting for incoming mail, but there is not an option for incoming mail. The fetch settings only gave me the option to update mail every 15 minutes and automatically if connected to power and WiFi, but did not correct the sound. Are there any other ways to correct this? I am missing critical messages my not getting automatic updated or notifications.

BopCat wrote:

Updated to 18.3. Removed VPN app. Still no mail. I have 5 accounts, from different providers, and none of them work at all.

Have you deleted them and reinstalled them?

completely removed any VPN Profiles?

reset network settings?