iPhone Users: Having trouble with email notifications since updating to iOS 12?

Us too. And apparently a lot of other folks as well. The widespread complaint is that users no longer receive notifications for emails arriving in subfolders. This is a pretty big deal for those of us who rely on these notifications to keep up with everything from work to family and friends.

The issue appears to be rooted in the native Mail app, and Apple seems to be aware of the bug. Many users have reported the bug to Apple Support, and one user apparently received a response from the support team promising a fix in a future release. However, the issue does not appear to be fixed in the beta version of iOS 12.1.

So what can you do?

If you’re like a lot of other people, you may have tried everything from resetting your phone to deleting and resetting up the mail app. If you haven’t tried that yet – spoiler alert – it doesn’t work. Hopefully Apple will have smoothed things out by the time we see a full release of iOS 12.1, but in the meantime, here are a few of your options.

Add Subfolders to Favorite Mailboxes

1. Open the Mail app and click “Edit” in the top-right corner of the home page
2. Click “Add Mailbox” (Not “New Mailbox”)
3. Select the subfolders you want to receive push notifications from and hit “Done”
4. Open the Settings app, click “Mail” then “Notifications”
5. Open “Favorite Mailboxes” then select the mailboxes (which used to solely be subfolders) you want to receive notifications from
You should now get notifications for those subfolders.

Use a Different App

One way to avoid this issue is to stop using the Apple Mail app. Instead, you could use the app offered by your mail client. Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and many others all offer their own apps.

Create a VIP List

To make sure you don’t miss any mail from specific important contacts, add them to the VIP list in the Mail app.
1. Open the mail app and click “Mailboxes” in the upper right-hand corner of the home page
2. Click “VIP Inbox” (right below the regular inbox)
3. Hit “Add VIP” then select the contacts you want to add as VIPs and push “Done”
This list has its own notification, so mail from addresses in the list will push notifications no matter which folder or subfolder the email comes to.

Copy to Subfolders

Alternatively, instead of sorting email automatically into subfolders, set a rule to copy emails to subfolders. First you will have to uncheck the rule that automatically “moves” certain emails to certain subfolders. Then setup a new rule that “copies” certain emails to certain subfolders. Now you will receive the email in your inbox, AND a copy of the same email will be “copied” to the designated subfolder. This means you will be getting duplicate emails, but since emails coming to the inbox still receive notifications, this ensures you will get notifications for every email.

Have you found another fix? Let us know!