Make iPhone Mail Check for New Mail Less Often or Never

One way to extend iPhone battery life is to limit how often your phone checks for new email. Here's how to prevent iPhone Mail from checking for new mail automatically, as well as how to schedule accounts (or specific folders) to check for new messages using iOS 12 and later.

How to Make iPhone Mail Check for Mail Less Often (or Never)

The Fetch New Data email settings can be changed to set how often iPhone Mail checks your accounts for new messages.

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Go to Mail > Accounts.

3. Tap Fetch New Data.

4. Turn off the Push toggle switch.

   Push directs the Mail app to update as often as possible, which you don't want if you are trying to reduce how often your iPhone checks for email.

5. Tap each email account that uses push (the account will show Push instead of Fetch).

6. Select Fetch from the next screen so that the fetch settings are applied to that account.

7. Tap the arrow at the top to return to the previous screen.

8. Scroll to the bottom and choose a fetch schedule. Options include Automatically, Manually, Hourly, Every 30 Minutes, and Every 15 Minutes.

   • Automatically downloads emails automatically in the background, but only when your phone is connected to Wi-Fi and power. It's much like Push in that emails arrive as they reach the email server, but it doesn't use all the battery power or data usage.
   • Manually does not check for email at all. To check for messages manually, open the Mail app and refresh the page by pulling the messages down from the top of the screen.

9. Press the home button to save and exit to the home screen.