How to Add New Mailboxes in Mail App on iPhone & iPad

Don't search through every email to find what you're looking for; create filtered mailboxes to make it easier!

By Erin MacPherson Updated 10/19/2020

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The Mail app's primary inbox can get overwhelming at times; I'm constantly having to search for emails with attachments, emails from specific frequent senders, invoices, and other necessary information. I'm a nut about organization, and I love to make containers and sub-folders for information, so I was glad to see that the Mail app on iPhone and iPad actually does some of this work for you. You can utilize several inbox options so that you no longer have to scroll to find unopened emails, emails from VIP senders, emails with attachments, and a few other options. The process for adding new mailboxes to your Mail app is very simple. Continue reading to learn how to add inboxes to help sort your emails.

How to Add New Mailboxes in the Mail App on the iPhone & iPad

Instead of having to filter and re-filter your inbox each time you want to find messages with attachments, messages from VIP senders, or other filters, you can set your inbox up to filter these messages and leave them accessible in smaller inboxes. There are quite a few options already set up, such as Flagged, Attachments, VIP, and Muted Threads, all accessible without having to dig through your whole inbox to find them.

Don't worry, you can still use the filter function on any of your inboxes as a temporary measure like you could before. The advantage to these filtered inboxes is that you don't have to filter and re-filter every time you want to find a certain set of emails, because there's an inbox set up for each of the most common filters.

We get a lot of questions about how to use the Mail app to make life easier, so we have quite a few tips on the subject. If you're interested in learning more about this and other apps, you may enjoy our free Tip of the Day newsletter where we share those tips to help you learn more in just one minute a day.

Here's how to add those new mailboxes to help you make your inbox feel less cluttered and easier to manage.

Open the Mail app.
If you're not already on the Mailboxes screen, tap the arrow at the top left of the screen. It may say < Mailboxes, for example.
You'll see a list of inboxes and folders. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner.
Tap on the empty circles next to the mailboxes you want to add.
Tap Done in the upper-right corner.

Now you've added the new mailboxes to your iPhone or iPad, and you can visit them to see only the emails you want to see instead of seeing everything in your All Inboxes mailbox at once. If you'd like to use the VIP mailbox but you don't know how, check out our article on how to mark contacts as VIPs.

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Author Details

Erin MacPherson

Erin is a Web Editor for iPhone Life and has been a writer, editor, and researcher for many years. She has a degree in communication with an emphasis on psychology and communication, and has spent many of her professional years as a coach in various business and specialty fields. Erin officially joined the ranks of iPhone and Apple users everywhere around nine years ago, and has since enjoyed the unique and customized feel of Apple technology and its many gadgets. When she’s not working, Erin and her son enjoy outdoor adventures, camping, and spending time with their eclectic collection of pets.

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