What to Know About Mail Categories on Your iPhone and How to Turn Them Off
"The Mail app automatically sorts your email messages into categories to help you find and manage messages quicker," Apple wrote online. But if you don't like how Categories work in Mail, no worries. Apple gives you a few options to either ignore Categories or revert your app to look like it did before the iOS 18.2 update.
Here's what you need to know about Mail Categories and how to turn the feature off so your app looks like it did before the update.
What are Mail Categories?
Mail Categories are similar to categories you would find in Gmail. The app filters your emails into one of four categories: Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions.
Emails with receipts, as well as order and delivery information, fill the Transactions category, and news, social and other subscription emails go to Updates. Emails with special offers and deals go to Promotions, as you might imagine.
I ignore most of the deals I get emailed, but that coffee subscription is tempting.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
The Primary category is more difficult to pin down. Apple says in the app that Primary is for "Messages that matter most." I've used the redesigned app since it launched in beta, and during that time my Primary category was filled with emails from my wife, customer service and even refund information. It's a little bit of a catch-all category.
Can I change an email's category?
You can for most messages but not all. Here's how.
1. Tap Mail.
2. Tap the Transactions, Updates or Promotions tab then tap a message.
3. Tap the three dots (...) in the top right corner.
4. Tap Categorize Sender.
Promotions feels right for this email.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
Then you can manually categorize messages from a given sender to another category. You can also recategorize an email from Promotions to Deals and then back to Promotions. The only emails that can't be recategorized are those in Primary -- which can be irksome.
Once, I ordered tickets for a show at a local theater, and the email was filtered to Promotions. I moved the email with those tickets to Primary, but now all emails from this theater -- including deals and sales -- go to my Primary category. Not being able to change that categorization back is annoying.
How do I turn off Mail Categories?
If you don't like Mail Categories, you have a few options to see all your mail at once. The easiest way is to swipe the categories bar near the top of Mail to the left to reveal the All Mail. Tap this and all your mail will be displayed from top to bottom as each message comes in, but you will still see the Categories tabs across the top of the app.
I prefer this view of my mailbox to be honest.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
You can also remove Categories altogether so the app looks like it did before the update. Here's how.
1. Tap Mail.
2. Tap the three dots (...) in the top right corner of the app.
3. Tap List View.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
Now your emails will populate in Mail from top to bottom as they arrive in your inbox.
For more iOS news, here are my first impressions of the beta version of iOS 26, how to enable call screening in the beta and all the new features Apple said it will bring to your device later this year.
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