Ever launch the Mail app on your iPhone to find a stuck outbox message that just won’t send — or maybe it did send but for some reason it still shows as not sent? While in some cases you can simply delete it and move on, in others, the Edit button is greyed out and unusable. If that sounds like a problem you’re having, here’s a fix I found: My partner recently had this problem over the weekend. It seems to happen more commonly with emails that have large files attached to them. In her case, it was a video. The sender confirmed they had received the message, yet it still sat in her outbox, uneditable, for several days. After hard restarting the Mail app, rebooting her iPhone, and even turning iCloud Mail on and off again, I finally figured out how to trick the Mail app into letting me delete the stuck message:
How to delete stuck outbox messages on iPhone
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to launch Control Center.
- Enable Airplane Mode.
- Now launch the Mail app and access your Outbox where the problem message resides.
- You should now be able to tap the Edit button in the upper right hand corner — if you can’t just hard quit the Mail app in the multitasker and launch it again.
- Tap Trash All in the bottom navigation.
- Confirm your selection in popup menu.
- You should now have an empty outbox.
In some cases, stuck outbox messages on iPhone can apparently consume lots of cellular data (I read a few horror stories in Apple’s support forums when looking for an answer). So if you have any, especially if they show a little loading circle like the one in the image above, I’d suggest clearing them out using the steps above.
You’re a Godsend. That email was annihilating my battery.
Didn’t work for me at first. After putting phone into airplane mode, I completely shut off my phone and rebooted. Then turned it back on and after launching mail outbox, the edit button was available and was able to trash the message. Thanks
This is what I had to do, minor enhancement to the procedure. Thanks
I had Rita’s exact experience – I had to do a hard reset after putting my phone in airplane mode, then it worked!! Thanks!!
Brilliant! Thank you.
Worked like a charm. Genius!
LOVE YOU!!! I had a message that kept crashing my app. This was so helpful. Thank you!
It does not work for me since when I go to the sent folder, the email I’d like to delete is not there. Please advise a different solution. Thanks a lot
Thank you so much. I’ve been sitting with this for 2 weeks and you just solved the problem.
Appreciate your posting that very much.
Thank you it worked hallelujah!
Not helpful at all; Edit does not light up.
Do as many other commenters have already stated, quit the app from multitasking after airplane mode and it should be there when you relaunch. If not, reboot.
How you solve it ?
I’m still suffering
You have no idea how happy you just made me! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
That did it! You are Brilliant! Thank you!!
That message has been sitting in my outbox for a month bugging me. I can’t stand seeing the spinning effort of my phone just not quite making it send. Thank you for being Brilliant!
Worked like a charm..
Thanks Allyson 🙂
Brilliant, thankyou so much, I’ve had an email in a permanent send state for a week blocking all other emails till now! Great fix
Awesome thanks that worked beautifully!
Simple genius
Champion. Thank you. I was doubtful as I couldn’t tap edit but you included the advice to hard quite the app – well done! (I may not have tried it myself at that point)
FYI: You can also swipe the message left to trash it, instead of trash all, in case there are other valid messages in there.
Awesome! Totally worked. Thanks for posting this FIX 🙂 that dang message sat in my outbox for a whole week.
Thank you!! I wish that I knew this days ago!
Wow! this was really very helpful! thank you so much!
Perfect solution, you are amazing – thanks.
You are a Genius!! Worked perfectly. Thank you!!
AUGH!! After 45 days of torment…finally found a solution!! Brilliant!! Much obliged!!!
Thank you thank you. That is pure genius. I was going mad.
Dagmar
Alison! I can’t thank you enough! I sent a very important work emai earlier and my HR Department didn’t get it cause it was stucked in the outbox that never went out. Your quick fix helped me tremendously. Thank you! I shared your tip & will follow you on the social media channels
Excellent! Exactly the issue. Done!!
Thank you! Lifesaver of a post here, and it immediately fixed the problem!
Thank you! It didn’t work at first. I turned the phone off/on in airplane mode and it allowed me to delete it. It only took me a month to google a fix. Lol
Appreciate your insights!
Thank you SO much for this post. I was so frustrated before finding this fix!
Email had almost two months in my outbox! Thank You very much!
Amazing. That was really annoying me. Thanks
Yes, pure genius. And your directions were clear – even down to the hard quit of the Mail app in multitask ear. Well done!
So awesome. Thanks a ton! I solved the problem in like 2 minutes because your article came up toward the top of the Google results. Such an annoying problem. Rock on.
LIFE SAVER! Thank you.
Oh my gosh…THANK YOU!!! I have been trying to fix this since May 31st and finally googled help. Finally!! You rock.
Thank you VERY much! Problem solved following your steps.
Thank you so much – an easy to do fix for a problem that was driving me nuts!
I love you
Perfect find from my Google search — thanks!