iOS 18 Mail broken with IMAP Path Prefix

[Kev_D]

On iOS 17 I had my Gmail account added to the Mail app using IMAP which worked without any issues. Now after upgrading to iOS 18 when I opened the Mail app it kept refreshing the folders and then just crashed. So I deleted the account, added it again with all my known settings but same thing happened...

I used "labels" in Gmail which is their fancy name for folders. You can select which labels you want visible in your IMAP client but these labels in my account are always linked to the IMAP Prefix "[Gmail]". So I added that to the Advanced Server Settings in the IMAP Prefix Path field on iOS 17 and I got all my own labels/folders in the overview.

However now in iOS 18 the Mail app just keeps refreshing when using IMAP Prefix Path so I had to remove it but that means now I get a really ugly folderview. I tried moving away from the "[Gmail]" prefix but it seems that's the default IMAP prefix in Gmail so it shows greyed out now.

On my Mac (Sequoia) I have no issues at all with the IMAP Prefix Path in the Mail app so this bug seems to have been (re)introduced in iOS 18 - this was also an issue in iOS 10.3 (source). Also tried on a fresh iOS 18 install & it's the same issue.

Anyone else has this issue or has a workaround/fix? I want my nice folderviews back...

I tried looking into other Mail apps for iOS that support IMAP but a lot of those store your emails on their server first before pushing out out.

 

[christophtisch]

I've had the same issue on my iPad ever since iPadOS 18 came out! I first noticed it during the beta, so I went back to 17. But now, even with the final version of 18, the problem's still there. It works fine without INBOX, but I have many mailboxes and have been using INBOX for ages on all my Apple devices.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Not seeing a problem here, with many Gmail "Labels" / folders. So it's not a generic issue.

See if Gmail is sending the "All Mail" label? That's caused havoc in the past, I've had mine disabled for a while.

 

[christophtisch]

I do have a Gmail account on my iPad, but I also use other accounts through my own domains. The problem happens across the board as soon as a prefix is chosen.

I’m currently updating to the beta of 18.1 to see if the issue still shows up.

 

[christophtisch]

Mail works fine with iPadOS beta 18.1! For now, this seems to be the only solution for me.

 

[scrl]

I’ve got a very similar issue since moving to an iPhone 16 running iOS 18 a few days ago. I’d been happily using a [Google Mail] prefix in the Mail app on my old (iOS 17) phone, but now on my new phone I can see the folder hierarchy of all my gmail folders, but they all appear empty of content. My trash and sent folders also appear empty in my phone, even though they are not when viewed elsewhere. Very frustrating! I’m hoping iOS 18.1 will fix it.

 

[christophtisch]

Yep, this IMAP prefix bug is fixed in 18.1!
I'm using the 18.1 beta on my iPad, but I'm waiting for the final 18.1 on my iPhone. It's supposed to drop in October, but with all the bugs being reported, they might push an update out sooner.

 

[Beau1K]

18.0.1 installed and STILL DOES NOT WORK! Outlook app works perfectly fine. Annoyed!

 

[christophtisch]

The bug is still in 18.0.X. You need version 18.1! It's available as a public beta and will be released as a final version later this month.

 

[Beau1K]

So lame! I’m not trying to deal with a beta release 🙄 Ima Alpha! 😂