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How to delete an email account on your iPhone or iPad
Learn how to remove an email account from the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad, and what happens to your messages when you do.
This guide shows you how to remove an email account from the Mail app on an iPhone or iPad. You might do this when you stop using an address, when you are setting an account up again from scratch to fix a problem, or when passing the device on to someone else.
These steps are for iOS 26, the latest version at the time of writing. Earlier versions are very similar, though some menu names may differ slightly.
Before you delete an account, it is worth knowing whether your mail is stored on the server or only on your device. Most accounts use IMAP, where your mail lives on the server and removing the account from your iPhone leaves everything safe and accessible elsewhere. Accounts set up with the older POP method can be different: any messages downloaded to the device and not kept on the server may exist only on the phone, and deleting the account would remove them. If you are not certain which type yours is, read the "What gets removed" section below before deleting.
Remove the account
- Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
- Scroll down and tap Apps.
- Tap Mail, then tap Mail Accounts.
- Tap the account you want to remove.
- Tap Delete Account at the bottom of the screen.
- Confirm by tapping Delete Account again when prompted.
The account is removed from this device straight away.
What gets removed
This depends on how the account was set up.
IMAP accounts keep your mail on the server, so removing the account from your iPhone changes nothing on the server side. Your messages remain available in webmail and on any other device, and you can re-add the account at any time with no loss.
POP accounts download mail to the device. Depending on the account's settings, messages may or may not also be left on the server. If they are not, the copy on your iPhone is the only copy, and deleting the account removes it. Before deleting a POP account, make sure anything important is saved elsewhere - for example by checking it appears in webmail, or by setting up the account again as IMAP so everything syncs from the server.
If you are not sure which type your account is, you can check before deleting: tap the account in Mail Accounts and look at the account details, where the type is shown, or contact us and we will confirm it for you. If in any doubt, check that your mail is visible in webmail first - if it is, the server has it and you are safe to delete.
Setting the account up again
If you removed the account to fix a problem and want to add it back, see our guide on adding an IMAP email account to your iPhone. Setting it up fresh with the correct server settings and password resolves most common Mail issues.
If you run into any difficulty removing or re-adding an account, open a support ticket and we will be glad to help.