How do I delete a mailbox on iPhone?

Last reviewed: September 28, 2026 · Markdown version

In the Mail app, go to the Mailboxes list, tap Edit, tap the mailbox, then Delete Mailbox. Before you do, move out anything you want to keep: Apple says deleting a custom mailbox "permanently deletes all of the email messages inside the mailbox and from your account". If what you actually want is to get an email account off the phone, that is a different action in Settings, and it does not touch your mail on the server.

Deleting a mailbox, step by step

Apple's support article on mailboxes gives these steps (Use mailboxes to organize email messages on your iPhone or iPad, Apple Support, read 28 September 2026):

Go to your Mailboxes list and tap Edit in the upper-right corner.
Tap the mailbox you want to delete.
Tap Delete Mailbox.
Tap Delete, then Done.

The same article sets two limits: "You can only delete custom mailboxes", and "Before you delete a mailbox, you can move your email messages to another mailbox." Inbox, Sent, Trash and the other standard mailboxes stay. The iPhone User Guide adds, in brackets, "(Some mailboxes can’t be changed.)" (Organize email in mailboxes on iPhone, iPhone User Guide, read 28 September 2026).

Save the mail first

Because the messages go too, empty the mailbox deliberately before deleting it. Apple's steps for moving mail: in the message list tap Select, tick the messages, tap the folder button and choose a destination (the Use mailboxes to organize email messages article). If you only want a mailbox out of sight, you do not need to delete it at all: in Edit mode, "Select the checkboxes next to the mailboxes you want to include in the mailboxes list" (the Organize email in mailboxes on iPhone guide). Unticked ones stay out of the list.

If the account is Gmail

In a Gmail account, the mailboxes iPhone Mail shows you are Gmail labels. Google's developer documentation says "Gmail treats labels as folders for the purposes of IMAP", so a mail program can change them with the ordinary folder commands, including DELETE (IMAP Extensions, Google for Developers, read 28 September 2026). Deleting a mailbox on the iPhone therefore acts on a Gmail label.

What happens to the messages that carried that label on the Gmail side is not something either company spells out for this exact case. Apple's article says the messages are permanently deleted from your account; Google's IMAP pages we read today do not say what Gmail does with the messages when a label is deleted over IMAP. Treat Apple's warning as the one that applies, and move the mail first. How labels become folders in the first place: what Show in IMAP means.

Removing a whole account is different

To get an account off the phone: Settings, Apps, Mail, Mail Accounts, tap the account, then Sign Out or Delete Account. Apple is explicit that "This action doesn’t cancel the email account; it just removes it from your iPhone" (Add and remove email accounts on iPhone, iPhone User Guide, read 28 September 2026). The mail stays with the provider, and you can add the account back later.

If you only want a break from it, the same guide offers a softer switch: for an iCloud account turn off "Use on this iPhone", for any other account turn off Mail. That stops sending and receiving on the phone until you turn it back on.

Which one you probably want

A folder you made is cluttering the list: hide it, or empty it and delete it.
An old account you no longer use: remove it in Settings; nothing on the server is lost.
The phone is short of space: start with how much space Mail can take before deleting anything.