Tech Reference

How to make the Mail app load faster on your iPhone with a single setting change

iphone mail app notifications
It's possible to make your Mail app run faster on an iPhone by changing the way message previews appear. NurPhoto/Getty Images
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Holidays mean overstuffed bellies and stockings. 

But they also mean email inboxes filled with Black Friday deals, shipping confirmations for gifts, and RSVPs for holiday parties.

This throws into stark view one of the most frustrating aspects of checking email on an iPhone's Mail app — your messages don't always load very quickly in your inbox. 

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I think we all have a name in our heads for this loading icon. Being an impatient person, I think of it as "the circle of death."  Emma Witman/Business Insider

That is, unless you implement a setting change to make your Mail app prioritize the new messages you have, rather than having it throw heaps of preview text at you and bogging down the buffer time to refresh your inbox.

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How to make the Mail app faster on your iPhone

Here's how you can streamline your iPhone's email service so that it loads messages faster, in a few easy steps: 

1. Open the Settings app. 

2. Scroll to the "Mail" page. Tap it. 

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Click on Mail.  Emma Witman/Business Insider

3. Under "Message List" is a setting for "Preview." Open it. 

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The preview lines in your inbox slow down the time messages take to load.  Emma Witman/Business Insider

4. Select "None." If you'd rather be able to get the gist of a message without opening it at all, you could also set several lines of preview text — but the more lines you set, the longer it will take to load. 

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Choose how many lines of preview text you want to see.  Emma Witman/Business Insider

Now that you'll only view recipients and subject lines in your inbox, your iPhone won't have to take quite so long to load new messages. 

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Your inbox will look much more streamlined, in addition to loading new messages faster.  Emma Witman/Business Insider

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Emma Witman is an Asheville, NC-based freelance journalist with a keen interest in writing about hardware, PC gaming, politics, and personal finance. She is a former crime reporter for a daily newspaper, and has also written extensively about bartending for Insider. She may or may not judge your drink order when behind the bar. Follow her on Twitter at @emwity.