Mail sub folder push notifications not working in iOS 12? You aren't alone

Apple’s new iOS 12 operating system has been out for close to a month now, and there have already been several issues reported with it. Some of them have even been officially acknowledged by the Cupertino-based company.

Now, another problem has come to light. The issue is with the native Mail app, and is related to push notifications.

Complainants say, on iOS 12, the app doesn’t show push notifications for emails that arrive in sub folders. Notifications for emails arriving in Inbox are shown though.

Take a look at some user reports:

I have an iPhone X with iOS 12. I have a work Exchange account that is working just fine for my normal inbox. I am getting normal notifications. I have a few sub-folders under my inbox that I have placed check marks by so that I get push notifications for those folders as well. Unfortunately I am not getting any notification whatsoever for any of my sub folders. If I manually go into those folders my mail is there but I never get notified of it’s arrival.I have tried removing the Exchange account and adding it back. Still no go. This worked fine on iOS 11.

Has anybody experienced issues with push notifications on sub folders on the Mail app? The folder has been Enabled for push notifications on the settings, but I don’t seem to be receiving any push notifications for these sub folders

I have just updated to iOS 12 and I’m having problems with push notifications for incoming e-mails: I have a couple of Office 365/Microsoft Exchange accounts which have a complex folder structure and a lot of server-side rules to sort the incoming mail into those folders. On iOS 11 and earlier, I was setting up my pushed mailboxes so that I get notifications about new email in the folders I care most about. Since updating my iPhone to iOS 12, those notifications stopped coming in – I’m getting notifications about new mail in the inbox but not in other folders

There are several complaint threads about this problem on Apple’s own online forums (1,2,3,4). Plus, users are reporting this on Twitter as well:

https://twitter.com/ubijared/status/1043269796362637313
https://twitter.com/tromer1/status/1042445503802302464

And here are some Reddit threads discussing the problem:

This is definitely a major problem, especially for those who rely on push notifications for their work related emails.

Sub-folder notifications are super important for my workflow and I’m not sure what to do. This is a serious enterprise issue for business users. I love iPhone but if mail app can’t deliver I am going to have to look elsewhere

Apple seems to be aware of this glitch, as multiple complainants say they have been in touch with Apple support over this issue. One of them even reports Apple assured them a fix will be out in a future release.

Sadly, we aren’t sure when exactly the problem will be fixed, especially as one user confirmed the problem persists in iOS 12.1 beta.

As for workarounds, you can try this one, as multiple affected users confirmed it worked for them.

Rest assured, we’ll let you know as and when any further news worthy development takes place on this matter. Meanwhile, drop us a comment to share your experience with the Mail app (and iOS 12 in general).

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