Remove Unwanted Email Suggestions from Mail on iPhone & iPad

Feb 24, 2016 - 21 Comments

Mail icon for iOS The iOS Mail app will automatically suggest recently used email addresses in the recipient feel when compiling a new email message or forwarding an email. While this is often accurate and helpful, sometimes an unwanted email address can pop-up in the automatic suggestion list, as can email addresses of people who are no longer in use. With a quick trick, you can clean up the recent email suggestion list on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and rid iOS Mail of any unwanted recommended email addresses and contacts.


Note this relies on email addresses you have actually reached out to and communicated with before, making this different from the “contacts found in Mail” suggestion feature of iOS, which can also sometimes incorrect contact information and can be disabled separately.

How to Remove Email Suggestions from Autocomplete in iOS Mail

This works the same on iOS Mail for iPhone, IPad, and iPod touch.

  1. Open Mail app in iOS if you haven’t done so already and compose a new mail message
  2. Tap in the “To” field as usual and start typing the email address where unwanted suggestions start popping up (to remove general suggested email recommendations enter the specific address to remove, like hello@osxdaily.com)
  3. Tap the (i) button next to the email address of the contact you wish to remove from the suggested list
  4. Tap the i button next to the email address you want to remove from the suggested list in Mail for iOS

  5. Look for the “Remove From Recents” button option at the bottom of the contact information to remove it from the suggested email to list
  6. Removing an email address from the recent suggestions list in iOS Mail

  7. Repeat with other email addresses and contacts as desired

Once a contact has been removed from the suggested list they will not appear again unless the same email address is used again continuously for a while.

This can be very helpful to clean up old email addresses from the ‘to’ suggestion field, or to remove a recommended address that may no longer get much use. You’ll find this useful if coworkers, friends, or family have changed their email address recently as well, since it’s pretty frustrating for all parties involved to have emails being sent to the wrong address and never get a reply if it’s no longer active or checked often.

Note this only removes the contact and email address from the suggested email list that were recently used. This won’t delete the contact from your general address book, if you do want to remove the contact from the iPhone you can do that here via the Contacts app in OS X, iCloud, or on iOS.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks

21 Comments

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  1. Kev says:

    When I start typing my name I get my old work email coming up first. There’s no “i”, there’s a grey circle that when clicked opens up to show two of my work addresses – neither of which has an “i” to delete them. They’re not in my contact either.

  2. Larry Talbot says:

    How does one Remove Unwanted Subject Suggestions from Mail on iPhone ?

    When using the search function in the mail type a letter and it shows people and Subject. my question is how does one remove those subject suggestion, when they are no longer on the iPhone?

  3. Heddy says:

    I can remove these on both my iphone and ipad using the methods … type in the first letters of an unwanted email ‘recent recipient’ and it works BUT it does not work on my computer which is not an AppleMac. Email addresses I have used maybe onceor twice over YEARS are still there. So frustrating. Can anyone help?

  4. Matt Webber says:

    What if you just want to type in a couple of addresses? I do this, then a box appears with someone else’s address in it?! How do I stop that suggestion box from appearing? I don’t think it’s quite the same issue as above so apologies to all!!

  5. Debbie says:

    Continued from above: after keying in the incorrect email address tap it; will take u to the contact it’s associated with n u can delete or correct it.

  6. Debbie says:

    Here’s what I did to remove incorrect email address from auto fill: go to contacts; key in incorrect email address; tap it, will take you to person associated with it n then u can correct it or delete it.

  7. Debbie says:

    This did not work for me…the blue (i) was not there. Here’s what I did on my iPhone:
    Go to your contacts
    In the search area key in the incorrect email address.

  8. Debbie says:

    This did not work for me…the blue (i) was not there. Here’s what I did on my iPhone:
    Go to your contacts
    In the search area key in the incorrect email address and click on it….will take you to the contact it is associated with. There you can delete it or correct it.
    This has taken me a long time to figure out but I was determined.

  9. KiKi says:

    I can’t believe there isn’t a way to do this all at once. I have hundreds to delete. It is going to be quite timely to delete them one by one.

    • Tony says:

      I agree with Kiki – this is too damn slow! Especially when there is a business account. Anyone try deleting the email account then re-installing it?? This is another of Apples wisdoms!

  10. Pete Crow says:

    Is there anyway to disable the original senders name, address from the “From” line, leaving my name, address as the sender. I think this was only added in IOS 10.2.1. I am using the iPad mail app. I have searched high and low in Settings, etc.
    THanks

  11. Kay Latona says:

    iPad iOS 10.2.1. I have the reverse problem in both Apple’s iPad email AND Gmail’s itPad gmail: my ipad Apple email omit one daughter in email autocomplete and my ipad Gmail omits the other daughter in Gmail autocomplete. Both daughters are entered exactly the same in my iPad’s Contacts. THEN, when I select and copy the other daughter’s Gmail address from the iPad’s Contacts, and attempt to paste it into the Gmail BCC line, the entire email EXCEPT the BCC line disappears.

  12. anakowi says:

    This is a truly vexing issue… again causing myself (and others) to feel annoyed with Apple’s lack of consideration for workflow. Picking off obsolete and incorrect email addresses one by one is an abysmal solution.

    And IF you think you can create a “cloud” address to clean up the mess – IT WON’T WORK for anything but that address! Apple has you in a vice again.
    (LOL “f**kapple” is already taken!)

    1. Use a web browser to access your iCloud account.
    2. Proceed as if to SEND an email – click as if to type in the recipient.
    3. And then pick off those useless addresses – one by one.

  13. Frez says:

    This time without pesky iPhone typos:

    This worked for me:

    1. Save the contact’s details, perhaps by screengrabbing their entry in your contacts.

    2. Delete the contact

    3. Return to mail and the blue circle around the “i” showed up and then followed the steps on this page to remove it.

    4. Recreated the contact.

  14. WaPopWa says:

    I too have similar question. The ‘i’ button and ‘remove recent’ isn’t present on all addresses, most typically the ones I want to remove.

  15. Sean Collins says:

    What if the remove recent is’nt there.
    What then?

  16. Haig says:

    Removing an email address from recents works as described but the “remove from recents”, option disappears after a very short time. Therefore unable to complete the task. When closing and repeating, exactly same result with the same unwanted address.
    Please advise.

    Haig

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