How to Get an Attachments Folder in Mail on an iPhone

To get an Attachments folder in Mail on your iPhone, open the Mail app, tap the back button in the upper-left corner until you see Mailboxes, tap Edit, select Attachments, and tap Done. An Attachments mailbox then appears in your mailboxes list and shows emails with attachments from all of your accounts in one place.

This guide covers adding that mailbox, two quicker ways to find attachments without it (a filter and a search), how to save a file once you find it, and what to check if the option is missing. The steps follow the current iPhone User Guide (iOS 27), where Apple documents downloading email attachments, organizing email in mailboxes and filtering emails.

Before You Start

• App: These steps are for Apple’s built-in Mail app. The separate Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Mail apps have their own search and filter tools, and this mailbox is not part of them.
• Accounts: At least one email account has to be set up in Mail. If you are still adding one, see our guide on how to use the Mail app on iPhone.
• iOS version: Apple’s instructions for the Attachments mailbox are the same in the iOS 18, iOS 26 and iOS 27 versions of the iPhone User Guide. Button positions can look a little different between versions, so go by the labels in bold.
• Wording: Apple calls it a mailbox, not a folder. In Mail, a mailbox is any item in the Mailboxes list, whether it is a real folder in your email account or a special view such as Attachments, Flagged or Unread.

How to Add the Attachments Mailbox

You only have to do this once. The mailbox stays in the list until you remove it.

1. Open the Mail app.
2. Tap the back button in the upper-left corner. If you were reading a message or looking at an inbox, keep tapping it until the screen title is Mailboxes. This screen lists your inboxes and the mailboxes for each account.
3. Tap Edit. Every mailbox you can show now has a checkbox next to it, including optional ones that are currently hidden.
4. Select the checkbox next to Attachments. You may need to scroll to find it.
5. Tap Done.

To confirm it worked, look at the Mailboxes list. Attachments now appears alongside your other mailboxes. Tap it to see only the emails that have attachments, then tap any message to open it.

The list may be short or empty for a moment the first time you open it. Mail has to check your accounts, so give it some time on a good internet connection before you decide something is wrong.

Move Attachments to the Top of the List

If you plan to use the mailbox often, put it where you can reach it quickly. On the Mailboxes screen, tap Edit, touch and hold the reorder handle next to Attachments until it lifts up, drag it to a new position, and tap Done. While you are on the Edit screen you can also select other optional mailboxes, such as Flagged or Unread.

Remove the Attachments Mailbox

To undo the change, go back to Mailboxes, tap Edit, deselect Attachments, and tap Done. This only hides the view. No emails or attachments are deleted, and you can turn it back on at any time.

Be careful not to confuse this with Delete Mailbox, which is a different option that Apple lists for deleting a mailbox you created. You do not need it to hide the Attachments view.

How to Filter One Mailbox to Show Only Attachments

If you only need to find an attachment once, or you want to look in one account or one folder, a filter is faster than adding a mailbox:

1. In the Mail app, open a mailbox, such as your inbox or a folder inside one account.
2. Tap the filter button to turn on filtering. Apple calls it the Toggle Filtering button. Its position depends on your iOS version, so check the corners of the message list if you do not spot it right away.
3. Tap Filtered by.
4. Turn on Only Mail with Attachments. Turn off any other filter in the list that you do not want, such as Unread, or you may see fewer messages than you expect.

The mailbox now shows only messages that have attachments. To go back to the full list, tap the filter button again to turn filtering off. To keep filtering on but drop this one condition, tap Filtered by and deselect it.

How to Search for Messages With Attachments

Search is the third option, and it is handy when you remember something about the email. Apple describes it in the guide to searching for email in Mail.

1. Open an inbox in Mail and tap the search field.
2. Type attachment.
3. Scroll down and tap Messages with attachments below Suggestions.
4. To narrow the results, add a keyword such as the sender’s name, and choose between searching all mailboxes or the current mailbox above the results list.

Mail searches the address fields, the subject, the email body, documents and links, so a word from the message itself is often enough to find the right email.

How to Open and Save an Attachment You Find

An attachment stays inside its email until you save it somewhere. Open the message, then touch and hold the attachment and choose one of these:

• Save Image to put a photo in the Photos app.
• Save to Files to keep a document in the Files app, in the folder you pick.
• Share to open it in another app.

You can also tap a photo, video or PDF attachment to open it and use Markup to draw or write on it. When you finish, Mail lets you reply to the sender with the edited file, start a new message, save the annotated attachment to your files, or discard the changes.

Not sure where a saved document went? Our guide on how to find your files on iPhone walks through the Files app, including the Downloads folder.

Troubleshooting

I Do Not See Edit or Attachments

You are probably one screen too deep. Edit on the Mailboxes screen shows the list of optional mailboxes. Inside an inbox, the controls are for selecting messages instead. Keep tapping the back button in the upper-left corner until the title says Mailboxes, then tap Edit and scroll through the whole list. If you cannot find your account’s folders at all, see how to show folders in iPhone Mail.

The Attachments Mailbox Is Empty or Missing Emails

• Wait a minute and make sure the iPhone is online. Mail needs to load messages from each account.
• Check that a filter is not turned on inside the Attachments mailbox. If you see Filtered by there, tap the filter button to turn filtering off.
• Confirm that the account is set up in the Mail app. The mailbox can only show accounts that Mail checks, not mail you read in another app.
• Try the search method above. If search finds the email, open it from there.

An Email Is Listed but Has Nothing to Open

Mail may treat an image inside the message, such as a logo in the sender’s signature, as an attachment, so the Attachments mailbox can include emails that do not have a file you care about. Apple does not publish the exact rules Mail uses here, so treat the mailbox as a shortlist and use search to narrow it down.

Tips for Managing Email Attachments

• Use one account at a time. Each mailbox under an account name in the Mailboxes list shows only that account’s messages, so you can open a single account and then filter for attachments.
• Decide when you forward. When you forward an email that has attachments, Mail asks whether to include them. Choose Include or Don’t Include.
• Clean up. The Attachments mailbox is a quick way to spot old emails with files you no longer need. If messages won’t go away, see our tips for when iPhone Mail is not deleting emails.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Attachments mailbox move my emails?

No. The Attachments mailbox in iPhone Mail is a view that shows matching emails. The messages stay in their original inbox or folder, and removing the Attachments mailbox from the list does not delete them.

Does it work with Gmail, Outlook and other accounts?

Yes, as long as the account is added to Apple’s Mail app. Apple describes the Attachments mailbox as showing emails with attachments from all accounts in one mailbox. It does not appear inside the separate Gmail or Outlook apps.

Can I see attachments from only one account?

The Attachments mailbox combines every account. To see attachments from one account, open that account’s inbox from the Mailboxes list, tap the filter button, tap Filtered by, and turn on Only Mail with Attachments.

Where do saved attachments go?

Photos you save from Mail with Save Image go to the Photos app. Files you save with Save to Files go to the folder you pick in the Files app. Apple notes that files downloaded from your mail app can also be found in the Downloads folder in Files.

Is there an Attachments mailbox on the iPad?

Apple’s instructions here are written for the iPhone. The iPad version of Mail has a similar Mailboxes list with an Edit option, so the same steps are worth trying there, but check the iPad User Guide if the labels differ.

Next Step

Add the Attachments mailbox now, then drag it near the top of your Mailboxes list so it is one tap away the next time you need a receipt, a ticket or a PDF someone sent you.