Is it possible to hide email accounts from the Inbox?

[jclin10]

Hi all

I have an email account that I only access occasionally when I am looking something up like a receipt for something that I purchased.

Is there a way to add the account to my iPhone/iPad and have it not show up regularly in my inbox? In other words, can I have emails downloaded from that account, but I hide/unhide to access it depending on my needs?

I know that in Settings, I can add the account and then turn on or off, but when you turn off it stops downloading new emails. I'd love a way to be able to regularly download but only search when I "unhide" the account so that incoming emails don't blow up my inbox.

Thanks in advance

 

[BaldiMac]

Hi all

I have an email account that I only access occasionally when I am looking something up like a receipt for something that I purchased.

Is there a way to add the account to my iPhone/iPad and have it not show up regularly in my inbox? In other words, can I have emails downloaded from that account, but I hide/unhide to access it depending on my needs?

I know that in Settings, I can add the account and then turn on or off, but when you turn off it stops downloading new emails. I'd love a way to be able to regularly download but only search when I "unhide" the account so that incoming emails don't blow up my inbox.

Thanks in advance

Not exactly sure what you mean.

If you are referring to hiding an account inbox from "All Inboxes", than I don't think that can be done.

If you just want to temporarily hide your account inbox, you can do than by hitting "Edit" at the top of the mailbox list.

If you want to hide the account when searching your emails, then your best bet is to simply use a different email client for that account.

 

[jclin10]

I probably didn't explain clearly

I have a secondary email account where I send stuff like ticket confirmations, bills, etc. I'd like to be able to download emails to that account on my macOS and iOS devices, but since it is a secondary account, I'd rather not see it all the time and only when I need to. So, I'd rather that my inbox (with multiple accounts) not show all of the unread messages from the secondary account (of which there are many, because I don't really check it regularly).

Basically, I would like it to operate in the background without me seeing the emails unless I want to.

I know I can just turn it on and off under System Settings, but I'd rather something like a hide/unhide option so I can be continuously downloading emails even if I don't see them.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Since you describe it as "secondary" I'll assume you only have two accounts.

In that case, just edit your "Mailboxes" list to get rid of "All Inboxes" and just have your main email up there. You can take it further by customizing your notifications to turn them off for the secondary account…if you wish.

 

[BaldiMac]

I probably didn't explain clearly

I have a secondary email account where I send stuff like ticket confirmations, bills, etc. I'd like to be able to download emails to that account on my macOS and iOS devices, but since it is a secondary account, I'd rather not see it all the time and only when I need to. So, I'd rather that my inbox (with multiple accounts) not show all of the unread messages from the secondary account (of which there are many, because I don't really check it regularly).

Basically, I would like it to operate in the background without me seeing the emails unless I want to.

I know I can just turn it on and off under System Settings, but I'd rather something like a hide/unhide option so I can be continuously downloading emails even if I don't see them.

I think your best bet is the third option that I listed above. Just use a third-party email client for the account that you only want to check occasionally.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

BaldiMac's third option seems best fit. A closely related alternative that would not involve installing another email client app would be to use a web app through a browser to occasionally check those emails. Then it's not mixed in with your others in Mail but still fully functional email, easily accessible with the same iPhone. Conceptually, you could have a hundred such email addresses with as little as only 1 set up on iPhone. Access all 100 through webmail access via Safari or other browser.

As a dose of added security, your brain would know about them, not your easily lost/stolen device... so awareness to go check such email would be capped at just you knowing where to go and then the info to login. If the device was accessed by someone else with your password, they could NOT open an email client to then gain access to such email because you would have no such client installed. Instead, they would have to read your mind to know about such email, where to access it and user name & password to login for that access.

 

[DrwMDvs]

Could set up a mailbox rule to 'mark as read' and stuff any emails from that address into a specific folder.

That would pull them out of your shared 'Inbox' folder. Wouldn't hide your individual mail account in the left column, but you could then collapse it.