Cancel sending: Revoke sent e-mail on iPhone (from iOS 16)

Cancel sending an email and thus revoke it, that's been on the iPhone since Upgrading to iOS 16 possible. In this guide, I will show you how you can retrieve and edit or delete a sent email in the Mail app on the iPhone. By default, you have ten seconds for the e-mail revocation, but you can also increase the period to 20 or 30 seconds. How this works and what you still need to know about the topic, you can also read in this article. 

Revoke a sent email on the iPhone: Here's how!

Apple has introduced the option in its in-house mail app to retrieve and edit an email that has already been sent. So if you entered the wrong recipients or forgot some, got mixed up with the attachments or something else went wrong, then the sending of the message can be canceled and the same can be repaired. And this is how you do it:

1. Send the email in question
2. Think "Oh my, I made a mistake!"
3. Tap on the bottom of the mailbox overview Cancel sending

As you can see in the screenshot in the middle, the e-mail remains in the drafts folder until the end of the delay period (see below) or until you revoke it. On the last screenshot you can see that the e-mail is displayed again immediately after the revocation so that you can edit it or cancel sending completely. The latter can be done via “Cancel” at the top left.

Set more time for email revocation: 20 seconds or 30 seconds

Ten seconds isn't a lot of time. That's why you can see "Test 2" as text on the screenshots, because when I tried the feature for the first time I didn't find the "Revoke Send" directly. I thought I needed to go to the Sent or Drafts folder. I didn't notice the overlay at the bottom of the screen in the ten seconds. If you also fear something like this, use the iOS settings on the Apple iPhone to extend the period:

1. Opens the Settings on the Apple iPhone
2. Choose from countless menu items Email from
3. Tap at the bottom Revocation delay
4. Now choose From, 10 seconds, 20 seconds or 30 seconds
5. Tip: With “Off”, of course, the option for sending revocation is not available

E-mail is stored locally, so remember the internet connection!

If an e-mail is held back for ten to 30 seconds due to the setting shown above, so that it can be retrieved and processed in an emergency, it will not be stored on a server during this time. It remains in the local Drafts folder and is only sent after the set waiting time has expired. This means that the iPhone must then still have an Internet connection via WLAN or mobile data. Sending an email and then immediately going into airplane mode is something you should avoid.

Any questions or comments on the topic? Please leave a comment :)

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Johannes Domke

After graduating from high school, Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which resulted in his independence. For several years he has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others. His articles include product introductions, news, manuals, video games, consoles, and more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.