Several users have reported an issue in the Mail app on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) displays mysterious messages with no subject and no sender.
Some readers report they receive upwards of 10 messages at a time from no sender with no content!
Contents
These items usually display one or even all of the following:
- (No Sender)
- (No Subject)
- This message has no content (no body text)
- No attachments
- Incorrect Date (in particular, a date far back in the past like 1970–long before iPhones and even email existed!)
Related Articles
- iPhone iOS Mail App Shows Unread Emails When There Are None (Ghost Messages)
- How to fix “This Message has no content” in the Mail App
- Can’t Update or Change Email Passwords on iPhone or iPad?
How can I stop these emails? Fixes for “No Subject, No Sender” Mail Messages
- First, check with your email service provider to find out if there’s a service outage in your area
Force Your Mail App To ReSync
- Open Settings > Passwords & Accounts (Accounts & Passwords or older iOS, go to Settings > Mail or Mail, Contacts, Calendars)
- Tap Fetch New Data
- Toggle Push Off, wait 30 seconds and toggle back on
- Update Fetch setting to Automatically
Disable then re-enable Mail
- Open Settings > Passwords & Accounts (Accounts & Passwords or older iOS, go to Settings > Mail or Mail, Contacts, Calendars)
- Tap the account in which the phantom messages appear
- Toggle Mail Off then exit Settings
- Go back to your Mail app; the messages should be gone
- Return to Settings > Passwords & Accounts and turn Mail back on for that particular account
Didn’t Work? Add in a Forced Restart
- On an iPhone 8 or above or iPad with no home button: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
- On an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
- On an iPhone 6s and earlier, iPad with a home button, or iPod touch: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
Force Quit Mail
- Go to the home screen, then double-press the Home button or swipe up the Home Gesture Bar to bring up the multitasking pane
- Find the Mail app’s preview and swipe it up off the top of your screen to close
- Restart your device
- Relaunch Mail by tapping its icon and the messages should be gone
If force quitting didn’t help, add in a forced restart instead of a normal restart.
Turn Off Threading
Go to Settings > Mail (for older iOS, Mail, Contacts, Calendars) and turn off “Organize by Thread.” Updating this feature often prevents phantom messages from appearing in your Mail app! 
Some users tell us that they turn off all the settings under Threading–and that works for them.
Check Your Date & Time
These mysterious emails often show up when users check their emails in a different time zone than the one they established when purchasing their iDevices. So it’s a good idea to take a look at these settings.
Verify Date & Time Information
- Go to Settings > General > Date & Time
- Toggle on Set Automatically or manually update your Time Zone
- If Set Automatically is already on, toggle it off, wait 30 seconds, and toggle it back on
Delete the Account and Add It Back
Your iPhone does not back up your email.
When you delete your email account, all the account’s previously downloaded emails are removed from your iDevice. So first, check that your email is in your account using a web browser.
Sign in to your email provider’s website and verify that all of your emails show up in your account.
Once confirmed, let’s delete your email account and then add it back in
- On the iDevice with the Mail App problem, go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts
- Tap the email account that’s showing no subject or no sender errors
- Tap Delete Account
- Restart the device
- Add your account back in via Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Add Account
