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How to only see your emails with attachments in iOS' Mail app

Find that attachment more quickly when browsing email on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch by making a filter.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
Matt Elliott

Before seeing this OS X Daily post, my method for finding an attachment in an email using the iOS Mail app was to scroll and scroll through my inbox, stopping briefly each time I saw the little paperclip icon to see if that was the message with the attachment for which I was searching. Little did I know that there is a way that involves a lot less scrolling and effort.

With the Mail app, you can create a filter to show only those messages with attachments.

1. To set up this filtered view, open the Mail app and back out of any one email or inbox you may be viewing until you get to the Mailboxes view of all of your mailboxes and accounts.

2. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner.

3. Tap the Attachments option so that a checkmark appears.

4. Tap Done in the upper-right corner.

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Enlarge Image
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How to make an email filter for attachments in iOS.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Now, when you return to the Mailboxes view, you'll see a line has been added titled Attachments. Tap this new addition and you'll see a list that shows only email messages that contain attachments.

One last note: If you have more than one email account set up in the Mail app, the Attachments filter shows emails from all of your accounts.