iPad IOS 11.2.5 Cannot set default email account

[Mixz1]

It used to be:

1. Launch Settings from your Home screen.
2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Scroll down and tap Default Account.
4. Tap the account you would like to use as your default mail account.
   

The problem is there is no selection for Default Account. I know I'm missing something, but I can't figure it out, Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[scifan57]

When you go to Settings>Mail and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page you should see the default setting. Tapping on it takes you to the list of all accounts from which you can select the default account. Here’s a screenshot from my iPhone. It should be similar on your iPad.

 

[Mixz1]

Thank you, but as I said, on neither my iPad Air 2 nor my brand new iPad 5th Generation do I have this option. Please see the image.

 

[scifan57]

I just checked my iPad Air 2 which is on iOS 11.2.5 and I have the option to set a default email account. Maybe your update to 11.2.5 had some problems, unknown until now.
Have you tried going to Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings? If that doesn’t work you may want to try reinstalling the operating system. You can do that with iTunes on your computer by backing it up, then restoring it. After the restoration is complete you can set up the iPad from the backup you made.

 

[twerppoet]

This is probably too obvious, but:

Make sure you have more than one email account enabled. Go to Settings > Accounts & Passwords and make sure that you have more than one account, and the Mail is enabled for more than one.

If you only have one working email account, the option to choose a default will not be shown. A single acounts is the default by default (I made a funny).

Other than that, I don’t have any ideas beyond the reset that SciFan suggested.

Note: If you are using an earlier version of iOS, the email account settings may be under Settings > Genreral > Mail, Contacts, Calendars (if my memory isn’t completely gone).

 

[Mixz1]

I just checked my iPad Air 2 which is on iOS 11.2.5 and I have the option to set a default email account. Maybe your update to 11.2.5 had some problems, unknown until now.
Have you tried going to Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings? If that doesn’t work you may want to try reinstalling the operating system. You can do that with iTunes on your computer by backing it up, then restoring it. After the restoration is complete you can set up the iPad from the backup you made.

Thanks again, but it didn't help. But see below.

 

[Mixz1]

This is probably too obvious, but:

Make sure you have more than one email account enabled. Go to Settings > Accounts & Passwords and make sure that you have more than one account, and the Mail is enabled for more than one.

If you only have one working email account, the option to choose a default will not be shown. A single acounts is the default by default (I made a funny).

Other than that, I don’t have any ideas beyond the reset that SciFan suggested.

Note: If you are using an earlier version of iOS, the email account settings may be under Settings > Genreral > Mail, Contacts, Calendars (if my memory isn’t completely gone).

Thank you. Nailed it. Of the accounts on the iPad, one was carried by Mail, the other carried by it's own app. Deleted the app, added the account to Mail, set the default, and re-installed the app. Now, clicking on the mail to lozenge opens the app, not mail. I'd love to see the coding behind this. Again, thank you for the clue.

 

[twerppoet]

You probably did not need to delete the app before adding the email account to Mail in Accounts & Passwords. Accounts & Settings only affects the behavior of the Mail app. It does not take into account third party email apps.

The default setting for Mail determines what email account is used to send email when using Siri, tapping on Send Email in most apps, email links in Safari, or when using the Share sheet. If there was some other behavior change it was probably because you reinstalled your other email app, not becauise you set the account as default in iOS.

Keep in mind that if you use both the app and Mail, you may get some duplicates and/or miss mail in one or the other place. If it is an IMAP or Exchange account, this will correct itself. At worst you’ll notification badges and emails disapearing when you open the app (as it catches up with what you did in Mail, or vice versa).

If it’s a POP account, you need to decide where you’re going to manage your email. POP accounts don’t play well with multiple email clients.

 

[scifan57]

Thank you. Nailed it. Of the accounts on the iPad, one was carried by Mail, the other carried by it's own app. Deleted the app, added the account to Mail, set the default, and re-installed the app. Now, clicking on the mail to lozenge opens the app, not mail. I'd love to see the coding behind this. Again, thank you for the clue.

That's great. I'm glad your problem was solved. Thanks for letting us know.

 

[Mixz1]

You probably did not need to delete the app before adding the email account to Mail in Accounts & Passwords. Accounts & Settings only affects the behavior of the Mail app. It does not take into account third party email apps.

The default setting for Mail determines what email account is used to send email when using Siri, tapping on Send Email in most apps, email links in Safari, or when using the Share sheet. If there was some other behavior change it was probably because you reinstalled your other email app, not becauise you set the account as default in iOS.

Keep in mind that if you use both the app and Mail, you may get some duplicates and/or miss mail in one or the other place. If it is an IMAP or Exchange account, this will correct itself. At worst you’ll notification badges and emails disapearing when you open the app (as it catches up with what you did in Mail, or vice versa).

If it’s a POP account, you need to decide where you’re going to manage your email. POP accounts don’t play well with multiple email clients.

Thanks for the reply. It's IMAP and there's no problem with synchronization across my 3 iPads, my iPhone and 2 PCs. The problem is solved and I thank everyone for helping to lead me to the solution.

 

[twerppoet]

Awesome.