Fix: MacBook Air Not Receiving Emails and Messages

Are you not receiving emails or messages on your Macbook Air? Worry not! This troubleshooting guide will walk you through effective approaches to fix the issue of receiving emails and messages.

MacBook Air is popular among working individuals and students for its portability and performance. The laptop offers a great combination of hardware and software, for which Apple is known. However, the MacBook Air can also run into problems like any other laptop. It is still a piece of tech.

Many MacBook Air users have recently complained that they can’t receive emails and messages on their laptops. If you receive important communication messages via email or iMessage, this trouble could be very frustrating.

The default email app on MacBook Air works seamlessly with other Apple devices. Therefore, switching to a different email app should be your last resort. Fortunately, there are a couple of easy and effective solutions to fix the MacBook Air not receiving emails and messages problems. Before we dive into the solutions, let me quickly take you through the potential reasons which could be triggering the issue.

How to Fix MacBook Air Not Receiving Emails

In this section, you will find a curated list of effective solutions to fix email issues on your Mac. You do not test them all. Simply, apply the solutions one by one until you find the one that works for you.

1. Check Your Internet Connection

First things first, you should check for any issues with your internet connection. It could cause syncing issues and might not retrieve the latest emails. You should therefore make sure that your Mac has fast and stable internet to receive real-time emails.

Open Safari and run an internet speed test via speedtest.net or fast.com. If you observe internet issues, reboot your router to fix it. For this, unplug the router’s power cable for a minute and then plug it in again. Connect your MacBook Air to the internet to start receiving all emails.

2. Refresh Your Emails

Although the Mail app on Apple devices does not require you to manually refresh the emails, there can be occasions when the automatic refresh might fail. You can manually refresh the emails on your MacBook Air to get the latest emails.

Here’s how to refresh your emails:

1. Launch the Mail app on your MacBook Air.
2. Tap on the envelope icon in the top bar.
3. If you can’t find the envelope icon, go to View and click Show Tab Bar. The icon should appear now.

3. Delete and Add Your Email Account Again

There may be authentication or sync errors with your email address on the Mail app, resulting in non retrieval of new emails. It occurs when you change your password or the internet misbehaves.

You should remove the existing account from the mail app and add it again. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Tap on the Apple icon in the top-left corner.
2. Select System Preferences.
3. Tap on Internet Accounts.
4. Select an email account you are not receiving emails from.
5. Click the “-” icon at the bottom to remove the account.
6. Now, tap on the “+” icon and select your email provider.
7. Log into your account by entering the required details.
8. Launch the Mail app to check if new emails are showing up.

4. Check if You’ve Blocked the Person

You may have accidentally blocked the person trying to send you an email. You won’t receive their email in your Inbox.

Follow these steps to check the block list:

1. Launch the Mail app on your MacBook Air from the Dock.
2. Tap on Mail from the menu bar and select Preferences from the dropdown options.
3. Go to the Junk Mail tab.
4. Switch to the Blocked section. Here you’ll see a list of people you have blocked.
5. If the person is in the blocked list, tap on it and click the “-” icon to unblock him.

After unblocking a person on the Mail app, you should receive his future emails within Inbox.

5. Check Junk Email

There are times when a safe message can fall into the Junk folder. Gmail, iCloud, and Outlook use algorithms and look at multiple parameters to verify the sender and their emails. Sometimes, they can be aggressive and mark emails as junk. Probably, the messages you are looking for are staying inside the same folder.

1. Launch the Mail app on your MacBook Air.
2. Expand your preferred email provider from the left pane.
3. Go to the Junk folder.

6. Temporarily Disable Antivirus and Firewall

Antiviruses or firewalls could be blocking network traffic for the Mail app. This could be the reason why your MacBook Air is not receiving any emails. What you can do here is, disable all antivirus software and firewall temporarily. Now, ask your friend to send a new email to check if the problem is resolved.

If you start receiving emails, great! However, if the problem persists, we need to check if Gmail or Outlook server is facing difficulties. More on this in the next solution.

7. Check for Server Issues

There have been times in the past when Gmail and Outlook services have been affected. Therefore, we can’t rule out the possibility of server issues with these mailing services.

While there’s no official website to check the server status, there’s a third-party tool downdetector.com which can accomplish the job. On the website, you can see if other users are also having issues.

If the problem is caused by server outages, there’s nothing you can do other than wait for the engineers to fix it.

8. Make Room for New Emails

You are not receiving emails on your Mac probably because the storage is full. The device may not be able to download new emails. Check if your Mac has enough storage for incoming emails. Next, you have to check if Gmail or Outlook storage is full.

If your Gmail or Outlook storage is full, delete unnecessary emails and attachments to make room for incoming emails.

9. Disable Focus on Your Mac

Focus is nothing but another name for Do Not Disturb (DND) for Apple Macs. When it’s turned on, your MacBook Air won’t show any notifications and calls. It will make you feel like the device is not receiving any emails.

Disable Focus on your Mac. Another solution here is adding Mail as an exception. You will receive notifications from Mail but not from any other app.

Steps to disable Focus on your Mac:

1. Tap on the Mac Control Center in the top-right corner.
2. Disable the Focus tile from the available options.

Want to add Mail as an exception? Follow these steps:

1. Tap on the Apple icon in the top-left corner.
2. Select System Preferences.
3. Click on Notifications & Focus.
4. Select the Focus tab.
5. Select the app and click the “+” icon to add it to the exception list.

10. Update Your Mac

If everything else fails, updating the Mail app to its latest version might fix the issue. Unfortunately, Apple does not release updates to system apps, including Mail, on the App Store. They are tied with the latest macOS build. Therefore, you must update macOS.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Tap on the Apple icon in the top-left corner.
2. Select System Preferences.
3. Click on Software Update.
4. Download and install pending updates (if there are any).

So, these were 9 solutions to fix MacBook Air not receiving emails problem. Do let us know which one worked out in your favor in the comment section below.

We’ll now shift our focus to discovering ways of fixing the MacBook Air not receiving messages problem.

Not Receiving Messages on MacBook Air? Here’s How to Fix It

As with any other guide, you must keep applying the solutions below until you find the one that works for you. Let’s begin our troubleshooting.

1. Restart Your iPhone and Mac

Temporary glitches could be causing a delay or failure in receiving messages on your MacBook Air. It can also cause syncing problems between your iPhone and Mac. Thankfully, fixing glitches is as simple as turning off the device and turning it back on.

To restart your iPhone, press and hold the power button until you see the power slider. Drag the slider to turn off the device. Now, press the power button until you see the Apple logo.

Select the Restart option from the Apple menu to restart your MacBook Air.

2. Test Your Internet Connection

A slow or unstable internet connection can lead to sync failure, which could be why you are not receiving messages on your MacBook Air. Run an internet speed test via speedtest.net or fast.com and observe the result. If you find internet difficulties, reboot your router. You can do it easily by unplugging the router’s power cable for a minute and then plugging it in again. Connect your MacBook Air to the internet and get all your messages.

3. Sign Out of Messages and Sign in Again

There might be configuration or syncing problems with the Messages app on your Mac. When such a problem occurs, you won’t receive any messages on the device. It can be easily fixed by signing out of Messages and signing into the app again.

1. Launch the Messages app on your Mac. You can find it in the dock at the bottom of your screen. If it’s not there, look for it in the Applications folder.
2. Click Messages from the menu bar and select Preferences.
3. Go to the iMessage tab.
4. Click on Sign Out.
5. Now, sign in again to your account.

4. Check if the Sender Is Blocked

If you are not receiving messages from a specific person, probably the person is blocked. If you are not sure about it, follow these steps to check your blocked list:

1. Open the Messages app on your MacBook Air.
2. Click Messages from the menu bar and select Preferences.
3. Go to the iMessage tab.
4. Head to the Blocked tab. You can see the list of phone numbers blocked from texting you on iMessage.
5. To remove a number from the blocked list, tap on it and click the “-” icon at the bottom.

5. Check Your iCloud Settings

If Messages are not syncing to iCloud from your iPhone, you can’t see them on your MacBook Air. You must enable this option (if disabled).

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to Settings on your iPhone.
2. Tap on your name and select iCloud.
3. Click Show All and tap on Messages.
4. Turn on Sync this iPhone.

If the Sync this iPhone option was disabled before, enabling it should fix the issue. You may need to wait for a few minutes for the messages to upload to iCloud before you can access them on your MacBook Air.

6. Update Your iPhone and Mac

If you are still not receiving messages on your MacBook Air, try updating your iPhone and Mac as well. It might bring a new version of iMessage which could fix the issue. Plus, there will be improvements and bug fixing.

On Mac:

1. Tap on the Apple icon in the top-left corner.
2. Select System Preferences.
3. Click on Software Update.

On iPhone:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Go to General and tap on Software Update.
3. Download and install pending updates (if there are any).

After updating your iPhone and Mac, you can access your messages seamlessly across supported Apple devices.

We hope this guide was helpful to you. If you have any questions or queries, write them in the comment section below. We will try to respond at the earliest.