Organizing email is overwhelming. Just sayin’. In any case, Apple Mail has some valuable tools to help make navigating and sorting messages a little easier. Notably, you can move a message to a separate mailbox to make it easier to locate in the future, but Mail need not display the next message after doing so.
If you’ve created a series of mailboxes for organizational and/or archival purposes, you may want to review your usage and consider cleaning up or consolidating underutilized containers. I shared a bit of wisdom about this opportunity in Mailbox Cleanup.
Client Notes
Last week, I troubleshooted Aliza’s home Wi-Fi. Simply moving her eero router from the garage to the kitchen made a world of difference. Next, I’ll sell her a pair of eeros to own instead of renting from her Internet provider. They’re on sale next week, so reach out if you need an upgrade.
Meanwhile, I demystified Marie’s printer so she can deepen her art-making experience, helped Sue start to get acquainted with her new Mac after switching from a PC, and simplified Chandra’s TV experience by adding a Roku to the mix for content and screen mirroring.
Create a Mailbox on Mac
In Mail on macOS, there’s a whole menu devoted to mailbox-related actions. In addition, you can click 
next to any account section on the sidebar to create a mailbox or add one to Favorites.
For the former, you can create it at the top level of the account hierarchy or click the Location popup menu and choose any existing mailbox to be its parent. Then, give the new item a name and you’re done.
Note: Mail may be inconsistent about where new mailboxes appear. Sometimes they are in alphabetical order and others they appear at the top or bottom of the level where you created them. However, you can always drag them to arrange as desired.
Create a Mailbox on iPhone or iPad
On mobile devices, Mail provides a similar user experience but manages mailboxes slightly differently. It also always displays account mailboxes in alphabetical order.
From the list of mailboxes, tap Edit. Then, tap Add Mailbox under the list of favorites at the top to add one there, or tap New Mailbox in the bottom right to create a new one. For the latter, enter a name and specify the parent location under which you want it to appear.
Behavior After Moving a Message
Until spring 2025, when moving a message to another mailbox, the next message in the current list would be selected. The result, sometimes unintended, is that this message, if unread, would be marked as read.
However, a new setting popped up in Mail in macOS 15 and iOS 18 updates. Now, you can choose how Mail should behave in this context. On Mac, go to Mail > Settings > Viewing and check or uncheck Automatically view next message after discarding or archiving a message. On mobile, navigate to Settings > Mail, select Delete or Move Message Action, and choose View Next Message or Don’t Select a Message.
It’s important to remember that deleting a message from any mailbox other than the Trash is an action that moves the message to the trash mailbox for the same account. Likewise, using the Archive action moves it to an archive mailbox.
Organizing messages can be a boon for users who practice Inbox Zero, prefer organization over search, or have a system of archiving email from prior years, among other reasons. Additionally, the ability to prevent messages from being marked as read may benefit folks who use unread status to remember to address a given message.
How do you like to organize your email? Share your insights in the comments…
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