A

Friday, March 7th, 2025 11:51 PM

Comcast mail loading very slow on iPad and iPhone

For the last month or so, email is taking forever to download.  My devices are running on the latest iOS and my mail setting is on IMAP.  I have tried to delete my email account and reinstalled it, but no help.  Some people suggested turning the iPad off and restarting.  No improvement.

An iOS 18 issue and incompatibility with Comcast’s mail?

supposedly Apple is aware and the latest versions of iOS 18 were going to provide a fix….but no.

Anybody know about a way to fix this?

Accepted Solution

Contributor

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26 Messages

29 days ago

EDIT: You will need to have Third Party Access Security checked in your settings to allow 3rd party clients (outlook, thunderbird, etc) to access your comcast email. Adding this for clarification

Hi Aleve! Im a freelance IT guy not affiliated with Xfinity or Comcast.

IMAP wouldn't cause any issues for your mail settings. That just means any changes to your mail on one device syncs on all connected devices, plus on comcast's email site. I did also hear other folks had issues with IOS 18 and just comcast too, so you're not alone

I would check this:
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/third-party-email-access

  • Sign in to Xfinity Email using your Xfinity ID and password.
  • In the top-right corner, click the Gear icon, then select Settings.
  • Click Security.
  • Uncheck the box under Third Party Access Security to prevent third-party programs access to your Xfinity Email, or check the box to allow access.

Also this might help: https://www.xfinity.com/mobile/support/device-troubleshooting?page=device/apple/iphone-xs-max-ios-18/topic/e-mail/setup-email/choice/xfinity-imap

(edited)

Regular Visitor

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14 Messages

Ha! It took me a while to find that security option and I made the mistake of Unchecking it -then of course I couldn't see any mail whatsoever in my iPhone mail app. I quickly turned it back on.!  Since you mentioned Unchecking it before you mentioned checking it. I thought you were recommending unchecking it..thanks for trying. I will now check the article. 

Official Employee

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1.8K Messages

@YukamoRan​ Thank you for the help and posting this information! We have found this is the best resolution. 

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9 Messages

This makes no diffference. 

9 Messages

@YukamoRan​ This does not help at all. AND the article does not reflect the current screens and steps in iPhone 18.3 mail set up menus. It’s outdated. 

And deleting and re-adding the comcast.net email account makes no difference. It still takes 3-4 minutes for an email with “test” to arrive. 

it has been like this for months. 

Official Employee

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2.1K Messages

 

user_dj551z, thank you for letting us know you see the same concern. I know this has been frustrating, but we'll do our best to help. Does this happen when you use Apple Mail only, or also when you use the Xfinity website directly? 

 

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Official Employee

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836 Messages

1 month ago

Good evening @Aleve. Are you using the default iOS Mail app or a 3rd party app like Outlook?

3 Messages

I am using the default iOS mail app.

Official Employee

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3K Messages

Thanks for confirming Aleve! Are you having issues with receiving emails at all or just with the app running slow? 

 

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Regular Visitor

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14 Messages

I am having trouble with very very slow loads of emails in inbox. . Like- ten min or more. Push authorized. 

Frequent Visitor

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8 Messages

29 days ago

I have the same issues with iOS and Thunderbird on Windows 11. Outlook on Windows 11 works fine. Something is up for sure.

Official Employee

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1.8K Messages

 

paroina Did you happen to try to solution that @YukamoRan provided above?

 

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3 Messages

28 days ago

Unchecking the third party access is NOT a solution.  If you uncheck it and go to your email on the iPhone or iPad you immediately get an error message.  If you are lucky you may get a box to pop up asking you for your Comcast/Xfinity email password, but that gets you right back to an error.  In the end you have no choice but to go back to your email settings and check the box for third party access. At least this restores your access to your mail on your iPad, but you have wait a long time again for your mail to load.  Very frustrating.

Contributor

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26 Messages

@Aleve​ I edited my comment to clarify that, I directly copied from the xfinity article, and overlooking, the wording can be a tad confusing

Visitor

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3 Messages

28 days ago

I have had this issue for months on iOS 18 and I can’t find a solution. I have messed with the fetch data settings and removed and added the account back and on or off wifi it doesn’t seem to help at all.

It’s very annoying and takes minutes to load very basic emails.

Official Employee

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1.4K Messages

@brandongc1 I’m sorry to hear you're unable to locate a resolution. Were you able to try the above steps in this thread posted by @YukamoRan? Can you try those steps for us and let us know if this also resolves your concerns with your email and iOS?

 

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Contributor

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71 Messages

@brandongc1​ I have the same issue on iPhone and iPad since iOS 18. Gmail loads perfectly - Comcast email doesn’t. Sometimes it works better if I close out of the app and reopen. The connection/communication between the iOS Mail app and Comcast is not clean and is slow. I’ve tried the above steps and more and nothing works.

Official Employee

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2.1K Messages

Thank you for confirming you tried the steps above @GRBU2! Could you please log out/remove the email from your iPhone and your iPad’s mail app then follow the steps in this article to make sure the Xfinity email is added to the email app using the current recommended settings.

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Contributor

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71 Messages

@XfinityAldrik​ I’ve done this numerous times. I’ve also gotten a new iPad and iPhone and same thing happens. iOS Mail App doesn’t work with Comcast IMAP email. Gmail works just fine. Something is wrong with Comcast - all started with iOS 18.

Official Employee

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1.9K Messages

@GRBU2

 

Thanks for reaching out on my iPhone user as well and I use the default IPhone app to access my Comcast e-mail on the IOS 18.3.2 software update,.

 

If you have you went to your iPhone app mail settings and added your comcast email & password, you may want to reach out to apple support for further troubleshooting issues

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
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9 Messages

11 days ago

I haven’t found a fix. It takes several minutes for even a simple “test” email to load. It’s ridiculous. It’s 

2 Messages

11 days ago

Has anyone been able to get this resolved?  I’ve tried all the recommended steps numerous times and nothing helps.  We need a legitimate solution, this has been months now.

Official Employee

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2K Messages

 

user_mdel Hey there! Are you still having issues at this time, I see you post was a couple of days ago and our team is here to help if you still need us. 

 

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9 Messages

Yes!!!  Still slow to load. Which is no surprise since no one has published a solution. 

9 Messages

@user_mdel​ 

nope. Still an issue. No support on this. 

Official Employee

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1.1K Messages

@user_dj551z have you by chance attempted the steps outlined by @GRBU2: Under Settings -> Apps -> Mail -> Mail Accounts -> Fetch New Data. Turned my Comcast account to Manual. It was on Fetch. They provided an update about 10 days ago, and stated it was helping. Please let us know if you have attempted this already. 

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Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
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Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

9 Messages

@XfinityJustinC​ Justin, those steps do not work.

1 Message

9 days ago

Experiencing  the same thing with email content that takes forever to load — super annoying.

New Poster

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2 Messages

5 days ago

I’m having the same problem, I have tried all the solutions but my Comcast email is taking forever to load on new iPad and iPhone 14. Very frustrating 

Official Employee

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2K Messages

 

KJkinPA Hey there! Thank you for using our Forums and our team is here to help you if you are still having issues. Is this still ongoing?

 

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Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
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1 Message

Same problem for me. Happening on both my iPad and my iPhone. Very frustrating especially because attachments just say loading. I purchased some train tickets for an international trip and now I’m petrified I will never be able to retrieve them because the attachments just say loading. my husband has a Samsung and having no issues. 

9 Messages

@XfinityJorge​ Jorge, what difference does that make????  xFinity has published no effective fixes for this issue.  Mail loads very SLOWLY on Apple devices since a recent upgrade in the past few months.  

Official Employee

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2K Messages

 

user_zqu42x Thanks for reaching out! What Apple iOS is on your iPad, and iPhone? 

 

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Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
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Visitor

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4 Messages

2 days ago

Same issue for me.

Comcast email works fine on my iPhone 14 w/IOS 17, but two iPads w/IOS 18 are SUPER slow. This behavior started with the upgrade from IOS 17 to 18. 

Apple Support (advanced) was no help and effective threw their hands in the air with no resolution and no willingness to escalate to the developers. 

Can Xfinity work w/Apple on giving this some attention??

9 Messages

It's almost like Comcast/Xfinity doesn't care....

Visitor

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4 Messages

to be fair, I think it's an IOS/Apple issue. But perhaps Xfinity can poke someone at Apple and get their attention.

Regular Visitor

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14 Messages

About 4-6 weeks ago I called xfinity. They did something and i think had me reset simething. Now most of mycemail arrives normally. Try calling them.

(edited)

Visitor

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4 Messages

1 day ago

Edited...

I may have (NOT) have found a solution:

Comcast IMAP email can use SMTP ports 587 (considered more modern) or 465 (legacy, but still secure).  I tried switching to SMTP port 465 and my iPads returned to normal email flow. Something seems very wrong with IOS18's handling of port 587.

 I'm working with a senior Apple Support tech, and may get this escalated to Apple Engineering. Will update here as it progresses.

Update, 4/11/2025:

As others have reported, the change to SMTP ports 465 doesn't really work. In my case, it's a bit faster to connect and grab subject lines, but still WAY slow at loading content.  Will continue to press Apple to escalate and find a solution.  

(edited)

Visitor

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3 Messages

@Wynd​ I just changed this setting on my iPhone and iPad and will monitor and see how that works.

Contributor

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71 Messages

@Wynd​ my Gmail uses 465 and it works on iOS 18 as it did on iOS 17. I look forward to hearing how changing to 465 for Comcast email works for others. Thank you for sharing and working with Apple.

1 Message

No Joy here .. iPhone 12 iOS 18.3.2

Changes SMTP port from 587 to 465 and still slooooooowwww loading of messages, unacceptably slow. 

xfinity Do Better!

Soon Please 

Contributor

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71 Messages

@user_ct3lph​ Same here. Changing to 465 doesn’t appear to work for me. On iOS 18.4.

Visitor

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4 Messages

@user_ct3lph​ 

Please consider contacting Apple Support. They are most likely the ones to fix this, given it worked in IOS-17, and IOS-18 broke it. 

The more feedback Apple receives on this, the better our chances of getting their attention and a fix.

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