How do I change my default “from” email address for the iOS Mail app?

Question

I changed my "Default Account" in Mail Preferences:

And this changes my default "from" address when I send an email from (say) the Twitter app

But when I use the Mail app to send an email, it uses my old "from" address by default.

Answer 1

It seems to be related to the order that the email accounts were created into iOS. If you look at the order of the Accounts in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars you will see what I mean.

I don't know of any way to reorder these, except by deleting them and adding them back in the order you want.

Answer 2

I'm using iOS 5.0.1 and I'm not seeing your issue at all (iPhone 4 - UK - O2)

If I set the default to account A new mail inside does default to using the email address on A. if I change it to account B, newly composed emails goes from the email on account B.

replies to emails defaults to the email address on the account the email was received in. If account A is the default, and an email is received in account B, the from address will default to account B unless you change it whilst composing the reply.

Answer 3

If you are creating a new message, then the "default" account will be used. If you are replying to a message in another account, that account will be used as the "from:" address.

It sounds to me like you want to reply to a message received on (say) Hotmail and have the message come "from" a new GMail address. This is not possible to do by default; you will need to change the "from" address manually.

Answer 4

For me, this happened because of faulty settings in the outgoing server panel applicable to the particular account. Failing the desired server, mail went to another server, with that server's email sending address. Resolved by deleting all the Mail accounts on the device, then transferring Mail account info from my computer back to the device via iTunes connection (see Info panel on iTunes).