Short answer: Apple Mail's snooze is called Remind Me. On a Mac, Control-click a message (or choose Message > Remind Me) and pick Remind Me in 1 Hour, Tonight, Tomorrow or Later for a custom date and time. When the time comes, Mail notifies you and puts the email back at the top of your inbox. Until macOS 27 the message stayed in your inbox in the meantime. macOS 27 adds a setting that makes it a real snooze: Mail > Settings > General > Remind Me behavior > Move to "Remind Me".
Remind Me arrived in macOS Ventura 13, so these steps work on any recent Mac. The new Remind Me behavior setting is the one macOS 27 change. We checked it in Mail on macOS 27.0.1, because Apple's online guide doesn't cover it yet.
How to snooze an email in Mail on a Mac
- Select the message (or several messages: hold Command and click each one).
- Control-click it and hover over Remind Me. You can also choose Message > Remind Me in the menu bar, or swipe right with two fingers on a trackpad or Magic Mouse and click Remind Me.
- Choose when you want the email back:
| Option | When Mail reminds you |
|---|---|
| Remind Me in 1 Hour | One hour from now |
| Remind Me Tonight | 9:00 p.m. local time |
| Remind Me Tomorrow | 8:00 a.m. local time the next day |
| Remind Me Later… | A date and time you pick |
At the reminder time you get a notification, and the message moves to the top of your inbox. While you wait, it's listed in the Remind Me mailbox in the sidebar, so you can see everything you've put off in one place.
Snooze until tomorrow at 9 a.m.
This is a common question, and the presets don't quite cover it: Remind Me Tomorrow fires at 8:00 a.m. For any other time, choose Remind Me Later…, pick tomorrow's date, set the time to 9:00 and click Schedule. The email comes back to the top of your inbox at 9.
Make Remind Me hide the email until then (macOS 27)
The long-standing complaint about Remind Me was that it wasn't really snooze: the email stayed in your inbox, staring at you, until the reminder. macOS 27 fixes that with one setting:
- In Mail, choose Mail > Settings and click General.
- Find Remind Me behavior.
- Choose Move to "Remind Me". The default, Keep in Inbox, is the old behavior.
With Move to "Remind Me", a snoozed message leaves your inbox and waits in the Remind Me mailbox, which is how snooze works in Gmail or Outlook. If you don't see the option, check that you've updated to macOS 27. Early reports say iOS 27 gets a matching option in the iPhone's Mail settings, but Apple hasn't documented it yet, so we haven't listed steps.
How to change or cancel a reminder
- Change the time: Control-click the message, hover over Remind Me and pick a new option.
- Cancel it: Control-click the message, hover over Remind Me and choose Clear Reminder. The same command is under Message > Remind Me.
- See all snoozed mail: click the Remind Me mailbox in the sidebar. To sort any mailbox by reminder time, choose View > Sort By > Remind Me.
How to snooze emails in Mail on iPhone
- Open the Mail app and tap the message.
- Open the message's actions menu, then tap Remind Me.
- Choose when to be reminded. The message comes back to the top of your inbox at that time.
Apple's iPhone guide describes this for messages in the Primary category.
Related Mail features worth turning on
- Follow Up Suggestions. If you send an email and get no reply in about 3 days, Mail moves your sent message back to the top of the inbox as a nudge. Turn it on or off in Mail > Settings > General. To ignore one, swipe left on it.
- Flags. For things you need to act on but can't schedule yet, a flag keeps them in a Flagged mailbox. See our guide to flags in Mac Mail.
- Pinning. Apple Mail has no pin, but there are workarounds. See how to pin an email in Apple Mail.
- A keyboard shortcut. Remind Me has no shortcut by default, but you can add one for, say, Remind Me Tomorrow in System Settings. Our guide to custom keyboard shortcuts in Mac Mail walks through it.
What does it mean to snooze an email?
Snoozing takes an email out of your way and brings it back at a time you choose, usually at the top of your inbox so you can't miss it. It works like a to-do list for mail that isn't urgent yet: the invoice you'll pay on Friday, the thread you'll answer after a meeting, the ticket confirmation you only need on the day.
A few habits keep it from turning into a second inbox:
- Don't snooze an active thread you're expecting replies on. You might miss the replies, or answer an hour too late.
- If the email is really about a date (a meeting, a deadline), put it on your calendar instead.
- If you've snoozed the same email three times, deal with it now or archive it.
If you want more than Mail offers
Disclosure: we make Canary Mail. Canary has a proper snooze on Mac, iOS and Android: open the message, click or tap the clock icon and choose when it should come back. The email leaves your inbox and reappears at that time. Canary Mail is an email app for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows and Android that works with Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo, Exchange and other IMAP accounts. The free plan covers unlimited accounts on 2 devices with AI inbox sorting. The Growth plan ($36 a year) adds AI writing and summaries, read receipts, send later and a calendar on up to 5 devices. Tracker blocking is on by default, and your email isn't used to train AI. More than 2 million people use it, and Apple has featured it on the App Store and the Mac App Store. Snooze steps for each platform are in Canary's help center, linked in the sources below.
Frequently asked questions
Does Apple Mail have a snooze button?
Yes, it's called Remind Me. Control-click a message, choose Remind Me and pick a time. In macOS 27 you can also set Mail > Settings > General > Remind Me behavior to Move to "Remind Me" so the email leaves your inbox until then.
Where do snoozed emails go in Apple Mail?
They're listed in the Remind Me mailbox in the sidebar. With the default Keep in Inbox setting they also stay in your inbox; with Move to "Remind Me" (macOS 27) they leave it until the reminder time.
What happens when a snoozed email comes back?
Mail shows a notification and moves the message to the top of your inbox, so it's the first thing you see.
How do I turn off snooze on an email?
Control-click the message, hover over Remind Me and choose Clear Reminder. The same command is in the Message menu.
Can I snooze several emails at once?
Yes. Select them all in the message list (Command-click), then Control-click any of them and choose a Remind Me option. It applies to every selected message.
Is Remind Me the same as Follow Up Suggestions?
No. Remind Me is something you set on an email you received. Follow Up Suggestions is automatic: it brings back emails you sent that got no reply after about 3 days.
More Mac Mail how-tos
- Smart Mailboxes in Mac Mail
- Color coding emails in Mac Mail
- Customizing the Apple Mail toolbar
- Dark mode in Apple Mail
- Using flags in Mac Mail
- Apple Mail swipe actions
Other Mac Mail fixes
- Mac Mail not opening or freezing
- Mac Mail keeps crashing
- Mac Mail not sending emails
- Messages stuck in the Outbox
- Mac Mail not receiving emails
- Mac Mail inbox not updating
- Mac Mail can't connect to the server
- "Unable to verify account name or password"
- Mac Mail not showing attachments
- Mac Mail not showing images
- Mac Mail search not working
Sources
- Apple Mail User Guide (macOS Sequoia 15): Use Remind Me to come back to emails later
- Apple Mail User Guide (macOS Ventura 13): Use Remind Me to come back to emails later
- Apple Mail User Guide (macOS 27): Change General settings
- Apple Mail User Guide (macOS 27): Mark emails to revisit later
- Apple iPhone User Guide (iOS 27): Check your email in Mail (Remind Me)
- Canary Mail Help: How do I use Canary's Snooze feature on macOS?
- Canary Mail Help: How do I use Canary's Snooze feature for iOS?
- Canary Mail Help: How do I use Canary's Snooze feature on Android?