Something has changed
No longer receiving email I previously received on a regular basis. And heaven help me if any site wants to send me an email confirmation link.
Disappointed
I setup this email account with a plan to migrate all of my emails across but found 2 issues- 1) I get notified on iPhone that I have received a message and check account on iPhone and n new emails arrived. Eventually after many of these false notifications I checked on desktop and could see emails.
2). Since the email notifications were unreliable I was hesitant to move my accounts over, and while I made sure I sent an occasional email, I continued to get notified my account was being deactivated.
I am looking forward to my account with Maltese being deactivated.
2). Since the email notifications were unreliable I was hesitant to move my accounts over, and while I made sure I sent an occasional email, I continued to get notified my account was being deactivated.
I am looking forward to my account with Maltese being deactivated.
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Strong privacy claims — but signup blocks privacy-minded users (must fix)
I chose this app specifically because of its stated commitment to privacy and encryption, but my experience creating a new account undermines that promise. During signup the service rejected my registration with a vague error claiming “potential abuse,” and listed several possible causes: country/IP flagged, disposable recovery email, or my browser being outdated. None of those applied — I was using a mainstream iPhone browser, a legitimate recovery address on a privacy-focused provider, and a consistent IP (I temporarily used Cloudflare WARP for privacy). The registration failed because the username was one character too long, which is minor, but the final rejection screen explicitly blocks signups when it detects privacy tooling, disposable emails, or networks with good security practices. That is the opposite of what a privacy-first service should do.
Why this matters:
Privacy-first users intentionally use VPNs, secure DNS, anti-tracking tools, and privacy-focused recovery addresses. Penalizing these behaviors excludes the very people the app claims to protect.
Forced use of non-private recovery channels or blocking secure browsers increases fingerprintability and metadata exposure, undermining the advertised protections.
The error messaging is unhelpful and non-actionable. It lists multiple possible causes without indicating which one actually triggered the block, leaving users guessing and unable to resolve the issue without trial-and-error or contacting support.
Concrete suggestions:
Make the rejection reason specific — tell the user which trigger caused the block (IP reputation, disposable email, browser fingerprint, etc.) and provide clear next steps.
Allow account creation from common privacy setups (VPNs, WARP, secure browsers) or provide a documented, privacy-respecting verification path for those users.
Stop requiring a non-privacy recovery option as the only way to proceed; allow a secondary account on privacy providers or verified phone alternatives that don’t force broader linkage.
Publish a short support page explaining why signups are blocked and how privacy-minded users can legitimately complete registration without weakening their privacy posture.
Add a grace period and human review for plausible false positives so legitimate users aren’t permanently locked out.
My expectation from a privacy-focused app is that they design onboarding to accommodate — not punish — privacy and security choices. Please fix the signup flow, clarify error messages, and provide an alternate verification path that doesn’t require users to choose between account access and their privacy tools.
Why this matters:
Privacy-first users intentionally use VPNs, secure DNS, anti-tracking tools, and privacy-focused recovery addresses. Penalizing these behaviors excludes the very people the app claims to protect.
Forced use of non-private recovery channels or blocking secure browsers increases fingerprintability and metadata exposure, undermining the advertised protections.
The error messaging is unhelpful and non-actionable. It lists multiple possible causes without indicating which one actually triggered the block, leaving users guessing and unable to resolve the issue without trial-and-error or contacting support.
Concrete suggestions:
Make the rejection reason specific — tell the user which trigger caused the block (IP reputation, disposable email, browser fingerprint, etc.) and provide clear next steps.
Allow account creation from common privacy setups (VPNs, WARP, secure browsers) or provide a documented, privacy-respecting verification path for those users.
Stop requiring a non-privacy recovery option as the only way to proceed; allow a secondary account on privacy providers or verified phone alternatives that don’t force broader linkage.
Publish a short support page explaining why signups are blocked and how privacy-minded users can legitimately complete registration without weakening their privacy posture.
Add a grace period and human review for plausible false positives so legitimate users aren’t permanently locked out.
My expectation from a privacy-focused app is that they design onboarding to accommodate — not punish — privacy and security choices. Please fix the signup flow, clarify error messages, and provide an alternate verification path that doesn’t require users to choose between account access and their privacy tools.
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Absolutely great 👏
The greatest and most serious email platform ever !
Basic email - one major annoyance
It’s a basic email client. Nothing special here. It does the job.
However, when composing an email the app always scrolls your text off the screen every time you type a letter. This cannot be fixed with settings. It happens on every email, and scrolling manually only temporarily lets you read what you’re typing until you start typing again.
I give two stars due to this significantly interfering with a core function of an email client.
However, when composing an email the app always scrolls your text off the screen every time you type a letter. This cannot be fixed with settings. It happens on every email, and scrolling manually only temporarily lets you read what you’re typing until you start typing again.
I give two stars due to this significantly interfering with a core function of an email client.
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Not up to par anymore
I’ve had Mailfence for a number of years now with no problems but lately the app refuses to connect at all and it’s been really buggy sounds like maybe some ip’s are being blocked this is 😔
Do not pay for a plan
One would think if you pay for a plan. Wondered why I could not try by month first. Well, because they take your money and will not even respond to one question/issue in a year!? F is the grade. Going back to Zoho and Proton.
Does not work!!!
Horrible! The things I’ve reported spam multiple times keep coming to my inbox and the things I reported not spam multiple times keep going to spam!!! What’s not clicking??? Some emails don’t get delivered and don’t get sent at all!! I’ve missed multiple extremely important emails because of you!!! What kind of absolute TRASH is this!?!?
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Issues
The biggest issue all the time on phone app is “Unable to reach servers” etc. It never works most of the time.
Can’t even sign up due to opaque and unnecessarily prohibitive rules.
I’ve been blocked from signing up multiple times and I’ve completely given up because of it. The app displays a list of several potential reasons why you’re prevented from signing up, including using a VPN or a recovery email address that appears to be an alias/disposable. They don’t inform you of exactly which issue is preventing you from signing up. It’s quite frustrating. Imagine a secure/private email service that prevents users from signing up if they use a VPN! Of course we use a VPN. And of course we will refuse to disable it for your service. I realize you need to prevent abuse, but find another way. My VPN is staying connected and I’m not handing over my personal email address to you either.
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Response from developer
Hi, We’re really sorry for the frustration this caused and understand how disappointing this experience can be. This is not the experience we want for our users. We’d like to help investigate what happened with your account creation. Please contact our support team at support@mailfence.com so we can look into this and assist you directly. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Mailfence Team
Amazing
Best email provider I've ever used. It was easy to sign up, didn't need a phone number which was amazing. And it is also easy to find everything. The one minor problem is that a lot of my emails go to my spam folder, not sure how to turn that off but it's a near perfect app. 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Left Hanging Again by Mailfence Support
About 3 weeks ago, after a gradual failing of reliable IMAP connectivity over the prior couple of months between my web based email hub account and my Mailfence feed (both paid accounts), I contacted both companies, and after about a week of messaging with both, I learned that MF was blocking or restricting a range of IP addresses (those necessary to retrieve and sync my MF mail in my webmail hub account).
MF finally informed me that they were being cautious about opening the range of addresses, as a result of abuse, spamming, I guess, that they've apparently noted from the other company’s user accounts, but they did not say they would not be doing so.
So, that being indefinite, I asked MF if I could expect that to happen, and if so, when?
That was two weeks and three add'l follow-up messages from me ago, with each follow-up receiving an automated response confirming receipt of my message, and containing the notice that the expected response window time would be between a few minutes and three days, so almost 5x past that outside range now.
I think this is the most extreme time frame, but it's not the first time I've been left in limbo sending multiple follow-ups to MF support.
It's really odd, being a paid account. Unprofessional and discourteous, both, and I'd much rather have just been told at the outset that MF had blacklisted the other company (which they should then notify their customer base about or post to some part of their website), than to be left hanging. Understaffed, maybe, or maybe just indifferent to my circumstance, bigger fish to fry. 🤷♂️
This being a fundamental customer service issue, and now apparently routine, I thought it was time to share the info generally.
MF finally informed me that they were being cautious about opening the range of addresses, as a result of abuse, spamming, I guess, that they've apparently noted from the other company’s user accounts, but they did not say they would not be doing so.
So, that being indefinite, I asked MF if I could expect that to happen, and if so, when?
That was two weeks and three add'l follow-up messages from me ago, with each follow-up receiving an automated response confirming receipt of my message, and containing the notice that the expected response window time would be between a few minutes and three days, so almost 5x past that outside range now.
I think this is the most extreme time frame, but it's not the first time I've been left in limbo sending multiple follow-ups to MF support.
It's really odd, being a paid account. Unprofessional and discourteous, both, and I'd much rather have just been told at the outset that MF had blacklisted the other company (which they should then notify their customer base about or post to some part of their website), than to be left hanging. Understaffed, maybe, or maybe just indifferent to my circumstance, bigger fish to fry. 🤷♂️
This being a fundamental customer service issue, and now apparently routine, I thought it was time to share the info generally.
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Some issues
UPDATE: The recent update gave the iPad app a very strange glitch that hasn’t been addressed. When composing an email, the page automatically scrolls back up while typing out the text, so you can’t see what you’re writing. No matter where the curser is on the page, the page scrolls up. If you scroll down to where you are typing and begin typing your text, it pops back up to the top of the page. I’ve sent in a troubleshooting ticket but it hasn’t been fixed yet. If using this on your mobile app, it’s the same but can be fine to deal with it you compose a short message. If however, you, write a longer email, then the page will again, scroll back up to the top and you can’t see what you’re writing. No issues on desktop. Please fix this. This is annoying and makes the app unusable.
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Great app great service
No complaints
Now not working on iPhone
iOS login now fails on 18.7.1. (Account not recognised error). Even with full Mailfence email as id and previously stored p/w. Has been OK if basic (free) last 12 months
App doesn’t let me sign in
UPDATE: Now it’s working again. I enjoy this app very much so I wasn’t too happy about the possibility of switching, but it’s all good now.
After I went through the trouble of making Mailfence my main email, it says “Sorry. Something unexpected happened.” whenever I attempt to login to the app. When I reached out for support I get “Sorry, but we don’t provide assistance to free users.” I’ve been able to login to my account via browser using the same credentials, but the app suddenly says my account doesn’t exist after I changed the password
After I went through the trouble of making Mailfence my main email, it says “Sorry. Something unexpected happened.” whenever I attempt to login to the app. When I reached out for support I get “Sorry, but we don’t provide assistance to free users.” I’ve been able to login to my account via browser using the same credentials, but the app suddenly says my account doesn’t exist after I changed the password
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App doesn’t let me sign in
After I went through the trouble of making Mailfence my main email, it says “Sorry. Something unexpected happened.” whenever I attempt to login to the app. When I reached out for support I get “Sorry, but we don’t provide assistance to free users.” I’ve been able to login to my account via browser using the same credentials, but the app suddenly says my account doesn’t exist after I changed the password
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Response from developer
Hello, Could you please try again by using your primary emailaddress as username / login? Regards, Mailfence Team
App doesn’t let me sign in
After I made Mailfence my main email, it says “Sorry. Something unexpected happened.” whenever I attempt to login to the app. When I reached out for support I get “Sorry, but we don’t provide assistance to free users.” I’ve been able to login to my account via browser using the same credentials, but the app suddenly says my account doesn’t exist after I changed the password and logged in via browser. Make it make sense
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Login Issues After Update
iOS version of app recently broke logging in after updating even though the website still functions perfectly fine. Keeps giving a "something unexpected happened" error and repeated attempts share the same result.
Latest update broke login
I cannot login on mobile since the last update. It tells me that the username and password are not correct or don’t exist. I can login to the desktop site no problem
