Sent messages don't go anywhere in Mail

I created an email address with my host and added my email to the iOS mail app using the host's IMAP server. However, under Accounts > Email, there is only one folder: Inbox. My host did not automatically configure the other folders for me (Trash, Sent, Drafts). Ok, so I made these three new folders. However, whenever I send a message, it is not added to the Sent folder. When I delete a message, it returns an error stating the message could not be deleted (I must manually move the message to the Trash folder). Why is this happening? Why doesn't iOS recongize these folders and how can I fix it?

Well, I suggest you delete the account and set it up again because in general an IMAP account should show your Inbox and under the Accounts below the Inbox you should then be able to access your other folders. This should solve the issue.
Your sent folder might not appear immediately but as soon as you send an email from the iPhone using that account, you should be able to access your sent folder after tapping the name of your account. Also, perhaps you should make sure that there is an email in each one of the subfolder in the host server.

Similar Messages

Is there a way to sync old sent messages from an online server into Mail?

When I got my new Mac, I already had several years of sent messages stored on an online server (Gmail). Is there any way to get these messages into the Sent mailbox in Mail?

You can set up your Gmail account in Mail as an IMAP account. Once done, you can view them in Mail or copy them to any folder on your Mac.

Sent Messages can not be read in MAIL, why?

Up to an hour ago, I could view all my SENT messages in MAIL, suddenly I am getting a message saying "The message from [account] has not been downloaded from the server. You need to take this account online in order to download it."
But I AM online!
eMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

This indicates an "overstuffed" mailbox issue which means the mailbox has some corruption and/or is over the recommended size limit.
The recommended mailbox size limit for Jagaur or Panther Mail is 1GB and for Tiger Mail, 2GB.
If your OS detail provided is accurate (10.3.9), do the following:
Quit Mail first and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail > this POP account named folder (named by the user name and incoming mail server for the account) > Sent Messages.mbox.
Move the Sent Messages.mbox to the Desktop.
When re-launching Mail, a new Sent Messages.mbox will be created automatically by Mail within the account named folder when sending the next message with this account. This will allow the Mail.app to function properly again while working on the old Sent Messages.mbox moved to the Desktop to recover the existing messages and not risk losing any new messages sent with the account.
Control-click on the old Sent Messages.mbox moved to the Desktop and at the menu window that appears, select Show Package Contents.
List the package content file names and size of each here.
This information is required to determine the next step to take to recover the existing messages.

IMAP Sent messages will not write to server (mail 3.1, imail 9.22 server)

hi, i was waiting for today's update to fix this problem and it did, for about 3 minutes.
when i send messages from other clients including the iphone, sent mail gets written to the server, from mail 3.x it just hangs. the message sends, but the sent mail never goes.
is there ANY WAY to fix this? i cannot believe there is an update for mail and this is still happening.
is it something to do with the server?
thanks so much...

hi, i was waiting for today's update to fix this problem and it did, for about 3 minutes.
when i send messages from other clients including the iphone, sent mail gets written to the server, from mail 3.x it just hangs. the message sends, but the sent mail never goes.
is there ANY WAY to fix this? i cannot believe there is an update for mail and this is still happening.
is it something to do with the server?
thanks so much...

Sent Messages File Mail

I have a very large Sent messages File. I use Apple Mail. On my iMac I have it set to store the Sent Messages File on the Server and Never delete. I do not want or need all 14,000 sent messages downloaded to my MBA, but that's what is happening. What settings should I use in Mail on the MBA to keep that from happening?

I'd recommend creating a Rule. If you don't have experience doing so here is a little information for you to study.
http://www.freeemailtutorials.com/appleMail/rulesWithAppleMail.cwd
Roger

Moving mail users to IMAP from POP. Issues with sent messages disappearing

Our mail server has been working well for several years, running currently on Mac OX 10.4.10 (Xserve G5). All user accounts have always been setup for pop and imap in WGM but we have just recently started to move client settings to IMAP. No changes to the mail settings in server admin except opening the firewall to include port 993 for imap ssl.
The issue is that all users appear to loose the sent mail records when using the apple mail apps. After a message has been sent, the message record stays in the Apple generated sent box for that account and then disappears (presumably after syncing with the server).
The mail app "account" settings shows that sent messages are to be stored on the server and never to be deleted (in mailbox behavior).
If you do a "get info" on the mailbox,sent messages don't show on the server either under "Sent". I also created an additional mailbox "Sent Messages" to be used as sent mailbox location. mailbox shows up on the server, but no mail is added when sent from the apple mail app.
Now, I would have assumed this to be an issue of the client app, but the behavior is consistent across several machines and also on new mail app configurations.
When using Entourage with the same account however, the server works as anticipated and all sent messages are stored on the server (in the "Sent Messages" box). Any Entourage sent messages also show up in the "Sent Messages"mail box of the apple mail apps.
When using iphones, the behavior is somewhat unclear. The iphone mail settings (under advanced) show the "server" selected ("Sent Messages") for sent mail, yet the actual iphone mail app lists that folder as just "Sent". When sending messages, that mailbox shows the Entourage sent messages and iphone sent messages, but the iphone messages never appear on the server.
This only happens on sent messages; inbox, drafts, deleted and junk mail boxes work perfect. This also happen on any imap client account I setup, not just a specific one.
Any suggestions? Any setting I am overlooking? Using Entourage for all users is not an option...
Thanks for any help...

Please see my post and how it was resolved:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1181356&tstart=0
When I had that issue, I tried using Apple Mail app and noticed that Sent Mails are getting lost. Try sending an email using WebMail. You might see similar "Permission Denied" error. Try restarting the server and see if the issue still exists.

Mail sent messages folder

I am using IMAP accounts from three different Macs (2 OSX6, 1 OSX8) , 1 iphone, 1 iPad
Unfortunately the use how to save sent messages on server is not overall consistent.
In addition to the "sent" folder I have also "sent items", "sent messages" which have been cretaed by mail client apps.
Where can I set up the Mail Apps that sent mails are not only saved on the server, but also always in the same "sent" folder?
Thanks
Urs

It's pretty easy to choose your Sent folder.
1. On the lefthand folders panel, select the folder that you want to use as your "Sent" folder.
2. With that folder selected, choose Mailbox from the top menu
3. Near the bottom of the dropdown menu, select "Use This Mailbox As"
4. Select "Sent Mailbox"
Voila! Now all your sent e-mails will be stored in the folder of your choosing. You can also change the behavior of other folders, such as Drafts, Junk, Trash, etc.

Upon opening Mail this morning to check when I'd sent a draft I wrote yesterday, I noticed all my sent messages are missing.

Upon opening Mail this morning to check when I'd sent a draft I wrote yesterday, I noticed all my sent messages are missing. I had mail dating back ten years in there. When I go to Time Machine to restore, only today's Sent Mailbox is available. Time Machine has been backing up seamlessly for months, so there should not be a problem finding a backup. What's going on and how do I restore the Sent Mailbox?
I am using 10.7.4 on a MacBook Pro
Laura

Unless your TM drive is messed up, the backups should be there. So relax a bit.
The mail is stored in your Home Library folder, not the hard drive Library folder. The Home Library folder is hidden in Lion. To get to it, select Go in the Finder and hold the option key down. Select Library in the submenu. A Finder window will open up in your Home Library.
From there, you will navigate to the Mail folder, then V2 folder. All main mailboxes for each account will be in their account folder. There is another folder called Mailboxes which will store all local folders.
If you select the V2 folder in the Finder window, then enter TM, you should be able to go back into time.
Before doing anything else, first open Disk Utility and verify that your hard drive is OK.
If it is, go into the hard drive and navigate to the Home Library/Mail/V2 folder. Open each mail account and click on the mailbox your messages were in, like the inbox. See if the messages folder contains messages.
I just want you to see if the mailboxes are in the account folders and that they contain data. If so, we will continue from there. There's no use in trying to restore if there are problems just yet. Let's verify this first, then we will proceed.

How to get newly-added Sent messages to show up?

Somehow I lost all my Sent messages; don't really know whether I trashed them or they spontaneously disappeared.
But I had a recent hard disk backup, and tried copying my backed-up Sent messages to all of three locations:
~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/Sent Messages.mbox
~/Library/Mail/[a POP server]/Sent Messages.mbox
~/Library/Mail/[another POP server]/Sent Messages.mbox
In no case upon subsequently launching Mail did they show up in Sent messages.
(If I actually send a new message, it goes into the third of the above locations.)
I even tried restoring all the other ancillary files straight from my backup:
Incoming_Mail
IncomingTable_ofContents
Info.plist
mbox
mbox.SKindex
Messages
tableofcontents
... but still no joy.
How do I restore my backup Sent messages?
(And why does this crap have to be so hard?!!)
Thanks!
PowerBook Pismo 500 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

George,
I am reviewing your very thorough listing of the contents of what appears to be the current Mail folder -- is this correct?
I am counting two POP folders, indicating two accounts -- is this what you expect, and have?
Based upon what I can see, you upgraded from Jaguar, directly to Tiger, in mid December 2005 -- is that correct?
The second of the two POP account folders, appears to not have had any activity (based of dates last modified) since late 2004 -- is this from a backup? Also, this second POP folder has never been converted to Tiger, consistent not only with dates, but there being no Messages folder.
In most xxxx.mbox folders, where there is both a mbox file, and a Messages folder, the comparison of size is favorable to all messages having been largely converted, successfully -- would you agree? However, some in the Mailboxes folder were not expanded, and I cannot be sure of those. These are three within a folder named Archive, so you would need to examine those.
The Sent Messages.mbox folder in the Mailboxes folder has NO message content, since its mbox is zero in size, and it has no Messages folder. The temp.mbox folder in the Mailboxes has a mbox file, whose size exceeds the size of the Messages folder -- would you have deleted some messages, after upgrading to Tiger, and that would explain its smaller size?
The first thing you should do, after quitting Mail, is to remove all files that are WITHIN any xxxx.mbox folder (including any within another such folder), of all files, EXCEPT the Info.plist, mbox, and Messages folder. Furthermore, for those where there is BOTH a mbox file and Messages folder, but the Messages folder size EXCEEDS the size of the mbox file, you can delete the mbox file, also.
If you really have a second POP file, and the one with 2004 dates last modified is only from backup, then you will keep the Info.plist file, and the mbox file in each mailbox, for now. It would be good to know if this is a currently valid account, however?
For those few, where the mbox size EXCEEDS the size of the Messages folder, I recommend copying those, and saving them on the Desktop. Then in the original, delete the mbox file, leaving ONLY the Info.plist file, and the Messages folder. Later you can decide if you think the old mbox files, of size, might have messages you still need to salvage -- we can work on that.
Now, at the root level of the Mail folder, delete the Envelope Index file. Launch Mail, and it will announce that it is ready to import your mailboxes. Allow this to continue, and it will only be reindexing those xxxx.mbox folder that have only a Messages folder, but for those with only a mbox file, it will be converting the message content, and creating a Messages folder -- again this only seemed to occur in the one, old POP account?
Later, you should look at those where conversion was needed, and if the Messages folder equals, or exceeds the size of the original mbox, then you can delete those mbox files.
I hope this is clear. It is not hard, but is very detailed work.
Ernie

TS3276 Sent message not in sent folder...!!!

Sent messages don't always appear in sent folder, so I don't know if it has been sent or not - Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks for that hint. Unfortunately I was not so lucky as you were. Also when trashing the .plist only the mac.com account remains in the account list after restart of Apple Mail. All other accounts need to be reinstalled
Still Mail does not store the mails in the sent folder. Need to say:
- the "non-storing" is random, not all sent mails are affected. Sometime it is OK, sometimes not
- Not only the Mac account is affected, it can happen also on my office accounts.
I am happy for further hints

Gmail - sent messages in inbox!

If I send an e-mail (on my Gmail acct. only) either from my iPhone or from Apple Mail, the e-mail I sent arrives as new mail in the inbox of my iPhone... Why are my sent messages being brought in as new mail? Only happens on the iPhone, not in the Mail app.

Sorry - I just realized that this wasn't a solution to YOUR problem, but mine . I hate the fact that when I send email from the iPhone, I can't download my sent email to my PC. When I sent it from GMail.com - it downloads just fine.
Anyway - if anyone gives this a shot, please let me know. Otherwise I can report back later tonight...
I think I have a solution! I'm not at my mac so I
can't try this...but if someone could, please do and
report back.
I think GMail uses your SMTP server credentials to
decide on not downloading an email you've sent to
yourself (i.e. a sent email from iPhone that you've
CC'd yourself on).
What if you have two GMail accounts - let's call them
Main and XYZ. In Mail on your mac, set up your Main
email account to use the XYZ credentials for your
SMTP server. Sync your iPhone with mail (preferably
"reset Mail" on your iPhone). Now try sending an
email from your iPhone (CC'ing yourself) and see if
you end up downloading it onto your computer... It
will still come from your Main account, but GMail
will use your XYZ credentials to actually send the
message on their servers.
Any thoughts? Please post back with results!
thanks,
Joe
All Models, Latest
Software, PPC and Intel Mac OS X (10.4.8)
iPhone 8GB
All Models, Latest Software, PPC and Intel Mac OS X (10.4.8) iPhone 8GB

Apple Mail and Sent Messages

I have been having some issues with my iCloud email account and Mavericks. I wasn't sure if this was an iCloud issue or an issue with Apple Mail. It has to do with saving Sent messages. A couple of months ago, I had some issues with Mail. I deleted the com.apple.mail and com.apple.MailServiceAgent folders in ~Library/Containers and I deleted any plist files in Preferences. It worked for a couple months. Then, about two weeks ago, I noticed Sent emails were not be saved any where on my iMac.
So, I repeated the procedure and created Mail anew. It worked great for about a week. I always have the "save sent messages to server" option turned on. Then, one day I got some kind of message that a folder called "Sent" could not be created on the server. Looking at Mail, my Sent folder was completely gone. All of my previously saved messages in Sent were moved to the folder INBOXToDos.mbox/Sent Messages.
At first I thought iCloud itself was messed up. I logged into iCloud. There was no Sent mailbox, and there was no INBOXToDo mailbox. So, now I have no sent messages anywhere in iCloud. I sent an email from Safari in iCloud, and then, iCloud created the Sent mailbox.
Still, my Mavericks iMac will not save sent messages anywhere. I need help sorting this out and don't want to lose my previous sent messages even though they seem to be stored in some wonky folder.

Where is the Sent Messages folder listed? If it is not under MAILBOXES but in an IMAP folder, select it and go to Mailbox menu, Use this mailbox for>Sent.
It should disappear and sent messages then appear in the Sent folder.

Can't retrieve sent messages from my Desktop Mail application

Hi,
Whenever I use a computer away from home to send email, I always click the option to save the sent message in the sent folder. Then, when I get home, I used to retreive those messages from the iDisk icon on my Mail, and then move that message to my sent folder on my Mail, in my desktop at home.
But now, I don't know why, when I drag them to the sent folder in my desktop, these messages just disappear. There is NO way I can move them to my sent folder on my desktop. I tried several things, but I admit I am not good at all with computers, so here I am ... It's funny because I tried to drag those sent messages to my Inbox folder and it worked, but I want to move them to my sent folder, as I used to do.
Thanks for your help!

ok lets see if my solution fits my undertsanding of your problem.
A .Mac account is essentially an IMAP account. This means that Mailboxes and the Mail in them is replicated identically on the Server every time you synchronize (either manually or in Preferences). Mail is deleted when you do it manually, or automatically - again as part of Preferences. Mail you send through the browser should be replicated on your desktop Mail.app next time you synchronize.
If you create a Mailbox under your user account, this Mailbox is replicated on the server. If however you create an Mailbox that is "On my Mac", and move mail to it, you are effectively moving it off the server and onto your desktop, which may explain why it is disappearing.
Realistically with a .Mac account you should not have to drag Sent Items anywhere.
Because it is a .Mac account, check these things.
In Mail.app on your desktop:
1) Preferences/Accounts/.Mac Account/Mailbox Behaviors. Check "Store Sent Messages on the Server and then an option for deleting them. This will ensure Sent Messages remain on the server.
2) Preferences/Accounts/.Mac Account/Advanced. Check Automatically Synchronize Changed Mailboxes if you want the Server to be updated immediately. Leave it blank and mail will be updated when you log on and off and if you Synchronize manually.
Through .Mac
1) Log onto .Mac through the browser - to Mail. Go to Preferences/Composing and ensure that "Save sent messages to" - (Sent Messages) is checked. Save your settings.
Send one test mail using Mail.app and then one through the browser. Your sent mail should appear in the Sent Mail folders on both Mail.app and the server, and you should not have to drag sent mail from or to anywhere.

Mail Rules Stopped Applying to Sent Messages Since October 15th 2013.

Has anyone had a similar experience, or has anyone some idea of what could be done to return the applicability of rules to sent items?
I'm using OS X's native mail client, Mail. I'm now on Mavericks but the rules that had been working for over a year suddenly stopped working on sent items on the 15th of October 2013 before I upgraded, when I was still running Mountain Lion, so it's not Mavericks' fault.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to suggest any ideas they might have.

Thank you for the link - I had found and read that particular article while doing google research into the problem - it was only after I couldn't find a solution to (or even an explaination of) the problem that I posted this question - it's a very clear article though so I was happy to read it again.
I understand that people using Mail to handle their Gmail accounts do have all sorts of problems related, perhaps, to not having fully understood carefully researched workarounds that I remember reading and instigating for myself about 3+ years ago. As I said, this resulted in a setup that has had the flexibility to adapt itself flawlessly to my varing requirements since. Perhaps I was fortunate in this regard and I expect that, by striving to achieve my requirements by structuring mailboxes and rules to be as simple as possible, I avoided the vicissitudes that you and I have both read about.
I made no changes to my Gmail accounts, nor to Mail itself, that could have precipitated the cessation of my rules' influence on sent messages. I never use Gmail itself in fact - I only ever send and read through Mail.
I know I posted this question under the 'Mavericks' section but, as I tried to make clear, the problem was not caused by upgrading to Mavericks - it started before then. I had not tried any of the betas, nor did I knowingly install any upgrade of Mail prior to the change in behaviour (I upgrade manually).
In short, whilst I would not expect Mail to apply rules to messages sent directly with Gmail (since Mail would have to read them back in again through IMAP, successfully recognise them as 'sent' and then retrospectivly apply rules), I do expect it to be able to continue applying rules to its own sent messages.

My ipad mail is synced to my iMac mail account. On iPad, I can only see my inbox and sent messages. I can't see any of the folders I have created on my iMac. How do I do that? Probably a dumb question, but I know there's a lot of smart people out there!

My iPad mail is synced to my private email account, which I organise on my iMac. On iPad, I can only see inbox and sent messages folders, not any of the other folders in my email account I have created on my iMac. How do I get iPad to show my other folders? Probably a dumb question, but I know there's a lot of smart people out there.

If you select a mailbox, you should get an Edit button (easier to see in landscape mode). Clicking the button will provide you with check circles for the messages. You also get Delete and Move buttons at the bottom. Check the messages you want to move and then navigate to the mailbox you want to drop them into. I think as long as you can navigate to a mailbox you can move the messages to it.
In the Mac Mail application and probably Outlook on the Windows side, you also setup rules to move messages to specific mailboxes. If the mailboxes are stored on the server, then you can have the sorting done on the server and they should appear that way on the iPad. If your later messages do not show up, you may need to have the iPad app pulled down more messages until they are all showing.

Sent messages don't go anywhere in Mail

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