Michael Graubart

Q: Sent mail does not always show in 'Sent' folder

I use the Apple Mail app. and have three mail accounts: BT Internet (IMAP), gmail (IMAP) and my college (Morley College) account (Exchange). When I send a message from my BT account, it sometimes happens that the progress bar shows that it is being sent, then the 'Whoosh' sound indicates that it has been sent, but when I check in the BT 'Sent' folder it is not there (and is still not there after hours or days). I have now checked with one of my contacts to whom I sent mail that failed to show up in 'Sent', and it actually did arrive, but it is still not confidence-inducing when sent mail does not show in the 'Sent' folder.

 

This does not happen with my gmail and college accounts, which suggests that the problem lies with BT and not with Mail, but I should be very grateful for any information and/or advice about this problem.

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 8, 2014 8:30 AM

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Q: Sent mail does not always show in 'Sent' folder

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  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root Oct 8, 2014 11:21 AM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (69,813 points)
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    Oct 8, 2014 11:21 AM in response to Michael Graubart

    Try rebuilding the mailbox. This can take awhile if you have a lot of mail.

     

    Rebuild mailbox

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 8, 2014 11:22 AM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (50,202 points)
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    Oct 8, 2014 11:22 AM in response to Michael Graubart

    Go to the BT website and look in any folder that says Sent or Sent Messages, if there is more than one let me know.

  • by Michael Graubart,

    Michael Graubart Michael Graubart Oct 8, 2014 2:19 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 2 (275 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 8, 2014 2:19 PM in response to Csound1

    CSound1, on the BT website there are no 'Mail', 'Messages' 'Sent', etc., folders. If I go to BT's webmail, the 'Sent' folder contains none of my recent messages sent from the Apple Mail app — neither the ones that have shown up in Mail's 'Sent' folder nor the ones that haven't.

     

    In Mail, when I set up my accounts, two 'Sent' folders appeared under 'BT Internet'. I attach a screen shot of the whole side-bar. Recent sent messages appear (or should appear) in the upper 'Sent' folder; older ones appear in the lower one. I have no idea how or why.

     

    Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 22.10.21.png

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 8, 2014 2:21 PM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (50,202 points)
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    Oct 8, 2014 2:21 PM in response to Michael Graubart

    Michael Graubart wrote:

     

    In Mail, when I set up my accounts, two 'Sent' folders appeared under 'BT Internet'. I attach a screen shot of the whole side-bar. Recent sent messages appear (or should appear) in the upper 'Sent' folder; older ones appear in the lower one. I have no idea how or why.

     

    Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 22.10.21.png

    So the recent ones no longer appear anywhere, not on the website or in Mail?

  • by Michael Graubart,

    Michael Graubart Michael Graubart Oct 8, 2014 2:38 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 2 (275 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 8, 2014 2:38 PM in response to Eric Root

    Thank you, Eric Root. It is very useful to have learnt what 'Rebuild' actually does. But I have now rebuilt both BT's 'Sent' folders in Mail (see my reply to CSound1 above) — which involved downloading over 1200 messages in the case of the upper 'Sent' folder — and the missing sent messages have not appeared.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 8, 2014 2:49 PM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (50,202 points)
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    Oct 8, 2014 2:49 PM in response to Michael Graubart

    I want to be certain that sent emails (the missing ones) are also missing on the website, is this correct?

  • by Michael Graubart,

    Michael Graubart Michael Graubart Oct 8, 2014 3:11 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 2 (275 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 8, 2014 3:11 PM in response to Csound1

    On the BT website (bt.com) there are no mail folders of any kind. If I click on 'Email' (which is a joint BT-Yahoo! system) and log in, I get to my webmail. Here there are actually two relevant folders (sorry! I said 'one' before in my reply to Eric Root), one called 'Sent', the other 'Sent messages', which presumably correspond to the similar two mail boxes under 'BT Internet' in Mail. Neither of these folders in the webmail on the BT website contains the missing (sent) messages. This was true before I rebuilt the mailboxes in Mail, and it is true now.

  • by Csound1,Helpful

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 8, 2014 3:37 PM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (50,202 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 3:37 PM in response to Michael Graubart

    Then the rebuild was correct, the sent mail is not on the server (the website) so should not be on the client (mail). Which does not answer the question of where it is going. That is a question for BT, the problem is there, Mail is accurately reflecting the server.

  • by Michael Graubart,

    Michael Graubart Michael Graubart Oct 8, 2014 3:59 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 2 (275 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 8, 2014 3:59 PM in response to Csound1

    Thanks very much. The curious thing is that I have checked with my addressees, and the 'missing' messages arrived as they should in their inboxes. So why they are not also on the server I cannot understand. It is a very unfortunate situation, because as a result I cannot reliably check whether my contacts receive my e-mails. As you can see from my attached screen-shot, I have set my Mail preferences to store and retain sent messages on the server in the case of BT (and, as a matter of fact, with the other two accounts, too).

     

    It is, unfortunately, almost impossible to communicate sensibly with BT's technical people. I have in the past spent fruitless hours on the 'phone to them as well as trying to e-mail and to 'chat' with them.

     

    It is now almost midnight here, so I shall reply to any further postings in this forum in a few hours' time.

     

    Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 23.51.30.png

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 8, 2014 4:03 PM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (50,202 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 4:03 PM in response to Michael Graubart

    As a test, uncheck 'Store sent messages on the server' let's see if a copy is saved locally.

  • by Michael Graubart,

    Michael Graubart Michael Graubart Oct 9, 2014 2:42 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 2 (275 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 9, 2014 2:42 AM in response to Csound1

    I have now done that in my BT account (and, for good measure, also unchecked draft messages). Sent messages are now correctly appearing in the BT 'Sent' folder — the upper one. But the trouble with this as a test is that even when 'Store sent messages on the server' was checked, it was only the occasional sent message that failed to show up. So it will take a long time — strictly speaking, an infinite time! — before I can be reasonably confident that all sent messages are now being stored locally and are showing up.


    Or have I misunderstood? Is it sufficient for testing purposes to establish that one message is being stored locally?

  • by Michael Graubart,

    Michael Graubart Michael Graubart Oct 9, 2014 3:50 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 2 (275 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 9, 2014 3:50 AM in response to Csound1

    In addition to your kind help in trying to solve the problem of the missing mail, may I also now ask for more general advice? Would you (or other contributors to the Discussions) recommend me to stay with local storage of sent mail or to revert to server storage when the present problem has been resolved? I am relatively new to Apple's mail app; in my old system I seemed not to have that choice.

     

    As I see it, local storage has the disadvantages that it takes up disk space (but I can always delete stored mail from time to time) and that it is more difficult to retrieve deleted messages because rebuilding the 'Sent' mailbox would presumably not work. But are there other considerations that I have not thought of? I should be grateful for advice.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 9, 2014 3:57 AM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (50,202 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 9, 2014 3:57 AM in response to Michael Graubart

    Michael Graubart wrote:


    Or have I misunderstood? Is it sufficient for testing purposes to establish that one message is being stored locally?

    It's not conclusive, it's a workaround for the current situation not a fix.

  • by Csound1,Solvedanswer

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 9, 2014 4:03 AM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (50,202 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 9, 2014 4:03 AM in response to Michael Graubart

    Local storage has some limitations, obviously there is no 'sync' available so you won't see those sent messages on your iPhone for example, the second is that disk space is used. But disk space is extremely cheap. Rebuilding the mailbox still works, the mail is read from the local store instead of the server.

     

    For me (as I work off of many devices) local storage is a non starter, but it is a reliable method. (and commonly available on most mail clients) It is the stopgap in case of a failure to save on the server.

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