using mail with AOL. 2 sent folders?

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Level 1

5 points

using mail with AOL. 2 sent folders?

i have set up my AOL UK email with mail and it all works fine. however when i send e mails it puts them in a second "sent" folder. rather than the one with the little paper aeroplane.
how do i get it to save the sent messages in this folder? as when they are in the other sent folder it shows them as if they are emais i have recieved rather than sent. if that makes sense.
thanks

macbook, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jun 27, 2007 1:31 PM

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Answer 1

crunchiespg Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 27, 2007 2:20 PM in response to crunchiespg

ok,ive done something, and its now saving the sent e mails in the drafts folder. this is better than before as they are in the corrct format for sent items. but its not ideal.

anyone know how to get them saving in the sent folder not the draft ones?

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Answer 2

Jun 27, 2007 3:37 PM in response to crunchiespg

Actually, what you observed initially is normal in the case of AOL, whereas what you’ve described in your second post is not.

AOL doesn’t let IMAP mail clients such as Mail to create or manage mailboxes at the root level of the account directory on the server, only as subfolders of Saved, which means you should turn OFF Store messages on the server for all the mailboxes in Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors, so that Mail stores those mailboxes locally on your computer instead.

In particular, AOL automatically saves the messages you send through it in a server-stored Sent Items mailbox that Mail has no control over no matter what your settings. Hence, having your sent messages saved both in a locally stored Sent mailbox (by Mail) and in a server-stored Sent Items mailbox (by AOL) is normal. You should just ignore the Sent Items mailbox managed by AOL, amongst other reason because AOL may eventually purge your messages from there after some time.

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Answer 3

crunchiespg Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 28, 2007 7:00 AM in response to David Gimeno Gost

thats great, i did as you suggested and it now saves them in the proper sent folder. also duplicates them in the other sent, but thats fine. at least they show properly in the sent one in mail
thanks for your help.

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Answer 4

Kudsk

Level 1

10 points

Jul 31, 2007 12:58 AM in response to David Gimeno Gost

I have the same problem but as far as I understand your proposal it will not get me access to my "sent" mails from two machines because it will store the messages locally. Is that correct?

How do I solve the problem if I want access to my sent mails from two machines (that is the idea with using Imap mail account as far as I understand).

Thanks

Best

Lars Kudsk

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Answer 5

Jul 31, 2007 4:58 AM in response to Kudsk

The way I find the AOL IMAP service to work, is that you can choose to store Sent, Drafts, and Trash on the server, and you can instruct Mail to use those folders like any normal IMAP. However, they all fall under AOL's retention policy of only 27 days (as does the Inbox). Thus, to stay on the server longer than 27 days, the messages must be copied or moved to folders kept within the Saved folder AOL provides on the server. See:

http://members.aol.com/adamkb/aol/mailfaq/imap/

See the section about AOL's IMAP folder structure in the article. There is a link there that can also be followed once you type in your screen name and password, to further explain folder policy on AOL's own site. Retention in the Saved folder depends upon total size, I believe, and not time.

Ernie

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