Mail not saving sent messages to AOL "sent items" folder

If I were you, I would open a tech support request with AOL, than again, quite frankly, AOL is the last email service I would use. They are very unreliable with delivering incoming email in my opinion. If you can't get a satisfactory response from AOL's tech support, consider switching to gmail.

Hi,

I have an AOL account, but strictly use it as a test account to help in situations like this. I have always had my account setup the same way as the instructions at that link say to do it. It is working. I did note that my first test message did not get saved today, but following a Reply to the message that I sent to another account, the Reply to that Reply was Saved in the Sent mailbox, and could be seen on a second computer. Subsequent test with a New Message resulted in a proper save to the account's Sent mailbox. I had not sent, nor received a message since the Feb 1 implementation date, so it might be I had to "shake the tree" one time.

I do not know what to make of the notice we received via email -- it seemed to say you had to make the set up change prior to Feb 1, but since mine had always been set up that way I do not have a way to check any consequence of not making the change prior to Feb 1?

Have you made sure to have selected to save sent message on the server at Mail Preferences/Accounts/Mailbox Behaviors?

Ernie

Hi,

I have sent you a screenshot showing that I have no Sent Items folder. Also asking if you have opened the Sent mailbox in the Sidebar, clicked on Mailbox in the menubar, then on Use This Mailbox For to see if the choices are available to choose to use for Sent?

Has this only happened since Feb 1st?

Ernie

This issue started occurring 1st of March
From that moment on my Macbook and iphone with the same settings started saving messages in a newly created AOL folder "Sent" instead of sent items
Copying the messages from there to Sent Items, then in Mail going into Mailbox-Use this mailbox for-Sent items on the "Sent Items" folder did the trick and since all messages are saved. I also logged in the webmail and delete the folder "Sent" that had appeared there

I don't understand? The folder on the server should be Sent, and "Sent Items" is improper, I believe?

Ernie

No the folder on the AOL system is called "Sent Items" as in google is called "Sent Mail" obviously somewhere Mail started to believe it is called "Sent"

For the record on my gmail is still correct using IMAP and the "Sent Mail" folder gets regularly populated so it is an issue with AOL only but as I said there is an workaround

Let me simply observe:

1) I am sitting here with an AOL IMAP account that properly saves sent messages to the server that can be seen from other computers as well as the one that sent the message;

2) I and other AOL users got an email on Jan 29, 2010 referencing changes, and further referencing the Sent folder; and

3) observing the folders on the AOL server, after control-clicking on the AOL Inbox and choosing Get Account Info shows a Sent folder and not a Sent Items folder.

It may be possible to set it up with either name, but there is nothing wrong with Mail's use of "Sent" for naming the folder. The instructions for some of the email clients at links in the Jan 29th email refer to the Sent Folder, while others have Sent Items folder.

In my Gmail account both the Sent folder and Sent Mail folder get populated with messages sent with Mail. Both folders can be seen Mail.

Ernie

That sent that you see in the Mail client is not the IMAP folder but the folder mail uses as sent, set with the use this folder as... option
If you have the problem the OP is reporting and go to AOL Webmail you will see that there are two folders one called sent items and another one called sent in the personal folder area.

I am not talking out of theory here I had exactly the problem of the OP here and I am telling you how I fixed it with a work around.
For which reason AOL suddenly started doing that after the email sent end of February I do not know but that is what happens
I have two macbooks with other two AOL accounts and on those I have not had any problems. Weird

Message was edited by: Interceptor121

Message was edited by: Interceptor121

In my case it most certainly is the one and only IMAP folder being used for sent messages, and is fully visible from other computers accessing the account. You are ignoring the info that AOL furnished to all user on Jan 29th.

Ernie

In the Mail window, open each Sent related folder, click on Mailbox in the menubar and choose Use This Mailbox for -- report whether the resulting options are displayed as gray or black? Don't make any choices until you report.

This command is sometimes needed in Mail (and maybe something similar in TB -- don't know) to establish the mailbox created by Mail as THE imap mailbox for a particular function.

Ernie