Level 1

5 points

Mail stuck on 'Saving Drafts'

I solved a problem where the Apple Mail app would be stuck on saving drafts (and moving other messages). While I was able to use the app to send and receive messages, it did annoy me.

This problem probably started when I tried adding a large file (>20MB) to a message. The mail app tried to save my draft, but got stuck. Because I have multiple accounts in my Mail app and couldn't find a large message in my drafts folder I set out to find a solution.

Here it is:

This is how I solved the problem:

(Force) Quit the Mail app and make sure it has actually quit (no dot-indicator under the app icon in the dock)
Go to finder
Go to the path Library by holding the Option/Alt key while clicking 'Go' in the upper menu bar, and ,while still holding Option/Alt, select Library.
Go to path Library/Mail/V5

To find large messages:

use the top-right search bar, press a random key to enable the search-engine, remove the key
A new bar appeared. Click the button 'Search V5' instead of 'Search This Mac'
On the right side, click the '+'-icon and a new bar appears
Use the dropdown menu on the left side to change the 'Name' to 'File-size' (possibly through 'other')
And search for files larger than 10MB

Finder should now show files bigger than 10MB in the folder V5.

I found multiple large files in my ~/Library/Mail/V5 folder, even though some dated from years ago. I therefore only deleted the files of when the problem emerged, in my case 1 week ago.

When restarting the Mail app, several errors of 'the message could not be saved' were found, but after accepting them the app worked perfectly again.

Hope this helps someone else!

Take care,

Sjoerd

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 23, 2019 3:31 AM

Top-ranking reply

WearyDriver

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Feb 27, 2019 10:56 AM

I went to Mailbox Behaviours in Accounts in Preferences on all of my 4 mailboxes and switched the "Draft Mailbox" choice on each to the "Drafts" folder in "On My Mac" option (i.e. NOT the iCloud option).

The good news is that the "Saving drafts" doom loop appears to have been eliminated. Thank you and others who find this page in the future should definitely try the above route first to eliminate the "Saving Drafts" fault.

However, it is worth noting that the mailbox layout it now defaults to involves showing individual mailboxes separately under On My Mac, not in it. See pic below;

Each of the 4 mailboxes under On My Mac can be closed with the "hide" command, I have pictured them all open so you can see which 3 folders are inside (the last one is a non-Apple box).

For now, this seems to have fixed the problem and I am very grateful. Given how many people have reported the Saving Drafts problem, it is disappointing that Apple have not changed their default Mail settings for Drafts in Mojave so this problem does not arise.

Thank you.

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34 replies

ShebbDen

Level 1

10 points

Mar 4, 2019 2:14 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua

Am still getting "saving 1 of 526 Drafts 3.64 GB.

Nothing in icloud Drafts, yahoo Drafts or btinternet Drafts. BTinternet shows 2 folders.....Draft and Drafts!! ....both 0 content.

"On My Mac" does not show the subfolder "Drafts"........how do you get it to show???

What exactly is V2, V6 etc? What are they, what information do they hold and can the information/files, whatever they are, be just deleted? (If they may be causing the problem).

Thanks for the help so far. Any idea how long it might be before Apple does a fix to whatever is causing this problem??

Dennis

ShebbDen

Level 1

10 points

Mar 4, 2019 10:55 AM in response to BDAqua

On My Mac...Drafts. Done that..... It just says can't create because Drafts already exists. (but still does not show) How do I unhide Drafts in On My Mac?
In the past I have found that being able to open a draft of an email very useful to continue answering a question after partial info being put in it then having to further research.
V6 contents.... is there likely to be anything in it that is causing the problem and what do I look for??

Where do we go from here?????? getting desperate as everything going so slow.

ShebbDen

Level 1

10 points

Mar 5, 2019 12:03 AM in response to BDAqua

Yes I have done that and each of my 3 mail accounts has "On My Mac" Drafts selected (as shown in your example).

After I had done that I did shut down Mail and restarted Mail.

If Drafts doesn't show in On My Mac in the sidebar, how would one be able to open a draft to continue working on it to send????

ShebbDen

Level 1

10 points

Mar 5, 2019 10:40 AM in response to BDAqua

Just wasted a lot of time with Apple assistance.......first tried chat on line but could not do what they asked and eventually they timed me out and shut down the chat!

Disabled my call blocking phone to get them to call me.......getting nowhere and person at other end eventually advised me to reload OSX 10.14.3 and I would almost certainly have fault cleared.......guess what -after near 6 hours of the system downloading I find the problem is still there!!!!!!!!!

Will now phone them again when I get time.

Someone out there must know of a way round this problem.

Going in for a hip replacement in a couple of days....was hoping all would be fixed on here so I could relax in peace and continue to use email and safari. Hey-ho.

Dennis

ShebbDen

Level 1

10 points

Mar 25, 2019 4:09 AM in response to BDAqua

Hi all.

Surgery 2 weeks ago seems to have gone well.

Delay in getting back on line due to lightning strike killing local phone lines 2 WEEKS AGO on the Sunday when I got home from hospital. Only partially fixed to date! but at least the internet seems to be accessible. Phone still very noisy and will not ring in and difficult to ring out. Engineers continue to work on it - apparently.

I still have the saving drafts problem.

Have tried the various methods above to clear....except deleting library V6 files as I am not confident I can recognise which ones to delete.

I have found that the problem seems to be associated with the Yahoo account; when I use the preferences > mail accounts - to remove the tick from the activate Yahoo mail box then the problem stops.

But this may be that since Yahoo is the main mail account I use then the other two do not have any drafts.

I am not sure when the problem started but seem to remember it was around when I updated to MOJAVE. prior to that there was not even a hint of being stuck on saving drafts and I have not changed anything since the update.....this leads me to wonder if the problem is really with the new OS (recently reinstalled it) and the Mail app in it.

A question is where is the programme/OS saving the drafts from and where to. Also how do I access these 2 places to see if I can do anything.

I think I will now go to the "support communities >/ Mac OS & System Software / macOS Mojave to see if anyone there can come up with something?

Desperate Den

Apr 9, 2019 11:22 AM in response to SjoeSjoe

Awesome! Thank you! It worked!

I knew what the problem was (i.e. trying to send to large of a file and having it get "stuck") but had no idea where to even begin to fix it.

Your directions were perfect and it only took me about two minutes to go through the steps. Thanks!

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jan 23, 2019 11:05 AM in response to SjoeSjoe

Nice tip, great work, thanks! :)

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Feb 27, 2019 6:29 AM in response to WearyDriver

You won't get the multiple copies of Drafts on the Server end.

Confusingly, there is already an On My Mac folder in my Drafts folder...

Do you have a screen shot of that, doesn't sound right!?

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Feb 27, 2019 12:35 PM in response to WearyDriver

Whew, great to here it solved finally.

ShebbDen

Level 1

10 points

Mar 1, 2019 10:49 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua.......thanks for that....I am learning.

Still got the same Mail problem ("saving Drafts")

ShebbDen

Level 1

10 points

Mar 1, 2019 10:53 AM in response to ShebbDen

.."Find your Drafts folder in your home directory" .......HOW do I do that and pse explain "your home directory"

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Mar 1, 2019 2:27 PM in response to WearyDriver

Thanks for stepping in to help. :)

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Mar 2, 2019 8:27 AM in response to ShebbDen

V2 is just a holdover from earlier OSX versions, 10.14 use V6, 10.12 uses V4, 10.13 uses V5.

Is it still saving Drafts?

Is there anything in the Drafts folders that Aren't On My Mac?

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Mar 5, 2019 11:30 AM in response to ShebbDen

Well, good luck on the surgery.

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Apr 4, 2019 9:56 AM in response to ShebbDen

Good work, thanks for the report Den.

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Mail stuck on 'Saving Drafts'