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.

View in context

Mail stuck on 'Saving Drafts'

Similar questions