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iPad Mail Troubles - Saved Drafts Disappear, Sent Mail Doesn't Show

I'm having several iPad Mail problems, but they don't happen all the time...
I have finished emails that I want to save as a Draft, I hit Cancel, then Save, and the email appears for a moment in the Drafts folder, then disappears. I can't find it anywhere. And the messages were not in the Trash or Deleted Messages folders nor in any MobileMe folders... just gone. Very frustrating, especially with one very long work-in-progress email.
I have sent several emails from iPad Mail, hear the "swoosh" sound, and there is no trace of them in the Sent or Sent Messages folder and no BCC copy comes through, nor do they appear in MobileMe, but I have confirmed with intended recipients and they did receive the emails. This is not good.
Even more frustrating is the fact these problems only occur sometimes, not all the time. And I can't find anything consistent or make the problems repeat by doing something specific.
Right now I've had to stop using the iPad for any important emails. Any clues on these issues?

MacBook Pro, iPhone4, iPad, TiBook G4, PB 250, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 8, 2010 10:09 PM

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Posted on Jan 10, 2017 1:18 PM

THANKS! This helped me as well, I normally use my gmail account to send (and it's set as my default iOS mail account) but I could never find SAVED DRAFTS (after clicking cancel , then SAVE DRAFT)


I would go to the mail folders menu in iOS mail, and there was even a Drafts folder under my main gmail account but it only had drafts from my gmail account (i.e. The iOS mail drafts were NOT ever in this folder , nor in any other of my accounts drafts folder nor any other folders at all, { yes, I went through ever folder looking for drafts})


I HAVE SOMETHING TO ADD THOUGH / AN ADDITIONAL , FURTHER FIX that may help others and def. helped me:


Once I went to settings then accounts, I went to my Gmail account and simply changed its name (I added a "_" to the front of the name). After doing this once I went back to the iOS mail app and then the folders view, under my Gmail account there was now a drafts folder at the top of the list! (In addition to the old Drafts folder {that is part of my web based gmail account} further down the list). So after changing the name by simply one character, I have two drafts folders under my Gmail account and when I click cancel then save draft on a new message it properly appears under the newly created drafts folder at the top of the list for this Gmail account.


So if you are experiencing this same issue, try simply modifying the name of your ex ternal account, in Settings -> Accounts


Note, this entire time under my Gmail account (in setting->accounts) the setting for "save drafts to drafts folder" has always been enabled, I just assume through the various major iOS updates at some point iOS mail did not properly apply this setting/feature to my Gmail account so simply changing the name of my gmail account (again, in settings->Accounts , on the Iphone) caused iOS or iOS mail to properly apply this setting and create the drafts folder At the top of my external gmail account's folder list (in iOS mail).


After doing this I simply tested it by making a new message clicking cancel and selecting saved to drafts, and it's properly saved to the new drafts folder under my Gmail account.

61 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 10, 2017 1:18 PM in response to NicIrvine

THANKS! This helped me as well, I normally use my gmail account to send (and it's set as my default iOS mail account) but I could never find SAVED DRAFTS (after clicking cancel , then SAVE DRAFT)


I would go to the mail folders menu in iOS mail, and there was even a Drafts folder under my main gmail account but it only had drafts from my gmail account (i.e. The iOS mail drafts were NOT ever in this folder , nor in any other of my accounts drafts folder nor any other folders at all, { yes, I went through ever folder looking for drafts})


I HAVE SOMETHING TO ADD THOUGH / AN ADDITIONAL , FURTHER FIX that may help others and def. helped me:


Once I went to settings then accounts, I went to my Gmail account and simply changed its name (I added a "_" to the front of the name). After doing this once I went back to the iOS mail app and then the folders view, under my Gmail account there was now a drafts folder at the top of the list! (In addition to the old Drafts folder {that is part of my web based gmail account} further down the list). So after changing the name by simply one character, I have two drafts folders under my Gmail account and when I click cancel then save draft on a new message it properly appears under the newly created drafts folder at the top of the list for this Gmail account.


So if you are experiencing this same issue, try simply modifying the name of your ex ternal account, in Settings -> Accounts


Note, this entire time under my Gmail account (in setting->accounts) the setting for "save drafts to drafts folder" has always been enabled, I just assume through the various major iOS updates at some point iOS mail did not properly apply this setting/feature to my Gmail account so simply changing the name of my gmail account (again, in settings->Accounts , on the Iphone) caused iOS or iOS mail to properly apply this setting and create the drafts folder At the top of my external gmail account's folder list (in iOS mail).


After doing this I simply tested it by making a new message clicking cancel and selecting saved to drafts, and it's properly saved to the new drafts folder under my Gmail account.

Mar 19, 2017 4:19 PM in response to joey Leone

I have the same problems on I pad 5 (OS 10.2). "Save draft" function deletes or loses the draft Instead of saving it to drafts. "Send draft" function deletes the draft instead of sending it. Intermittent faults both.


None of the above fixes works. I have a normal Drafts folder in a gmail account.


The last fix of changing the account name had no effect. The holding down of the Compose icon simply opens the current Drafts folder contents plus a current day's.


Need to be very careful.


Amazing this bug has not been fixed for 7 years.

Oct 11, 2010 5:15 PM in response to RooneyR

A follow-up to my earlier post: I thought i'd give this all a try again to make sure this was really happening. Yep. A draft saved completely disappeared. Had copied the email, so redid it, hit send, heard the send "swoosh", and, again, not a trace of the email. Nothing in Sent, no bcc received. The only conclusion one can draw is: Don't used iPad Mail for anything important... because you'll never know what's really happened without contacting the recipients and sheepishly asking "Uh, did you get the thank you note I sent?" Not good.

Nov 6, 2010 7:20 AM in response to RooneyR

I could be way off on this, but here goes.

The mail app on the iPad or iPhone are not really mail apps, they are windows to your mail applications elsewhere. Where the applications really run depends on how you configured your accounts when you first set up your mail. Google, AOL, Exchange, MobileMe, etc. Remember you are syncing with the mail account, not running an independent client.

It is a little more complicated if you have multiple accounts. I recommend consolidating mail accounts to the degree you can at the server layer instead of the iPad layer. For example, I have several email accounts, one is pretty public and it is the one I use when I suspect using it will attract lots of spam. One is very private, for my family and close friends. One I use to only send stuff to my iPad. The first uses my own web service with lots of filtering ability. The second two don't need filtering. I then forward the emails I want on my iPad to the special email account For iPad and sync with that.

This approach has some advantages that may work for you or not. I can keep my work email off my iPad (the iPad is for downtime). I can keep spam off as well.

All of the sent email and drafts are synced with a single account, so if I sent it from my iPad I have only one place to go to look for them. This is NOT on the iPad, it is on my "private" mail server. If you have multiple accounts all synched to your iPad, your sent/draft mail may be on any of them. It is usually but not always on your default account. I don't understand why.

Syncing with a single source (or very few sources) is much faster.

Nov 6, 2010 10:00 AM in response to RooneyR

RooneyR wrote:
I hit Cancel, then Save, and the email appears for a moment in the Drafts folder, then disappears. I can't find it anywhere. And the messages were not in the Trash or Deleted Messages folders nor in any MobileMe folders... just gone.


Not on mine it doesn't. The 'saved' email disappears at first then reappears in the draft folder where it should be. From this I dedule the saved message is being put on the MobileMe/IMAP folder and not on the iPad directly, and then is immediately synced back onto the iPad.

Sounds like you have a slightly different issue.

Mar 8, 2011 7:58 PM in response to RooneyR

I have the same drafts problem, as originally presented here by RooneyR, and the subsequent replies do not address it: intermittent disappearance of drafts while saving -- not found in any drafts files, reverts to previous draft there, no multiple email accounts or MobileMe involved -- ditto I've had to stop using the iPad for any important emails, having to use Notepad now for my email.

Mar 30, 2011 6:53 AM in response to RooneyR

The mail program refuses to save drafts to any account on my iPad. This is a fairly new development. I've powered off, reset, deleted and re-added mail accounts. I also restored. It looks like it might be trying to store on the mail server and retrieve again. When it worked in the past it dropped the drafts in into the inbox not the drafts folder. I have MobileMe, Gmail, and private ISP mail server accounts. Very strange.

May 31, 2011 3:48 PM in response to RooneyR

I am having the same problem. I created an email using gmail on my MacBook and saved it in Drafts. Later, I opened it in the mail app on the iPad, modified it, and clicked Send. A message appeared telling me that it cannot be sent and that I should check the outgoing settings, although just before that I successfully sent another email. So I wanted to attempt to send it again, but I couldn't find the email anywhere. I looked in the Drafts, Sent Mail, All Mail, everywhere! It was GONE! And that email was important (of course)!

Jul 30, 2011 6:28 AM in response to RooneyR

I was having the same issue and I think I found the answer by digging into the mail settings.


This would be for IMAP users....


Settings

Mail, Contacts, Calenders

Click on your email address on the top of the settings page

Click on the Account button at the top (should be your email address too)

Advanced Button at the Bottom


Then you can Click on "Drafts Mailbox" "Sent Mailbox" and "Deleted Mailbox" and Specify that the checked mailboxes under these are the correct folders "On the Server" and not "On My iPad"


That way, when you send an email, it uploads itself to the server rather than being saved somewhere in the depths of your ipad.


Hope this helps! I can't believe how deeply this is buried in settings!

iPad Mail Troubles - Saved Drafts Disappear, Sent Mail Doesn't Show

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