MAC Mail not saving all sent items

KelDC, in my experience all of the messages do go out, but you don't have a copy of them for yourself.

Yep emails definately go to the sender. I have noticed, as others have, that if you get an immediate whoosh you get a message in your sent folder. When the whoosh is delayed that generally means no copy for you to see......strange but true.

This is definitely an iCloud problem and not an OS problem. I've been having messages occasionally not be saved in my Sent folder on my iPad, but are received by the recipient. The message doesn't appear on my Mac or the iCloud website email programs either. Very frustrating not knbowing if something was actually sent or not, and I feel like a fool asking if they got it or resending it just in case.

Actually, it's not an iCloud problem. I have this same exact problem with yahoo mail via the iphone and somewhat with the ipad and I don't use iCloud for mail. I set up three email accounts on my phone and ipad. Yahoo, Gmail and Outlook. Yahoo is the only one not saving messages in the sent folder. Gmail and Outlook seem ok.

I've had yahoo mail issues via the ipad and iphone for ages. If I use the regular yahoo interface on the computer, it's fine. (Still no iCloud.) I'm migrating everything from yahoo to outlook because I'm sick of the whole mess.

Same issue as others with Yahoo Mail. Message always sends. If it sends slowly, it is not added to the Sent or Sent Messages folder, but it does get to addressee.

I have the same error in Console as others:

12/4/12 1:17:06.579 PM Mail[2606]: Error (null) occurred while trying to append messages to outgoing store. Ignoring and proceeding with delivery...

I posted this back to Apple feedback site for what it's worth.

I need IMAP to work to make iPhone useful. My workaround is to uncheck "Save sent messages to server". Then it works fine. So, Inbox is synced via IMAP and is useful on iPhone. Sent messages then are only local, but at least they're all there, and I don't get the 'slow send' phenomenon. I can always copy my local sent messages to the IMAP network Sent Messages folder so they're visible on my iPhone if I want to. And vice versa - if I really send an important message from my iPhone (rare), I can copy it from the IMAP network Sent Messages folder to my local Sent folder.

Not great, but workable. Not impressive for the world's most advanced OS.

Thunderbird seems to work, but is kind of slow, and isn't being developed anymore. Also, didn't see a way to export folders/mailboxes, which I need to do for backup.

I had the same problem with Yahoo mail which is why I came to this thread. I've since found an unbelivably easy fix which works for me.

Go to Preferences - Accounts - Mailbox Behaviour. Uncheck the box "store sent messages on server".

Problem solved! Not only do all my sent messages appear in the sent folder, the emails are sent instantly were as before there was a delay of up to a minute.

Unticking "store sent messages on server" was something I was tempted to do. The problem then is you have all your Sent messages stored locally, and not on the server, so they aren't accessible from any other device... kinda defeats the point of IMAP really.

You will still run into the problem when trying to either archive mail or move it from one folder to another, as I think the fundamental problem is that Yahoo Mail doesn't like Apple Mail telling it to move mail from one folder to another on the Yahoo server, whether its Inbox to Sent or wherever. And as mentioned previously this is because Apple Mail instructions to the Yahoo Server breach / trigger various security features, hence the stalling.

I guess it depends whether you're happy having all the sent items stored on one device. This is OK for me as long as I can back them up onto an external HD which I haven't got round to trying yet; I'm completely new to Mac as of a week ago.

You're right, Laura. I don't use Cloud either and I've got this problem too (as well as a whole load of others). The problems in mail have only started since I upgraded my old eMac to the new iMac. My old settings were changed automatically from a POP account to an IMAP and it's been nothing but problems since. Does anyone know if I can I change back to my previous settings. I'm finding Mail is pretty much unusable right now. The latest problem I have is files I've already sent are turning up in my draft folder a couple of hours later.

I can confirm not an iCloud problem as, like JohnGlasgow I don't use it for mail. I just got things to work by unchecking the "sent items on server" checkbox, but then obviously I just get a local copy of sent items, which rather defeats the point of having multiple devices hooke dinto the same email account. Like JohnGlasgow, I'd like to know if it is possible to change to POP instead of IMAP settings for a Yahoo/BTinternet mail account? On my iPad, the same email account is setup with POP/SMTP settings which works fine. So can I just delete and re-setup my account on the iMac asa POP/SMTP instead of IMAP?

Well, then the problem is not just an iCloud problem, because I use ONLY Apple's mail and I have seen the problem when sending from iOS6 devices.

Has anyone else noticed that this also affects the ability to copy messages? I just noticed it on a message I sent yesterday. It doesn't exist in my Sent folder. Fortunately, I BCC myself by default, so I still had a copy of my message in a local archive folder. Normally, though, if I want I can option-drag the message to Sent, and it'll copy. In this case, though, the operation seems to work normally, but the message still isn't there. That makes me think it's a bug related to message content.

See my post about mac mail having issues copying data. Sometimes messages get completely destroyed, even though they are partially copied:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4157249

Unbelievable that all theese issues are now lasting for years. Destroyed incoming mails and not saved sended mails. I am dealing with this since 10.6 and was hoping 10.8 would bring relief. But didn't. Instead iChat Video now doesn't work properly anymore as other things don't do too. Hey, Apple, whats up? I am working with this system and need relyability. Do you realy want me to switch to an other mailclient and to skype? Be aware that this could lead to switching the whole system. I am sticking with you since 1992. The main reasons I still do is Pages and Keynote. Not very much left, huh?

Sorry, but I want to work on my business not on my computer.

There is another solution that worked for me if you are using Gmail.

In the Mail.app in the mailboxes sidebar you will find a "sent" mailbox under a [Gmail] heading. Select that "sent" mailbox then go to Mailbox Menu and select "Use this mailbox for: Sent".

Now you should see all your Gmail Sent items above in the Sent Mailbox of Mail.app