How can I stop apple mail from autosaving drafts?

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Level 1

2 points

How can I stop apple mail from autosaving drafts?

Hello all,

I have finally got myself a new computer and been immersed in the "new" way- my old mac was a bit like a volkswagen beetle, old and cranky but very efficient.

This new interlaced madness is proving to be very confusing on many levels but here I will state one problem I am seeking a solution to:

Apple mail autosaves a copy of my email reply drafts every 30 seconds in my apple mail draft folder. - This means many copies are saved!!!

How do I stop this?

The reason I ask this is for the following reasons:

1- If I don't send my reply after 30 seconds I have to manually delete the drafts.- I didn't know this until I was doing a little organising and have realised that I have quite a few drafts of the same message lying around in my google on mac (imap) "all mail" folder and these end up taking alot of space.

2- These then get transfered to my google mail "all mail" folder and end up taking up more space.

3- Manually deleting things from my google on mac "all mail" account is a pain in the *** because I need to delete it into the googletrash on mac and not any other deleting area. (unless I do it directly from gmail) I didn't know this until I had a read through google- the "all mail" archive is another pain in the ***.

I was deleting these messages from my mac "all mail" mailbox and they just magically reappeared into the same "all mail" mailbox, meaning they are downloaded from the server continually- I hate to think how much more that adds to data roaming.

Possible solutions I have tried out:

1- uncheck the "save draft on server" box in mail;preferences;mailbox behaviour (and saving it) - I did this and tried to write a message and there it appeared as each 30 seconds passed

2- change the mac mailbox behaviour settings to gmail Imap settings for apple mail and save these- as above, I wrote a message and it still appeared in my drafts folder, new, message appearing every 30 seconds.

3- uncheck the "use idle command if server suppors it" box in mail;preferences; accounts;advanced (as someone mentions in another forum) and the message still autosaves.

HELP!

1. This seems to be common with most people

2. I am using gmail and IMAP on mac book pro 2012 10.7.4, lion

3. This never happened with my volkswagen 😟 which was also a mac but from 2006

4. Some people say this is Imap related. I have only noticed it with this apple mail and have read it has been happening to people since 2008.

5. Look forward to new solutions 🙂

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 6:39 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

idaveb

Level 2

265 points

Jul 11, 2012 7:19 AM in response to oyito

Under Preferences for Mail, you can select the account GMAIL and under Mailbox Behaviors there is a setting for storing draft messages on the server. Uncheck this and a draft will only be stored locally and should be deleted when the mail is sent. This should work over IMAP also, but perhaps there is a settings problem. Check the connections under Window / Connections Doctor.

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Answer 2

Nov 18, 2013 1:19 PM in response to idaveb

This doesn't work because for some reason the savings won't keep saved on MacMail --- it is very frustrating. You have to go to GMAIL settings under Labels and uncheck the settings for drafts "SHOW IN IMAP". This worked for me.

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Answer 3

hands4

Level 4

2,246 points

Nov 18, 2013 2:44 PM in response to gmneary13

Can you direct me to this setting? I don't understand the path to it.

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Answer 4

Nov 18, 2013 2:49 PM in response to hands4

Are you using GMAIL ... if so...go to ONLINE google mail. Click on the little COG WHEEL for settings. For Mail. Then on the top of the mail settings is a bunch of tabs. One of the tabs is a tab for LABELS. Click on LABELS. There is a list of MAIL folder labels one is DRAFTS go to the right of the drafts folder and uncheck "SHOW IN IMAP".

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Answer 5

TonyInSF

Level 1

21 points

Aug 5, 2014 11:06 AM in response to gmneary13

I'm having a similar but slightly different problem. My company just migrated to Gmail, and it's saving mail drafts every 30 seconds into my Trash folder.

I unchecked the "Show in IMAP" preference in the Gmail settings, but my Drafts folder completely disappeared. I went back and checked it and the folder reappeared (with my drafts still in there).

I like the idea if starting an email on my laptop and having the option of finishing it on my iPhone or iPad, so only saving Drafts locally would not be ideal.

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Answer 6

TonyInSF

Level 1

21 points

Aug 19, 2014 12:26 PM in response to idaveb

This worked for me, but first I had to create a local folder and move all of my draft messages into it. Then, I unchecked "store drafts on server" and the drafts folder disappeared. I created a new "test" draft which created a new drafts folder on my machine. I then copied the other drafts that I stored locally into the new drafts folder.

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