Sent mail from iPhone doesn't show up on Mac desktop mail client (and vice-versa)

Look for the name that Google uses to store sent messages (Gmail/Sent Mail) and be sure that's where your sent mail points to on your phone and computer settings. It's different from the default "Sent" folder. When you point your settings to the Google folder, both computer and phone can see your sent mails.

I have the same problems. Sent mail and deleted messages. I think the problem is with my host. I use Bluehost to host my domains and email addresses. It appears that they're naming of sent and deleted is different than Apple's, so that's why things get goofed up. I gave up trying to fix it. Too much wasted time. Just have to realize the emails are in different places on my Mac than on my iPhone and iPad.

Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors > Store sent messages on the server: check

I have the same problem with three email accounts. All emails sent from my iPhone fail to appear in the sent folders in Apple Mail for desktop. They actually do appear in the sent folders for gmail, yahoo mail, etc. in their web-based versions.

I tried your solution but it did not work. Any other ideas?

Thanks.

I have had this set up for ages and it doesn't work. It drives me nuts that Sent mail doesn't sync the same way as Inbox mail. The iPhone will have the mail sent from my desktop though, it just has to download the mails whenever I ask for them, a process I wish always ran in the background. But my MBP is missing anything I send from my iPad or iPhone. Still on the Google server, not on my laptop.

Are you using POP or IMAP.

If IMAP, did you set it up correctly to sync all the standard mailboxes, Trash, Drafts, Sent, Junk?

See Step 2, here: http://jeffschuette.com/2012/03/07/setting-up-apple-mail-to-rock-and-roll-with-g mail/

I'm using IMAP. The only difference in the set ups - and your link shows an older version of Mail in the directions - is when I added the [Gmail] on the advanced tab, I lost virtually all of the emails in my inbox for that gmail account. So, pretty much a step backwards. I took it out and all my emails came down from the Google servers. Next idea?

The messages are still downloading. Just an FYI but changing that one setting (adding [Gmail]) to one account appears to have f'kd it up beyond what I can say. First everything went away. So I took it back out of the setting. Now these are the messages trying to download. I think I had archived alot of these messages and will have to clean out the box again??? The second image is showing in the sent folder. Only a few old messages are there and now they have this weird blue 'From'? Free storage is the only reason I use gmail and 'free' is looking pretty expensive right now.

Barney-15E wrote:

Are you using POP or IMAP.

If IMAP, did you set it up correctly to sync all the standard mailboxes, Trash, Drafts, Sent, Junk?

See Step 2, here: http://jeffschuette.com/2012/03/07/setting-up-apple-mail-to-rock-and-roll-with-g mail/

That was step 3.

However, it doesn't really change anything.

For both steps, you just have to resync the mailboxes so everything shows up where it is supposed to.

Adding [Gmail] to the path merely removes the redundant Gmail main folder.

If you have previously set up additional labels (folders) in Gmail, you must add a [Gmail]/ path in front of their names in Gmail for them to show up in Mail.

Gmail uses "labels" to tag messages and organizes them that way. In Gmail, you can give a message multiple labels, which can't be done in a typical email client expecting IMAP standards.

The other steps in that article are to make Gmail act like a typical IMAP email account as opposed to a Google account. Step 2 is necessary regardless as you must let Mail know where Gmail is storing all of those "normal" mailboxes. Otherwise, email you send from Mail will go to the unified Sent folder and never get synced on the Gmail server. Things sent from Gmail web or you iPhone will be in Gmail's Sent Mail folder.

Check 'all mail' under your Gmail account. That's where I found it. Didn't show up in sent messages.

"Check 'all mail' under your Gmail account. That's where I found it. Didn't show up in sent messages."

The problem - missing sent mail - isn't related to Gmail as the client, it is with MacMail as the client. I don't want to go look on Gmail for sent mail; I want it to reside within Macmail regardless from which Apple product I sent the mail.

All of your gmail is under the gmail/All Mail "label". That's what Gmail does.

If you map Gmail's Sent Mail folder to Mail's Sent folder, it should all end up in Sent on all devices.

I don't think I saw this solution in the replies so I thought I'd post it. I am using IMAP.

1. On the iphone, click on your email account under settings.

2. Click on the Account Name at the top of the next window. This opens a dialog containing 'IMAP Account Information', 'Incoming Mail Server' and 'Outgoing Mail Server'.

3. Click on 'Advanced' at the bottom of this dialog. This opens a page with 'Mailbox Behaviors', 'Move Discarded Messages Into:', and 'Deleted Messages' sections.

4. Under 'Mailbox Behaviors', associate each of the mailboxes with the mailboxes on your server. Click on each mailbox and a page will come up with 'On my Iphone' and 'On the Server'. So for 'Drafts', select 'Drafts' on your server, and for 'Sent', select 'Sent'... etc.

5. Go back to the account info and click 'Done' when they're all associated.

This fixed the problem for me.

I am using POP having the same issue. These IMAP solutions seem great but won't work for me. If I send an email from my phone, there is no copy of it in my mail program on my macbook pro. Is there a way to sync sent mail using POP?

Ginny Suss wrote:

Is there a way to sync sent mail using POP?

No. POP messages are downloaded from the server to the device. No information is shared between devices.

You can set up one to not remove messages from the server ever, and the other for a period of time like a week. That way, you can download on both (all) devices. However, the read status and whether you had replied will not be tracked between the devices.

You can set up mail to always CC you, that way you have a record of the sent/replied messages on each device.

Mail Preferences, Accounts, Advanced for keeping copies on server. Composing for the cc option.