Panic! Emails disappeared from draft folder and were not sent!

I have been experiencing the same issue with content of messages in the draft folder being lost. My experiences are only using Apple Mail on Macbook Pro (OS 10.12, could also have happened back in 10.11). It happens randomly. Today I made a screen capture after losing the content of several emails I had been writing and saving to drafts; I was planning to send them all at same time (see image below; note that each shows, "This message has no content" despite fact that they all had complete messages when I saved then closed them).

Another oddity about this bug is that after I open the no-content message, I cannot subsequently close the message window. None of the typical means by which one can close a Mac UI window works i.e., clicking the red dot in upper left of window, command W, or using the close command under File ... none of them close the windows.

Come on Apple, respond to this thread; there's a bug in Apple Mail find it!!

I have been experiencing this precise issue ("This message has no content" displayed on Draft emails and it is terrible!

Have you had any luck resolving?

Thanks

It's still happening. Draft created on iMac. Disappears on iMac. Does not transfer via iCloud to Windows PC using Office Outlook.

Went into panic because was an involved response to an existing email.

Luckily, had transfered to iPad.

Had to forward it from iPad to iMac (or indeed the PC) in order to attach documents.

Then sent it without delay.

Wont do this again. Instead of creating drafts I will email the 'draft' to myself.

Q:iPad Mail Troubles - Saved Drafts Disappear, Sent Mail Disappears.

I have both these problems, intermittently. iPad 5, OS 10.2 using Gmail. Holding down Compose button produces contents of Drafts file plus current day's lost Drafts, but not older ones. No fixes found to retrieve lost "sent" mail, which disappears from Drafts file, disappears, and is not sent.

This problem is 7 years old.

I've seen the same issue. I've been trying to recreate this problem on demand so I can file a bug report, but it never happens when I'm specifically looking for it. I'm posting to keep this topic active.

My configuration is:

iPad running iOS 6.1.3. Draft Mailbox is set to save message on iCloud server.

iMac running 10.8.3

The scenario is:

1. Create one or more draft messages on the iPad, and save them. Eventually, put the iPad to sleep.

2. Later, while using Mail on my iMac, and creating and sending numerous drafts, etc., I notice that a draft message I created earlier on the iPad is not listed in the iCloud Drafts mailbox. Panic.

3. I go to my iPad, launch Mail, see the draft message(s) in the message list for a second or two, and then poof!, the message list updates and one or more recently-created drafts are gone! Sometimes, more than one draft is deleted. They're not in Sent, Out, Trash, or anywhere. If the draft message was open on the iPad, it disappears when the message list updates. (Next time, I'll turn off the network so I can maybe copy the message before it evaporates.)

This has happened *dozens* of times over the past year, so I'm certain it's not just my imagination or a message I accidentally deleted.

I've also lost some draft messages created or edited on the iMac. As a partial coping mechanism, I now routinely select all of my iCloud Draft messages and Option-drag (copy) them into "Drafts On My Mac." At least I can retrieve a relatively current copy.

This has something to do with the iMac and iPad syncing mailboxes incorrectly.

Jeff

I have submitted a bug report to Apple about this (14709044), but I don't expect it to go very far because I can't recreate the trouble on demand, despite many attempts. I've become so weary of this problem that I'm trying to avoid the scenario (like turning off WiFi on my iPad when it's not in use) -- which won't help because I need this to happen to get a handle on the circumstances. So, if anybody else sees this, please reply with details such as the devices and s/w versions, the sequence of events, etc. The more detail the better. Get huge extra points for being able to recreate the problem on demand.

My config: iPad (iOS 6 and beyond), iMac (Mountain Lion). The drafts were created on my iPad, my iPad was sleeping several hours later when I woke my iMac, did emails and then noticed the drafts weren't there. iPad sleep to iMac wake often happening over a midnight crossing. Back to my iPad and, after waking that, I could literally see the drafts disappear from the message list right before my eyes. Has happened dozens of times over the past year.

Jeff

Thank you for writing all of this Jeff! The same thing happened to me last night. Wrote a draft on my iMac in iCloud. Then peeked at the draft on my iPhone before going to bed. Next day my partner searches for my draft to proof it and can't find it. I look in my iPhone and see it for 2 seconds and watch it disappear forever. Searched in every location possible, but it is gone. It does appear to be a bug in iClouding between OSX and iOS devices, or just a general iCloud bug regardless of OS platform.

Thank you for the additional confirmation. I avoid the bug by using these coping mechanisms:

1. After completing a lengthy draft, I copy the message body to the Notes app.

2. When I'm using my iMac, I copy new draft messages from the iCloud Drafts mailbox to a backup Drafts mailbox on my machine (using Option-drag) -- the copies won't evaporate. (I've never had to use one of the copies, but at least I get peace-of-mind.)

3. When I'm using my iMac, if I recall writing a recent, at-risk draft message, I open my iPad's cover, immediately swipe up the Control Center, and turn off Wi-Fi. This prevents Mail from accessing the iCloud servers. I have a note stuck to my iMac reminding me to do this. All recent drafts will still be available in Mail's cache on the iPad, so I open the draft(s) and copy the text to the clipboard (and to Notes), then turn Wi-Fi back on. Once, I've even had the pleasure of opening Mail and seeing a draft evaporate. (This technique works on an iPhone, too, by turing on Airplane Mode in the Control Center.)

I still can't reproduce this bug on demand, so it's doubtful that Apple is paying any attention to my report. And, unless there's a reliable, on-demand method, I might never know if the bug is actually fixed because I'll probably be doing the above steps forever. :-)

Jeff

Update -- I think the bug has been fixed because I haven't lost any draft messages in a few months. I'm on OS 10.10.4 and iOS 8.4 now. It might just be that I've adapted my workflow to avoid the bug, but I'd expect to be caught occasionally. It's such a horrible problem that even after two years, I'm still rather skidish. Hit a dog with a broom and he'll always hate brooms. Tessa, Birdernaturalist: how about you?