Mavericks Mail app and Gmail Drafts folder

Thanks, Steve - your great fix is much appreciated!

Just as a note, I had to send back my new iMac for dead pixel issues and evntually had to cancel the order (Apple was taking to long for a repalcement). I had tried Office 2011/Outlook and had similar issues with IMAP syncing issues.

Now back on my PC using Office 2013, I still notice issues that are similar to those on the Mac side. I think IMAP is just very immature and problematic. I still get Drafts showing up in Outlook after I have sent the emails. I still have duplicate SENT items in my SENT folder. Same problems as with OS X.

The big problems with MAIL that made me switch to Outlook 2011 on OS X was attachment issues. My buddy would send me audio files from his blackberry and MAIL would only recognize them as generic "ATTACHMENT" with no extension. And when I sent out attachments, MAIL would always put them inside the email, not as a seperate attachment. Has this been fixed?

Re-ordered the iMac again today, and after intially having my order cancelled by Apple for some reason (fixed it on the phone), it will arrive in 2 weeks.

I'm using Outlook.com/Hotmail/Windows Live as my email provider, not Gmail.

Try the plugins Attachment Tamer and Letter Opener, ditch outlook.

Plus you can always right click an attached file in Mail and click "View as icon"

That looks like it should do the trick, although it appears not fully working with Mavericks yet.

I wonder, does it help with incoming messages too? Still waiting my replacement iMac so I don't have it to test. My buddy sends me audio files from his blackberry all the time (like voicemails) and they are fine on Outlook (on Mac and PC) but in Mail they just show "MAIL ATTACHMENT" or similar, no way to open them.

Or is Tamer just for outbound?

I kind of liked Outlook 2011, but then at the same time, I would like to use as much Apple software as possible. I saw a video talking about how much better the Apple equivalent to the MS Office is, but even for Word, I found Pages (I think) did not display most word docs properly. New iMac won't be here until Jan 21 so I'm doing as much research as possible.

Attachement Tamer is for Outgoing, Letter Opener is for Incoming, although it's specific use is opening winmail.dat files, not sure about the Blackberry files, but you're saying they open fine in Outlook? Try just adding the proper file extension, or opening them up with iTunes or another Audio Editor, they may open fine.

Thank you for that tip!

Yes, if I know what the file extension is, I can save, then add the extension and that works. I will have to have my friend tell me in each email what the file is when he sends it.

The audio files are usually .m4a, which are apple compatible, but no idea why MAIL just puts a generic "ATTACHMENT" into the email.

No problems with Outlook 2011 on the mac or 2013 on PC.

The plenty of copies in the drafts folder is only the minor problem for me.

What really *****: the bandwith consumed by the autosave function. If you're editing drafts that contain attachments, every attachment is copied over and over - although the attachment file itself was not modified at all.

Since the drafts are autosaved super-frequently, drafts containing attachments are constantly saved: if one copy is finished, the next autosave starts. the mail app becomes non-responsive. And my mobile data plan is consumed within a day or two.

(Probably this problem could only be solved with a location-sensing technology.)

Hi Steve...After a lot of frustration, I came across your " Fix " and tried it. It worked perfectly...Thanks Steve

Keath

In Steve's advice on page 2 he wrote:

* You must enable the "Show in IMAP" option for the "All Mail" label in Gmail if you had it disabled before. (Google this tip for explanations and ramifications.)

When I do this, all my mail in my inbox in Mac Mail dissappears, and won't come back.

If I disable it, it comes back.

Any thoughts?

I turned drafts off in IMAP and that finally allowed me to disable the "store drafts on server" option, but enabling "All Mail" wiped all of my messages in almost all labels.

If I enable it, all labels are empty and don't display any message counts.

If I disable it, then almost all labels are empty, but many still display unread message counts - despite remaining empty.

Trash is the only folder that displays any messages now.

What the **** is going on? I still don't understand why Gmail integration is so difficult in Mavericks. It's kind of mind-boggling.

I removed my Google account from Settings, then restarted it. Now I have a new and different situation.

Now if I enable All Mail in IMAP, email all shows up properly in labels - but the Inbox is all screwed up, showing emails that were deleted over a month ago. Trying to delete those messages again only works until I leave the mailbox and come back, at which point they have reappeared.

Disabling All Mail fixes the inbox, but empties all labels. They display unread counts, but no messages. It also looks like it prevents new emails from showing up in the inbox. So... great.

Thank you Steve,

I've started to use gmail on Mail yesterday and I was becoming crazy for drafts-attacks on Android 4.3 app!

;-)

Luca, from Italy

I found an answer here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2606207?answerId=22756550022#22756550022

I had this issue once. It's likely due to Mail sending a "delete" message for every version of your composed message that is being replaced by a new one. GMail interprets this message incorrectly and moves the outdated draft to the trash instead of deleting it. Other IMAP servers don't make this error.

Instead of not saving drafts on the server, which solves the issue at the cost of not having drafts shown accross multiple devices or on the web interface, I modified my gmail settings so that deleted messages are immediately deleted instead of being moved to the trash.

With that setting, if you delete a message from Mail, it should be ok as Mail moves it to the trash anyway. However, if you delete it from gmail.com, it will be irreversible. So this workaround can be used only if you don't use gmail.com to manage emails.

I realize a clever fix has been thought of regarding this issue, thank you Steve. I have to say though, with 9 pages of conversation on this subject (an obviously very common issue), where is Apple in all this? Are they not following these posts and coming up with solutions? Is it up to us to fix glitches such as this?

I'm not just trying to hate on Apple, but after using a Powerbook G4 for 7 years (Which was amazing), then a dell for the last 5, I have to say that I have experienced more glitches and errors with Mac OS than I did on Windows Vista. (That is saying something) Come on Apple, step up your game.

Just so Gmail and Mac users don't feel bad, Outlook.com (formerly hotmail) has the same issues with IMAP as Gmail.

Also, I have the same issues with Drafts on my PC using Outlook and IMAP as I did on my iMac using Mail or Outlook with IMAP.