Mac Mail won't delete drafts

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.

Back up all data before proceeding.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder

from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V, then press return.

A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:

Envelope Index

ExternalUpdates.storedata

Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. Move those files, if any, to the Trash.

Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. ClickOK. Typically, the process takes a few minutes, but it may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. In that case, you may be able to speed things up by temporarily adding your home folder to the Privacy list in the Spotlight preference pane. Remove it when Mail has finished importing.

Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the files you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

I wanted to pass this along. The only way I could delete the draft email was to (1) delete the email and (2) "Force" Quit Mail. If I only "Quit" Mail, the draft email would always come back when I re-opened the App. There has to be a "bug" in the program. BTW, in the current version of Mail, there is no box for storing messages on the server.

This worked great for me. I've been struggling with this for the past few weeks. Thanks!

This also worked for me. Thanks.

This tip was simple, on point and solved my problem instantly - Thank You 🙂

Hi Linc,

I liked your response to this question, and as I had tried the other suggestions and not succeeded, I tried yours. This too did not succeed.

In my case, the draft email is a response of mine to a scam/spam email relating to WhatsApp. My response did get sent, and the person responded to say that it was a scam or spam and to not open it, which I hadn't. Now I have this draft for weeks. Is it an infection on my system?

Thanks

Alan

What happens if you try to delete the draft?

Hi Eric,

The draft email disappears for a few minutes and then reappears. I've opened my mail in icloud (browser) and there is no sign of it there.

Great! Thanks. Works for Mail.app 8.2!

where is the mailbox behaviours?

Mail/Preferences/Accounts - select an account and it should be there.

Hey this worked for me. I got into this problem by trying to send too big of a music file I dragged music file into email and tried sending it the loading circle wouldnt go away .I tried deleteing draft but the loading cicle would come back.I managed to force quit by going on tool bar and clicking anything that was not mail. Then hit the force quit .

Noel

i don't seen to have an option for changing DRAFT mailbox behavior ... just sent/trash and junk mailboxes

That's fab - thanks Mike - it's been driving me nuts too! Hopefully gone for good for me as well.