Mail keeps recreating 'Sent Messages' and 'Trash'

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Mail keeps recreating 'Sent Messages' and 'Trash'

My the Mac keeps recreating folders that it does not even use: it is using 'Sent' for sent mail, but keeps recreating 'Sent Messages' whenever I delete it on my iPad or in webmail, and refuses to delete it itself.

I used to have set my Sent and Trash folders to 'Sent' and 'Deleted' on all of my devices, as that works with most things. After the iOS9 upgrade on my iPad, everything went bonkers. It seemed that the iPad is recreating 'Sent Messages' and 'Trash' on the computer (I see them annoyingly in my Mac mail folder list). Indeed, the iPad had decided to start using these folders, and in the settings, I could not change them back to 'Sent' and 'Deleted': Whenever I did this, they would immediately have been reset, when I returned to the settings to verify.

So I deleted my account on the iPad. I tried to delete the stray folders on the Mac. No luck. The Mac won't delete the folders. I deleted the account on the Mac. I removed ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail — which caused the Mac to delete all Sent messages on my other accounts. From the server! No luck. The Mac keeps recreating 'Sent Messages'. I gave up, and started using 'Sent Messages' and 'Trash'. No luck. Now the Mac creates 'Sent'. ('Deleted' it does not recreate.) Now my iPad, after recreating the account, will only use 'Sent'. There is no way to change to account used on the iPad: it always reverts back to what it discovers on first account creation, no matter what you tell it to use. And the Mac keeps recreating folders that it does not even use.

I did the whole rebuild and reindexing process as well, but nothing helps. Any more ideas?

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Sep 22, 2015 3:30 AM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,902 points

Sep 22, 2015 4:31 AM in response to ThomoC

Those are IMAP folders on the server. You have to tell Mail to use them for the appropriate purpose.

If you have the boxes checked to keep sent messages on the server and deleted messages on the server, it must have a destination for those and creates them if needed.

Use your email provider's Web Portal to determine which folders are the IMAP folders (I think they will be Sent Messages and Deleted).

Select each one and then use the Mailbox menu to Use this Mailbox as the appropriate item.

That will "unify" the server folder with the ones in the Mail App. You should then be able to delete the other ones.

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Answer 2

ThomoC Author

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Sep 22, 2015 7:46 AM in response to Barney-15E

I have told Mail to use the folder 'Sent'. It uses it for storing sent e-mails. But it also creates and does not allow deleting 'Sent Messages'. If I tell it to use 'Sent Messages', it creates 'Sent', and does not allow deleting it.

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Answer 3

Eric Root

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684,063 points

Sep 22, 2015 12:31 PM in response to ThomoC

Don't store your sent e-mails on the server and you will be able to delete them.

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

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112,902 points

Sep 22, 2015 4:17 PM in response to ThomoC

Sent Messages is your IMAP email server's folder. You can't delete it. If you set that as the unified Sent mailbox, you should be able to delete the other and it should not return.

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Answer 5

ThomoC Author

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Sep 23, 2015 1:03 AM in response to Eric Root

If I don't store the messages on the server, then how am I going to access them on all my devices?

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Answer 6

ThomoC Author

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Sep 23, 2015 1:05 AM in response to Barney-15E

Sent Messages is no server folder. There is no server folder. It is a simple Linux-based server, where I have complete SSH access to. There used to be no Sent Messages until the iOS9 upgrade on the iPad caused my Mac go bonkers. The Mac is most definitely creating the folder.

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

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112,902 points

Sep 23, 2015 3:21 AM in response to ThomoC

So, your email server has no default folders? Where does it store sent messages?

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Answer 8

ThomoC Author

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Sep 23, 2015 8:05 AM in response to Barney-15E

It is not the server's job to store sent messages. The clients do it, by saving in whatever folder they are configured to.

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Answer 9

Barney-15E

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112,902 points

Sep 24, 2015 4:58 PM in response to ThomoC

ThomoC wrote:

It is not the server's job to store sent messages. The clients do it, by saving in whatever folder they are configured to.

Only if you are running an "old school" Post Office Protocol (POP) account. Almost everything these days is set up as IMAP so you can access your email from anywhere, anytime (…the server is running), on any device.

However, even POP3 will store messages on the server in folders you create.

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Answer 10

ThomoC Author

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Sep 25, 2015 4:45 AM in response to Barney-15E

Barney-15E wrote:

ThomoC wrote:

It is not the server's job to store sent messages. The clients do it, by saving in whatever folder they are configured to.

Only if you are running an "old school" Post Office Protocol (POP) account. Almost everything these days is set up as IMAP so you can access your email from anywhere, anytime (…the server is running).

However, even POP3 will store messages on the server in folders you create.

The SMTP server, that sends the emails, does not store them anywhere. They are stored using IMAP, separately, by the client, in whether IMAP folder is configured in the client. The IMAP server knows nothing about sent emails.

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Answer 11

Barney-15E

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112,902 points

Sep 25, 2015 3:18 PM in response to ThomoC

ThomoC wrote:

Barney-15E wrote:

ThomoC wrote:

It is not the server's job to store sent messages. The clients do it, by saving in whatever folder they are configured to.

Only if you are running an "old school" Post Office Protocol (POP) account. Almost everything these days is set up as IMAP so you can access your email from anywhere, anytime (…the server is running).

However, even POP3 will store messages on the server in folders you create.

The SMTP server, that sends the emails, does not store them anywhere. They are stored using IMAP, separately, by the client, in whether IMAP folder is configured in the client. The IMAP server knows nothing about sent emails.

It all depends on how you configure it. If you don't want access to your sent emails from another device, then don't store them on the server.

Mail has settings for that in the Preferences. I don't know what iOS has.

Disable the preferences and Map the server's sent folder to Mail's unified Sent mailbox. Delete whatever other instances appear. You may want to do that on the server.

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Answer 12

Sep 12, 2016 11:26 AM in response to ThomoC

Problem solved:

https://clients.websavers.ca/whmcs/knowledgebase/114/Changing-Apple-Mails-defaul t-Sent-Messages-folder-to-the-Sent-folde…

"

Apple Mail defaults to a sent mailbox/folder named "Sent Messages". If the option to "Store sent messages on the server" is active it will create a folder called "Sent Messages" on the server and use that folder to save copies of sent messages. This conflicts with many other applications with use the folder "Sent" instead.

To change the default sent mailbox for Apple Mail first select the "Sent" folder on the server (in the folders pane on the left). Then chose Mailbox from the menu > Use this Mailbox for > and then chose Sent."

Taken me since Dec 2015 to work this out! 🙂

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