How to stop mail from keeping all early versions of outgoing emails

Question

Level 1

18 points

How to stop mail from keeping all early versions of outgoing emails

macbook pro running Mac OS 10.11.6. Safari version10.0.

I just found 42 early versions of an email that I sent on 5/6/14 in my "important" folder. It took me 26 minutes to compose the email and every version seems to have been saved. I have seen this before but not this many. I expect it is because of my mailbox behavior settings but can't figure out what to change.

This is a gmail IMAP account with the following mailbox behaviors:

DRAFTS stored on server

SENT stored on server (never deleted)

TRASH move deleted message to Trash mailbox,

NOT stored on server,

permanently erased when one month old

I know Apple and Gmail don't play well together but I thought I had gotten away with it until now.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Sep 23, 2016 8:25 PM

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Answer 1

norm123

Community Specialist

Sep 25, 2016 8:04 AM in response to cwbrandt2

Hi cwbrandt2,

I understand that you are seeing multiple copies of your drafts being created when writing email. I know that it's important to have control over your data, so I'm happy to help.

It seems that because your drafts are also being stored on the server, it is saving each incremental copy that is created by Mail. To resolve this open Mail > Preferences > Accounts . Choose the Gmail account and click the Mailbox Behaviors tab and uncheck Store draft messages on the server .

After this, your drafts should save as expected.

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Cheers!

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Answer 2

leroydouglas

Level 10

200,866 points

Sep 25, 2016 10:07 AM in response to cwbrandt2

cwbrandt2 wrote:

macbook pro running Mac OS 10.11.6. Safari version10.0.

I just found 42 early versions of an email that I sent on 5/6/14 in my "important" folder. It took me 26 minutes to compose the email and every version seems to have been saved. I have seen this before but not this many. I expect it is because of my mailbox behavior settings but can't figure out what to change.

This is a gmail IMAP account with the following mailbox behaviors:

DRAFTS stored on server

SENT stored on server (never deleted)

TRASH move deleted message to Trash mailbox,

NOT stored on server,

permanently erased when one month old

I know Apple and Gmail don't play well together but I thought I had gotten away with it until now.

Mail for Mac: Mailbox Behaviors preferences in Mail

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Answer 3

cwbrandt2 Author

Level 1

18 points

Sep 25, 2016 7:37 PM in response to norm123

Isn't the setting you are suggesting going to mean that the draft will show up only on this computer and not my other macs and iOS devices? What I fear is by changing this setting for drafts I will not be able to work on the draft from other computers or my iPhone. All I want to do is delete the multiple drafts once the email is sent, or even in a week or a month. I just don't want to see it 2 years later.

And to add to my problems, this all just got more confusing. I upgraded to Sierra last night and the mailbox behaviors screen is different and terribly frustrating.

Since my iMac is still on Yosemite, I can play with it there.

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Answer 4

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Sep 27, 2016 7:02 AM in response to cwbrandt2

cwbrandt2,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Community. Due to the nature of your issue, you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources:

Contact Apple Support
Cheers!

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