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Veltliner · May 6, 2009, 11:46 PM

Hi,

I constantly get error messages by Apple Mail.

It's when I reply to a message. I get the message "Error. This message could not be saved".

Then I send the email. It arrives, but I don't get a copy in my sent folder, which is bothersome for business correspondence.

Could Apple's Mail be damaged?

Should I reinstall?

cgc · May 7, 2009, 09:09 AM

Is your hard drive full, are permissions somehow messed up? I'd try to fix permissions first (via DiskUtility)...someone more experienced will have to step in as my Mail.app has never had any problems.

Veltliner · May 8, 2009, 04:47 AM

I have almost 50gb hard drive space.

The repair permission thing... it's kind of a standard advice, but has it ever helped?

Spheric Harlot · May 8, 2009, 05:24 AM

What kind of account?

Which e-mail provider?

cgc · May 8, 2009, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by Veltliner

I have almost 50gb hard drive space.

The repair permission thing... it's kind of a standard advice, but has it ever helped?

Every now and then it fixes problems imilar to the one you're describing...

besson3c · May 8, 2009, 09:07 AM

Originally Posted by cgc

Is your hard drive full, are permissions somehow messed up? I'd try to fix permissions first (via DiskUtility)...someone more experienced will have to step in as my Mail.app has never had any problems.

This would only be an issue if your sent mail and/or drafts folder resides locally.

Original poster: where do they reside? Is this a POP or IMAP account?

Veltliner · May 8, 2009, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

What kind of account?

Which e-mail provider?

Originally Posted by besson3c

where do they reside? Is this a POP or IMAP account?

I'd say it concerns an IMAP account. Actually I've had it happen on both of them.

The provider is my webhost, and the email is done by cPanel/it's SMTP application is Exim.

besson3c · May 9, 2009, 01:57 AM

Do you have your application configured to save your drafts on the IMAP server or locally?

cPanel is not an IMAP server, and SMTP has nothing to do with the storage of your email messages. Your IMAP server would be something like Courier IMAP, Cyrus IMAP, Dovecot IMAP, etc.

I suspect that you are trying to save your drafts to your IMAP server. OS X mail seems to have all sorts of problems with the handling of drafts in general. It is a pretty buggy and quirky app overall. This may be something you simply have to live with, there is nothing you can do if this is the case, as there is nothing you can do that will change how Mail interacts with your IMAP server.

Veltliner · May 9, 2009, 02:08 AM

In preferences I checked "save sent mail on server".

As of today, Apple Mail does no longer save a copy of sent mail, even though I checked it in the prefs.

I just sent out two mails.

Apple Mail also lost all mail that was in the sent folder.

If I send a mail from my gmail POP account, a copy is stored in my mail folder.

If I use my imap accounts, no copy is stored.

Guess I have to open a trouble ticket. Looks like there is a problem on the servers side.

besson3c · May 9, 2009, 11:01 AM

No, not likely.

Select the Sent mail folder, and from your mailbox menu click on "use this as sent mail" (or whatever it says). There is nothing special about the Sent/Trash/Drafts folder, they are just arbitrary folders used for these respective purposes. Different email systems use different folders (e.g. Sent, sent-mail, etc.). It sounds like Mail just doesn't know what folder it is supposed to use for storing sent mail.

Cold Warrior · May 9, 2009, 11:17 AM

Vetliner,
I know you recently professed your hate for Thunderbird, but it really does work so much better with IMAP than Mail. I use the Leopard Mail theme, which improves the appearance and UI a bit.

besson3c · May 9, 2009, 11:54 AM

In general, mail client issues account for the vast majority of mail problems. Concluding that a problem lies with the server is a very very very very very last resort. Chances are if there was a problem the admins would know about this before you even wrote them anyway, as a number of people would be affected.

If you ever suspect a server related problem you should at least setup another client to test this assumption so that you can rule out the extremely likely possibility the problem is just client related.

On ColdWarrior's advice, make sure you download Thunderbird 3 beta or Postbox, not Thunderbird 2.

Veltliner · May 9, 2009, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

Vetliner,
I know you recently professed your hate for Thunderbird, but it really does work so much better with IMAP than Mail. I use the Leopard Mail theme, which improves the appearance and UI a bit.

Thanks for the tip. Only thing is, I'm still on Tiger. Intend to upgrade to Snow Leopard though.

Veltliner · May 9, 2009, 09:04 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

In general, mail client issues account for the vast majority of mail problems. Concluding that a problem lies with the server is a very very very very very last resort. Chances are if there was a problem the admins would know about this before you even wrote them anyway, as a number of people would be affected.

If you ever suspect a server related problem you should at least setup another client to test this assumption so that you can rule out the extremely likely possibility the problem is just client related.

On ColdWarrior's advice, make sure you download Thunderbird 3 beta or Postbox, not Thunderbird 2.

I unchecked the check boxes for "store mail on the servers".

Now the sent mail is stored on my computer and I can see it again.

No idea why this problem occurred. I didn't change anything. Well, I guess this way's best. I'm up to my ears in work and am glad now that I got Mail giving my copies of my mail again.

I have no idea why I got these "draft cannot be saved" error message by simply writing a reply mail.

The draft feature is a different thing. As besson3c mentioned, it's quirky. I may get some trouble again, but at least the mail is good for now.