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Question
Friday, July 5, 2013 9:20 PM | 2 votes
I only started using Outlook 2013 a few days ago. I have noticed that sometimes emails that are automatically saved in the draft folder whilst I am typing them are still in the draft folder after I have sent the email and it has dropped into the sent folder; this does not happen every time. The only way I can get rid of them is to delete them.
All replies (16)
Saturday, July 6, 2013 5:30 PM âś…Answered
This has been an issue and something I've seen happen occasionally for year through multiple versions of Outlook. I think what it comes down to is Outlook playing it safe, so if it's not certain the message has been sent or the draft is no longer required it keeps it, only deleting those it's certain have been finished with.
It's not just Outlook that does it. Looking online I see load of comments for the same thing from Mozilla Thunderbird users as well, so it might even be something outside of Outlooks control.
Couple of possibilities to minimise it would be to either disable saving to drafts entirely (probably not ideal) or increase the amount of time before it saves the drafts so it doesn't catch the small messages which are written quickly and sent. The settings for either are in Options, Mail, Save messages.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014 1:09 PM | 1 vote
I have this problem as well. I find the answer a bit strange. this is of course not a desired behaviour and should be unmarked as answer.
I use Office 2013 with latest Exchange 2013 server, cached mode. almost every Message I send today remains as draft. resulting in some Messages sent twice. very annoying.
This must be a bug and not "Outlook playing safe". :)
Tuesday, June 10, 2014 7:36 PM
Hi Did you get a resolution to this - we have the same issue also ?
Wednesday, August 20, 2014 10:26 PM
This has been an issue and something I've seen happen occasionally for year through multiple versions of Outlook. I think what it comes down to is Outlook playing it safe, so if it's not certain the message has been sent or the draft is no longer required it keeps it, only deleting those it's certain have been finished with.
It's not just Outlook that does it. Looking online I see load of comments for the same thing from Mozilla Thunderbird users as well, so it might even be something outside of Outlooks control.
I've used Outlook daily for work for over a decade and have never seen this issue. I've used it at home for this long and never recall having seen it either. Now, it happens on a regular basis. I'm not the only one. This is a bug, regardless of if other email applications have had the same bug.
Just a crazy idea but if Outlook 2013 is unable to determine if it has sent an email, perhaps the logic which runs Outlook 2013 should be modified such that it does know. Even though there are some nice enhancements to Outlook 2013 I am thinking about dropping back to an earlier version which did not "play it safe" (and always delivered my email).
Tuesday, January 27, 2015 5:53 PM | 1 vote
I'm also having the same issue. I've noticed that there are no new posts on this issue.
Are there any news?
Thursday, February 19, 2015 4:29 PM
Same here. Using Outlook with gmail (imap) Doesn't matter if I have "Automatically Save items" turned on or off (Options>Mail>Save Messages).
John
Thursday, April 23, 2015 4:52 PM | 4 votes
I'm having the same issue. Could it possibly have to do with replying to e-mails inside the reading pane vs. in a new window? After changing settings to "open replies and forwards in a new window", I haven't seen the issue reoccur, but clearly this is not optimal if you prefer the default setting.
[File -> Options -> Mail -> scroll to Replies and forwards section -> click the box: "Open replies and forwards in a new window"]
Friday, December 30, 2016 12:20 PM
Had the same problem with Outlook 2016 in Office 365. jontmill's solution worked.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017 5:43 PM | 3 votes
I had a similar issue as well. The difference was that all replies/forwarded messages would automatically (not just after the 3 minutes, which is what my settings were set to) create and keep a draft in my drafts folder as well as show [draft] on the original message (whether that message was left it in my inbox or in my trash folder or another saved folder I moved it to). This was EVERY reply and forward. It would stay that way even after I sent the message.
Once I changed my settings to have replies and forwards open in a new window ALL of the messages that had stayed in my drafts folder and left [draft] on the original messages disappeared like the problem never existed. I didn't do anything except for change the setting and save the setting. As soon as I hit save, they all disappeared.
So, this was a fix, but I would really prefer not to open a new window when replying or forwarding messages, but it's a WAY better alternative than having sent messages stay in my drafts folder and have [draft] on the original message.
Thank you for the Suggestion JohnTMill.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017 5:44 PM
This did not solve my problem and I agree with HAL07 that it should not be marked as an answer.
Friday, February 10, 2017 3:36 PM
Could it possibly have to do with replying to e-mails inside the reading pane vs. in a new window?
Not in my case. I don't use the reading pane.
Saturday, April 1, 2017 2:24 AM
Thanks so much! Setting the reply to open in a new window did it for me, as well. Took care of some sent messages mysteriously staying marked as DRAFT. You rock!
Arbuck
Monday, May 8, 2017 6:00 PM
I'm having the same issue to include many others. I HATE 2013 so much I'm about to go back to 2007.
Saturday, September 23, 2017 1:46 AM
Yep... it worked for me... now I am going to try with the DRAFT SAVE option on as well...
thanks!
Rom
Friday, August 17, 2018 1:27 PM
It worked for me. thanks for the tip.
Friday, August 17, 2018 1:28 PM
It worked for me. thanks for the tip.