You typed an email, you sent it, and now you’ve gone back looking for it in your Sent folder. But it’s not there. No matter how much you search, you cannot find that important email. Why is that email not in your sent folder? Where the Charlie Dickens has it gone?
Search the Drafts folder
I know this sounds like one of those really annoying questions, much like ‘where did you last leave it?’ when you’ve lost something, but are you sure you sent it?
The most likely cause of an email not appearing in the Sent folder is that it wasn’t sent in the first place. You may well have hit the Send icon, but for some reason or another – perhaps shutting down the email app or the computer before the message had actually been sent – the message never left your system.
Unsent messages will normally be saved in your Drafts folder, waiting for you to finish them. So, the first place to check is in there. The bad news is, if it is in that folder, there’s no chance the recipient has received it.
Check your mail app’s settings
Mail apps can be erratic. Worse, settings that seem perfectly obvious to tick sometimes get in the way.
Here’s a prime example: if you collect your Gmail in Outlook using the IMAP protocol, Google advises that you uncheck the box that says “Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder”. Go figure. You can see the full list of Google’s recommended settings for various email apps here.
You’ve hit your limit
If your searching for a mail that you know you sent yonks ago, it could be that it’s been automatically purged from your Sent folder. Most email accounts have storage limits, and although you should get a warning when you’re close to these, it’s possible your email client/service is set up to automatically purge messages to clear space.
There are also limits to the number of messages webmail services such as Gmail will sync with email clients such as Outlook. In Gmail, for example, the default setting is that no IMAP folder will contain more than 5,000 messages (as below).
You can adjust these settings by logging into Gmail on the web, clicking the Settings cog and clicking the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
In my experience, smartphone email apps such as Outlook sync a far smaller archive of messages in the Sent folder, probably to stop the app hogging your phone’s limited storage.
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I sent an email this morning and it was not in my sent items folder, outbox or drafts but the recipient RECEIVED the message and could send it back to me. I’ve seen this selective saving of messages in the sent items folder many times before but never got a explanation. The most important folder of all is the sent items folder and Microsoft cannot be trusted to correctly maintain this record. Total rubbishware email client is outlook and completely unreliable. I don’t understand why this bug is not acknowledged.
I have the same issue here with at least 2 of my users. the mail is sent, can be found in O365 tracelog, is received and even replied to, but nowhere to be found in outlook. also not in OWA. Another mail sent to the same recipient is in the sent items folder just as it should be.
It is not always the same recipient, it happens randomly as far as i can see.
If anyone knows what can cause this behavior i would like to hear it very much.
I have sent an email from my laptop, but when I am checking my system in the office, its not in the sent items
I’m having the same problem, only worse, because non of my sent emails are showing up in my “sent Folder”. I am an account executive and i manage many accounts all over the country and i am constantly sending contracts to my home office for verification. But i have no idea if the contracts I’m sending are actually being sent because my sent email folder id totally empty… its such a pain in the but and I’ve tried everything to fix this project
I have this problem with only one recipient, my car insurance company.It’s maddening.
That is strange that all the problems of emails not appearing in the sent box appear to be around June/July 22. Mine packed up on 20 July 2020 and yet the receipients are receiving my emails. Maybe Outlook will see ours posts and put up a remedy!
I just sent an email with Outlook and I heard and saw the sign on my cell: sent
Now I can’t find it in my folder!
Should I assume that the recipient got it?
I have the same problem as recently as two days ago.