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Why has Thunderbird stopped saving Sent messages in Sent folder?

  • 3 cavab
  • 11 have this problem
  • 21 views
  • Last reply by Pilu36

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I have a privately hosted IMAP account that is NOT gmail (yes, other addresses still exist!). I had never had a problem with having messages saved to my Sent folder, but now Thunderbird won't save anything in there. And copies of messages I send to myself sometimes disappear now.

I can think of no change that might have caused this except the last update of Thunderbird.

My e-mail host had recommended Thunderbird, but I find this e-mail client to be extremely vague and confusing to use. I don't know even how to look for answers to this question, so if you reply and I don't respond, my apologies!

I have a privately hosted IMAP account that is NOT gmail (yes, other addresses still exist!). I had never had a problem with having messages saved to my Sent folder, but now Thunderbird won't save anything in there. And copies of messages I send to myself sometimes disappear now. I can think of no change that might have caused this except the last update of Thunderbird. My e-mail host had recommended Thunderbird, but I find this e-mail client to be extremely vague and confusing to use. I don't know even how to look for answers to this question, so if you reply and I don't respond, my apologies!

All Replies (3)

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You say "stopped" and "now" so may I take it that this has worked previously? Do you recall when it stopped, and anything that happened at the same time?

Given that the account uses IMAP, we can't rule out the possibility of some involvement of the server.

I'd be inclined to set up a filter that operates on sending and copies the sent messages to Local Folders. If messages continue to disappear then we know this is due to Thunderbird itself. If the copies in Local Folders stay in place then it looks like the server is at least part of the problem.

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Thank you. I tried doing as you suggest and sent myself two messages, both of which appeared in the Sent folder in Local Folders.

For some reason, I have duplicate folders AND files of Inbox, Sent, Drafts, and Trash under Inbox and Local Folders; the Sent folder in Local Folders got the newly filtered messages, but the Sent folder in Inbox has everything else that didn't get lost. This was all generated from my simple folders-files setup in Windows Live Mail when I transferred over from Windows Vista Home Basic to Windows 10 Home. My e-mail host recommended Thunderbird because Windows 10 would not support IMAP. I wish I could get back my simple non-duplicate setup!

I just want to be sure that Sent messages are saved somewhere, so unless messages disappear later on, I guess that the filter solves the problem. It was such a nightmare to get IMAP set up that I really don't want to mess with the server!

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Hi! I had similar issue, you can try to define the Sent folders manually. This is the way to do it: 1. Right-Click on the e-mail account (in the left panel) you have the issue. 2. Choose from the upcoming little menu: "Settings". A pop-up will appear. 3. Choose "Copies & Folders" for the given problematic e-mail account. 4. On the right side of this panel, at the top you see: "Whend sending messages, automatically", and under it 'Place a copy in" selected. There most likely "Sent" Folder on: is selected. So switch to "Other", and there you need to set the preferred Sent folder where you want to see your messages (select the e-mail address from the drop-down, and go step-by-step until you see your preferred sent folder"). 5. Click OK at the bottom of this pop-up.