Drafts not showing up in drafts folder

I have the same problem and this explanation does not apply. The issue I am also having is that when you have a draft you are working on, it does NOT save to drafts even with save drafts is on.

INSTEAD, it stays in an email conversation thread. This is a ridiculous design flaw and I would love to know how to correct the settings to allow for ALL drafts regardless of where you start them, to ALWAYS save in Drafts. From what I can see, some developer got a little too cute with coding and failed to actually attempt to use their design.

Please provide a real answer to fix this that doesn't have 300 steps.

Thanks again. I guess I'll just ignore the bug for now then. For completeness, I'm not willing to shut down the Sent Items folder for this and I am already using the web version of Outlook (it's the online version that is having the issue).

Thanks, again,

andy

Thanks for the help, Sola. Here are some comments:

Multiple accounts or aliases: I have one account and no aliases. Mail > Sync email doesn't have a "set default" option. It has pre-loaded info in the POP, IMAP, and SMTP fields that is not editable. All just noting office365.com servers. I don't see a "Save new messages" option here either.

Automatically deleted: I don't think it's a deletion issue since I only know about these lost drafts because I actually find them in my email threads. For example, today I was searching for a thread, found it, and noticed an unsent draft that is still part of that thread but not in my Drafts folder. With respect to the Focused Inbox, I don't see that as an option under Message Handling but it is under Mail > Layout and it's turned off and has always been turned off for me because I don't like it.

I've hunted around in the Settings section to see if I could find anything but I don't see any mention of drafts. In fact, the Settings search field turns out zero results for a search of "draft" so I'm at a bit of a loss.

Thanks,

andy

Hi Jpeterman,

Thanks for contacting us and sorry for the inconveniences,

One reason why your drafts may not show up in your Drafts folder is that they are saved in a different folder or data file. This can happen if you have multiple email accounts or aliases configured in Outlook online, or if you use different devices or browsers to access your email. To check where your drafts are saved, you can follow these steps:

• Sign in to Outlook online and go to the Settings icon at the top right corner.
• Click on View all Outlook settings at the bottom of the panel.
• Click on Mail > Sync email.
• Under Set default From address, you will see a list of your email accounts and aliases. Select the one that you use most often or want to use as your default.
• Under Save new messages, you will see a drop-down menu where you can choose which folder or data file to save your drafts. Make sure it is set to Drafts or the folder that you prefer.
• Click on Save and close the settings panel.

Another reason why your drafts may not show up in your Drafts folder is that they are deleted automatically after a certain period of time. This can happen if you have enabled the Focused Inbox feature in Outlook online, which separates your inbox into two tabs: Focused and Other. The Focused tab shows only the messages that are most important to you, while the Other tab shows the rest of your messages, including drafts. However, messages in the Other tab are deleted after 10 days by default, unless you change this setting. To prevent your drafts from being deleted, you can follow these steps:

• Sign in to Outlook online and go to the Settings icon at the top right corner.
• Click on View all Outlook settings at the bottom of the panel.
• Click on Mail > Message handling.
• Under Focused Inbox, you will see a checkbox that says Delete messages in the Other tab after 10 days. Uncheck this box if you want to keep your messages in the Other tab longer.
• Click on Save and close the settings panel.

I hope this helps!

Regards, Sola

Hi again,

You're welcome, I'm sorry to hear that you are still having trouble with your drafts in Outlook. It seems that this is a bug that has been reported by many users, and there is no clear solution yet. However, there are some possible workarounds that you can try:

• You can try to disable the **Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder** option in Outlook settings. This option may cause some conflicts with the draft saving process, and turning it off may prevent your drafts from disappearing. To do this, you need to follow these steps:
• In Outlook, select **File > Options > Mail**.
  • Under **Save messages**, uncheck the box next to **Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder**.
  • Click **OK** to save the changes.
• You can try to use the web version of Outlook instead of the desktop app. The web version may have a more reliable draft saving feature, and you can access your drafts from any browser. To do this, you need to follow these steps:
• In your browser, go to Outlook.com and sign in with your account.
  • Click on the **Mail** icon on the left sidebar.
  • Click on the **New message** button on the top left corner.
  • Compose your email and click on the **Save draft** button on the bottom right corner.
  • To access your drafts, click on the **Drafts** folder on the left sidebar.

I hope this helps!