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Error sending email but the message isn't in Drafts, Sent Items or Outbox !?

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by Glamdring7

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I had created a large email with about 40 recipients and it was in the Drafts folder with a couple of others and this particular one failed to send when I sent all the emails I had been editing. The others are all in the Sent folder, but this one has disappearred totally!?! It is not in the Drafts folder, the Sent folder, the Inbox or even the Outbox in the Local Folders area! I even did a message search over the whole of the Local Folders and it doesn't exist!

I really want to retrieve this email as I don't have the list of recipients and need to resend it, but it apparently looks like never existed..

Is there some temporary system area where a copy of that email in Draft form would have been saved at the point where I hit Send??

I had created a large email with about 40 recipients and it was in the Drafts folder with a couple of others and this particular one failed to send when I sent all the emails I had been editing. The others are all in the Sent folder, but this one has disappearred totally!?! It is not in the Drafts folder, the Sent folder, the Inbox or even the Outbox in the Local Folders area! I even did a message search over the whole of the Local Folders and it doesn't exist! I really want to retrieve this email as I don't have the list of recipients and need to resend it, but it apparently looks like never existed.. Is there some temporary system area where a copy of that email in Draft form would have been saved at the point where I hit Send??

All Replies (8)

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Did you get any error upon sending?

What is your account type - POP or IMAP?

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This is a POP account, so no synchronisation issues or other devices are at play.

Version of Thunderbird is 24.5.0

I'm kicking myself that didn't fully read the error dialog that popped up. It said something about 'do you want to cancel?' and I clicked yes, intending to re-edit the email in the Draft folder, but then it was never there.

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PS. I also did a Search on the mail account folders (in addition to the Local Folders structure) as I know the Subject text, but it also came up blank.

So what I am looking for is a technical response on whether there are any cache or system hidden folders on the disk that could have remnants of the temporary email - other than the actual folders listed above, which are all working fine but just don't have the particular email I am wanting.

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Follow up related question: The background was that I need to send out a charity/fundraiser email to many in my address book and so, knowing that the ISP has a small limit to the number of bcc: recipients in any one email I split up the distribution list into about 8 separate identical emails and placed names across the eight in a fairly equal sized spread.

(As it turned out, after sending three of these emails the ISP locked my SMTP account as a possible spam source, so still waiting for the unlock to complete before can finish the mail-out)

Can I rebuild the missing email list by using a utility to concatenate all the recipient lists in the seven existing emails and comparing against the full address list? Are there tools to compare ldif files (or whatever the accessible format is) and spit out diffferences?

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Try this add-on. If will recover deleted mails in the folder they were in orriginally if the folder has not been compacted.

In future you might do better using a mailing list and the mail merge add-on

The email address crawler add on might meet you needs.

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Is that Add-on link correct? Its hyperlink goes to a Support Forum post with no replies..

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Regarding the previous reply, I think I found the Recover Deleted Messages Add-on, if is on the same page as the Email Address Crawler add-on..

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Matt helped me before by suggesting the Recover Deleted Messages add on and it worked like a charm in POP3 accounts, you'll see your messages flooding back. Try it in the original Drafts folder.

The actual link for it is Recover Deleted Messages Matt probably made a mistake with his link.

I hope you can solve the problem with that add on.