Mail 'Sending Message'

[davowolf]

Having spent the morning writing an email I've managed to completely lose it, the only trace being 'Sending Message' at the bottom left column. Nothing in Sent or Outbox in order to retrieve and edit. Have I lost a whole morning's work ? I did attach 5 small Word files and one file containing 5 mp3 files. I suppose its a size issue. It seems to have just disappeared.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

How about the Draft folder? Also, if the email has large attachments, you'll want to wait to see if it does go through and then check the Sent folder.

 

[MacInWin]

Are you sending it from within Windows? I ask because this forum is about installing and running Windows on a Mac.

 

[davowolf]

Jake, so which forum would you have use for this ? I couldn't see anything obviously relevant. Use Mac OS HS 10.13.6. Happy to re-post elsewhere Jake of course. But do you have a solution ?
Ashwin, nothing in Drafts and it never was sent after about half an hour.
I have a Glyph 1TB but can't access the Mail system on it due to it being 'Time Machined' which doesn't seem to function.
Whilst the attachments is one issue, the most time consuming aspect is losing the text in the email body. I have the attachments of course, but have lost the body work.

 

[MacInWin]

Been out all day. Sorry for not getting back. It looks like a mod moved it to this forum, which is where it probably should have been all along. The advantage is that it will get more exposure to folks who may be able to help.

I have a Glyph 1TB but can't access the Mail system on it due to it being 'Time Machined' which doesn't seem to function.

Not sure exactly what you meant, but if you are trying to access Mail directly in the TM backup, that is not advisable. The way TM stores things only looks like a regular file, but the actual data is very tightly integrated and if a user mucks with it directly the entire TM backup can be compromised and lost.

As for the missing message, sometimes a large message (and it sounds very large from your description) can take quite a while to transfer. Speeds for most ISPs going UP are much lower than the DOWN speeds.

One thing to try is open Activity Monitor and see if there is traffic on the Network tab. If there is, it's probably still sending.

 

[davowolf]

Thanks again Jake. Mail -> Window -> Activity shows an empty dialogue box but the cmptr had been turned off in the meantime. So my original email seems to have been lost forever unless its somewhere very deep I've never been. This might also have thrown up a Glyph issue - not sure its working as it should.

 

[MacInWin]

Yep, if nothing else the power off probably killed your stuff. One last thought before we have a minute of silence for the lost work: Try using a search tool to search your files for something that was in the message that may be relatively unique. Find Any File or EasyFind will both search inside files, including hidden ones, for text. A draft may be lurking somewhere, if you are lucky. You may not be able to send it directly, but may be able to cut/paste at least some of it. Admittedly, this is a really long shot, but hey, it's still better than typing it all in again.

For future, one thing I have learned to do is to type in long messages into a text processor (Textedit, or even Pages or Word) and then cut/paste from there to Mail. Mail seems a bit ephemeral until it's sent. With the text editor using autosave, at least my work has SOME backup. Then once sent, I delete (or never fully save) the work from the processor.

 

[IWT]

Good tip, Jake. I do the same for long email or even a shorter one that I want to think about over night.

Ian

 

[davowolf]

Great advice and thanks for taking the time.

Find Any File searches your local disks for files by name, creation or modification date, size, or type and creator code (not by content, though). (£$7.99)

So, perhaps it wouldn't find on the basis of content; and I wonder if it would look at 'Mail' files.

In the meantime however, after the respectful minute (overnight actually) I spent the morning re-writing as much as I can remember. But you're right of course about not trusting Mail for larger text and better use a WP - and often do.

 

[MacInWin]

Well, if FAF won't do it, I know EasyFind will. I use it all the time. Might take a look for the next time something goes missing.

 

[ferrarr]

Did you check your email provider online login? Maybe i’s saved up there?