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28 Dec 2016, 01:40 PM | #1 |
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Saving mail sent from iPhone (outside of Mail app) in Sent folder...
I use the FastMail app on my iDevices, but my question is about how to set things up so that mail sent, say, when one uses the "Share" button on an iDevice to send a email that shares a web page, for example. I want emails sent in this fashion to have a copy left in the Sent mail FM folder.
My current setup is this: 1. I have the default SMTP server on the iDevices set to the FM SMTP server 2. I have FM options set so that any email that gets sent through the FM SMTP server has a copy put in the Sent folder. 3. I then have all the various IMAP clients on iDevices and computers set so that they do NOT store a copy of sent mail in the Sent folder (so I don't get 2 copies!). This seems unnecessarily complex. Is there an easier approach? |
28 Dec 2016, 10:41 PM | #2 |
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From what you describe, I can't see any reason why this shouldn't be working properly, so I'm probably missing something here in either your configuration or how you're doing things.
To be clear, when you say "I have FM options set so that any email that gets sent through the FM SMTP server has a copy put in the Sent folder." are you sure you've checked off the Save a copy when sending through 3rd party email clients? If you're using multiple identities, you'll also need to make sure that you've enabled this option on all of the identities where you want this to happen — in particular whichever identify is the one you have configured in your iOS Mail settings. You say you're using the FastMail app, so I assume that normally you send mail from your iDevices solely through the FastMail app, except when you're using things like built-in sharing tools, correct? I'm guessing messages sent through the FastMail app are landing correctly in your "Sent" folder? How have you configured your account in your Mail settings on iOS? There actually isn't a setting on the iOS side to not save messages in your Sent Items folder, so at that point I'm assuming that you're either not using an IMAP account or you've configured your "Sent Mailbox" to be a folder on your iPhone/iPad or your Trash folder (in which case you're still technically getting a duplicate — it's just ending up saved locally only or landing in your IMAP trash folder). IMHO, the "easier" approach is probably just to NOT use the Save a copy when sending through 3rd party email clients setting and let IMAP do its thing from your iDevices and other IMAP clients. It will push the message into your "Sent Items" folder after sending, and the FastMail app on your iDevices will pretty much do the same when sending from there. The only small downside is that your "Sent Items" folder doesn't provide a verification that your message was actually properly submitted via SMTP to FastMail (the IMAP save process is separate from the SMTP submission process), but I think that's a very small price to pay as the iOS Mail app should alert you if there's a problem on that end and just leave the message in your local "Outbox" folder until it can actually be sent. |
29 Dec 2016, 10:13 AM | #3 | |||||||
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Also, since outgoing mail is handled by an SMTP server, (1) how does iOS determine which to use when using sharing tools, and (2) since SMTP doesn't have anything to do with IMAP (AFAIK), how exactly would "let IMAP do its thing" actually result in a copy of the email ending up in the Sent folder of Fastmail? Thanks very much for your extensive reply. Despite your great explanation, I'm still a bit unclear about a couple of things... |
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29 Dec 2016, 11:12 AM | #4 | ||||
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Okay, it sounds like you've got everything set up the way it should be.... I suspect the issue is about having multiple accounts configured....
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To consider it another way, the iOS Mail app doesn't really treat IMAP and SMTP accounts as separate entities — you basically configure "Mail" accounts, which are a combination of IMAP/POP for retrieving messages and SMTP for sending messages, bundled into a single "Mail" account that is identified by the "From" address associated with that account. There's no way to set up just an SMTP server in iOS Mail without it being associated with an IMAP/POP account (note that you can have multiple SMTP servers for a single IMAP/POP account for fallback purposes, but you can't setup a "send only" account that just has an SMTP server and no associated IMAP/POP server). So in other words, when you select the "From" address of "you@yourdomain.com" in the iOS "new message" dialog, you'll be sending though whatever SMTP server is associated with that account (under Settings, Mail), and you'll be filing a copy of that sent message in whatever folder is specified for "Sent Messages" for that account — either a local folder or a server-based folder, according to whatever you've specified. |
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29 Dec 2016, 01:08 PM | #5 |
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OK, this is much clearer! Thanks. I didn't know about the "tap on the CC/BCC From:" trick.
But, that leads to one final question...clearly when there are multiple accounts configured in iOS, it chooses ONE of them to be the default account to send from when using sharing tools. How does one choose that default account? [Because of work/home accounts I don't have the option of only having one email account set up on my iDevices, alas.] {Not that it matters, but the original reason I set things up the way I did dates back to before the release of the Fastmail app for iOS. I have lots of folders set up and iOS Mail's way of navigating between IMAP folders is cumbersome, to say the least. So, I took the following, rather Rube Goldbergian, approach:
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29 Dec 2016, 09:53 PM | #6 | ||||
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Further, FastMail implemented full iOS "push" support last year, and this supports not only the Inbox, but any sub-folder you wish to designate, allowing you to have messages that have been filed into or received into other folders to also be pushed to your iOS device. Quote:
In other words, even if you're going to continue using the FastMail app, I'd suggest just configuring your iOS Mail settings to connect directly to FastMail over IMAP/SMTP and take Gmail right out of the equation. In my case, while I keep the FastMail app on my iPhone for certain specific use cases*— mostly easy access to preferences and more advanced searches — I've found the iOS Mail app meets all of my daily email management needs, particularly with the many little improvements Apple has made it in over the past few iOS releases. |
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30 Dec 2016, 06:21 AM | #7 | |||
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Thanks again for taking the time to write such complete responses. I appreciate it! |
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30 Dec 2016, 10:17 PM | #8 | |||
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However, since the improvements are rarely earth-shattering compared to everything else that comes with a major iOS update, they're most often on the sidelines, so you don't see too many reports on them — they're just not as "sexy" as stickers in Messages, for example That said, while I've dabbled in other clients off and on, I've generally preferred to stick with the built-in Mail app as of course it's the most tightly integrated, and also has provided the best reading experience of any Mail app since the beginning — especially where complex HTML messages are concerned. As a result, I try to stay up on the changes, and have covered them in my own series of iOS feature articles over the years — iOS 7 Mail probably saw the most significant set of improvements in recent years, but iOS 8 Mail brought enhanced swipe gestures which added a huge usability boost IMHO, along with smart contact and calendar event recognition, iOS 9 Mail added support for PDF markup and adding attachments from iCloud Drive and other third-party file storage providers like Dropbox, and iOS 10 Mail added account-wide conversation threading, quick mailbox filters, and smart filing of messages. Factor in native push support with FastMail, and the bottom line is that the built-in Mail app has pretty much reached the point where I would no longer even consider using anything else. Not to disparage FastMail's own native iOS app, but I find the built-in Mail app to be faster, more tightly integrated with iOS, and you get full offline access to your messages (as long as they've been previously downloaded, but with native push, that's not a problem, and FastMail and iOS Mail even let you push folders other than the Inbox). The native client is more powerful for searching your mailboxes — especially if you're doing complex searches —*but iOS Mail is no slouch in this area either, especially considering the great work FastMail has done supporting IMAP search on the back end. It's also worth noting that FastMail deserves huge kudos for implementing iOS Mail push properly — even Apple's own iCloud service is a very weak implementation compared to how FastMail has done this. For example, iCloud will push when you receive new messages, but it won't push out changes such as marking messages read or deleting them. This means you end up with a stale badge count on your iPhone or iPad if you're reading your messages on another device. FastMail pushes a complete reconciliation of everything that happens in your mailbox — leave your iOS Mail app open to your message list, mark a message read or flagged from your desktop, and you can actually watch it change within a second or two on your iPhone. It's really quite magical. Quote:
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Last edited by jhollington : 30 Dec 2016 at 10:26 PM. |
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31 Dec 2016, 01:16 AM | #9 | |||
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By the way, two questions not quite on original topic. 1. It took me a while to puzzle out how to create one family address book (with separate groups for "mine," "hers," and "ours" contacts). Her iCloud ID is used for all contacts (that's because Outlook and Windows 10 can only sync with one Apple ID via the iCloud sync Apple has created for Windows), and I have her Apple ID set up on my iDevices and the household Macs as an additional iCloud account. Is there a better way to handle this, do you think? 2. I'm curious what you use on your desktop(s)/laptop(s) for email, calendaring, and contacts. I use BusyCal and BusyContacts, and I'm very happy with both. I currently use Postbox for email, but I'm not thrilled with it. I've tried various other clients (too numerous to list), and haven't really found anything I'm happy with. Thanks again for your time! |
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3 Jan 2017, 02:58 AM | #10 | |||||
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For me it was primarily the tighter integration and more "native" feel of the built-in iOS Mail app, not to mention that messages are downloaded/synced and saved offline so they can still be accessed when I have no coverage —*I've generally preferred the iOS Mail client's overall UI for years, but obviously early iterations were also more limiting. There are also a few features like "VIP" notifications that aren't even available in most third-party mail apps (e.g. the ability to only get push notifications from specific contacts rather than for every new message — a feature that I find extremely handy). Quote:
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That said, iCloud's implementations do have a couple of advantages for iOS users.... VIP contacts only sync between devices if you're using iCloud — FastMail doesn't seem to support this (yet) and I wouldn't be surprised if there's something Apple-specific hiding under the hood on this one. iCloud Calendars are also a bit more tightly integrated into iOS as opposed to other CalDAV services, and of course if you're sharing calendars with iCloud users, you'll need an iCloud account to do that anyway. Quote:
That said, FastMail's CardDAV does support shared address books, so that might be a way to do it more easily. You'd still have to sync them to Outlook in some manner —*sadly, Outlook does not offer any native CardDAV support, but there are several CardDAV plug-ins for Outlook that could work for this purpose. Quote:
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