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1:09 pm
Hi to Chris and/or Jim….
Question: Because we do the summer housewatch here at Palm Creek, I send each customer an email report each month. The problem occurs when I want to go to my “sent mail” to look up what I told the customer a previous month. Gmail only holds sent messages for 30 days and then automatically trashes them. I can’t find anything in settings to change that.
I believe there is a way to “archive” messages from that is new unfamiliar territory to me. Help?
Is this forum still where you want us to put our questions? I couldn’t find any previous topics along this same line.
Your loyal fan,
Sue Hepler
From Gmail FAQ: Gmail never deletes messages (excluding the 30-day auto-delete in Spam and Trash).
2:08 pm
July 2, 2010
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Hey Sue! Good to hear from you.
Yes, this is the proper forum category for gmail since it isn’t one of our main topics (photos, maps, smartphones)
My “Sent” mail has 15,000 emails in it! So, it’s my experience that they never get automatically deleted. Only if I delete them somehow – even then they stick around for 30 days.
Have you tried searching for them? Have you tried clicking on the All Mail label? Archiving just means removing the Inbox label. Labels in Gmail are kind of like albums in Google Photos. “Sent” is just a label. ALL email will show up in the All Mail label. The All Email label is towards the bottom of the left sidebar – you may need to click “More…” to see it.
Might you have used delete, but thought you were just deleting from somewhere else. Like maybe deleting the thread from your inbox? That would remove all pieces of the thread. Or, deleting from another label?
Have you by any chance set up a label for Housewatch emails? That would be a good idea.
Get back with your thoughts and we’ll keep looking.
9:05 am
<sigh> After more extensive research and going through Google FAQ, they tell me they only keep sent messages for 30 days and then they are deleted. No way to “save” or archive them. Other readers say they have the same issue so have started using Outlook where they can save messages to their computer. That’s what I’m trying to hook up now. I need to keep “sent” messages for longer than 30 days.
Yes, I have definitely “searched” through all mail, sent mail, etc. but can find nothing older than the 30 days.
I have a subscription to Microsoft Office for the yearly program thing so am trying to get Outlook to open and link to Gmail. It’s NOT easy. Still working on it. Gmail has some tough security issues to get past when trying to access from what they call an “insecure mail server”. I’ve even gotten emails from Gmail saying they’ve blocked the box due to trying to use Outlook. Why don’t you just hop on an airplane and come help me?? LOL
1:26 pm
November 3, 2009
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That is not our experience at all. I have emails going back 11 years in my sent folder.
I’m at a loss to explain your experience. Accounts?
Are the sent items usually replies to received emails? Do you use “Send and Archive?”
I don’t like Outlook for personal email and certainly cannot support it. You can forward all or selected emails from Gmail to Outlook. That way you don’t need to have Outlook fetch the mail.
Helping Travelers to Plan, Preserve, and Share their Travels
3:01 pm
July 2, 2010
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Hey Sue,
I am really confused about your findings vs. ours. I’d love to know if I could see something different in your settings. Wanna do a video/screen-share call? I’ll give you a phone call.
4:47 pm
OMG!!! That was amazing to see you on that zoom.us program. Thank you! You made my day 10 times over. I am, however, a little embarrassed that my frustrating problem was so simple to fix. <sigh> I’m “supposed” to be the knowledgeable person around here but this sent mail issue certainly humbled me.
Chris…I hope you and Jim realize the countless thousands of people you have helped with your guru knowledge and teaching techniques. I treasure your classes and enjoy learning through your short concise presentations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
12:41 pm
July 2, 2010
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Thanks Sue!
I’m so glad it was an easy answer. Actually, I do think the user interface could use improvement. When viewing a list of items, like emails, and you get to the bottom of the list, but the list continues on another page – you should see a way to get to the next page at the bottom. Gmail does not do that. The indicator is at the top, so you need to understand that it is there.
It was so useful to see your screen as we talked. Thanks for playing!
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