I've added my Gmail to Outlook 2013 via IMAP. Now whenever I compose an email, if I let it wait for a while, it saves a copy to my IMAP drafts folder. However, when I send the message, the message gets sent but the message in the drafts folder still remains! Eventually this has let to my drafts folder being useless because it doesn't have just drafts – it's got a lot of work-in-progress emails that aren't drafts (i.e. too much noise in my drafts!)
How can I setup Outlook so that when I send the email, it is cleared out of drafts?
Best Answer
When Outlook connects to Gmail via IMAP, Gmail instructs Outlook where it wants it's drafts stored. But because Outlook handles drafts differently to what Gmail expects (i.e. local handling rather than IMAP-friendly), draft copies can remain on the server even once the email is sent.
You can resolve this by having Outlook use a local drafts folder on the computer that Outlook is installed on, rather than the Gmail drafts folder.
Right-click on a folder within the IMAP account you are using. Select "IMAP Folders...". Select the "Subscribed" tab and click "Query".
In the list of results, select the Drafts folder and click "Unsubscribe".
You should see the "Drafts" folder in Outlook replaced with a folder labelled "Drafts (This computer only)"
Note that (obviously) this will mean that drafts on that computer are now no longer synched up to Gmail, so you won't be able to access and complete those drafts via the web interface or from another computer.