When I am composing an email my screen updates and puts the email in the Drafts folder … I send my email and it is removed from Drafts folder. I have no need for my mail to go into drafts would like to find out how to correct it.
Sandra McNulty
On the 31st of August 2009, Microsoft implemented some changed and upgrades to their free email service – Hotmail, or more correctly, Windows Live Hotmail. One of these included the Auto save Drafts folder; this feature will automatically saves the email you are composing in the Drafts folder every three minutes.
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Note: The same functionality can be found in Hotmail competitors – Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. However, subscribers cannot turn this feature off – they cannot even change the time interval.
My two cents, if a new feature is implemented, always give an option to disable it, else users will face problems and complaints will follow – and that’s exactly what has happened. One of the Hotmail auto save email to Drafts issue is related to emails not having the changes done after the last save.
Apparently, if you add to or modify an email message that has been automatically saved to the Drafts folder and then send it before it’s saved once again, Hotmail will pick up the copy from the Drafts folder. This means the recipient will not get the message with the latest changes you had made.
This is obviously quite annoying and I hope Microsoft will soon fix this issue or, better still, allow subscribers to switch it off. Come to think of it, if this auto save worked well, there wouldn’t have been any complaints. This problem has to be fixed!
ARG!!! I was writing this insanely long and complicated email! And it kept telling me it was saved in my drafts. But then by accident I clicked on an add and it went to that page and erased my draft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!
The Auto Save Draft feature is driving me crazy!
No wonder I keep having issues with my sent emails… WTF are they thinking!? I’m done with hotmail.
How can I get Hotmail to let me continue typing all of the emails I want to send without it throwing them into the Drafts folder? This is just not right to do this without me being able to finish my email. I’m fed up!!!!
need to turn off the auto save draft feature as very annoying and since i am slow to type there are umpteen number of times i have to compose the message and one mail takes me hours.should have an option to save only if one wants and not automatic.
I wholeheartedly agree with all the previous complaints about the new auto-save to drafts feature. AND – I didn’t even realize that my finished email could be passed over for the previously saved UNfinished version!! That’s bad, folks. Hotmail should fix it.
Please at least give us the option to disable this function!! it serves no purpose other than to annoy me while I’m composing emails.
thanks!!
And I thought it was only me… please hotmail, get rid of this useless & annoying function. Am fed up with having to do a word document then cut and paste into my email !
turn off auto draft save please
Totally agree with these comments! As i’m typing, the autosave function freezes my ability to compose… so i’m typing, but nothing is being entered into the email!
Thank goodness I’m not crazy, I was certain I had done something wrong. MSN is doing something really wrong. Please let us override auto save, not all of us can type and spell check in 3 minutes flat. Perhaps improve spell chack and throw in grammar too.
Yes I find this feature most annoying. Because the attachments are not saved to drafts, it sometimes sends my emails without all my attachments and I have to upload them all again, and sometimes even again. So frustrating!
The auto save to draft is driving me mad, please please disable this feature, its crazy and is obviously irritating an awful lot of people. LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE WANT or give us the option to disable it!
It’s really annoying. Hotmail should give us the chance to turn it off!
Please remove this irritating new feature. Nobody wants it., and its annoying us all. Its still here in July 2010.
The draft saving element of Hotmail is driving me crazy!!!! Who can we complain to directly…are we being heard at all?
Voice your grievances at http://www.windowslivehelp.com – make sure you post it int eh Hotmail section.
I just painstakingly attached 15 pics one by one, and when I went to send it, it told me that my email had been sent to the drafts folder, and that I’d have to re-attach all of them to send it! Exasperating!
I like that the draft is saved. However, it has not saved any of my drafts (although it says it is) for over a year. When one of my fingers strays & my long letter gets erased before I can send it, I’d be very happy to be able to retrieve it from the drafts folder! So, where is it?
I agree that it would be preferable to make this feature optional.
Reading through these comments, I’m curious. I’ve had Hotmail for a long time (since 2001, long before the feature was introduced) and I’ve absolutely never had this issue. It just saves the emails to drafts every now and then.
When I press send it will always send the version I’ve working on with all attachments, even if the last draft was different. If I accidentally click on a link it asks me if I’m sure I want to leave, even if I accidentally press yes it just deletes the draft and I can easily recover it from trash.
So evidently there must be some reason the feature doesn’t work for some people and it does for others.
The only complaint I can offer is that Hotmail doesn’t save attachments with drafts like Gmail does (it makes you reattach them if you try to resume a draft later).
while composing a mail i attached one file and instead of sending i saved it in “save as a draft” and logout from hotmail . and also deleted the attached file from computer.
how will i get that attached file? (it is excel sheet)
The Auto save to Drafts is a huge pain in the rear!. It takes longer than the 3-minute limit to attach files and then you need to start over again because the attachments aren’t saved in the draft. Come on Hotmail, fix this crap!
I have the same problem. it really is a pain. But I found a way out of it.
Near the attachment button you have office doc and photos. Click on the office doc and it will tell u to download silverlight. once you do that it won’t save you email to draft if you use the office doc for documents and photos to attach your pictures.
Hope this helps!
The Auto save to Drafts starts after about 5 seconds and I have to try to cut and paste into a new message and resend before it goes back to Draft again.
Does anyone at hotmail even care that they’ve created a feature that no-one wants and that’s driving everyone crazy?
I can’t believe how a company like Microsoft could over look such an obvious flaw. They have to give an option to turn off this feature otherwise people are going to stop using their services.