# Auto saving drafts in Email is such a PITA. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102 "2014-07-14T20:49:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102/1 "2014-07-14T20:49:47Z")
I often start a email or message board post and change my mind. It’s not worth saying. Or better left unsaid. Close the compose window or just close the tab. On the SDMB I click on the Main menu folder. Except Gmail and Hotmail has a useless and very irritating Drafts folder. Sitting there mocking me with unsent messages from days and months gone past. Every now and then I empty the Drafts folder. What a stupid and unwanted feature. imho Who the hell needs to save a 6 line email? Am I going to die if it gets lost and I have to \ retype it? I’m even quite capable of retyping a 20 line message. Its not a big honking deal. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102/2 "2014-07-15T00:07:41Z")
Until your cat destroys you email and you want it back. But for any text, including SDMB posts, I use the Lazarus plugin to back up what I type. Drafts folder is supremely useful. I save all kinds of notes there, intentionally. It beats the old “send an email to myself, then delete and replace if I add anything” schtick. It seems it gives you a common annoyance to save you from a rare disaster. Maybe that’s not worth it for you. I do wish that it wouldn’t save a blank email, or one that just contains my signature. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102/3 "2014-07-15T06:19:57Z")
I like the way Gmail keeps me from messing up because I mess up with disturbing regularity. I liked the old format a lot better also. I really should type all emails & message board posts in notebook or some place that is a lot harder to accidentally erase than on the reply window. ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102/4 "2014-07-16T07:38:59Z")
In Thunderbird, if you close the Compose window on a message without ever explicitly saving it to Drafts, you’ll get a prompt asking if you want to save the message or discard it. If you say to discard it, and Thunderbird had previously auto-saved it into Drafts for you, then it’ll delete the copy from Drafts too. This works very well. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102/5 "2014-07-16T13:36:51Z")
I need to look into Thunderbird. That sounds like a more sensible approach. Ideally there should be a set up option for saving to drafts. I’d suggest a word count. If the message is over xxx words save in drafts. I’d set mine around 75 words. I don’t mind retyping anything less. Losing a message is pretty rare anyway. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102/6 "2014-07-17T19:26:39Z")
Not Gmail/Yahoo, but autosave in Outlook has saved me a lot of hassle quite a few times. Power outages, unexpected system or application crashes, “helpful family members” closing emails, etc… are all things that have happened to me that I used a ‘draft’ message to retrieve. Some of my emails are rather lengthy, and I would have just abandoned the effort in some cases rather than trying to recreate the message. When you close an email, does it not give you an option to save/abandon? Outlook certainly does, when closed manually. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102/7 "2014-07-18T14:20:10Z")
I use the drafts feature in Gmail a lot. Usually if I have something important, but want to look at it later, but also if I get interrupted or close a window by accident or something. I very much like the autosave drafts feature. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-saving-drafts-in-email-is-such-a-pita/693102/8 "2014-07-18T14:38:42Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I need to look into Thunderbird. That sounds like a more sensible approach. Thunderbird is good for you. I have a Yahoo e-mail address because I’ve had it since 2001 and I ain’t giving up now, but Yahoo’s web interface is unbearably useless. I avoid the lunacy that was clearly thrown together by lobotomized apes and use Thunderbird. I almost forget how badly Yahoo sucks because I never have to deal with their horse shit.