I only started using Outlook 2013 a few days ago. I have noticed that sometimes emails that are automatically saved in the draft folder whilst I am typing them are still in the draft folder after I have sent the email and it has dropped into the sent folder; this does not happen every time. The only way I can get rid of them is to delete them.

This has been an issue and something I've seen happen occasionally for year through multiple versions of Outlook. I think what it comes down to is Outlook playing it safe, so if it's not certain the message has been sent or the draft is no longer required it keeps it, only deleting those it's certain have been finished with.

It's not just Outlook that does it. Looking online I see load of comments for the same thing from Mozilla Thunderbird users as well, so it might even be something outside of Outlooks control.

Couple of possibilities to minimise it would be to either disable saving to drafts entirely (probably not ideal) or increase the amount of time before it saves the drafts so it doesn't catch the small messages which are written quickly and sent. The settings for either are in Options, Mail, Save messages.

This has been an issue and something I've seen happen occasionally for year through multiple versions of Outlook. I think what it comes down to is Outlook playing it safe, so if it's not certain the message has been sent or the draft is no longer required it keeps it, only deleting those it's certain have been finished with.

It's not just Outlook that does it. Looking online I see load of comments for the same thing from Mozilla Thunderbird users as well, so it might even be something outside of Outlooks control.

Couple of possibilities to minimise it would be to either disable saving to drafts entirely (probably not ideal) or increase the amount of time before it saves the drafts so it doesn't catch the small messages which are written quickly and sent. The settings for either are in Options, Mail, Save messages.

• Marked as answer by Tony Chen CHNMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Tuesday, July 16, 2013 2:52 AM

This has been an issue and something I've seen happen occasionally for year through multiple versions of Outlook. I think what it comes down to is Outlook playing it safe, so if it's not certain the message has been sent or the draft is no longer required it keeps it, only deleting those it's certain have been finished with.

It's not just Outlook that does it. Looking online I see load of comments for the same thing from Mozilla Thunderbird users as well, so it might even be something outside of Outlooks control.

Couple of possibilities to minimise it would be to either disable saving to drafts entirely (probably not ideal) or increase the amount of time before it saves the drafts so it doesn't catch the small messages which are written quickly and sent. The settings for either are in Options, Mail, Save messages.

• Marked as answer by Tony Chen CHNMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Tuesday, July 16, 2013 2:52 AM

I have this problem as well. I find the answer a bit strange. this is of course not a desired behaviour and should be unmarked as answer.

I use Office 2013 with latest Exchange 2013 server, cached mode. almost every Message I send today remains as draft. resulting in some Messages sent twice.  very annoying.

This must be a bug and not "Outlook playing safe". :)

Hi Did you get a resolution to this - we have the same issue also ? 

This has been an issue and something I've seen happen occasionally for year through multiple versions of Outlook. I think what it comes down to is Outlook playing it safe, so if it's not certain the message has been sent or the draft is no longer required it keeps it, only deleting those it's certain have been finished with.

It's not just Outlook that does it. Looking online I see load of comments for the same thing from Mozilla Thunderbird users as well, so it might even be something outside of Outlooks control.

I've used Outlook daily for work for over a decade and have never seen this issue.  I've used it at home for this long and never recall having seen it either.  Now, it happens on a regular basis.  I'm not the only one.  This is a bug, regardless of if other email applications have had the same bug. 

Just a crazy idea but if Outlook 2013 is unable to determine if it has sent an email, perhaps the logic which runs Outlook 2013 should be modified such that it does know.  Even though there are some nice enhancements to Outlook 2013 I am thinking about dropping back to an earlier version which did not "play it safe" (and always delivered my email).

I'm also having the same issue.  I've noticed that there are no new posts on this issue.

Are there any news?

Same here. Using Outlook with gmail (imap) Doesn't matter if I have "Automatically Save items" turned on or off (Options>Mail>Save Messa

I'm having the same issue. Could it possibly have to do with replying to e-mails inside the reading pane vs. in a new window? After changing settings to "open replies and forwards in a new window", I haven't seen the issue reoccur, but clearly this is not optimal if you prefer the default setting.

[File -> Options -> Mail -> scroll to Replies and forwards section -> click the box: "Open replies and forwards in a new window"]