This topic

Incoming emails going to old sent box

RosiePaul — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 08:46:36 GMT

I'm trying to solve an email issue for my 80+ year old sister. She is using a BTinternet email address on Mac Mail and as far as I can see all is set up correctly with the sent folder and the majority of her incoming emails go to the inbox. I have checked on the Mac and on the BT interface. However a few incoming emails go directly to an old 'sent' folder that came over from her old Windows machine. A lot of these are aol addresses but the odd one is a gmail or other common one. She wants to keep the old folder as it holds historical emails she wants to keep but is worried that she will miss an incoming email. Has anyone any ideas on how to solve this. Thanks in advance.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

gg30340 — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:03:43 GMT

If she has emails in her BTMail "sent" folder they must have been sent from her BTMail account. Sent emails do not get placed into the Inbox. The only way that a sent email could appear to be in the Inbox is if an email sent from her BTMail account was replied to and the original sent message was included in the reply by the recipient.

If she previously had an AOL email account and used that on her Mac Mail the AOL account may still be set up in Mac Mail.

Have you checked the receiving email address that is being used by the sender of the emails to her that are going into the "old" folder. If it is the "old" AOL email address that she had that would confirm what I have said.

If that is the case she will need to either contact the senders of those emails and advise them to use her BTMail address of she will need to set up a rule in her BTMail account place any emails from those senders into her BTMail Inbox.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

RosiePaul — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 10:04:54 GMT

Thanks for responding.

Just to clarify it's a few emails that should have gone to her inbox appearing ONLY in an old sent box. These are addressed correctly to her BTinternet address.

She has never had an AOL email address.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

gg30340 — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 10:31:11 GMT

Just to clarify.. the emails that she receives are AOL emails and the occasional gmail emails and are placed into an old MacMail sent box?

Where does the BTMail webmail place the emails?

If it is only happening on MacMail it would appear that the MacMail has become corrupted in some way during the transfer from old to new computer.

I would suggest that you drag and drop all the contents of the "Old" send folder into her "new sent folder and delete the "old" folder.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

RosiePaul — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 10:54:51 GMT

Answers in Italics:

Just to clarify.. the emails that she receives are AOL emails and the occasional gmail emails Correct

and are placed into an old MacMail sent box No an old sent mail box that came her old Windows computer NOT a MacMAil one but don't know anymore details on her old system.

Where does the BTMail webmail place the emails? Mostly in her inbox but the ones in question in the old sent folder

If it is only happening on MacMail it would appear that the MacMail has become corrupted in some way during the transfer from old to new computer. I think it's a BT issue rather than MacMail

I would suggest that you drag and drop all the contents of the "Old" send folder into her "new sent folder and delete the "old" folder. That sounds like a good idea but I'm worried that if the problem emails have nowhere to go because the old folder has been deleted she may not get them delivered at all.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

licquorice — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:13:40 GMT

I really cannot see how any emails can be delivered to a Sent folder unless there is a rule set up somewhere.

Have you checked in the account settings that there are no rules causing this to happen.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

licquorice — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:38:52 GMT

Just to clarify, the folder isn't actually a 'Sent'folder, it is now just a storage folder that has the label 'Sent' but was previously the true Sent folder on a different device.

There is either a rule set up in the webmail settings or in Mac mail.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

RosiePaul — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 12:53:27 GMT

That was my original thinking but I have checked on her Mac and there are no rules set up to do this. I also can't see anything on the BTInternet web interface although I'm not so familiar with this so I may have missed something.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

RosiePaul — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 12:55:29 GMT

That was my original thinking but I've checked her Mac mail and nothing is set up there to do this. I've looked at the BT web interface and also can't see any rules there but I'm not so familiar with this so I may have missed something.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

RosiePaul — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 12:57:10 GMT

You are correct. It's no longer a sent folder. I can't see a rule anywhere on the Mac but maybe something in the BT settings but I can't see anything although I may have missed it as not so familiar with this.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

gg30340 — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 13:00:06 GMT

To check for rules on webmail log onto the BTMail account using a browser, not an email client/app, and then click on her username at the right hand side. Select "Settings" then go to the left hand side and select "Mail". Scroll down and click on "Rules". It should be obvious to see if any rules have been set up.

If there are any set up that then begs the question "who set them up?".

If it only a folder named "sent" then I would do as I suggested and move them all to her sent folder and delete the old sent folder. It serves no purpose other than as a storage folder.

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

licquorice — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 13:40:56 GMT

Does she have any other devices active where the rule may have been set up?

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

RosiePaul — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 13:57:40 GMT

Thanks

Re: Incoming emails going to old sent box

RosiePaul — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 13:57:59 GMT

Not sure. I’ll check.