How do I find "sent" mail messages on my iPhone 4?

I am a pretty heavy user of my Apple iPhone 4's email capability, constantly reading messages as they arrive and sending out responses after tapping madly on the tiny virtual keyboard. It works. My question is whether there's a way for me to see my sent messages on the phone, so I can check prior discussions I might have had with an individual??

Dave's Answer:

When Apple switched to the so-called unified mailbox view in iPhone Mail, it did become a bit harder to figure out what's going on. Used to be that if you were looking at your mail, a single tap would show you a list of folders, including "sent".

Turns out that's all still there, but the difference is that it's now two taps away if you, like me, are using the "All Inboxes" unified mail view (and you should if you have more than one email account set up on your iPhone).

Here's a typical view of my unified inbox on my iPhone:

What you should notice is the button on the top left, highlighted here. It says "Mailboxes". Tap on it and you'll see the following:

That's where things like "Sent" used to be found, but now you can't get to your sent message archive unless you pick a specific account. I'll tap on "taylor@intuitive.com" and will move down one level...

A ha! There's that pesky "Sent" folder. Tap on it and you'll see a list of all the messages you've sent. If you're running POP as your connection to the mail server, it'll just be messages you've actually sent from your iPhone, but if you're running IMAP, then it's all messages you've sent regardless of system, which is darn nice when I send most of my messages from my laptop system!

Either way, that's the simple trick needed to get to your sent messages. To get back to your inbox view, just tap on your account name in the top left, then "mailboxes", then you can choose either "All Inboxes" or a specific account.

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Categorized: iPhone and Cell Phone Help (Article 9577, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: apple iphone 3gs, email management, imap, iphone 4, iphone mail, pop3
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Reader Comments To Date: 22

Donna Laframboise said, on February 18, 2011 11:09 AM:

Thank you so much!

It's a small thing, but it had me be-deviled :-)

A said, on April 4, 2011 3:04 PM:

Thanks so much! I wondered where it had gone with the new functionality...

ana said, on June 13, 2011 10:25 AM:

Thank you so, so much..exactly what I needed and the detail is perfect!!!!!!

Sonja said, on August 21, 2011 11:13 PM:

Just read your hints on finding sent emails on iPhone 4. Though I totally get the process, problem is there is absolutely nothing in my sent box, even though I send emails all the time from my iPhone. Is there a setting change I need to make to have these show up?

john said, on September 9, 2011 4:22 PM:

Hello, thank you, your article is GREAT !!!
But now how do i do the opposite ???
i mean... i am trying to see the email sent through my iphone, from mail app on mac... they doesnt not show up...

Any suggestion ?

Nikki Reid said, on October 7, 2011 5:24 PM:

Thank you so much!!!

Richard said, on February 6, 2012 1:51 PM:

I've noticed several times while I've been on my iPhone 4s I hear the standard "jet swoosh" signifying an email was sent.

I'm a bit suspicious as it occurs when I have not sent any emails. When I look through my accounts sent mail folders I don't find anything with time stamps around the time that I hear mail sent sound.

I'm wondering if there are any tools that can report or check iOS for "all" outbound email or messaging activity.

Fran Vertue said, on February 17, 2012 4:30 PM:

Thanks very much for that! After I started running iOS5 on my iPhone 3G, I couldn't find my Sent mail.

Jay said, on April 5, 2012 1:57 PM:

On iPhone 4s, despite ticking the setting for "show 100 recent messages", it will show only the last 25 messages, which is pretty annoying when away from home. Any suggestions, please, as to how to fix this? Thanks!

james victor said, on April 18, 2012 3:18 PM:

thanks so much . you the man.

Biologykid said, on June 21, 2012 8:44 PM:

YOU ROCK, Dave Taylor!

I have bumbling around looking for my well crafted sent messages.

You were clear. The graphics were elucidating. Simply Fabulous.

You have been bookmarked!

Christina said, on August 24, 2012 8:09 AM:

Thank you so much for this! As a new iPhone user, I saved something in my mail's "draft" folder and couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how to retrieve it! Again, thanks a bunch!

Marianne said, on October 1, 2012 1:05 PM:

Thanks for the info...I don't know why they change things without at least letting you know but I'm grateful for your easy to follow answer to this question

James said, on November 9, 2012 8:16 PM:

i was also kinda lost on it but thanks to your help,'twas a great help indeed

m glaab said, on November 19, 2012 8:10 PM:

Hi Dave. Just getting familiar with my 4S, and was looking for my sent folder as well. But hope this isn't your final answer. I have 6 e addresses and if I have to click 6 sent folders to find sent mail that's far different, much more difficult and far more time consuming than my Blackberry. Please say there's a simple way around this. tks mg

catherine said, on November 28, 2012 1:24 PM:

Thanks you solved my problem with my sent mail.

Corey Mondello said, on December 26, 2012 3:06 PM:

I couldnt find "sent" still. my 'mailboxes' screen doesnt list my email, all i see is, in order from top tp botton; inbox, VIP (which i want to dump)Spam, [Gmail] (in surrounded just like that and is colored gray not black like all the other letters) then it lists my personal folders that I created when I was on my lap top so I could move emails to certain folders. There is nothing else. If I click the 'edit' button on the upper right, the [Gmail] and the folders i created are the only things that can be deleted. i even tried changing the [Gmail] name to my email address to see if that would make mine show up and then i could do what you suggest, but it said i cannot change the name on the server. i hate not knowing if i sent an email, it went through, cause people dont always respond and its not like reading txt message where u can see what u sent and have the option to see if it was read by another iphone/ipad user. so....any suggestions would be helpful. i have two 'iphone4' books but they havent been much help, i have gotten any and all of my questions on line answered viam forums like this.

Jill said, on January 12, 2013 4:15 PM:

Thanks a lot, Dave.. Great help!!!

steve said, on January 15, 2013 7:06 AM:

As many above me have noted, it was driving me crazy to find my folders since the latest iTunes update. Thank youvery much

Margaret said, on February 10, 2013 5:41 AM:

Have followed your instructions on my iphone 4 to find sent box but all that shows is inbox and trash.
Your instructions work on ipad so whats up with iphone mailbox

Jessica said, on February 18, 2013 8:45 AM:

I have a question about why when I just checked some sent mail my email messages in a conversation are now showing as red and green, the senders and my own address have remained blue but the rest changed in the last few hours, I haven't touched my settings today and don't understand why or how this has happened. Appreciate your thoughts/ feedback. Many thanks in anticipation. Jessica.

Jeannie said, on February 22, 2013 5:47 PM:

Hi Dave. I followed your fabulous directions on my iphone5 many hours ago so I could view sent mail in my two email addresses Now when I went to review sent in each mailbox the google one lists everything even special folders but the Verizon one which showed sent mAil hours ago only shows inbox and trash. Sent mail has disappeared. Any suggestions for my iphone5? Thanks a million

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

How do I find "sent" mail messages on my iPhone 4?

Reader Comments To Date: 22

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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