Have you ever started to write an email on the iPhone or iPad only to realize half-way through that you are not quite ready to send it yet and you need to turn your attention to other emails first? You don’t have to lose all of the typing that you have done so far because the Mail app lets you save drafts and then go back to them later. Here is how.
The first step is to save what you have done so far as a draft. To do so, tap the Cancel button in the top left corner. This will give you the option to either delete the incomplete email or to Save Draft. Tap the Save Draft button.
Then, whenever you are ready to resume working on your draft email, you need to use the same icon at the bottom right corner of the main Mail screen that you tap on to start a new message … but don’t tap on that button. Instead, hold down on that button for about a second. This will cause a window to pop up showing you a list of all of your saved draft messages.
Simply tap on the email that you want to continue to working on, and then you’ll find yourself right where you left off. You can go through this whole process again to save a new draft, or when you finally finish your email you can send it.
If you later decide that you no longer want to continue to save a draft of a message, just hold down the compose button to see the list of draft messages and then swipe across the message. A delete button will appear on the right.
The above images are all from an iPhone, but this works on the iPad, too.
I cannot manage to get the last screen where it asks you to select a new message or one of the drafts. Hitting the ‘new message’ icon goes directly to a new message. Any thoughts as to why this might be?
I have a 4S running 6.1.2 and multiple inboxes.
Thank you!
Just tap in the body of the drafts And it will open for edition. I spent hours to find this!
Do not ‘hit’ the ‘new message’ icon but press and hold it for few seconds.
On my iphone 4s the cancel button is on the right side, they nothing on the left side.
what I want to do is look at my other messages in my inbox without closing the message I am writing. I do this all the time, I may be writing something that refers to several other messages, and I need to be able to look at those messages, and even copy something, maybe a long url, from the message I am reading and paste it in the message I am writing. having to save the message I am writing as a draft and then go reopen it seems tedious compared to how I do it on my PC where I just click back and forth between the reading pane and the window for the mesage I am writing. Can I do this on ipad?
On the iPad, you need to save a draft, go to the other message, then go back to the draft. There is no way to keep two “windows” open in the Mail app at the same time.
-Jeff
Brilliant – thanks so much for this solution; I was going bonkers trying to figure out how to save a draft on my iPad. NN
My drafts screen has both the send and cancel buttons at the bottom of the screen. Tapping the cancel button deletes the message without the save option coming up. What do I need to do if I’m interrupted while composing a draft and want to save what I have already written?
When I tap the Cancel button (in iOS 7) I see a menu popup with an option to “Delete Draft” or “Save Draft” — so I’m not sure why it doesn’t show up for you. Note that I see the Cancel and Send buttons at the top of the screen, not the bottom.
-Jeff
After I open a message and want to come back to my other messages I have to close and open again to read the other messages is any other way to do it with out closing you mail
I save into ‘Draft”, but then it is gone forever. Where are my saved drafts going. They are not in the “draft” file.
Mystery to me.
Please help.
Cheers
Yes, and there is no f…ing warning that drafts are not kept as I just learnt the hard way. I closed the draft without saving, hoping that it was still there when I open Mail again, and, alas, it wasn’t. At least there should be a warning like on Mac OS X.
PS: if you draft an email from within the Photo app (with photos attached, using the Share button), the draft may be accessible through Photo again. Quite counterintuitive but true, at least on iOS 6.1.2
My draft has disappeared, my iPad mini says no drafts when I try to reinstate – any suggestions?
If you correctly saved the draft it should be there. But if it is not, I think you might be out of luck. Ugh!
-Jeff
I saved my draft, but didn’t have a draft folder. Any idea where it went?
Something which works great for me, when I realize I want to cut-and-paste from other emails or other apps, I copy the text which I’ve been typing (but not yet sent) then exit Mail and open Notes app. Paste the saved text and then continue creating the message, even copy-and-paste from other emails, web pages or whatever. Finally when ready to send the polished message, I copy-paste into Mail as a new message or hit “reply” then paste the text, then send the msg. Or, can send the polished text directly from Notes app.
Stupid way of retrieving saved draft
Awesome Thanks for the help!
I “saved” a draft from “share” on iPad Photos, but I can’t find it anywhere. I’ running iOS 8.4.1. I can’t even find the email addresse ANYWHERES on my iPad, even tho’ it should appear in other emails.
Hotmail drafts emails via iPhone 6+
I have saved draft emails whilst offline (using my iPhone 6+) and now they’re not loading for me to continue editing, though when in my drafts folder I can see the first 5 lines previewed so I know the content is ‘somewhere’. I thought it would save hem locally when offline and then sync when back in wifi. Any thought as to how I can get these draft emails to appear when I am on them?
Also – when I make drafts emails via my phone when in wifi zones they don’t appear in the drafts folder if I log into my hotmail account from a computer, it appears they only save locally??!! Is there any way that I can get around this?
Thank you, cheers
Mel
Seems a bit annoying that the drafts folder isn’t obvious.
I’ve got instructions on how to find it on my blog is anyone needs some extra help.
http://www.lauramartin.co.nz/unable-to-find-the-e-mail-draft-saved-on-my-ipadiphone/
Thanks. Hitting Cancel is totally counterintuitive.
I have an iPad 1.
When I bring a message out of Drafts for editing it appears on the screen and can be edited ok, but the Cancel and Send buttons are inoperative sometimes, though not always. When both these buttons are inoperative I have a devil of a job to get out of this situation and have not found a systematic way to do so.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have IOS 9.3.2 on my I phone 6. Opened Photos, hit select, checked several photos,
Hit the square icon with the arrow pointing upwards through it, hit mail icon and an e mail
Window opened with the selected photos. I added text explanations to each photo.
I wanted to take and attach another photo, so I hit “cancel”
And another window opened with two buttons as options
“Delete Draft” in red and “Save Draft” in blue. I hit “Save Draft” , took the other photo I wanted to include.
I opened Mail again, hit “Mailboxes” , another window showing all mailboxes appeared, selected Drafts
and my “saved” draft did not appear. I looked in “Junk” as indicated in a post above. It was not there either.
I logged into my mail account ( Yahoo) using Safari & checked the mailboxes there. I could not find it.
Any suggestions as to where I might find my “saved” draft?
Hold down the button that you press to compose an email. Don’t tap it; hold it down for a second. Then you will see a list of your saved emails.
-Jeff
If I have an important letter, I type it in notes. I can edit, change it, look at the whole body etc. I can then copy to a mail compose and know that even if mail fails, I have a copy of that letter.
Most of the suggestions here work when you are ON-LINE (except the Notes suggestion). The question I have is how to save e-mails you create when you are OFF-LINE. The only partial solution is to actually hit send, and stay OFF-LINE and then go back and edit from your Out-box. Drafts apparently is connected to your mail provider (yahoo etc) and if not ON-LINE is not saved to your iPhone or iPAD’s storage. The concern is if you connect while the message is in the Outbox, you will send a partially completed message. Does anyone have a suggestion for saving a draft in Drafts while OFF-LINE.
I have saved a draft email from my images, as I was sending the images through emails. But I can’t find it as it’s not saved in draft. What can I do?
Thanks
Same happened to me – purchased extra storage too for iCloud – my email & pics are time sensitive & I cannot locate all the pics and captioned anywhere- not in drafts, outgoing, sent, or junk mail folders – please help- thank you
Q:iPad Mail Troubles – Saved Drafts Disappear, Sent Mail Disappears.
I have both these problems, intermittently. iPad 5, OS 10.2 using Gmail.
Holding down Compose button produces contents of Drafts file plus current day’s lost Drafts, but not older ones. No fixes found to retrieve lost “sent” mail, which disappears from Drafts file, disappears, and is not sent.
This problem is 7 years old.
This app solves that draft email problem.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mail-aide/id1180678139?ls=1&mt=8
i am not talking about e-mail. How do a save a TEXT MESSAGE to drafts on iphone se?
I open my drafts and hold the pencil in the bottom right hand corner and the choices new message and two saved drafts pop u
I click on the draft I want to add to but it doesn’t open?
If I am following what you are saying, you are in the Mail app and you hold down on the icon to create a new message and you see the pop-up list of your prior drafts, but then when you tap on one of those drafts you don’t actually see the draft? If that is what you are describing, I’ve never seen that behavior. When I click on the title of the draft, I am brought into the email composition screen with the draft of the email, picking up on the email where i last left it. But perhaps I’m not understanding what you are describing?
-Jeff