problem with drafts folder sync with Gmail

[dylanme2001]

hello,  i have a specific question regarding the drafts folder on aqua mail and syncing it with Gmail's draft folder. 
my wife gets a lot of mail every day and her way of handling the important ones is moving them to Gmail's draft folder.  for that she opens the received email,  writes a word or two in the reply and then exits so it will be saved as a draft.  when I bought aqua mail,  i was excited to show her that she can use the swipe gesture and decide where to move the received mail. she can choose 'move to folder - - drafts' . 
this was excellent and time saving until we found out that the drafts saved on aqua mail 'draft folder'  does not actually appear on Gmail drafts when logging from the computer.  the messages remained in the inbox..  I have Imap configured both for the app itself and the account.  is there something I'm missing or this kind of synchronization is not possible?
thanks in advance for the answer. 

[dylanme2001]

thank you for clarifying this.

[StR]

@Paris Geek: I am not sure why moving to Drafts should be forbidden.
"Drafts" is also a folder. Yes, it has a special functionality, but I am not aware of how being able to move a message to Drafts violates any IMAP specs or spirit of its design.

Why would a user want to do that? I am not "buying" the scenario described by the OP (but again, if someone can use this and it is convenient, - why not?). But I can clearly see an example of the functionality that one may want to have: Thunderbird offers an option of "Edit as new message". This way, you can take a message in Sent, and use it as a template for a new message.
I think moving a message to Drafts should allow to achieve similar functionality. (Actually, in this case "Copy" would be preferred, but as we know, it is, unfortunately, not implemented in Aquamail.)

@dylanme2001:
Messages in [Drafts] in Aquamail should sync with the Drafts folder on the server. This is usually configured by default. And I expect it should happen regardless of how the message ends up in [Drafts].
I suspect that Aquamail doesn't have (or lost) the mapping of the [Drafts] folder to the corresponding folder on Gmail server. (This type of mishaps had been reported by other people, - and it is a glitch on Gmail's side.)

To enable syncing of [Drafts], please follow the instructions described under "How do I access server side folders?" of the Aquamail FAQ: http://www.aqua-mail.com/?page_id=227

[mikeone]

It should be forbidden (in AquaMail) because else it leads to a bug, in AquaMail.
Either to be fixed or to be disabled.

I would prefer to have the bug fixed rather than disable "Move to Draft folder"

[StR]

It should be forbidden (in AquaMail) because else it leads to a bug, in AquaMail.
Either to be fixed or to be disabled.

Paris Geek: I may have misunderstood your first post: I thought you said it was a bug that moving messages to [Drafts] was allowed.

It should not be forbidden. If there is a bug that prevents the messages from being synced, it needs to be fixed.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Move to draft should work and cause the messages to be moved on the server.

Please check AquaMail's folder mappings (to server folders):

- Long press on the account on the app's main screen

- Options and folders -> folders

- Let it refresh

- Find [Gmail] and then under it Drafts (may vary, Draft Messages, Message Drafts, in your language not necessarily English)

- Tap this folder, choose "Sync with [ Drafts ]"

Back out and try moving again.

If this still doesn't work, please let me know.

[dylanme2001]

Move to draft should work and cause the messages to be moved on the server.

Please check AquaMail's folder mappings (to server folders):

- Long press on the account on the app's main screen

- Options and folders -> folders

- Let it refresh

- Find [Gmail] and then under it Drafts (may vary, Draft Messages, Message Drafts, in your language not necessarily English)

- Tap this folder, choose "Sync with [ Drafts ]"

Back out and try moving again.

If this still doesn't work, please let me know.

Hello,  I have done all this exactly,  step by step.  still doesn't work.  message stays in the inbox (gmail)  on the server side,  although it's in 'drafts'  folder in aqua mail.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Looking at it now. It's actually "something weird" in Gmail.

When AquaMail tries to move your message into Drafts on the server, the server says it can't be done.

NO [ALERT] Only Drafts can exist in the Drafts folder (Failure)

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/9PoUpVVl9o4

And then AquaMail retries a limited number of times and gives up...

[Kostya Vasilyev]

I just tried to implement a workaround and wasn't able to.

There is way for a mail app to mark a message as a draft (the IMAP \Draft flag).

So I tried setting that flag on the message before moving.

The flag did get set.

And then the "move to Drafts folder" command still failed with same server error.

In other words, Gmail "knows" that a particular message is *not* a Draft, on its own, independently of this flag, and will not allow it to be moved into the Drafts folder.

It also isn't possible to move a message from Inbox to Drafts in Gmail web mail:

- Drag and drop'ing can be executed but does nothing.
- The "Move to" drop-down list of folders lists Spam, Trash, other labels / folders, but Drafts is missing there too.

--> not an AquaMail bug, a Gmail limitation, no workaround.

[StR]

I just tried to implement a workaround and wasn't able to.

There is way for a mail app to mark a message as a draft (the IMAP \Draft flag).

So I tried setting that flag on the message before moving.

The flag did get set.

And then the "move to Drafts folder" command still failed with same server error.

In other words, Gmail "knows" that a particular message is *not* a Draft, on its own, independently of this flag, and will not allow it to be moved into the Drafts folder.

Besides \Draft flag, there are other signs of a non-draft message. I suspect that a draft messages doesn't have a Message-ID yet. Gmail relies on Message-ID a lot, so, I am sure it tracks those.
Additionally, there could be something else (e.g. Received headers, ... ).

[dylanme2001]

Thanks for the effort, I appreciate it.  great app nevertheless. 

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Re: That's why I said that Move to Draft should not be allowed (in Gmail).

Did you know about how "Gmail is special" in this regard?