But the question is, are they (still also) in the k-9 “Outbox”? If they aren’t there it would seem that they are being delivered to your “Outgoing server/SMTP server”, however you have that defined, and aren’t being sent from there. I.e., if they aren’t still in the K-9 “Outbox”, that would seem to strongly indicate that the issue is with the “Outgoing server/SMTP server’s” handling of the messages, not K-9’s.
To clarify one point, the “Sent” folder in K-9 and its equivalent on your server are just copies of your outgoing mail. They are not involved in the actual sending of the message to the intended recipients. In K-9, it is the “Outbox” that is processed for sending outgoing mail from your mobile device to your configured Outgoing server/SMTP server. That machine is then responsible for actually delivering the message to the recipient’s mail server.
A message will show in the Sent/sent-mail folders even if your SMTP server fails to deliver it to the intended recipient. If a message can’t be delivered for some reason you should get a “bounce” notification. If all the messages you are sending are failing to be delivered, they aren’t still in your K-9 “Outbox”, and you aren’t getting bounces, then it sounds like a deeper issue with your outgoing mail server.
K-9 Mail only uploads messages to the Sent folder after they have been successfully delivered to the outgoing mail server. If the mail server doesn’t like the messages, but doesn’t return an error code there’s nothing K-9 Mail can do. It will assume everything went fine and uploads the message to the Sent folder.
You can try to record a debug log while sending a message. Maybe it will contain some useful information. Instructions here: LoggingErrors · k9mail/k-9 Wiki · GitHub
Hello all,
Don’t know if it is relevant but I wanted to add a comment related to my personal experience with sent mail using K9.
By default K9 application create some folder locally on the device in addition to the folder you retrieve with IMAP.
The point is that K9 use by default the local one. And there is many chance that the name does not match the one on the IMAP server. Thus no error (at least no visible error), the mail is correctly sent (and received by the recipient) and appear in the local sent folder but not on the IMAP server.
I had to change the default folder for sent item in the Account Settings \ Folders \ Sent folder then select in the list the folder corresponding to the IMAP server folder.
This worked for me.
Hope that help,
K-9 Mail does not support local Sent folders for IMAP accounts. It’s possible that certain circumstances could lead to effectively local folders like this with K-9 Mail 5.600 and older. But this should no longer be the case with K-9 Mail 5.7xx. If you are using such a version and notice odd behavior like the one you describe, please report it as a bug: https://github.com/k9mail/k-9/issues/new/choose
I am having the exact same issue. What’s strange is I just upgraded phones from a Samsung Galaxy 8 to an LG v60 Thinq. K9 mail is working just fine sending outgoing messages from the old phone but after installing, and reinstalling, and clearing cache plus all the troubleshooting suggestions in this thread, I still cannot send emails on the new phone to addresses outside my domain. I’ve configured it identically to the old phone, and I’m stumped. My issue appears identical to that described by the original poster (appears in sent box, intranet works fine, etc)
My husband works in cell phone tech troubleshooting and repair, and he’s stumped too.
Any updates on this issue? Help!
Thanks!
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I’m having the same problems too. I’ve only just begun troubleshooting. Here’s what I’m seeing.
- If I send an email to a gmail address from K9 via an email account that is hosted by BlueHost (I’ve tried 3), I get no errors in K9 and the email is stored as a sent item in K9. However, the gmail address never shows the email, not even in the spam folder. I have also recently had 2 people at major corporations advise that they are not receiving mail from me.
- If I send an email to a gmail address from a BlueHost email account’s webmail interface, I receive that email in the the regular inbox on the gmail account.
- If I send an email from a BlueHost address via K9, it is received by that BlueHost address.
- If I send an email from a non-BlueHost address via K9, such as one provided by my ISP, to a gmail address, it is received and shown in the inbox.
When I write all of that out, it does look like an issue at BlueHost. I’m going to ping them and see what they can tell me. I’ll let you know how I get on.
@camsown For problems with BlueHost see this thread: 5.8 showing as sent, but not always arriving at destination
Thanks mate. That’s a helluva read. I’d prefer to be able to keep using K9 but it looks like I mightn’t be able to for the foreseeable future.
@Melissa In a nutshell, the new version of K9 communicates with the email server at your provider in a different way now. Some of those email providers don’t like those changes but instead of flagging it as an issue with K9 (so that K9 can give you an error message), the email server accepts the message and then quietly dumps it, lost in the void forever.
Thanks for the tip jd47 - I just noticed that my imap mail on K-9 wasn’t showing in my mail sent folder server side. Easily corrected when I spotted my error on re-installing K-9 to my new phone
Account Settings \ Folders \ Sent folder - when selected, was set to “none” 
It is September 2022, I am using K-9 version 6.202 dated 2022-07-26 (latest & greatest in Google Play) and I am experience the same exact issue: My sent messages show up in the Sent folder on my smartphone’s K-9 but they never reach the destination (my own Google email account).
I verified all SMTP settings in my K-9 are correct (SSL/TLS, port 465, No client certificate, correct SMTP server name, username and password).
If I try to change K-9’s client certificate, I keep getting a “K-9 Mail keeps stopping” error pop-up.
I also verified ‘Upload sent message’ is checked and ‘Sent folder’ is selected ‘Sent’.
Additional ideas how to solve this?
what are your settings for:
- SMTP server [name]
- authentication [type]
there are a handful of smtp hosts that don’t play by the rules, which may be your issue.
@Seeker_of_the_Self : this error seems different to the others. I did not see that others got an error message.
The port you are using for SMTP (587) seems to be for STARTTLS. Did you select it for Security setting in K9?
Also according to Help - How do I set up Posteo in an email client? (POP3, IMAP and SMTP) - posteo.de
your provider writes:
We recommend using TLS instead of STARTTLS if possible.
Make sure you use the correct port for selected Security setting.
Nope, nothing of this is working,
that “socket timeout…failed to connect” error may imply a network routing, not k-9, issue. there are various IPv6 peering/routing problems, which may be what you are falling afoul of. if you have a desk/laptop (with traceroute and telnet) on the same IPv6 network as your android device (maybe by using the android device as a hotspot) you can potentially see if that’s the issue or not. there doesn’t seem to be a(n obvious) way to force an android device to use IPv4. if this is a wifi, rather than mobile data, connection you may be able to force IPv4 there (if you control the wifi side).
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I don’t understand the problem out of the sudden
I couldn’t send Emails, now they just stuck in my outbox and I’m getting these errors. I’m just using the mobile network because here is no Wi-Fi where I am right now. I can just use my mobile. When I try to send mail from my Email Provider it works but not with K-9 but I didn’t change anything in the settings.
can someone send me his/her settings and I’ll try with them? does this make sense?
the settings you need to use are based on your provider’s requirements - settings for some other provider may be of no value. you should look at the document for your provider that stphn references above.
providing your k-9 version, android release and the following from your “sending mail/outgoing server” configuration, might also be useful:
- SMTP server [name]
- security
- port
- authentication [type]