The terms outbox and sent messages are often used interchangeably when it comes to sending and receiving email through an email program like gmail, outlook, and more. however, they have different meanings in terms of delivery. when you compose an email and press send, it first goes to the “outbox” folder before connecting to the mail server and successfully sending to the recipient. once the messages have been successfully delivered to the recipient, they are moved to the “sent” or “sent messages” folder. if the messages are not sent, they get stuck in the outbox folder as communications in and out of the mail server are blocked. Emails stuck in outbox is a common problem in email programs, mainly because it can’t connect to smtp server. We present an unbiased comparison between the two.
what is an outbox?
The outbox is a temporary holding area where your composed messages are temporarily stored until your email client establishes a connection with the mail server and the recipient successfully receives your message. when you compose a message and press send, the outgoing message is moved to the outbox until a secure connection to the configured smtp server is available and successfully established. the message also remains in the outbox if the connection could not be established or due to internet connection problems. Until the message is successfully delivered to the recipient, the message remains in the outbox. if the connection is lost, the email client will try to automatically resend the message once the connection is restored. once the messages are delivered, they are deleted from the outbox. Simply put, the outbox is the place where outgoing messages are stored until the recipient sends and receives them completely.
what is ‘sent’ in email?
Unlike the outbox, which stores undeliverable messages, the sent folder contains sent messages that have been successfully received by the recipient. each email client has its own label system for sent messages, like gmail uses “sent mail” to store your outgoing mails while “sent items” is outlook’s own system label where all emails are stored sent through the mail server. Most email servers use the “sent” folder by default to store your outgoing emails. the sent folder is very different from the output folder; the sent folder stores all emails that were successfully delivered and received by the recipient(s), while the outbox refers to a location where emails temporarily remain until they are successfully delivered. To find your sent folder, hover over the navigation menu on the left and look for the folder labeled “sent”.
difference between outbox and sent
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meaning
outbox is a term used to describe a temporary holding area in the mailbox where all messages or emails are stored until they are fully delivered to the recipient. it is like a temporary folder in the mailbox where the emails are temporarily located before they are successfully delivered to the recipient or not sent in case you fail to connect to the smtp server or mail server. sent items or sent messages is the place where all emails that are fully delivered to the recipient are stored and can be reviewed.
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process
The email is first composed in the email client (gmail, outlook, live, etc.). type the email address of the recipient (receiver) at the top and add the subject and body of the message. When you press send, the message first goes to the mail server using the smtp protocol, the internet’s standard protocol for sending and receiving email messages, and then the mail server redirects your message to the destination server, which is the email’s mailbox. addressee. Before the connection to the mail server is established, the mail is stored in the outbox until it is successfully delivered to the recipient’s mailbox, finally arriving in their sent folder.
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purpose
Emails are temporarily stored in the outbox in case there is a communication problem between the email client and your outgoing mail server. As a result, the emails got stuck in the outbox folder because the email client could not connect to the mail server due to internet connection issues or some manual errors. once the connection is restored, the mails are sent successfully. In addition, it also allows you to review, edit or modify the content of the mail before it is received by the recipient. emails are automatically moved to the sent folder so you can keep track of your outgoing messages for future reference.
outbox vs. sent: comparison chart
outbox and sent summary
Both the terms outbox and sent are often used synonymously in the messaging system to describe messages in the sending process, but the difference lies in the status. while outbox refers to messages that are in the process of being sent until they are successfully sent, while sent refers to the area where messages that are successfully sent and received by the recipient are stored. the outbox is simply a temporary holding area where all pending messages are stored for you to review or modify before they are finally received by the recipient. messages or emails are automatically moved to the sent folder once they are successfully delivered and reach their destination address.
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