Bug? Draft is lost when replying or forwarding

[Spetnik]

I just opened an email, clicked "forward" and began to type
instructions for the recipient. I then realized that the original
sender did not provide me with enough information, so I saved the
forward as a draft. However, when attempting to reply to the original
sender, Gmail just modifies the draft to be a reply instead of a
forward. After sending my reply, the draft is gone.

Where do I report this "bug"?

Thanks

[Nick Chirchirillo]

I don't think that this is a bug, but rather how it is supposed to work. 

--
-Nick

[Spetnik]

I am supposed to lose my draft? With MS Outlook, I can save a draft of
a response and then send another response or forward without losing my
saved draft.

This is a crucial feature.

[Nick Chirchirillo]

Yes, because when you clicked "reply", you changed the draft from a forward to a reply.  Once you send the draft, it is no longer a draft and thus goes away.  This is a limitation of the way GMail handles conversations on the web interface.

--
-Nick

[Zack (Doc)]

Actually, the default in Outlook is exactly the same, in fact, when I pick a draft out of my folder in Outlook, write it, and click send, the original Draft is gone.  If I want to keep a template, I have to copy the draft before I open it to write it/send it.  I don't see this as a GMail exclusive, or loss, just "the way things are".

--

Robert Orben  - "Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch."

[Spetnik]

That is not what I am talking about. Of course once a draft is sent it
is no longer a draft. However, if I begin a reply in Outlook and save
it as a draft and then go back to the original message, I can begin
ANOTHER reply or forward without losing the other draft reply. With
GMail, you will lose the first draft when you attempt to reply.

Here is an example:

1. Bob sends an email asking me to have someone order Chinese food.
2. I hit "forward" to send this email to Sally and begin typing to
explain how to order the food.
3. I realize that I do not know what dish Bob wants to order so I save
the email that I began to Sally as a draft.
4. I go back to Bob's message and hit "reply" to ask what dish he
would like. In Outlook, this will begin a new message, preserving the
draft message to Sally. GMail, however, changes the existing draft
from a forward to a reply and puts Bob's email address in the "to"
field.

Outlook's functionality is correct, because I do not want to lose the
email that I am sending to Sally when I reply to Bob.

> Robert Orben <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1144.html>  - "Most people

[maureenskaar]

as far as I can see, gmail will function correctly, if you sent from
the draft position, its no longer a draft, but, if as in your example,
you began and then went back to the original to reply, the draft will
not go away as you didn't send it.
I have a few stock letters I keep in draft, when I want to use one, I
copy it and open a new compose, or go to a letter I need to respond to
and paste it into the reply and still keep my draft. the only way I
have ever lost a draft is to forget and hit send from the draft
position.

[Aaron J Spetner]

Have you tried this? It does not work for me.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: maureenskaar <mauree...@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:19:11
To: Gmail-Users<Gmail...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Gmail-Users] Re: Bug? Draft is lost when replying or forwarding

[Matt McDonnell]

While I don't agree with Aaron that this is necessarily a bug, I do
agree that this behavior caught me by surprise. I don't use drafts
the way some others use them, but I have on occasion wiped out a draft
when I attempted to respond to specific message in a thread as opposed
to the last message. I know how to avoid it now, but it wasn't the
most intuitive behavior.