Reply changes "from" address

Discussion of bugs in Mozilla Thunderbird
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Cten
Posts: 16
Joined: January 13th, 2015, 2:13 pm

Reply changes "from" address

Post by Cten »

This bug has been reported here and on other forums over the years, but apparently was solved then. I have not experienced it before. But just recently, when I start a reply to many messages, Thunderbird changes the "from" address.

That is, if I send originally from account (or alias) mm@moi.com, the incoming reply arrives at that address (or another for which it is an alias). But when I reply in turn, instead of going out from that address, it gets changed to some other "from" address.

I have about a dozen actual POP accounts running through four different servers under one Local Folders system. Between these accounts, I use about 30 aliases as well as the "real" SMTP account e-mail addresses. Especially annoying is that the "from" address TB always chooses is a private one from which I *never* send public mail; just keep it for receiving messages from ISP. I've developed the habit of checking before sending, but might make a mistake sometime.

Any suggestions for fixing this annoyance?

Thanks in advance...
Last edited by Cten on December 29th, 2016, 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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tanstaafl
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Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Reply changes "from" address

Post by tanstaafl »

The problem might be that the desired From: address isn't listed as a multiple identity in the current account and/or you need to set mailnews.reply_to_self_check_all_ident to true using the Config editor to have it check the identities for all accounts when replying.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Multiple_iden ... il_account
Cten
Posts: 16
Joined: January 13th, 2015, 2:13 pm

Re: Reply changes "from" address

Post by Cten »

By George, you've got it! I used to use a new alias@mydomain.com for every on-line business and many different personal uses. (Makes it easier to tell where spam comes from, and makes each address less valuable if it needs to be killfiled - one reason why it's worth owning a domain or two, with catch-all mail forwarding.)

However, that required tweaking the outgoing address many times. So instead, I set up three dozen aliases for everything, and use those for all sent mail. That was recent, and so a lot of mail is still coming in on the old aliases as mailing lists are updated. So far, it looks like the problem is with outgoing names for which there is no alias in Thunderbird, just as you say.

You've also pointed to why it always picks the same address, even after changing that Advanced setting. Your cited article says "Thunderbird uses the identity that matches the address the message was originally sent to, if it can find a match in the account you are working in." I recently changed my outgoing SMTP server, and the "real" address under most of the aliases was that one I wanted to keep hidden (though I suppose it shows up in full headers, if people look there). Now using same aliases on new real addresses, so I guess the problem will resolve when older sent messages stop getting replies.

Thanks so much for this solution, and for a great forum! I'm not only finding fixes here, but also insight into how these programs work below the surface.
Cten
Posts: 16
Joined: January 13th, 2015, 2:13 pm

Re: Reply changes "from" address

Post by Cten »

And in case it's useful to anyone else...

I changed the "Email address" entry in "Account settings" for the old root account from "mm@moi.com" to just "mm" - in other words, not a valid address. When I reply to the mails that were a problem before, they are created just fine - but without a valid sender address, they don't go out. Risk eliminated. And if I ever do need to send mail from mm@moi.com, it only takes a few seconds to re-enter the correct address in Account Settings.

Again, thanks!
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