TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

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Cedders
Posts: 8
Joined: January 28th, 2010, 1:23 pm

TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by Cedders »

Hello

I'm using Ubuntu xenial, and so today jumped from Thunderbird 45.8.0 to Thunderbird 52.1.1. Besides a few new problems with the UI (particularly the loss of a paging function in the scrollbar), it's suddenly lost the usual 'Reply' function to respond to mailing lists properly.

Can someone please explain what's changed in the intervening versions, and why?

For mailing lists, showing two out of 'Reply to list', 'Reply to from' and 'Reply to' gives a useful choices sometimes. But it's been the case for decades that mailing list software adds a Reply-To that determines how replies work - different lists have different requirements. For a high-volume noisy list it makes sense not to add Reply-To, and a list administrator can ensure the list doesn't set its own Reply-To. For other lists the list community really does want more of a forum, and so make it easiest for people to reply to the list. I usually want to trust whatever the list administrator has set, and can check in the unlikely case I definitely want it to be a private reply.

I've caused a few problems for other people and myself today by not realising I was replying to an individual rather than the list.

RFC 5322 & 5598 say Reply should respect Reply-To. I don't see any advanced preference to restore the standard behaviour either.
Last edited by DanRaisch on May 17th, 2017, 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: "(Linux)" added to subject line.
wsmwk
Posts: 2833
Joined: December 7th, 2004, 6:52 am
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Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by wsmwk »

Same problem if you have started in safe mode??
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/sa ... hunderbird
Cedders
Posts: 8
Joined: January 28th, 2010, 1:23 pm

Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by Cedders »

Yes, it's the same in safe mode - which makes sense because 'Reply' is a core feature!

I see "When replying to a mailing list, reply will be sent to address in From header ignoring Reply-to header" in the changelog for 50 beta 2, but maybe it met objections then as it's also in the TB 52 change log.

I'm surprised that I can't find either reasoning before the change or much comment by users (I see 'Is it a joke? WHY WOULD YOU!'). People probably assume it's their own human error, but it does mean some email is not delivered to who it's supposed to go to!
Cedders
Posts: 8
Joined: January 28th, 2010, 1:23 pm

Re: TB 52 Reply button not respecting Reply-To

Post by Cedders »

Trying to reword the subject more simply:

Thunderbird has a Reply function, accessible via the first button on the left in the preview pane, or Ctrl+R etc. Until Thunderbird 52, if the incoming message had a Reply-To header, Reply would use that as the recipient address.

As of Thunderbird 52, this isn't consistent. If Thunderbird detects the message as having come through an email list, it now presents two buttons 'Reply' and a drop-down button marked 'Reply List', and the 'Reply' button ignores the Reply-To header, so replies are less likely to go to the list address.

Now, I'm not saying previous behaviour was perfect, but among other things the drop-down button also now has an option called 'Reply' that works in the standard way (RFC 5322 A2) - two things called 'Reply' that work in different ways. I'm also not sure why lists are treated any differently from other email with a Reply-To.

My suggestions to avoid confusion in these list situations would be either:
(a) rename the left-hand button 'Reply author'; or, ideally
(b) have the simple left-hand button always follow the suggestion in Reply-To, thus respecting the list moderator's intentions (it still does if the Reply-To is the author). So when there is a Reply-To: list, the left hand button would say 'Reply list', and the right hand button would give options 'Reply author' and 'Reply all'.
rloew
Posts: 1
Joined: May 24th, 2017, 7:14 am

Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by rloew »

The reply-to function seems not working also for other mails.
I am working with Ubuntu (14.04 / 16.04 / 17.04) clients and if clicking on reply or reply all (Antworten / Allen antworten in German version) there is no entry in the to field.

Added 04.07.2017 : Solution : deinstall Add On "Display Contact Photo" and replace with Add On "Contact Photo"
Last edited by rloew on July 4th, 2017, 6:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
mikeymike
Posts: 2832
Joined: April 24th, 2003, 6:00 am
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Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by mikeymike »

I'm having the same problem on on win32 and Thunderbird 52, but I think the problem is a little weirder than what has been described so far.

Yes, it looks like something related to how TB talks to mailing lists (because if I set my own e-mail account to have another reply-to address, send an email to myself then reply to it, the standard reply option honours the reply-to setting). However, all the e-mails to a list I'm subscribed to have this problem except if I try to reply to an e-mail I've sent to the list, then the standard reply option works fine (ie. by default the reply goes to the list).
mikeymike
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Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by mikeymike »

I'm not aware of a bug report on this (I've tried searching for it). Is there one?
aasmund
Posts: 2
Joined: June 19th, 2017, 3:02 pm

Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by aasmund »

This is a deliberate feature. It is listed in the release notes: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbi ... easenotes/

"When replying to a mailing list, reply will be sent to address in From header ignoring Reply-to header"

I've not been able to find any explanation of this change, or any way to get the old behavior back.
titoov
Posts: 1
Joined: June 23rd, 2017, 11:20 pm

Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by titoov »

Hello everybody,
aasmund wrote:This is a deliberate feature. It is listed in the release notes: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbi ... easenotes/

"When replying to a mailing list, reply will be sent to address in From header ignoring Reply-to header"

I've not been able to find any explanation of this change, or any way to get the old behavior back.
Ahhrgh! Who has done that for what? Since decades TB respects Reply-To in mailinglists, and now that feature is gone and cannot even be configured...?
I am member in a lot of mailinglists and hit Ctrl-R automatically to reply to the lists. Since about 15 years... for me and a lot of other users of mailinglists this is a necessary and basic feature.

This is ridiculous!

titoov
Kethlak
Posts: 3
Joined: August 4th, 2017, 10:35 pm

Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by Kethlak »

I am also angry about this. I am downgrading to version 45 of Thunderbird because I cannot accept this functionality. I am the moderator of a small Google Group consisting of 6 people who all get together on Saturdays that I created for the EXPRESS PURPOSE of making sure people didn't accidentally reply only to the sender instead of everyone, and now I keep accidentally replying only to the sender with confirmations of meeting times and dates. This is unacceptable.
hschlossberg
Posts: 24
Joined: September 28th, 2004, 10:28 am

Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by hschlossberg »

It would be great if anyone could provide a good reason for such a change that violates the normal rules of email (i.e. how does the reply-to protocol apply if not to direct who the reply goes to?!). I'd assumed until today that it was just a bug that would soon get fixed. But seeing this thread is discouraging and maddening. Since I am a part of three such business discussion groups to which I might reply multiple times daily, this has become a big problem for me. I'm going to search now for a plugin extension that "fixes" this behavior, but I otherwise fear this may be the last straw that pushes be away from Mozilla/Thunderbird after 20-24 years of use. Sigh.
mikeymike
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Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by mikeymike »

I don't keep up with bugzilla discussions, but this bug report seems to be the one that triggered the change I think (I've scan-read several this morning):
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=77304

For now I've customised the main toolbar to include the 'reply to list' button, but I bet I'll accidentally hit reply at some point.

Some things of interest I found today:

The 'smart reply' button (that only appears on the header pane for messages and cannot be made to appear on the main toolbar currently) automatically figures out whether to reply to sender or list. Kind of like a 'Reply' button... strange that! :) is one potential course of action, or you could vote for this bug to get it to be visible on other toolbars:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=868961

Probably the more interesting one - a feature request to allow the user to configure reply behaviour, which you could vote for:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1392371
Kethlak
Posts: 3
Joined: August 4th, 2017, 10:35 pm

Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by Kethlak »

Okay, I accidentally upgraded a few days ago and I finally just got sick of it and wrote a plugin to restore the behavior of older versions. I'm on Windows, so hopefully it will work for Linux as well. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunde ... -reply-to/
hschlossberg
Posts: 24
Joined: September 28th, 2004, 10:28 am

Re: TB 52 not respecting Reply-To (Linux)

Post by hschlossberg »

Kethlak wrote:Okay, I accidentally upgraded a few days ago and I finally just got sick of it and wrote a plugin to restore the behavior of older versions. I'm on Windows, so hopefully it will work for Linux as well. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunde ... -reply-to/
I just installed this and it works just as I'd hoped. I don't understand why the app was ever changed to ignore the "reply-to" address. THAT change went against long-established protocol. Thanks for this add-on @Kethlak!
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