Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

When I enter a group name into the Bcc field and try to send the message, I get "[group name] is not a valid e-mail address..."

  • 5 replies
  • 9 have this problem
  • 45 views
  • Last reply by James-SoCal

dcs1225
dcs1225
more options

Been using the same template to send a weekly newsletter for a year or two but now with a recent update to Thunderbird the group name is rejected when I try to send the message:

With a group name in Bcc field, when I press "Send" and try to send the message, I get this alert: "[group name] is not a valid e-mail address because it is not of the form user@host. You must correct it before sending the e-mail."

Been using the same template to send a weekly newsletter for a year or two but now with a recent update to Thunderbird the group name is rejected when I try to send the message: With a group name in Bcc field, when I press "Send" and try to send the message, I get this alert: "[group name] is not a valid e-mail address because it is not of the form user@host. You must correct it before sending the e-mail."

All Replies (5)

Fabián Rodríguez
Fabián Rodríguez
more options

This has been reported as Bug #1060901. If you have an account on Bugzilla, please consider voting for that issue.

Several other people have sent in the same support request as you, noting this happened after they upgraded to version 31.1.

The exact error message is: XXXX is not a valid e-mail address because it is not of the form user@host. You must correct it before sending the e-mail.

This happens in Thunderbird 31.1.0 when your mailing list description includes several words separated by spaces.

Although not ideal, these workarounds should let you use your mailing lists until a proper fix is implemented:

  • While composing an email open the address book and select the list you are trying to send to, highlight all the names in the list and drag them to the To: box. This uses your existing data without modifying it.
  • Replacing the blanks " " between the words in such lists' descriptions with an underscore "_". This requires modifying your mailing list(s) description(s).
  • Downgrade to a previous version and disable automatic updates (Windows)
BDinger3
BDinger3
more options

Can you please provide a web address to obtain the previous version?

Thanks,

Fabián Rodríguez
Fabián Rodríguez
more options

In Windows Thunderbird updates are automatic by default. To avoid similar situations in the future, you could change that and decide to have a more conservative approach to upgrades.

Before trying anything, make a backup of your current Thunderbird profile.

You can uninstall the current Thunderbird version via Control Panel > Programs and Features and reinstall a previous version, download it from here:

Click on the type for your OS. eg: If using Windows select 'win32' then select the language eg: en-GB = English british then download the .exe file

You can customize automatic updates behavior, however, it's under Tools > Options > Advanced > Update.

My suggestion would be to set it to Check for updates, but let me choose whether to install them., specially if you depend on email for critical / important business or personal matters.

BDinger3
BDinger3
more options

Thanks very much.

James-SoCal
James-SoCal
more options

I had a similar problem in 31.4.0 but found that selecting all, or some, addresses in the group list address book on the left then clicking on "Add to Bcc" at the bottom of that list all selected addresses appear in a sequence list of Bcc entries for sending the message. A different method than in the past but it works well in 31.4.0 James-SoCal