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T-bird changing 'from' email address to one of my alternates and will not update when server settings changed

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  • Last reply by Matt

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I am confused about this. The user name in 'Outgoing server / Edit SMTP server' in settings keeps getting reversed in two of my accounts (out of 4). They all use Google and server name is 'smtp.gmail.com for all four.

I cannot permanently save the correct user name, eg, 'paulr99@gmail.com' in the smtp server edit box. It keeps changing to the second email address, and the same with the other account. It gets swapped with this one. Any ideas?

I am confused about this. The user name in 'Outgoing server / Edit SMTP server' in settings keeps getting reversed in two of my accounts (out of 4). They all use Google and server name is 'smtp.gmail.com for all four. I cannot permanently save the correct user name, eg, 'paulr99@gmail.com' in the smtp server edit box. It keeps changing to the second email address, and the same with the other account. It gets swapped with this one. Any ideas?

Chosen solution

I think I've probably solved this by entering a 'Reply-to-Address' in the account settings. I assumed the 'Email Address' would automatically be used as reply default, but for some reason (default server?), it seems not.

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All Replies (7)

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Gmail changes the from to the account that is used to send the mail. so if you specify Bill@mydomain.com and send it through bill@gmail.com then gmail will reset the from to bill@gmail.com.

They do have some options in their user settings at gmail to specify additional sending accounts. but I would recommend you use the right SMTP server for the right email address.

Similarly Outlook/Hotmail do the same thing, to the point their own alias function does not work. There are no setting to mitigate the decisions of Microsoft.

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"Gmail changes the from to the account that is used to send the mail. so if you specify Bill@mydomain.com and send it through bill@gmail.com then gmail will reset the from to bill@gmail.com."

Ok, but this is not what happens. The settings in TB are what I use to send an email. I don't change anything. When I get a reply, it is to the other email address, and when I look at the original server settings to see why, they have changed to the other address.

I correct it, but it goes back to the other email setting eventually.

I use smtp.gmail.com as the server for all.

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You use SMTP.gmail.copm. But the outgoing account has to match the account you are relying from.

So if you have 7 gmail accounts in Thunderbird then there has to be 7 corresponding outgoing server (SMTP) entries. One for each account and each specifying the correct user name and password for the incoming account.

The outgoing server (SMTP) in the incoming account (the entry above server settings) must be the correct one for that account. So all outgoing server entries need a name that is unique. No point having two smtp.gmail.com list entries for example as you will never know which is supposed to be which when selecting the correct one for the account.

Finally take notice of which address shows in the "from" in the reply window. If you are in Bill in the folder pane you might get a reply to Bill set. If however you are in Bruce than the reply to will be Bruce.

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For each account, the 'Outgoing server' name is smtp.gmail.com, and each user name and password is, of course, different, eg paulr99@gmail.com, somename@gmail.com etc.

Are you saying that that 'smtp.gmail.com' should be different for each account? What would that look like?

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Chosen Solution

I think I've probably solved this by entering a 'Reply-to-Address' in the account settings. I assumed the 'Email Address' would automatically be used as reply default, but for some reason (default server?), it seems not.

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I have tried your solution and it is not working.Have to keep going back to settings and change user name for outbound messages

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rjh3 said

I have tried your solution and it is not working.Have to keep going back to settings and change user name for outbound messages

If the soluton does not work for you, you clearly need to ask your own question, as the issue is not the same. In the interests of keeping the noise down. You also clearly have two accounts using the same outgoing server if changing the names works. I suggest you add another and actually set each incoming account to use their own outgoing account. But I will not discuss this further here. Ask your own question if my comment does not help.