I've come across this unusual case previously.

When you use the keyboard (or mouse) in a specifc way, what you press is picked up by the computer as an instruction. Then computer applies that instruction to the program you are using - Thunderbird - where it uses the code to make Thunderbird do the action which matches the instructions.

If emails are being sent then there are only a few very specific actions which you have performed.

1. Clicked on 'Send'
2. Used keyboard 'Ctrl+Enter'
3. clicked on 'Send Later' to send to Outbox
4. Used keyboard 'Ctrl+Shift+Enter' to send to Outbox

All other cases I've come across and some of them involved me physically watching the user, if you are writing a new email or reply etc and you click on 'Enter' to go to a new line, it seems you have developed a habit of lowering your hands so they are resting closer to the keyboard and unwittingly are also depressing the 'Ctrl' key at the same time. 'Ctrl+Enter' means Send.

There are two 'Ctrl' keys on a keyboard. Far bottom left corner and also far right.

In some cases, the user was actually pressing on 'Enter' and 'Shift' and 'Ctrl' symultaneously as all these keys are positioned below each other on the right side. In that situation, the emails were not actually sent, but those three keys together mean 'Send Later'. The user was most confused - they were typing email went to a new line and the email disappeared !! It had gone to the 'Outbox'. They could not understand why their emails kept disappearing.

In one instance, the user always started Thunderbird in Offline state. They selected 'online' after reading previous days mail and after creating emails. Unfortunately, they were also pressing wrong keys unknowlingly. Emails just seemed to disappear. You see in Offline state, pressing Ctrl+Enter will auto pop up a 'Do you want to send email' type of message, so you can cancel it, but what if you got fed up seeing that message and you selected the 'Don't show this again' option - then email will auto get put email in Outbox. But because of that users settings were set up to auto send unsent messages when going online - all those emails in the Outbox got sent. So in effect some incomplete emails had got sent because the user never checked the Outbox.

So, the action of the user (even if unknowingly done) combined with the settings that user has chosen can result in what the user preceives as Thunderbird sending emails when no instruction to send was given.

However, the email remained in the DRAFT folder and did not appear in the SENT folder. So I have no record of ever sending it. And I was still not done composing the email. Why? "Don't show this again" has never been used.

Re: In a second problem, the Correspondent in a mailbox has been edited to that ALL the email in the mailbox shows that Correspondent being the sender.

Personally, I've never got on with the 'Correspondents' column because it can seem ambiguous or just downright confusing. I use 'From' or if 'Sent' folder - 'Recipients'.

In the 'Sent' folder: The 'Correpondent' has an arrow pointing to the right to show 'Recipient'

In the 'Inbox' folder: The 'Correspondent' with no arrow will be the same as the sender - same as From.

However, some people choose replies to emails and or forwards to be stored in same folder as the email they replied to. If the 'Correspondent' has right arrow then name is recipient because you have a mail account.

So a threaded mail may look like this: Where 'M' and 'D' - does not have a mail account in Thunderbird profile, but 'me' does have mail account. Inbox From 'M' Subject curved right blue arrow (indicates a forward) Birthday Correspondents name 'M' From me - indented as forward- Subject 'RE:Birthday' Correpondents right arrow-> name 'D'

If someone has a mail account in same Thunderbird profile eg: 'K' They send to another person who also has mail account in same Thunderbird profile 'A' Then you see: From 'K' Correspondent ->'A'

So that Correpondenst entry -> 'name' meaning it is either recipient if mail account sender sends to someone who also has mail account OR a mail account sender send to someone who does not have mail account in same profile. But Correpondents is always just sender if sender is not a mail account user in same profile.

I auto filter a load of family stuff to non Inbox folders. That usually means my Inbox will always have Correspondents = same as From aka the sender. Because it will never contain emails sent by any mail account user (I mean people who have mail account/email address in my profile name folder) and it will never contain anything I send because I do not keep replies in same folder as original email.

If that hasn't confused you, then do a jig - you earnt it :)

However, the email remained in the DRAFT folder and did not appear in the SENT folder. So I have no record of ever sending it. And I was still not done composing the email. Why? "Don't show this again" has never been used.

re:And I was still not done composing the email.

I know - you clicked on 'Enter' expecting to go to a new line but you also depressed 'Ctrl' - it was sent, but you kept on typing not suspecting anything so another draft was still created. Hence Drafts has draft email.

re :"Don't show this again" has never been used. That means you were not in offline mode when you used the 'Send' (not the 'Send Later') or disable it ages ago.

re : did not appear in the SENT folder. So I have no record of ever sending it. Do you use a Pop or Imap mail account ?

If sent via Imap, then it's possible email did not get saved if there was a network/ synchronisation issue. In which case you may still see the original in 'Drafts'.

If pop it should have been saved because there is no synchronisation involved with server.

Mind you it does depend upon your acount settings as to where sent mail is put.

But, many servers have started to auto store outgoing mail. If you sent via a gmail server then they would have auto saved outgoing mail in the 'Sent' folder. Forcing a sync with the imap Sent folder would auto display emails held on server. If you had a gmail pop account, then you would only see the 'Sent' mail by logging on to your webmail account and viewing the 'Sent' folder. You could force a download by copying email into the webmail Inbox and then in Thunderbird clicking on 'Get Messages'

As this is a habit that only you can resolve, I would advise on the following as options. Do not put an email address in any TO, Cc or Bcc field, then if you acidentally instruct to 'Send', Thunderbird will not be able to send. Or if you go into offline mode and try to send accidentally, it should auto pop message asking if sure you want to send which means you can cancel or at the worst it will go to Outbox and then you can check the Outbox and delete anything you do n ot want to send.

By adopting either of those processes, you can avoid mishaps.

I have a similar issue with the lastest (or maybe starting one version before) Thunderbird: As I'm typing a long reply, the email will be sent periodically to me (not the recipient). The email arrives in my Inbox even as I'm still working on it. It seems that the background "save to draft" feature has gone haywire.

I have a similar issue with the lastest (or maybe starting one version before) Thunderbird: As I'm typing a long reply, the email will be sent periodically to me (not the recipient). The email arrives in my Inbox even as I'm still working on it. It seems that the background "save to draft" feature has gone haywire.

If you have the following in Account Settings: Account Settings > Copies & Folders When sending messages

• Select 'Place a copy in'
• For POP account: select 'Sent folder on' and name of account
• For IMAP account: select 'Other' and choose 'Sent on account name'

Note - these settings are not required if using IMAP gmail as gmail will auto put Sent mail in the server sent folder.

Drafts and Templates:

• Select 'Keep message archives in'
• For POP account: select 'Drafts folder on' and name of account
• For IMAP account: select 'Other' and choose 'Drafts on account name'

Then those are the folders that will get used.

You will also need to enable saving of drafts - but check this nyway and enable settings I mention below.

• Settings > Composition
• Select 'Auto save every eg: 2 minutes'

• I also suggest you select 'Confirm when using keyboard shortcut to send message'

This means if you are inadvertantly pressing Ctrl + Enter then you will get a pop up asking to confirm sending message so you will know it is you causing the intermittant sending.

After checking all the above is set up correctly. You need to see if the messages received in Inbox look like they are being sent exactly matching the save to drafts 'auto save every x minutes'. You also need to see they look like they are sent when you complete a paragraph (when you clicked on 'Enter') to go to a new line.

Glenn, Sam,

Does this ever happen if you have started Thunderbird with Help > Troubleshoot Mode?