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Thunderbird Inbox overrides actual sender name with wrong sender name from its data base

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  • Last reply by Mandy W

Mandy W
Mandy W
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Thunderbird inbox shows wrong sender name for message, overriding what the person actually sent with something from its data base. Attached screen shots illustrate:

-- Message is sent from [email]@earthlink.net. This was a joint account for a married couple. When they sent messages, each would have their Email client show the name of the sender. The husband died several years ago, and now the wife is the only one using the account.

-- Screen Shot #1: When I access the message via Thunderbird, for some reason it overrides the name provided by the sender with something from its data base (in this case, the name of the dead husband).

-- Screen Shot #2: When I access the message directly from Gmail, it shows the correct sender name.

This seems to me to be a bug. But if it's not, is there some parameter I can set so that Thunderbird doesn't "help" me with overrides like this?

Thanks for any help anybody can offer.

Thunderbird inbox shows wrong sender name for message, overriding what the person actually sent with something from its data base. Attached screen shots illustrate: -- Message is sent from [email]@earthlink.net. This was a joint account for a married couple. When they sent messages, each would have their Email client show the name of the sender. The husband died several years ago, and now the wife is the only one using the account. -- Screen Shot #1: When I access the message via Thunderbird, for some reason it overrides the name provided by the sender with something from its data base (in this case, the name of the dead husband). -- Screen Shot #2: When I access the message directly from Gmail, it shows the correct sender name. This seems to me to be a bug. But if it's not, is there some parameter I can set so that Thunderbird doesn't "help" me with overrides like this? Thanks for any help anybody can offer.
Attached screenshots

Modified by NoahSUMO

Chosen solution

Thanks for responding. Screenshot #1 shows the "Readings & Display" section of Settings | General, which I assume is what you were referring to. The only relevant parameter seems to be "Show only display name for people in my address book". I tried turning it off, and that seemed to do the trick, as shown in Screenshot #2.

However, this parameter seems to control two completely different things: [a] whether the actual email address is shown and [b] what the source of the Display Name is. There seem to be only two options:

--- OFF = Show BOTH display name and actual Email address from the sender's message -- ON = Show ONLY whatever display name Tbird happens to find in the user's Address book associated with this Email address.

Screenshot #3 shows that for the Email address in question, my address book has TWO entries. (When both Dan and Margaret were using this Email address, I wrote and received messages to each of them separately.) Tbird seems to arbitrarily pick the first one it finds.

Imho, there should be separate parameters for [1] Whether or not you want to show the full Email address and [2] what the SOURCE of the display name should be. (Since I know quite a few couples who share the same Email address, but modify their Email client parameters so that messages correctly identify the sender in the display name, for me the logical default source would be the message itself.)

Thanks for providing enough clues that I was able to solve this mystery.

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All Replies (4)

david
david
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Check your addressbook. When thunderbird detects a name that is in addressbook, it displays the name from addressbook. I believe this can also be changed at settings>general.

Helpful?

Mandy W
Mandy W Question owner
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Chosen Solution

Thanks for responding. Screenshot #1 shows the "Readings & Display" section of Settings | General, which I assume is what you were referring to. The only relevant parameter seems to be "Show only display name for people in my address book". I tried turning it off, and that seemed to do the trick, as shown in Screenshot #2.

However, this parameter seems to control two completely different things: [a] whether the actual email address is shown and [b] what the source of the Display Name is. There seem to be only two options:

--- OFF = Show BOTH display name and actual Email address from the sender's message -- ON = Show ONLY whatever display name Tbird happens to find in the user's Address book associated with this Email address.

Screenshot #3 shows that for the Email address in question, my address book has TWO entries. (When both Dan and Margaret were using this Email address, I wrote and received messages to each of them separately.) Tbird seems to arbitrarily pick the first one it finds.

Imho, there should be separate parameters for [1] Whether or not you want to show the full Email address and [2] what the SOURCE of the display name should be. (Since I know quite a few couples who share the same Email address, but modify their Email client parameters so that messages correctly identify the sender in the display name, for me the logical default source would be the message itself.)

Thanks for providing enough clues that I was able to solve this mystery.

Helpful?

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I was glad to assist. :)

Helpful?

Mandy W
Mandy W Question owner
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This morning, Thunderbird has reversed the switch setting (? back to default during some update?) and my problem is back again. I reversed the switch again, but this is really annoying.

Is there any place I can report this as a problem to be fixed?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

PS. Sorry for duplicate images. After I uploaded it by mistake, there didn't seem to be a way to delete the duplicate.

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