Sender == From Recipient == To

Correspondents makes perfect sense if you file messages by context, so that both incoming and outgoing messages are stored together in the same folder. I really don't understand why anyone would want one half of a conversation in one folder (e.g. Inbox) and the other half in another folder (e.g. Sent).

I think that Thunderbird assumes that any account set up in it belongs to you, its user (or, "me, a name I call myself"), so any incoming message addressed to any of the installed accounts, or any outgoing message sent from any of the installed accounts may be relabelled "me".

So if you have indeed installed your wife's account into your Thunderbird, it might use "me" in any messages sent from or arriving in her account.

You might wish to look for addons that show the actual email address rather than a display name.

I use this one: Email Addresses In Message Headers which acts upon what is shown in headers.

I've tried this one too: Sender Address Column which acts on addresses shown in the message list, but I found this presentation distracting and too cluttered for my liking.

Thanks for the reply.

While I think that you may be right in that there's an assumption all account's are me, I'm hoping that it's not - because I can't get around it without deleting the account and because we're transferring old, there's a ton of stuff synced locally so deletion isn't an option at present. Long term it won't matter but I was hoping to get a definitive answer to what Thunderbird does so that I can understand it as well.

Unfortunately the addon you suggested is not up to date for the current version of TB, however the display shows the email address in addition to the name and the email portion is correct so I'm sure it's more about what it regards as "my" email and what it does with that.

However whether the assumption is right or not still doesn't explain why the email isn't sent to the other account. Surely the expected behaviour should still be to send it to the account, as I'm asking it to send it to that account.

Another way to look at it is: Yes, I'm accessing all my accounts within one client but surely by the fact that TB caters for multiple accounts and these are identified by the email address then if I ask it to send from one to another it should. TB isn't there to make decisions about which accounts and folders I want it in is it?

Re correspondents, I understand why the facility is there and I understand that it can be beneficial in any folder where you are storing conversations, threads, whatever you want to call them, but to me it seems highly unlikely that anyone would do this in the inbox or sent folders as they have a very specific purpose, hence the comment/grumble/whatever.

Of course it does all depend on how one uses email and my assumption might be wrong but only in a few cases I think. Personally, having grown up as email developed, I'm more than comfortable with inbox, sent and a few minimal folders for the really important stuff.

When the me display option (back then it actually said you) was introduced in version 3 many people did not like it. So there is an option to turn of the whole use of the display names from address book. Options > Display > advanced Turning of this options removes the me from your mail as well.

Correspondents can be removed from the folder list and replaced with the fields you want displayed. At the end of the headings on each list is a square icon that when clicked displays the list of available headings and those selected have a tick. clicking an entry in the menu list reverses it's state, either deselecting or selecting as appropriate.

As a minimalist. I would suggest the compact header add-on and placing the buttons it hides in the main application toolbar. I have never been fond of the huge message header pane

It's a local label, for your convenience. It is intended to help in that in browsing through stored messages, any message that you sent or received that shows your address will be clearly labelled "me", rather than you having to recognise any of many possible addresses you may be using. But as Matt has pointed out, the display names switch should disable it.

I suggested two add-ons, and both are installed here now in TB 52.7.0 despite them not formally claiming to be compatible with this version. What message leads you to think they are not usable?

I don't see in your original post anywhere where you describe messages arriving in the wrong account. And if i were trying to move messages on behalf of someone else, I wouldn't use my own profile. Having rescued her mail into your profile, how do you intend to pass it all back to her?

Hi, I'll just concentrate on the issue in this one. Additional reply for secondary question.

To clarify, I don't have any issue with the ME label itself, I just don't understand the logic about how TB chooses to use it and I'm seeking to understand to see if that's part/all of the problem that's occurring.

I'll try to restate the problem. I have in TB - i.e. under a single profile TBAccount 1 linked to an IMAP account with address email1@maildomain1 hosted on maildomain1 TBAccount 2 linked to an IMAP account email2@maildomain2 hosted on maildomain2

If I send an email from TBAccount1 to email2@maildomain2 TB doesn't send anything anywhere - i.e. nothing is going to a wrong account, it's just not going. However what it does do is copy the email into the sent folder and gives no error message so it appears to be processing correctly. This sent email is synced correctly to the sent folder on the server for emaildomain1 (checked via a webmail interface)

To me this behaviour isn't correct.

Zenos, answer to your subsidiary question of why do it this way.

...Simply she has no PC, she's been mobile for a while. Part of the reason the email database is so enormous, she can't quickly sort the wheat from the chaff on a handheld device.

So I dived in using TB. TB and/or the remote didn't seem too stable downloading all message content so on the PC It will actually allow her to sort out the dross so we can copy a "compact" email set, and save what she might need for other purposes in local folders.

Ultimately this is headed into a local Domino server which we can happily link TB to as well, and anything moved back up retains original timestamps etc. Saved stuff will go elsewhere. (TB requires less setup than a Notes client onto an external IMAP database and should do the job). This will work for us.

The issue I've found isn't actually preventing me carrying out what needs to be done but temporarily I can't email my wife while we haven't moved her email and temporary might be a couple of weeks when she's sorting out 5 years of back email.

Sorry just realised you asked why haven't I installed the addons. Simply Thunderbird isn't letting me install it tells me they are the wrong version through the addon interface. If there's another way to install them I could try it, but the email portion of the address being shown is what I'd expect so I'm not sure what I'd gain with these addons which I took to be to get more info about the addresses.

Update - had a bit of time this morning so managed to create a few more separate remote and corresponding mail accounts on new providers.

It would seem that the problem is specific to this remote account and this provider i.e. there's an issue sending from that remote email account (whether through TB or not) to the wife's email account. It's sending perfectly fine everywhere else, just not to the wife.

Sorry,having just installed the local account to map the wife's email and then my confusion with ME it didn't occur to me that there would be a coincidental issue at the provider.

Will update when I've chased down with provider.

Matt said

…Options > Display > advanced Turning of this options removes the me from your mail as well…

Matt, does this work for you? I've set and unset and re-set that checkbox and nothing changes. I still have display names and "mes" all over the place. :-(

Zenos said

Matt, does this work for you? I've set and unset and re-set that checkbox and nothing changes. I still have display names and "mes" all over the place. :-(

Zenos, just tried it here and the effect seems to be to remove all of the MEs for me. The rest remain largely names only, i.e. no address but there are some with addresses.

I use two address books collected and personal. Of the ones with names only a few are in the collected address book and I only have one entry in my personal address book. I've checked by searching for some of the names and they just aren't in any address book

As far as I can see therefore a) It doesn't do what is written in the text in the dialogue but it does appear to get rid of MEs. b) By implication if a name is sent with the email it defaults to that for display in any addressee field.

Found this with a bit of searching - seems there is an issue. Also seems that the original has been closed in lieu of a second which to me doesn't actually describe it nearly as well and is in danger of losing itself because it doesn't sound as serious. Anyway it's been around a while!

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=890683

Just a drive-by thought ....

Do you have your own accounts and wife's account addresses in the address book (and entries may be put there automatically, e.g. for addresses you email, depending on settings)? If you do, do you have a name configured in the 'Display:' field of the accounts' address book entry? And if so, do you have 'Always prefer display name over message header' selected in the entry for the wife? This appears to provide more specific, granular control on what should be displayed in the messages for a particular account that is in the address book, overriding the general setting, I think.

Settings in the address book may be overriding your general settings, and can be specifically adjusted to give the effect you want. I have several IMAP accounts, all but one of which have the same name that will display to other people; but for me in the list of messages where e.g. my GMail account is either the To or the From in the folder message display or the headers of the email display it says 'My Google Email' because that's what I put in the Display entry in the address book entry i made for my Gmail address with 'Always prefer display name over message header' ticked. And similarly messages to or from my other accounts display in From or To to me in my Thunderbird specifically as what i entered in the display field of an address book entry for each of them - I never see 'Me', but rather something specific to each of my addresses as entered in the 'display field' of their respective entries in my address book. I would have thought that if you either create or edit any existing address book entry (possibly already autocreated) for your wife's address and enter whatever you want in the 'display' field to distinguish the emails to or from her from yours, you could have them all showing up as 'Wife's' or whatever (and you can change yours from all saying 'me' if you have several accounts, but rather something showing which account). But this will only be in your Thunderbird, her emails won't display as 'Wife's' or whatever when sent to someone else, only what they usually do.

Just do check for an autocreated entry for your wife's address already in the address book.

OK, that was waffling round the point. Let me try again.

Thunderbird uses Me in the message list and message display of any and all of your accounts when displaying anything to or from any of those accounts if you haven't told it to do otherwise.

You tell it to do otherwise for a specific one of your accounts by putting an entry for that account's address in the address book, and fill in the 'Display' field in the address book entry with what you want to see instead of 'Me' for that account, and ticking 'Always prefer display name over message header'. You will then see whatever you told it to put instead of Me for messages to or from That account. If you have several different accounts, plus your wife's as effectively another of your accounts, then simply create an address book entry for the address of each of your accounts plus your wife's address, and in each put something distinguishing for that account in the address book 'Display' field for each. Then you will have no more Me, and your wife's and each of your accounts' emails will be distinguished, apart from each other.

Of course you can use that field in other addresses in your address book to have e.g. one friend's emails show up in your Thunderbird with a display name you choose rather than the one given in their email.

Edited to add:

Oh, yes, you will then need to make sure that Tools>Options>Display>Advanced>Display>Show only display name for people in my address book is TICKED to get the effect.

Many people (like me) have several accounts with different email addresses but put the same 'real name' to display with each for the people we email. Clearly there has to be a way to distinguish which of our accounts we used to send mail and which of our identities an email was sent to, so this is the method to override the display name used to or for us on an address by address basis just for display to us (other than globally switching off all use of display names for everyone, which is a very ugly solution).