Comments on: GMail, Return-Path, and Lost Replies

By: MI

MI — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:25:14 +0000

I just tested Thunderbird 2.0.0.18, and replies seem to go to From, not Return-Path. I added the following simple file to my IMAP server:

Return-Path:
Message-ID:
Date: Wed Nov 19 14:18:41 2008 +0100
From: My From Address
To: My destination
Subject: Test replies with return-path
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Where do replies go?

Started Thunderbird and hit “reply”. The To address was the correct “my.from@example.com”. Note that there is no Reply-To in this minimal email.

By: u2

u2 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:24:06 +0000

This sounds more than annoying. My ISP recently switched email handling to google.

I’m never using my ISP email account in communications. I always use other email accounts that are then forwarded to the ISP email account.

My problem now is that this inclusion of the Return-Path reveals the ISP email account which I wanted to hide originally.

The Reply-To is not really the solution. If the full header is displayed, the Return-Path is still clearly visible.

Is there a way to suppress Return-Path or overwrite it?

Thanks
/u

By: oyunlar1

oyunlar1 — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:43:03 +0000

Do you know how to do that in Mail?
I was not able to find

By: Harold Zable

Harold Zable — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:16:56 +0000

Thanks for the tip. You’ve brightened my day.

–Harold Z.

By: Rafael

Rafael — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:51:49 +0000

I use Thunderbird to see several gmail accounts using IMAP. The “Return Path” of all the messages I sent from all the accounts is one particular account, which I do not know how to choose or change, …………………. Any suggestion? Rafael

By: Vv le Moki

Vv le Moki — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:58:50 +0000

More tests and detective work:

In fact, if you configure gmail to be able to send e-mails from your non-gmail address and configure it to reply with the e-mail address used in the original message, outlook will still consider your gmail address as the “by the way of” sender but the original sender e-mail address will be the correct one and the reply and reply-to buttons will/should work OK in outlook.

However, if, like me, you have “catch all” addresses, it is hard to pre-fill ALL your potential addresses in gmail.

But if you have only few fixed e-mail addresses, well, this trick (use the “other accounts and configure gmail to send e-mail “from” these accounts) could help

HTH

Me. Le Vv Moki

By: Vv le Moki

Vv le Moki — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:30:30 +0000

I have the same issues.
I want to use my smtp.gmail.com to send e-mails wherever I am, disregarding of the ISP I am connected to.
What I can tell is that Outlook is the only e-mail program that seems to give “priority” to “return-path” over “reply-to” or “from” header.
Eudora, Thunderbird, imp and all the other e-mail programs I tested are working correctly with Return-path set to a gmail address and a “from” or “reply-to” header(s) set to non-gmail address

It seems that this is the case for Outlook express 6 to Outlook 2007. And this is not RFC compliant, of course…

By: Pierre

Pierre — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:57:46 +0000

Do you know how to do that in Mail?
I was not able to find it

Thanks.

By: Xan Gregg

Xan Gregg — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:03:45 +0000

Trying the headers again to avoid getting the angle brackets stripped:

From: Anon
To: Me
Sender: “anon@gmail.moc”

By: Xan Gregg

Xan Gregg — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:00:39 +0000

FYI, I checked the headers on a recent message sent to me via gmail. It didn’t have return-path — just (anonymously):

From: Anon
To: Me
Sender: “anon@gmail.moc”

Outlook 2007 and Mac Mail both correctly sent the reply to the From address. In the UI, Mail hid the gmail sender info while Outlook showed the From field as “anon@gmail.moc on behalf of Anon [anon@school.edu]“.