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

By: Suz

Suz — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:17:51 +0000

Thoughtful post and well written. Please write more on this if you have time.

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”