Thunderbird: How to reply with same E-Mail (when multiple identities)?

Question

For years I have the following problem that I'd like to solve finally.

I have my own server with an email account, e.g. [email protected]. Then I have another identity (email address with another domain, but belonging to my server), let's say [email protected]

The Mozilla wiki Multiple identities per e-mail account says:

When you reply to a message, Thunderbird uses the identity that matches the address the message was originally sent to, if it can find a match in the account you are working in.

Well, when I reply to an email that was sent to [email protected] Thunderbird always uses [email protected] as the sender. Always.

I tried a lot but could not find a solution until now, how frustrating!

Answer 1

After years I finally found a solution! Here you go:

1. Install https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/folder-account/
2. Create folders for each identity
3. Create filters to move incoming emails to according folders
4. Click on properties of each folder, you will see some additional options (due to the addon installed)
5. There you specify the From Account: for each folder.

One longtime headache and time waster removed from my life ;)

Answer 2

The add-on folder-account (suggested by Matheretter) helped for me too.

Enabling and disabling this add-on I figured out that the problem of the wrong identity when replying occurs when:

• the message is an automatically forwarded (aliased) message, so that my e-mail address is not in To or CC, but in Envelope-To, for example:

  default account: [email protected]
  external mail address that forwards (with Envelope-To) to [email protected]: [email protected]
  other account in TB (but not the default): [email protected]

If a message is sent to [email protected] it is forwarded to [email protected] and TB by message filter puts it into an inbox-folder for [email protected].

Without the folder-account add-on OR with the add-on, but with "use Default" in the folder properties "from-account"-setting:

• when replying the message it uses [email protected] as identity and strangely not the identity related to the default account ([email protected]).

With the folder-account add-on enabled AND in the folder properties the "from-account" setting set to [email protected]:

• when replying the message it does use the desired identity [email protected]

Answer 3

There is possibility, that te @work address is used, because there is no sending account @home (but there is inbox for @home).

Answer 4

To solve this problem I created the extension cusedar (Homepage),
which is basically a merge of Flexible Identity and Reply as Original Recipient with some new features added.

It supports the outgoing direction (select from-address based on recipient) and incoming/reply direction (reply to a received mail uses again the same from-address).