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TheRupp
Strollin' around
Status: In development

Hello,

I was very surprised that Thunderbird does not offer an option to show the e-mail-adress of the sender in a column in the table (like the columns "From" and "Correspondents"). This new column would be very useful to quickly identify spam/junk e-mails.

This feature can be added with add-ons:

This feature seems very basic and simple and like it should not require an add-on.

If you do a Google search for this feature, then you find many people, who have asked for this feature for many years.

140 Comments
Awlo
New member

@JonI would swear I saw a post from you changing this idea to "trending idea", but now I only see "new Idea".

This requested column should be implemented by default, should not be an add-in or extension.

The similar idea showing full email address when mouse over would be also nice to have, but having a default column showing that information is more practical (imho), because you have the information there, at once, you don't have to go looking for it.

Like many have said, this helps a lot against malware, spoofing... you name it, because you see where the email actually comes from, not where it says it comes from.

Please, advance this to review or at least "trending idea".

 

Thanks in advance!

JamesMat
New member

Please finally add this feature, or at least reconsider that changes that prevent add-ons in this regard.
It's surprising and concerning that a modern email client doesn't provide this basic security feature. The sender's email address is such an easy way to spot spam and phishing before even opening the mail. The fact that this was previously only achievable with an add-on was not ideal, but the complete removal of this functionality is shocking.

bazyleusz
New member

No one is trying to scare people away, it's just that if the necessary functionality is not available in a given product, we choose another one, which happens to be a previous version.

I support the issue of warnings when installing a version in which certain key functionalities have been removed (such as modifying the display of email list columns by plugins).

There was a warning about the inability to return to previous versions, but without the previous warning, so I had to reconfigure all the boxes, and I have several of them.

Not cool, ladies and gentlemen, not cool. Fix it as soon as possible and we'll be even :).

bretthl
New member

I've been following this drama for quite some time and have come to realize that Mozilla will not fix the problem.  I simply installed Betterbird and adjusted the environmental variable mail.addressDisplayAuthor = 3 (settings > general > config editor).  Further explanation and other options can be found at https://www.betterbird.eu/expert-tips/index.html 

Then I made a 20 USD donation to Betterbird via Paypal.

JamesMat
New member

I can only endorse @bretthl's advice to switch to betterbird in this case. I was hesitant at first, but after reading a bit about the project and its maintainer - and seeing that it also puts the menu bar back at the top (for which I had just looked up a userChrome.css modification that I would've applied to TB) where it imho belongs - I was sold.

My previous comment seems to not have been posted correctly or at least I can't find it, apologies if I repeat myself!

It's surprising that a modern email client doesn't provide this basic security feature. The sender's email address is such an easy way to spot spam and phishing before even opening the mail. The fact that this was previously only achievable with an add-on was not ideal, but the complete removal of this functionality is concerning for me.

HeadGeek
Strollin' around

Holy imap servers!!! I was toying around with the idea of switching from good'ol Eudora 7 to TB, but not seeing the email address of the sender is a showstopper for me.

That's almost as bad as when outlook used to be able to hide attachment extension names .ie. annakournikova.jpg.vbs

What is obvious below 

Spoiler
"Jon - Thunderbird Community manager"  <chbad4rt@exampledomain.null>

should be just as obvious when looking at a list of messages or an individual message: ( no ands, no ifs, no butts, no "add-on"). Anyone that dosn't understand why and needs it explained, probably should not be using email or at lesat making decisions regarding email clients - but they should instead search for current sales on bridges!  

Spoiler

)

I will now stop before I tell you how I really feel. <insert smiley face here>

This is the example below that was mentioned earlier: 

Jon - Thunderbird Community manager"  <chbad4rt@exampledomain.null>

 

 

 

 

Sephula
New member

I consider this missing feature a security necessity. Previously we were able to use an add-on for what I think should be included in the base program by default. However, the recent code rewrite has made this impossible. In order to get this back we will need to add this into Thunderbird, itself. Let me stress that this feature is the main reason why I use Thunderbird, and will likely no longer do so should you refuse to add it back. Again, this is a deal-breaker feature, and I will withhold all donations and support until it's implimented. I can't live without it.

abraxas364
New member

I completely agree with @bretthl. Betterbird is the better bird! I also donated to Betterbird via SEPA.

Not necessary to tell what happened to my TB? 😉

tmg4507
New member

I agree with mjh, the base version of Thunderbird should have the option to have a column which displays the sender message ID without having to open an email. That support should not require an add-on install.

cadvision
New member

If I can´t see address column, I have to change email client....

endedasende
Making moves

Another vote for this security feature.

C-Dark
Making moves

It is really annoying that the addon Full Address column is not working anymore wih new thinderbird and won't ever, because you don't allow custom columns?

PLEASE add these columns "Sender (@)" and "Recipient (@)" for all users to see the REAL E-MAIL Adress of the sender,
also for safety reasons, this should be a must - because the senders name is really not helpfull to find spam at glance.

This should be available for everyone as default option.

Finchdemacher
New member

Hey Jon,

It's called the "Sender" column and it was removed with the version 115. update.  The real question is, "Why was it removed?"  Please bring it back.

Relleti
Strollin' around

I endorese the suggestion that allows to see the email address a message is sent from instead of whatever the sender wants to be identified by.

This would help me identify SPAM or unwanted/ unimportant messages much quicker. 

dr0
New member

Honestly, this should not even be an idea for a feature request.

This should be filed as a Major bug: "Message List pane does not allow to show the email address of the sender".

As already said, it leaves the door whole open to phishing and scams.  It is unbelievable that the Thunderbird developers did not think about the implications of it.

Furthermore, it makes sorting of emails difficult.  An email has a primary key: the sender's email address.  A person you receive mail from can change their From: header in their mailclient as they like, resulting in 10 messages from them having possibly 10 different sender strings and making organizing these mails impossible.  If you order by email address, these messages will always be grouped together.  Same thing if you store in the same folder the messages you sent from different addresses: Your Name <jdoe@example.com> and Your Name <albatross75@example.org> are distinguishable only if sorting by email address is possible.