1265589 - "Always prefer display name over message header" does not apply to replies: display name from message header is used

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Paul]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/45.0
Build ID: 20160414065514

Steps to reproduce:

Reply to one or more contacts that have the "Always prefer display name over message header" option set (or Compose Message To from the email reader pane).


Actual results:

The composition window's To and CC fields are pre-populated with names taken from the header of the message you were reading.


Expected results:

The "Always prefer display name" option should be honoured, as it is when adding contacts in the email composition window or by selecting one or more contacts in the Address Book and clicking Write.

Comment 1

[najoll]

I have discovered a twist - a somewhat cheering one - to this problem. That twist is as follows. If within Thunderbird one selects Tools > Options > Display > Advanced (though the 'advanced' here is topmost one, not the one to the right of the window - <sigh>), and then checks (i.e. enables) 'Show only display name for people in my address book', then the names from the address book DO seem to get displayed. However, if one does not enable that box, then what should happen - the names are displayed *along with the addresses* - does not happen.

SUMMARY (@Paul): a different option, namely 'Show only display name for people in my address book', fixes the problem. Sort of.

PS: The help page that describes the intended behaviour is, as too often is the case with Thunderbird, very long and somewhat confusing. Imagine struggling through that page, only to find that the application doesn't conform to the page anyway! (Well, I think it doesn't conform to the page - discovering the intended behaviour is hard.)

PPS: I think there is another bug report on the same general lines as this one, somewhere.

Comment 2

[Paul]

Unfortunately, I already had that option set, and while it does lead to the display names being correctly shown when viewing a message, it has no effect when *replying*. Then, you get whatever display name the sender input.

This inconsistency is why this bug is filed against the "Always prefer display name over message header" feature.

Comment 3

[chrizilla]

Didn't find dupes and can reproduce on
TB 115 @ Win10-64bit
TB 128.0a1 (2024-05-17) (64-bit) @ Win10-64bit