Closed Bug 276601 Opened 20 years ago Closed 19 years ago

No matter what you choose to be the default SMTP server, all outgoing e-mails are always sent to the first SMTP server in the list

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Preferences
Platform:
PowerPC
macOS
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
VERIFIED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: elektropostadres, Assigned: mscott)

References

Details

No matter what you choose to be the default SMTP server, all outgoing e-mails are always sent to the 
first SMTP server in the list.
Read thru next Thunderbird FAQs at Knowledge Base of MozillaZine first.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.phtml?title=Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Multiple_SMTP_Servers
http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.phtml?title=Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Multiple_Identities
Then check your SMTP server choice of all accounts and all identities.

If SMTP server choice problem when multiple identities, see Bug 272354. 

Reporter, does problem still exist?
(In reply to comment #2)
> Reporter, does problem still exist?

Yes, all outgoing e-mail is always sent to the first SMTP server in the list, no matter which one is set to 
be the default SMTP server.
I don't think this bug is described correctly. The issue is not that all
outgoing e-mails are always sent to the first SMTP server, because in my
experience, this is not true. The issue is that the process which imports
Settings from another mail client (Outlook Express) creates a list of invalid
STMP server entries, which cannot be assigned successfully to accounts, in which
case e-mails are sent to the only valid SMTP server (the default SMTP server).
All SMTP server entries created during Settings import need to be deleted and
manually recreated for each account, after the accounts have been set up. 

There is also a problem when manually defining an SMTP server before manually
defining the associated account. This also reliably leads to failure. It is
possible that the import process does things in that order.

It is worth noting that when you (re)create SMTP entries manually, they appear
in the drop-down list in the format <servername:portnumber>, but when they're
initially created by the Settings import, they appear in the format
<servername>. When you edit the entries created by Settings import, they look as
though they've been allocated default port 25, but perhaps they actually haven't
got a port specified, and that is causing the problem(?)

The advice to "remove all the SMTP servers" to fix the bug on
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Multiple_SMTP_Servers is vague
and confusing. I suggest that the FAQ needs to be edited so that the problem
(SMTP entries created by Settings import) and the solution (remove them and
recreate them manually, after creating the accounts) are both a lot clearer.

Re the Account Settings interface: Since it's apparently necessary to add an
SMTP server entry for each individual account, even when multiple accounts use
the same SMTP server, it would be helpful for users if the SMTP server could be
specified in the account section instead of having to be set up under Outgoing
Server (SMTP), and then selected from a drop-down menu of visually
indistinguishable items in the Advanced Account Settings' SMTP tab.

(In reply to comment #4)
"import creates incorrect SMTPs" is independent problem.
Stephanie Warrick, open separate bug, please.  

Improvement on defining/utilizing "multiple SMTP server" is in progress under
Bug 202468 (Simpler, more consolidated UI for SMTP server settings).
Bug 202468 comment #112 is an example of improvement on SMTP server definition.
When this improvement will be implemented, confusion by users is expected to be
reduced, and I think users can aware on what's wrong even when SMTP servers are
incorrectly defined.
Let's join in Bug 202468. 

For FAQ, advise FAQ team for improvement on description, please.

(In reply to comment #3)
> (In reply to comment #2)
> > Reporter, does problem still exist?
> 
> Yes, all outgoing e-mail is always sent to the first SMTP server in the list,
no matter which one is set to 
> be the default SMTP server.

Have you read FAQ I mentioned?
If yes, read thru Bug 119609 first, then read thru bugs mentioned in it.
If problem still remains even after some actions,
reporter, describe your problem's detail.
 - What is your setting(Account Settings, SMTP definitions, prefs.js ...) 
 - What you did
 - What happened after your actions
 - What staus after problem(Account Settings, SMTP definitions, prefs.js ...)
MY PROBLEM:
I was referred to this bug from another related one (Bug 254733).  The problem I
was having was this: I have one IMAP account that I use at home and at work, but
I have to use a different SMTP server each place.  The only way I could get this
to work was to add the work SMTP server when I got to work and delete the home
SMTP server (both through the Account Settings/Outgoing Server (SMTP)/Advanced
window), and vice versa when I got home.  I use the Buttons! extension, but the
Select SMTP! button didn't have any effect.  If I had two SMTP servers on the
list, it didn't matter which one was default or which I selected using the
Select SMTP! button, the first one on the list was always used.  
   HOWEVER, by looking around at other related Bug reports, I discovered that
there are SMTP settings for each account, found through the Account
Settings/AccountName/Server Settings/Advanced/SMTP tab.  Here there is an option
to "Always Use Default Server".  After I selected this option, changing the
default SMTP server, either through Account Settings/Outgoing Server
(SMTP)/Advanced or through the Select SMTP! button works as expected.  Now I can
leave both SMTP servers on my list and easily and quickly change between them.  

WHAT WAS HAPPENING:
What was going wrong before?  When I set up the account initally, it asked me
for an SMTP server, and I gave it my work SMTP server, knowing that I would have
to add my home SMTP server later.  However, unbeknownst to me, this SMTP server
got directly associated with my email account.  So, even when I added my home
SMTP server and changed it to be the default SMTP server, the SMTP server
associated with my account was explicitly the work SMTP server, so all mail was
sent through that server.  Apparently, when I then deleted the work SMTP server,
my email account was updated so that it wasn't trying to use a deleted SMTP
server, but rather the only server on the list (now my home SMTP server).  This
process makes it look as though Thunderbird only ever uses the first server on
the list!  Why?  Because 
1)whenever there is only ONE server on the list, that server gets assigned to my
account and will be used for all outgoing mail (until that server is deleted)
2)all subsequent SMTP servers are added at the END of the list, ensuring that
the server being used is always at the top.  

HOW TO FIX IT:
The easy fix:
1) Open Account Settings (available from Tools menu)
2) Click on "Server Settings" under the desired account name
3) Click on "Advanced" button
4) Select the "SMTP" tab (upper left, easy to miss)
5) Select "Always use default server" from the drop-down menu

That's all.  That account will now always use the SMTP server designated as
default.  You can change which SMTP server is default by doing the following:
1) Open Account Settings
2) Click on "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" (NOT "Server Settings")
3) Click the "Advanced" button
4) Select the server you want off of the list by clicking
5) Click the "Set Default" button
6) Click the "OK" button
An easier and quicker way to do this is through the Buttons! extension, which
has a Select SMTP! button.

I hope this helps others, as this was an extremely frustrating problem for me!!

SUGGESTIONS:
Allow a user to choose "Use Default SMTP" server at the time of account
creation. Con: If there are no SMTP servers on the list yet this might be
confusing for users.  Pro: Avoids the problem discussed above.
Allow multiple SMTP servers to be associated with a single account, to be tried
in order until one works.  
(In reply to comment #7)
> HOW TO FIX IT:
> The easy fix:

See Bug 222388
> Bug 222388 : Set initial SMTP server setting to "Always Use Default SMTP

> SUGGESTIONS:

See  Bug 202468
> Bug 202468 : Simpler, more consolidated UI for SMTP server settings.

By the way, next will help you when you are in trouble with "Multiple SMTP
server definition/use".
  Search bugzilla with following conditions :
    Product    = Core or Toolkit or Thunderbird or Mozilla App Suite
    Component  = (all or unselected)
    Status     = (all or unselected or "Categories for opened bug")
    Resolution = --- (=open bug)
    Summary contains "SMTP"
  As of today, less than 200 hits only.
Change summary for ease of search. (statement of Comment #0)
Summary: SMTP preference doesn't do anything → No matter what you choose to be the default SMTP server, all outgoing e-mails are always sent to the first SMTP server in the list
*** Bug 254733 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I encountered this problem as well, and solved it only after reading the
messages in this bug. The real bug here seems to be the design of Thunderbird to
hide the "Always use default server" selection under so many layers of
selection. It should be elevated to be one of the first options presented when
one selects Server Settings on the account. I realize that the designers want to
avoid cluttering the interface with too many options, but burying them deep in
the tree of selections is not a good UI design, especially when it is not
obvious how to find it or even whether one should look for it somewhere.
One  further thought. A solution to this and other problems of design might be
to relabel the "Outgoing Servers" in the account panel to "Outgoing Servers for
all accounts", and replace the "Advanced" button with several buttons, one of
which would be "Outgoing server for this account". Can't be too obvious in UI
design.
And one final (hopefully) thought: As an enhancement the user should be able to
set multiple outgoing mail servers for each account, a primary and a list of
secondaries, with a failthrough if the first ones tried don't work for any
reason. My main access provider, SBC, has several outgoing mail servers,
mail.sbcglobal.net, smtp.sbcglobal.net, and mail.swbell.net, each of which may
be down at any given moment, while the others are working. It would be very
helpful if Thunderbird tried the first, and if it failed to accept the send,
each of the others in turn until a send succeeds.
*** Bug 292420 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 292991 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #11)
> The real bug here seems to be the design of Thunderbird to
> hide the "Always use default server" selection under so many layers of
> selection. 

The UI for SMTP server management has been greatly improved (since early March) 
for trunk builds, and will be part of TB 1.1.  It would be useful if someone who 
has reported this bug or one of its duplicates could verify that their problem 
has been solved (or made solveable, anyway) by that reorganization.
Confirmed on PC-Linux Thunderbird 1.0
This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Confirmed on Thunderbird 1.5 beta 1 (20050908) install on Windows XP SP2. 
Always Sent to first SMTP server in the list of Outgoing Servers (SMTP) into 
Account Setting. 
I had proved with two Servers SMTP and always sent emails with the first 
server.
(In reply to comment #19)
> Always Sent to first SMTP server in the list of Outgoing Servers (SMTP) into 
> Account Setting. 
> I had proved with two Servers SMTP and always sent emails with the first 
> server.

Did you check that the *identity* is specifying the correct SMTP server?
(In reply to comment #20)
> Did you check that the *identity* is specifying the correct SMTP server?

Yes, I checked the second SMTP sever (with button Set Default), and send 
emails with first SMTP server.
I had proved to delete all files into mozilla thunderbird directory, re-
install and also send it with first SMTP server.

(In reply to comment #21)
> (In reply to comment #20)
> > Did you check that the *identity* is specifying the correct SMTP server?
> 
> Yes, I checked the second SMTP sever (with button Set Default), and send 
> emails with first SMTP server.
> I had proved to delete all files into mozilla thunderbird directory, re-
> install and also send it with first SMTP server.

It's not clear at all that you understand what I'm talking about, so let's do 
this step by step:

TB 1.5
Tools | Account Settings
Select an (incoming) Mail account node (not the Outgoing Server node)
At the bottom of the groupbox is a dropdown:   "Outgoing Server (SMTP)"
The selection you make for this applies to the Default Identity *only*.

Below the groupbox is a button: Manage Identities
If you click this, you get a new dialog with a list of identities defined to be 
associated with this account.  If there is only one identity in this list, 
you're fine; otherwise, you need to Edit each of the others to set the SMTP 
server for those.

Is that what you did?  Did you pick "use default server" for each one, or did 
you specify a particular server?
(In reply to comment #22)
> It's not clear at all that you understand what I'm talking about, so let's 
do 
> this step by step:
> TB 1.5
> Tools | Account Settings
> Select an (incoming) Mail account node (not the Outgoing Server node)
> At the bottom of the groupbox is a dropdown:   "Outgoing Server (SMTP)"
> The selection you make for this applies to the Default Identity *only*.
> Below the groupbox is a button: Manage Identities
> If you click this, you get a new dialog with a list of identities defined to 
be 
> associated with this account.  If there is only one identity in this list, 
> you're fine; otherwise, you need to Edit each of the others to set the SMTP 
> server for those.
> Is that what you did?  Did you pick "use default server" for each one, or 
did 
> you specify a particular server?

Not, I not "use default server" for each incoming mail account.

Only I had changed "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" into "tools" | "account settings" 
(into list to the left).

I´m sorry, I not had view the new option "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" into a 
incoming Mail account, because not existed in version 1.0.6 of Thunderbird. In 
this option default select is my first server SMTP, for my account settings 
imported of thunderbird 1.0.6.

Thanks! Not is a bug.
marking wfm based on last comment.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 19 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.