Which Outlook email account when replying to emails?

L

Lobster

I'm using Outlook 2003 SP3 and have several different email accounts set
up on it for different business purposes etc (ie just one .pst file); an
Outlook Rule files incoming emails by address in their own folders on
arrival.

Normally, if I receive an email addressed to address "X", then it
arrives through account "X" and if I reply to it, then my reply is
directed through the same account and the reply email appears to come
from addres "X" - which is how I want it.

However I have a couple of addresses "E" and "F", for which instead of
the replies going through accounts "E" and "F", they go through the
default account "A" (as shown in the status window at the top of the
email). I can fix this by manually changing the outgoing account on a
per-email basis, but I have to be sure to remember to do this! It's
irritating though and I don't understand why it's happening - I can't
see any differences beteeen the accounts concerned. What defines the
'reply' address?

Any thoughts?

Thanks
David
 
V

Vince Averello

It should work as you described (in from A, out through A, etc) but what
kind of accounts are E & F?
 
L

Lobster

Vince said:
It should work as you described (in from A, out through A, etc) but what
kind of accounts are E & F?

They are just POP3 accounts, same as "A", all on the same server (ie, my
ISP gives me a max of 15 email addresses). There's no difference
whatsoever in A, E and F (or B, C and D!) except that A is set within
Outlook as the 'default' account.

David
 
V

Vince Averello

Are the items in different mailboxes on the POP server or all in one
mailbox?
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

ok, so they aren't addresses in a catchall mailbox - and should go out on
the acct they arrived on. Does the infobar say its going to use Acct A?

are you properly authenticating with the outgoing server? if outlook can't
send on the sever, it may fall back to the default.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
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B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

They are just POP3 accounts, same as "A", all on the same server (ie, my
ISP gives me a max of 15 email addresses). There's no difference
whatsoever in A, E and F (or B, C and D!) except that A is set within
Outlook as the 'default' account.

This means that all your accounts are actually the same account, just
aliases of each other. That means that any one of the accounts can be the
receiving account and you won't be able to control, except manally, which
account will reply because you're not controlling which does the actual
receive.
 
L

Lobster

Brian said:
This means that all your accounts are actually the same account, just
aliases of each other. That means that any one of the accounts can be
the receiving account and you won't be able to control, except manally,
which account will reply because you're not controlling which does the
actual receive.

OK, that I could understand; except that there's no doubt that when I
reply to emails on most of the accounts, the reply *does* always
definitely go through the same account (or alias) as the incoming email
(as shown by the status indicator on the reply email.

Odd, then - maybe the question I should be asking is why is *that*
happening?!

David
 
L

Lobster

Diane said:
ok, so they aren't addresses in a catchall mailbox - and should go out
on the acct they arrived on. Does the infobar say its going to use Acct A?

For the two accounts where I have the problem, yes, the info bar says
it's using Account A, and that's what happens
are you properly authenticating with the outgoing server? if outlook
can't send on the sever, it may fall back to the default.

As far as I know yes - presumably the fact that "Test account settings"
checks out OK means it must be authenticating properly?

Thanks
David
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

Go to the send and receive settings and disable checking for new messages
every xx min. Use the tools, send and receive menu to initiate mail
checks - collect mail only from one of the problem accts. Do replies work
correctly? Check for new mail on the default acct - does it collect mail
for any of the other accts?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
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You can access this newsgroup by visiting
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newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
 
L

Lobster

Diane said:
Go to the send and receive settings and disable checking for new
messages every xx min. Use the tools, send and receive menu to initiate
mail checks - collect mail only from one of the problem accts. Do
replies work correctly?

No, it's just the same as when 'send and receive' happens automatically.

Check for new mail on the default acct - does
it collect mail for any of the other accts?

No, just the default one. (If I check manually for any of the accounts,
they all work independently, and perfectly other than this odd 'reply'
issue.

David
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

OK, that I could understand; except that there's no doubt that when I
reply to emails on most of the accounts, the reply *does* always
definitely go through the same account (or alias) as the incoming email
(as shown by the status indicator on the reply email.

Do any of your accounts authenticate to the server using the same
credentials as another account?
 
L

Lobster

Brian said:
Do any of your accounts authenticate to the server using the same
credentials as another account?

That's the username/password, right?
I've chosen the same password for all the accounts for my convenience,
but the usernames are different.

David
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

That's the username/password, right?
I've chosen the same password for all the accounts for my convenience, but
the usernames are different.

When you access any of the troubled accounts via a web browser, do you see
all of the messages for those troubled accounts in one Inbox or are the
Inboxes on the server completely distinct?
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

Ok, that means its not a catchall acct so replies should be on the acct the
messages were downloaded on.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
 
L

Lobster

Brian said:
When you access any of the troubled accounts via a web browser, do you
see all of the messages for those troubled accounts in one Inbox or are
the Inboxes on the server completely distinct?

The inboxes are all completely distinct, yes.

David
 
D

dbmdude

Lobster said:
I'm using Outlook 2003 SP3 and have several different email accounts set
up on it for different business purposes etc (ie just one .pst file); an
Outlook Rule files incoming emails by address in their own folders on
arrival.

Normally, if I receive an email addressed to address "X", then it
arrives through account "X" and if I reply to it, then my reply is
directed through the same account and the reply email appears to come
from addres "X" - which is how I want it.

However I have a couple of addresses "E" and "F", for which instead of
the replies going through accounts "E" and "F", they go through the
default account "A" (as shown in the status window at the top of the
email). I can fix this by manually changing the outgoing account on a
per-email basis, but I have to be sure to remember to do this! It's
irritating though and I don't understand why it's happening - I can't
see any differences beteeen the accounts concerned. What defines the
'reply' address?

Any thoughts?

Thanks
David


I have this same trouble but I do not understand the answer. Can someone
give me a more layman response in order to get my situation fixed?

I am running Outlook 2007 and I have multiple email accounts, but onely ONE
POP3 account (all others are aliased and forward to the primary acct). I
have the actual account set to get the incoming mail, all the accounts are
set up to send thier own email out to the server.

Is there a set up option to force an incomingemail's reply (from me) to be
from the address it came in on OR is it going to use the default address all
the time.

I have read here that it will use the default address if it cannot send on
the other, but all my "others" can send out. They just cannot receive from
that address.

I am very much a layman, please clearly tell e how to resolve this issue OR
if it cannot be resolved (a limitation of Outlook) then please tell me that
too.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

outlook sends out on the *account* you downloaded the messages with - since
you using aliases in one mailbox (aka a catchall account) the messages will
be sent using the address the acct is configured with. you'll need to
change the sending acct to the one configured for the address you wish to
send it from.

Unless you get separate mailboxes for each address, outlook will not be able
to automatically pick a different sending acct.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
 
L

Lobster

Diane said:
outlook sends out on the *account* you downloaded the messages with -
since you using aliases in one mailbox (aka a catchall account) the
messages will be sent using the address the acct is configured with.
you'll need to change the sending acct to the one configured for the
address you wish to send it from.

Unless you get separate mailboxes for each address, outlook will not be
able to automatically pick a different sending acct.

But that doesn't appear to reflect my experience, as described earlier
in the thread??

David
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

The inboxes are all completely distinct, yes.

As DIane said, then, Outlook should be replying using the correct account.
If you add the "E-mail Account" field to the columns in the header line,
does it show the correct receiving account for all messages?
 

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