reply account

[BBran]

Hello,

I am using Outlook 2007 on XPSP2. I have two accounts setup in Outlook.
How does Outlook determine which account it uses when I click the "reply"
button? The reason I ask is that for messages sent to the same account,
Outlook will sometimes use that account when I click "reply" and sometimes
my other account. Shouldn't it always use the account the message was sent
to when I click reply?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I am using Outlook 2007 on XPSP2. I have two accounts setup in Outlook.
How does Outlook determine which account it uses when I click the "reply"
button? The reason I ask is that for messages sent to the same account,
Outlook will sometimes use that account when I click "reply" and sometimes
my other account. Shouldn't it always use the account the message was sent
to when I click reply?

It probably does. I suspect your accounts are actually aliases of each other
so that no matter what mail address received the incoming messages, Outlook
can download them by either account. Check for yourself. Add the "E-mail
Account" column to the header line using Field Chooser. It will show you
whidch account received the message.

You can tell if the two addresses are aliases if you use the same server
username and password for each account.

 

[BBran]

I did not think about that but yes, I did set them up as aliases. The odd
thing is occasionally one is listed from coming to one address when it
actually came to the other.

Is there any way around this? The reason I need to find one is that one
account I am not supposed to send personal mail from and the other I can.
The thing is sometimes this problem results in my sending a reply from an
account I did not intend.

 

[BBran]

I did not think about that but yes, I did set them up as aliases. The odd
thing is occasionally one is listed from coming to one address when it
actually came to the other.

Is there any way around this? The reason I need to find one is that one
account I am not supposed to send personal mail from and the other I can.
The thing is sometimes this problem results in my sending a reply from an
account I did not intend.

 

[DL]

If they are alias's for the same unique account then it makes no difference
as they all go to the same ISP account

 

[BBran]

They do but they are different addresses and that is what matters.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I did not think about that but yes, I did set them up as aliases. The odd
thing is occasionally one is listed from coming to one address when it
actually came to the other.

Sure, but since the messages are in the same mailbox and since Outlook
accesses that mailbox with both accounts in parallel, sometimes one will
download the messages, sometimes the other, and sometimes you may find them
BOTH downloading the same message so you have two of that message in the
Outlook Inbox. That's one of the cautions that exist when you use aliases.
One thing you can do about duplicates is to configure one account so it never
receives, since the other account will pick up the messages just as easily.

Is there any way around this? The reason I need to find one is that one
account I am not supposed to send personal mail from and the other I can.
The thing is sometimes this problem results in my sending a reply from an
account I did not intend.

You'll have to train yourself better. Outlook cannot distinguish between the
accounts. At download time, Outlook doesn't care what _address_ is on the
message. They all come from the same mailbox on the server.

 

[BBran]

I thought about configuring one account so it never receives, and did that
earlier today. I was just hoping there might be some better way around it,
so I wouldn't have to train myself better. I try to get things done as
quickly as I can and checking what account I was sending from required an
extra step. The fix I tried and you mentioned should prevent any further
troubles. Thanks.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I thought about configuring one account so it never receives, and did that
earlier today. I was just hoping there might be some better way around it,
so I wouldn't have to train myself better. I try to get things done as
quickly as I can and checking what account I was sending from required an
extra step. The fix I tried and you mentioned should prevent any further
troubles.

A better solution would be to have a separate mailbox for each mail address.
Then they'd always be distinct and replying using the receiving account would
always be correct. Do you control the mail server? If not, contact the mail
provider and see if they have that option.