I've been tracking on-and-off an issue where mail clients...
...don't always use the "reply+%reply-key-here%@example.com" email address when the user selects to reply to an email notification.
Instead the email client selecting the Reply-To email address with the reply key, it selects the From email address.
For example for a notification from "meta" I see emails sent the the following headers:
From: Jeff Atwood <info@discourse.org>
Reply-To: Discourse Meta <reply+%reply-key-here%@discourse.org>
In my case some email clients are effectively sending emails to info@discourse.org but for my Discourse instance.
In the case of the Discourse installation I have been monitoring we don't see much mail-in posting, so this issue might be larger for other instances.
I understand that mail functionality has changed a lot since the initial instances of this in this log below, but having the first occurrence in 2016 made me write this up.
The table below contains date and time, email client identifier gleamed from email headers and the users email domain:
30 January 2016 at 08:42 - Yahoo Mail for iPad - @yahoo.com
8 October 2015 at 16:02 - iPhone Mail (12B440) - @googlemail.com
13 August 2015 at 21:09 - com.samsung.android.email - @live.co.uk
9 July 2015 at 18:26 - com.android.email - @aol.com
8 July 2015 at 10:01 - com.android.email - @aol.com
18 June 2015 at 20:20 - com.android.email - @aol.com
16 June 2015 at 20:19 - com.android.email - @aol.com
12 June 2015 at 19:04 - com.samsung.android.email - @gmail.com
12 June 2015 at 18:56 - com.samsung.android.email - @gmail.com
21 April 2015 at 16:33 - com.android.email - @yahoo.com
19 April 2015 at 20:02 - com.android.email - @yahoo.com
6 February 2015 at 19:33 - "Sent from my Windows Phone" - @gmail.com
1 February 2015 at 20:22 - "Sent from my Windows Phone" - @gmail.com
19 January 2015 at 15:57 - com.android.email - @yahoo.com
19 January 2015 at 13:27 - com.android.email - @yahoo.com
16 September 2014 at 15:12 - com.android.email - @aol.com
In each case of this occurring the user has been contacted individually and pointed towards a better mail client.
Difficult to explain to users, usual response "I'm just using the normal one called 'mail'."
What can be done?
- You can't change the "From" address each time, because complications - mail server configs, SPAM problems etc.
- Other systems include a number in the subject line or body. Perhaps ugly - could it be done it a better way?
Should something be done?
- Is this a problem?
- how much does it occur?
- Do others tack emails sent "to" their "From" email addresses?
Just thought I would share - "put it on the radar".
