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Cant send to multiple email addresses

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Thunderbird has recently stopped sending correctly to multiple email addresses. This seems to be as a result of the latest update.

Specifically, when I send to two addresses in the "To" line in the format "admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity@hotmail.co.uk", I get the following error:

The original message was received at Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:14 +0100 (BST) from mail-c247.authsmtp.com [62.13.128.247]

  ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----

<"admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity"@hotmail.co.uk>

   (reason: 501 Invalid Address)
  ----- Transcript of session follows -----

... while talking to mx2.hotmail.com.: >>> DATA <<< 501 Invalid Address 554 5.0.0 Service unavailable <<< 503 Need Rcpt command.


Reporting-MTA: dns; punt22.authsmtp.com Received-From-MTA: DNS; mail-c247.authsmtp.com Arrival-Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:14 +0100 (BST)

Final-Recipient: RFC822; "admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity"@hotmail.co.uk Action: failed Status: 5.5.4 Remote-MTA: DNS; mx2.hotmail.com Diagnostic-Code: SMTP; 501 Invalid Address Last-Attempt-Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:15 +0100 (BST)


Return-Path: <admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk> Received: from mail-c247.authsmtp.com (mail-c247.authsmtp.com [62.13.128.247]) by punt22.authsmtp.com (8.14.2/8.14.2/) with ESMTP id u3JBKEeK065453; Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:14 +0100 (BST) Received: from [192.168.1.7] (bcde3a4d.skybroadband.com [188.222.58.77]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail.authsmtp.com (8.14.2/8.14.2/) with ESMTP id u3JBK6gQ073490 for <"admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity"@hotmail.co.uk>; Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:06 +0100 (BST) To: "admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity"@hotmail.co.uk From: Finchley Music School <admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk> Subject: test Message-ID: <57161466.4040200@finchleymusicschool.co.uk> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:06 +0100 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101

Thunderbird/38.7.2

MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Quench: ababff8e-0620-11e6-bcde-0015176ca198 X-AuthReport-Spam: If SPAM / abuse - report it at: http://www.authsmtp.com/abuse X-AuthRoute: OCdxaQkUAlZcQAEb DAsKDSlLSQEoNxhR Gh4INgBaJ10NEw9W dFtZOHJTN0EZTFBd HTVURREPHlx4RhI1 KRVTbQRbcktMVQdq WkhODFNaHBtqAx4f AxYAVR5tdQBEfWFw KwNhJAIgWhMbdUF+ RkdUW2UAZSkxOjFN BhZQIh5UdgFKYx5E P1ZiBiBZNHgHZntl RlBtNDlobGVJNClO XmkA X-Authentic-SMTP: 61633239313131.1038:706 X-AuthFastPath: 0 (Was 255) X-AuthSMTP-Origin: 188.222.58.77/2525 X-AuthVirus-Status: No virus detected - but ensure you scan with your own anti-virus system.


I have tried this several times, and this error happens each time. It is as if Thunderbird is reformatting the address line, though it does seem to work when using a comma separator.

I can use comma's of course, but would like to know if something has changed

Thunderbird has recently stopped sending correctly to multiple email addresses. This seems to be as a result of the latest update. Specifically, when I send to two addresses in the "To" line in the format "admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity@hotmail.co.uk", I get the following error: The original message was received at Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:14 +0100 (BST) from mail-c247.authsmtp.com [62.13.128.247] ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- <"admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity"@hotmail.co.uk> (reason: 501 Invalid Address) ----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to mx2.hotmail.com.: >>> DATA <<< 501 Invalid Address 554 5.0.0 Service unavailable <<< 503 Need Rcpt command. Reporting-MTA: dns; punt22.authsmtp.com Received-From-MTA: DNS; mail-c247.authsmtp.com Arrival-Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:14 +0100 (BST) Final-Recipient: RFC822; "admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity"@hotmail.co.uk Action: failed Status: 5.5.4 Remote-MTA: DNS; mx2.hotmail.com Diagnostic-Code: SMTP; 501 Invalid Address Last-Attempt-Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:15 +0100 (BST) Return-Path: <admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk> Received: from mail-c247.authsmtp.com (mail-c247.authsmtp.com [62.13.128.247]) by punt22.authsmtp.com (8.14.2/8.14.2/) with ESMTP id u3JBKEeK065453; Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:14 +0100 (BST) Received: from [192.168.1.7] (bcde3a4d.skybroadband.com [188.222.58.77]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail.authsmtp.com (8.14.2/8.14.2/) with ESMTP id u3JBK6gQ073490 for <"admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity"@hotmail.co.uk>; Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:06 +0100 (BST) To: "admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk;chris.mcginity"@hotmail.co.uk From: Finchley Music School <admin@finchleymusicschool.co.uk> Subject: test Message-ID: <57161466.4040200@finchleymusicschool.co.uk> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:06 +0100 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.7.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Quench: ababff8e-0620-11e6-bcde-0015176ca198 X-AuthReport-Spam: If SPAM / abuse - report it at: http://www.authsmtp.com/abuse X-AuthRoute: OCdxaQkUAlZcQAEb DAsKDSlLSQEoNxhR Gh4INgBaJ10NEw9W dFtZOHJTN0EZTFBd HTVURREPHlx4RhI1 KRVTbQRbcktMVQdq WkhODFNaHBtqAx4f AxYAVR5tdQBEfWFw KwNhJAIgWhMbdUF+ RkdUW2UAZSkxOjFN BhZQIh5UdgFKYx5E P1ZiBiBZNHgHZntl RlBtNDlobGVJNClO XmkA X-Authentic-SMTP: 61633239313131.1038:706 X-AuthFastPath: 0 (Was 255) X-AuthSMTP-Origin: 188.222.58.77/2525 X-AuthVirus-Status: No virus detected - but ensure you scan with your own anti-virus system. I have tried this several times, and this error happens each time. It is as if Thunderbird is reformatting the address line, though it does seem to work when using a comma separator. I can use comma's of course, but would like to know if something has changed

Chosen solution

Thunderbird is really designed to put one email address per row. This is because it is so much easier to remove one rather than trying to locate a section in a long line.

If you use an address book and Write window Contacts sidebar, select all contact names you need and click on 'AddtoTO' button , all entries are auto inserted in separate TO fields. Much quicker than manually typing each time.

Confirmed the method of manually inputting email address using a semi-colon with and without a following space does fail because it is not seen as two emails, but as one badly formed. You can see this as it has inserted speach quotes. Tested by adding a name and chevrons either side of actual email address using semi-colon and also got a failure of the same type.

Confirm that using a comma instead of semi-colon works as expected creating two email addresses correctly.

This was marked as a bug and apparently fixed, but seems to show some regression. See this bug:

quoted from Comment 1: As a matter of fact, semicolon-separated addresses used like comma-separated addresses are INVALID syntax, mostly because semicolon's are actually allowed syntax for another feature, RFC822 groups. They are named lists with semicolon in the physical mail header.........Your request to support semicolon as an alternative separator (albeit invalid) was implemented in Bug 242693; looks like this regressed for TB31.

You could add information to the bug. What OS you use and what version of thunderbird.

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Chosen Solution

Thunderbird is really designed to put one email address per row. This is because it is so much easier to remove one rather than trying to locate a section in a long line.

If you use an address book and Write window Contacts sidebar, select all contact names you need and click on 'AddtoTO' button , all entries are auto inserted in separate TO fields. Much quicker than manually typing each time.

Confirmed the method of manually inputting email address using a semi-colon with and without a following space does fail because it is not seen as two emails, but as one badly formed. You can see this as it has inserted speach quotes. Tested by adding a name and chevrons either side of actual email address using semi-colon and also got a failure of the same type.

Confirm that using a comma instead of semi-colon works as expected creating two email addresses correctly.

This was marked as a bug and apparently fixed, but seems to show some regression. See this bug:

quoted from Comment 1: As a matter of fact, semicolon-separated addresses used like comma-separated addresses are INVALID syntax, mostly because semicolon's are actually allowed syntax for another feature, RFC822 groups. They are named lists with semicolon in the physical mail header.........Your request to support semicolon as an alternative separator (albeit invalid) was implemented in Bug 242693; looks like this regressed for TB31.

You could add information to the bug. What OS you use and what version of thunderbird.