I see this complaint here a lot and I can't reproduce it.

How do you select the name from the list? With the mouse, or with the cursor keys?

The search has been changed to be more general. It used to use "starts with" but now uses "contains". What happens if you carry on typing until there is only one name in the list, or the name you want is filled into the address box?

I watched a friend do this while I was trying to help him. He typed the first few letters got the suggested list selected the correct address which appeared in the To: line then as he hit enter the address changed? Almost as if there is an indexing issue with an address Cache?

Where is this cache and how can it be cleared?

It is still the same as I described in the OP. I will add that the recipient does NOT change if I use the cursor to select another field. It will select the top recipient if I use the ENTER key or the TAB key to move to another recipient. The problem arose after the recent upgrade in December. To use either of those keys to move to the next field, I must type until the desired recipient is the top of the list. The software is obviously responding differently to the Enter and Tab keys than it should and properly does upon the mouse click outside of the drop down field.

I can only think of two potential solutions. Clear the address cache or reinstall the mail client.

Uninstalled 31.3.0 and then downloaded new file and installed it. No change. Cleared Recent History (Cache) (Everything) No change, TB still reacts the same way. Are there any settings regarding the address book that might be suspect?

BTW, I checked with our network admin and tried it on his desk machine (also running 31.3.0 but different hardware) and got the same results. I think this qualifies as a real bug. But that is just my personal opinion. YMMV

It is a bug, actually two.

See [Bug 1107844] Recipient autocomplete: For multiple matches, select dropdown result other than first using mouse click, confirm with Tab or Enter, and TB uses 1st result instead (i.e. private msg gets easily addressed and sent to random recipients)

[Bug 970456] Recipient autocomplete: Implement scoring algorithm to prioritize "beginsWith" wordwise matches over "contains" matches: search for "be" should toplist "Ben" and "Betty" over "HolBErt" (having "be" in the middle of word)

Is it an OS issue? MY Mate who has the issue is running W7 and Vista( not both at once) I don't see the problem on W8

As to the OS question, we have both been running 31.3.0 on W7 here. I have just reverted to 31.1.2 (with AU turned off) and the first bug mentioned by Matt is gone. The second issue that changes scoring algorithm is still there as that one seems to be a lesser issue. Maybe it was seen as an improvement.

Suggestion: The scoring algorithm should not search any part of the recipient name in the address book AFTER the "@" unless the "@" is the first character. For example, my home email is at @sbcglobal.net and it comes up first when I start off with a "b", even though there is no "b" in the first part of my email address.

This is known and reported bug which the developers are working on as a critical fix. Please note this bug only occurs if you use TAB or ENTER.

Two options, but I recommend option 2. 1. If you use your mouse to select email address and use mouse to move to next line then it does not occur.

2. Suggest you use this method. This method does not require using the TAB or ENTER keys, so will not produce the bug.

In new Write mesage.

• Use the Contacts Sidebar
• 'View' > 'Contacts sidebar' or toggle view using f9 key.
• select address book Select contact(s)
• click on 'Addto TO' button or other options.

The workarounds that you suggest are simply a bad band-aid on a problem that for now is only fixed by turning off auto-update and returning to a prior version that does not present the potential for inadvertent misdirects.

What is missing from this discussion is something that another user voiced on the Bug 1107844 thread. That would be some way for users that have made the above change to be informed of a released code fix (both beta and full rel) so that we can turn auto-update back on.

The clean solution would be to remove 31.3.0 form the released versions so that it does NOT auto update. What would stop that from happening?

If your subscribed (by adding yourself to the cc list in the bug), you will get a mail on each and every development of the bug, including it being marked as fixed.