I understand that you want each of several email accounts to act independently, such that mail for account 1 is sent and received only on that account, then account 2 likewise, etc. For each email account, left click on the account name and then select 'View settings for this account'. On the 'Account Settings' page, look at the 'Reply-to-Address' (should be blank) and also select the 'Manage Identities' box, which shows the default name and email address. If the default is not for that account, you can add or edit the entries and set the default. Back on the 'Account Settings' page, select 'Outgoing Server (SMTP)' and check the user name/account there. It should be for the same account. For each account, the other accounts should not be mentioned in any of the places identified above.

- duggabe

I have already done as you suggested with no success. To expand a little more, when I reply to an email I want the from address to be the same as the address that the message was sent to. Now it seems the program has selected one address as a default and inserts it as the from address in replies and for new messages I write.

Are you using IMAP or POP3? When you reply, are the messages still in the inbox, or are they in a local folder? Are all of the email accounts from the same ISP?

They are POP3. They are in the local folder inbox or other folders located in the local folder. All come from the same ISP.

I think that once you move a message to a local folder which is not directly associated with one of the email accounts (for example a local folder you called 'Pending'), TB loses the association with which account it came from. I don't think it looks at the 'To' address of the message in order to pick a 'From' in the reply. The same thing is probably happening when you do a 'Write', in that it depends on what folder was selected before you clicked on 'Write'.

I upgraded from XP to W7. I have Thunderbird set up the same as I had in XP. I did not have this (these) problem in XP. I have folder Inbox as subfolder of Local Folders where all incoming messages go. I have message filters which then direct some messages to other folders that are also subfolders of Local Folders. Another problem is that Thunderbird neither gets messages when it is first started nor when I click on get mail. I have to go to each email address individually to get mail.

I have been going thru TB support articles and found this https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configure-origin-address-for-multiple-gmail-accounts

Is your problem associated with gmail? That article discusses the issue.

Your problem with getting messages at start-up has appeared in several other user questions. You might want to look at some of those.

I am having this same problem. I just upgraded to 31.4 and it did not happen before that. I no longer know what version I was on before, but I know I was a few updates out of date. I have tried the suggestions in this thread to no avail. This is happening with three different accounts, for three different mail servers. Previous versions of Thunderbird always got this right, even when the mail being replied to was in a local folder. 31.4 does not.

This is something that was 'enhanced' after version 29.0b1. Up to, and including this version TB behaves properly, using the same address a message was received under for the From: field in a reply, after that it selects the email address somehow connected with the Local folder. I have tried everything I could imagine - even installed a virgin version of TB bigger than 29.0b1. No go! My solution was to stick with 29.0b1 - pitty, but not automatically replying to the address on which it was received just does not make sense an I can't depend on remembering to change the From: address. Something was fixed after 29.0b1 that broke TB.

Now I found this parameter: reply_to_self_check_all_ident and thought this might be the ticket. I installed the latest TB set this parameter to true in about:config but unfortunately still no go: when I reply the sender of that reply is the user associated with the Local Folder.