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Whenever I search emails, instead of my name in the To field, all the "to"s display the name of a group address list I once got an email from. How to fix?

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  • Last reply by Matt

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Whenever I search, the "to" in the display is an address I once got an email from, instead of my name. I have checked everywhere to find where this info is so I can change it, but no luck. It is not in the address book, or any account that I can find either in Thunderbird or on my Mac. It does this in all my email accounts-- I have several-- and whenever it should display my name (not email address), it shows this group name that someone once sent me. How can I fix this? Using Thunderbird 52.8.0 64-bit on iMac OS Sierra 10.12.6.

Whenever I search, the "to" in the display is an address I once got an email from, instead of my name. I have checked everywhere to find where this info is so I can change it, but no luck. It is not in the address book, or any account that I can find either in Thunderbird or on my Mac. It does this in all my email accounts-- I have several-- and whenever it should display my name (not email address), it shows this group name that someone once sent me. How can I fix this? Using Thunderbird 52.8.0 64-bit on iMac OS Sierra 10.12.6.

All Replies (3)

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Are you really really sure it is in NONE of your address books? That is where Thunderbird gets this information from. This one might be hiding as a secondary email address.

Go to All Address Books in the Address Book and search by entering the offending name or address into the search box.

I have had something similar, where a rarely-used alias that I needed only for some particular newsgroups was appearing as the default description.

Modified by Zenos

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Hi Zenos, Thank you for reply--very appreciated. Already did as you suggested, checked All Address Books, checked each one individually, did a search for the words on my entire computer. Completely stumped-- I can't find it anywhere -- outside of the to: address for about 20 emails sent by this one person. I agree, it must be stored somewhere, and I thank you for your suggestions, but I can't find it there or in my old email client. In the whole computer search, a GNU file shows up that I can't open. No idea what it is. Could that be the problem? Thanks again for the help

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dragonring7 said

, did a search for the words on my entire computer.

I assume you used the windows search tool that searches about 10% of the files on a normal hard disk before giving up and announcing it can not find something.

use the windows key and press R In the run doalog type %appdata% and press enter.

Windows search non of the files and folder or their sub folder that you see in file manager. Unless you make hidden files and folders visible in Windows.

I do suggest you open one of these emails and then view the source. (Ctrl+U) What is the actual information displayed in the TO of the email header. It may be the header actually contains the details you are seeing. It is not likely, but as you appear to have eliminated the likely, it is time to look at the unlikely.