User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:88.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/88.0

Steps to reproduce:

Tried to send email to myself.

Actual results:

When starting to type my own email address TB78 insists on extending it to my business address (which happens to start in the same manner as the private addresss, they only differ after the @ symbol). This is annoying. When I want to send email from a specific address (private or business, no matter) the default extension of what I type in should be the address from which I try to send the email. This is especially true when I want to put myself into cc or bcc. Here, especially, I do want to have the copy at the same place as the sent message and NOT by accident at some other place!!!!!

Expected results:

As explained above, the default extension of extending an email address should be the sending address as long as what is typed in matches with the start of this address.

perhaps a duplicate of one of these https://mzl.la/3td1Ejj ?

Yes Wayne, that is most probably true. However, my request is a bit more specific. What I can agree on looking on the other requests and reports is that auto-complition is quite annoying.

What I did not stress enough in my description is that TP 78 insists on using my business email for complition rather than my private one even if I completly enter my private address!!! If my observation is correct, TP 78 only switches autocomplition to a different address when the input differs from the proposed complition address in the part BEFORE(!) the @ sign. If the addresses are different only AFTER the @ sign, TB 78 insists on its first choice.

This in the end means that if you enter a complete address and are not carefule enough and just hit enter, you end up in sending the message to the wrong address. I would say that this not just annoying. I consider this as a real bug.

Hi Klaus, autocomplete is a can of worms, and it's actually very hard to get that right for everyone and all edge cases.
But yes, it can be annyoing and certainly fails on a number of cases and edge cases.

Wayne's search was narrow as he excluded mailnews product and limited to bugs having domain or account.
Here's a more complete list of any autocomplete bugs:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=%3Athun%2Cmailn%20%3Aaddress%2Ccompos%20autocompl

Personally, I guess I wouldn't mind if we dropped inline autocompletion altogether and required explicit cursor down to choose something from the list of autocomplete suggestions. However admittedly, that would take away a lot of marvelous convenience where you can just press Enter after typing the right search words.

There are several ways to avoid your scenario.
One way is to remove the inline suggestion with Del, Backspace, or Esc before you hit Enter.
[More and better ways described in my comment 6.]

I totally concur that we should not even try to change a valid full email address into something else inline, and that pressing Enter after full valid address should certainly result in that valid address and not the best autocomplete match.
So let me be bold and propose a change to that end:

Bug 1709560 - Explore not showing inline autocomplete suggestions when a full new email address is entered (prevent error-prone, unwanted autocompletion)

Evaluation of this RFE

I took the freedom to reshuffle your comment a bit for ease of anaylsis.
I'll offer an easy workaround for you in my next comment.

(In reply to Klaus Fischer from comment #0)

When starting to type my own email address TB78 insists on extending it to my business address (which happens to start in the same manner as the private addresss, they only differ after the @ symbol). This is annoying.

Expected results:
When I want to send email from a specific address (private or business, no matter) the default extension of what I type in should be the address from which I try to send the email. This is especially true when I want to put myself into cc or bcc.
As explained above, the default extension of extending an email address should be the sending address as long as what is typed in matches with the start of this address.

Unfortunately, I don't think your expected behaviour would be useful enough for everyone.
If you often need to cc/bcc yourself, consider setting auto-cc/bcc in account settings.
Those who have auto-cc/bcc set would NEVER want to autocomplete to their own address (whereas you're asking for preferential autocomplete to the sender's address). It's very hard to guess what would be useful for everyone.

So for the proposal of comment 0, my conclusion is WONTFIX.

There are bugs on record to explore making autocomplete account-aware - certainly non-trivial.

.

3 ways of ensuring the right autocomplete match with similar addresses

If you are regularly using recipients with similar addresses, there are several ways of autocompleting to the address you want.
Say you have these addresses in your AB:

klaus.mustermann@private.example.com
klaus.mustermann@business.example.com

• Search for any unique parts of the desired email address (including display name etc.), separate search words with spaces:
  klaus priv vs. klaus bus will succeed if they are unique enough against your dataset.

  Autocomplete is very flexible and very powerful for incremental searches with multiple search words.
  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/addressing-email#w_adding-recipients-from-your-address-book
  https://support.mozilla.org/de/kb/empfanger-zu-einer-e-mail-hinzufugen#w_empfanger-aus-ihrem-adressbuch-hinzufugen

• The most reliable way is to define a unique nickname for each of both. Full nickname match gets top priority in autocomplete results:
  klaus.mustermann@private.example.com - Nickname: :kp
  klaus.mustermann@business.example.com - Nickname: :kb
  Note: Using colon (:) in your nickname is optional and could be any rare character, but helps a lot for faster searches with better, unique results.

• Finally, you can always remove the inline suggestion with Del, Backspace, or Esc before you hit Enter. Not very convenient, but it works when nothing else does, like when you enter a new address which is substring of existing address (Bug 1709560).

Comment 0 would be wontfix.
Several feasible alternative use patterns to avoid the problem described in comment 6.
Per reporter's comment 2, I'll resolve this as a duplicate of Bug 1709560.

Hi Thomas,

thanks for your comments.

Unfortunately, at least one of them does not really work at least not as you describe them.

"Search for any unique parts of the desired email address (including display name etc.), separate search words with spaces:
klaus priv vs. klaus bus will succeed if they are unique enough against your dataset."

If this would really work, it would be ok for me! However, the @ sign seems to stop the game. As I wrote I have two email addresses which start to differ at the first character after the @ sing. If your comment would be correct with respect to the behavior of TB 78 the autocompletion should switch to the correct address as soon as I type the first character after the @ sign. On the contrary TB 78 insists of sticking with its suggestions even if I type the address which I would want to have to the very end. And this is the real bug I'm complaining about. This has nothing to do whether somebody wants or does not want to have it!

"The most reliable way is to define a unique nickname for each of both."

Yes, I guess this would work. However, how would you do that for a private and business address for the same addressbook entry? Do you think I should mess up my addressbook to make TB work in the manner which I want to have it?

"If you often need to cc/bcc yourself, consider setting auto-cc/bcc in account settings."

No, unfortunately, I do not want to have a cc or bcc copy of all my messages, just the important ones. Otherwise the important ones would have a good chance to drown in the significant number of emails which I happen to send.

"Finally, you can always remove the inline suggestion with Del, Backspace, or Esc before you hit Enter."

Yes, ok, I guess this works. However, you put stress on people with this in life which is already stressful enough.

"Unfortunately, I don't think your expected behaviour would be useful enough for everyone."

This is a rather astonishing comment. Please note, I was talking about the cc: or bcc: line not the regular address line.
I would be really interested to hear somebody giving arguments that the sending address should not be the default, if and only if the input which the user give exactly starts with the beginning of this very sending address!!!!

Best regards,

Klaus

Sorry, forgot to say:

"Search for any unique parts of the desired email address (including display name etc.), separate search words with spaces:
klaus priv vs. klaus bus will succeed if they are unique enough against your dataset."

does also not work if I use separate words one for a part that is in front of the @ and one for a part after the @ sign. At least not if the adresses are sitting in the same addressbook entry which is kind of not that unusual for private and business addresses.

If this would really work as you suggest, everything would be fine for me!

Thank you Klaus for your inline feedback, which is appreciated.

(In reply to Klaus Fischer from comment #8)

Unfortunately, at least one of them does not really work at least not as you describe them.

Well, you've also changed your scenario: Now suddenly we're talking about primary and secondary email address in the same contact!

"Search for any unique parts of the desired email address (including display name etc.), separate search words with spaces:
klaus priv vs. klaus bus will succeed if they are unique enough against your dataset."

Please use the reply button above a comment to get a properly quoted reply. Quoted paragraphs or lines must start with > when you edit them.

If this would really work, it would be ok for me! However, the @ sign seems to stop the game. As I wrote I have two email addresses which start to differ at the first character after the @ sing. If your comment would be correct with respect to the behavior of TB 78 the autocompletion should switch to the correct address as soon as I type the first character after the @ sign.

In my tests, this sometimes worked and sometimes failed.
Unfortunately, I think we've hit bug 1238728 here: typing Klaus@ - pause - priv can yield different results than typing klaus@priv very fast in one go (to be on the safe side, try copy and paste the whole string). Even deleting and retyping the character after the @ too fast will have different result than delete - pause - retype. Also unfortunately, that bug has not received the attention it deserves.

Can you try this: If your addresses are klaus@priv.com and klaus@bus.com:
Type klaus@ - pause (just 1 sec) - priv --> should return klaus@priv.com
Delete priv with backspace - pause - type bus --> should return klaus@bus.com
From scratch, type klaus@ - pause - bus --> should return klaus@bus.com.
Not observing the tiny pause was sometimes getting me wrong results.
I understand that these nonsensical deviations in result for same search word are caused by bug 1238728.

On the contrary TB 78 insists of sticking with its suggestions even if I type the address which I would want to have to the very end. And this is the real bug I'm complaining about.

Again, that's probably due to bug 1238728 - with slight pause at the right time, it was working in my tests.

The most reliable way is to define a unique nickname for each of both."

Yes, I guess this would work.

No guesses here, this does work, and it's your best bet for the scenario. Choose nicks which are short, unique, and easy for you to remember. Anything goes.

However, how would you do that for a private and business address for the same addressbook entry? Do you think I should mess up my addressbook to make TB work in the manner which I want to have it?

With all due respect, but creating 2 contacts for yourself, one for business and one for private, is not "messing up your AB" imho.

"If you often need to cc/bcc yourself, consider setting auto-cc/bcc in account settings."

No, unfortunately, I do not want to have a cc or bcc copy of all my messages, just the important ones. Otherwise the important ones would have a good chance to drown in the significant number of emails which I happen to send.

I understand that.

"Finally, you can always remove the inline suggestion with Del, Backspace, or Esc before you hit Enter."

Yes, ok, I guess this works. However, you put stress on people with this in life which is already stressful enough.

You can say that again! From your feedback, I've filed bug 1709560 to reduce the need for this somewhat clumsy method.

"Unfortunately, I don't think your expected behaviour would be useful enough for everyone."

This is a rather astonishing comment. Please note, I was talking about the cc: or bcc: line not the regular address line.
I would be really interested to hear somebody giving arguments that the sending address should not be the default, if and only if the input which the user give exactly starts with the beginning of this very sending address!!!!

Sorry, I wasn't aware of bug 1238728 at the time of writing that.
Of course I agree that if you type klaus@priv, Thunderbird should not usually return klaus@business.com - that's irritating and wrong, even if klaus@business.com happens to be primary and the private one secondary address on the same card.

That said, I still don't think that autocomplete should generally prioritize results matching the current account's/identity's sender address (From:). I understand that this would be good for your scenario, but at the same time, I believe it might break the workflows of many other people, as I tried to highlight with the reason given in my comment 4. Other users will never want preferential autocomplete to their own address in CC or BCC fields, e.g. if they already auto-CC/BCC themselves.

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #4)

Evaluation of this RFE
Those who have auto-cc/bcc set would NEVER want to autocomplete to their own address (whereas you're asking for preferential autocomplete to the sender's address). It's very hard to guess what would be useful for everyone.

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #10)

In my tests, this sometimes worked and sometimes failed.
Unfortunately, I think we've hit bug 1238728 here: typing Klaus@ - pause - priv can yield different results than typing klaus@priv very fast in one go (to be on the safe side, try copy and paste the whole string). Even deleting and retyping the character after the @ too fast will have different result than delete - pause - retype. Also unfortunately, that bug has not received the attention it deserves.

Thanks Klaus, following your input I've filed your very scenario as Bug 1709799 - Recipient autocomplete stubbornly prefers primary email address even if search word (typed fast or pasted) matches the additional address on a card. Bug 1709799 would appear to be a subset of the general problem, bug 1238728.

For your scenario, you can work around this problem with a mini-pause (slow down) after typing @, or, if you made a mistake in the character after the @, delete - mini-pause - then retype. With this "interrupt-technique", you should be able to get the correct result.
I'd still recommend having two separate cards with dedicated nicknames, because it's faster and most reliable.

Hi Thomas,

thanks for your messages and for dealing with the issue by creating a separate bug report which is more adequate.

I definitely would apreciate if the behavior of TB would change in the long run.

However, I have yet another issue to report.

Taking you comment with the nickname into account I tried something else which is also something where TB has the poential to produce catastrophies. It happens that I use a nickname for my partner which is unfortunately a subphrase of a regular name. So now if I type in the nickname of my partner the first choice which TB offers to me is NOT the preferred email of my partner but the email address of a colleague where I guess I do not telly you something to surprising that it can turn out to be quite embarassing when an email that you actually meant to send to your lover ends up in the mail box of a colleague of yours.

So concrete question here is. Why on earth TB suggest a different address to use (i.e. other than the preferred address of the address of the contact with the nickname) when a complete nickname is entered where this nickname NOT the start of any regular name (in this case I would understane that TB would be confused and the usere would need to look for a better nickname).

You see with TB's current behaviour, to be safe, one needs to invent nicknames which can never be part of a regular name.

For now I choose to put a "!" at the end ... but I would like it better if I could just use the nickname which still would be safer ...