Wrong signature inserted by Mail by default

Question

Level 1

6 points

Wrong signature inserted by Mail by default

I have multiple email accounts. When I choose, Send New Mail Through Account "A", the signature for account A is always inserted. However, the account being used when I reply to incoming mail is the email address that received mail was addressed to. So I reply to mail in account B, the signature drop down says NONE, but my account "A" signature is already there. I have an email in composition that is to be sent using account B and has the sig for account A in there. I have to manually go into the signature drop down, choose the sig for account B (the only available choice aside from None), and the proper signature is inserted. I have different signatures for each account, by the way.
I presume that Mail should either insert the signature assigned to that account (fine by me) or insert no signature when it is reflecting NONE as the signature chosen in these replies. The current behavior has to be an error, in my view. Does this get reported to Apple Developers? I want to report this bug.

Thanks.

PowerBook5,2, BootROM 4.7.1f1, 1 processors, PowerPC G4 (1.1), 1 GHz, 768 MB Mac OS X (10.4.6)

PowerBook5,2, BootROM 4.7.1f1, 1 processors, PowerPC G4 (1.1), 1 GHz, 768 MB Mac OS X (10.4.4)

PowerBook5,2, BootROM 4.7.1f1, 1 processors, PowerPC G4 (1.1), 1 GHz, 768 MB, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Apr 18, 2006 6:14 AM

Reply

Answer 1

zeb Dropkin Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 18, 2006 1:13 PM in response to Sijmons

All my signatures are organize and assigned properly. I have one signature for each account, and the sig is named by the email address. I don't think your advice helps me at all, but it may help to better describe the problem I'm encountering. Thanks for that.

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 18, 2006 5:47 PM in response to zeb Dropkin

How do you associate a signature with its account? I mean, does the Choose Signature popup menu in Preferences > Signatures have the right setting for all of them?

Also, you say this behavior depends on your Send new mail from: setting in Preferences > Composing. What happens if you change this setting to any of the other accounts. Does the problem happen with the new account, or with the same as before, or with none at all? If it happens with the new account as well, that would clearly indicate a bug in Mail.

Reply

Answer 3

zeb Dropkin Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 18, 2006 1:49 PM in response to Sijmons

Zeb, look at the reply inthis post
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=4492
99&tstart=0

Does that provide an answer?

No, that post does not help me. I used grap to capture some example images. I have no idea how to post them, though.

I'll try...
Sigs

Wrong signature inserted

PowerBook5,2, BootROM 4.7.1f1, 1 processors, PowerPC G4 (1.1), 1 GHz, 768 MB Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Reply

Answer 4

May 9, 2006 4:19 PM in response to zeb Dropkin

please advise me on how to report this bug for
verification and resolution by apple developers.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

There are other ways, but that's probably the most convenient for you.

Reply

Answer 5

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Apr 18, 2006 1:00 PM in response to zeb Dropkin

Zeb,

when you open Preferences / Signatures, you will see in the left column All signatures, followed below by icons representing your accounts.

Drag the appropriate signatures from the middle column towards the accounts where you want them to show up.

Reply

Answer 6

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Apr 18, 2006 2:08 PM in response to zeb Dropkin

Zeb, indeed it looks like you have assigned a single signature to the accounts.

Try rebuilding those files from scratch (just start with one or two)
quit Mail
drag the following files to the desktop
user/library/mail/signatures (folder)
user/library/mail/signatures.plist

start Mail and add two new signatures for 2 different accounts.
Does this help?
then rebuild all, if not, place the above folders/files back

Reply

Answer 7

zeb Dropkin Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 18, 2006 2:15 PM in response to Sijmons

Wow, that's a lot to do. My gut tells me it's all about the "Send new mail from" option, as I stated in my original post. Mail does not screw up the signatures when it is left on "account of last viewed mailbox". And the only sig Mail is inserting erroneously is the signature for the account that I choose to send new mail from, and it's only when I am replying to an email that came into an account other than my default sending account. I thought it was a glitch in mail. If you still think it's a glitch just in my mail's setup, let me know and I'll try your advice later. Thanks.

PowerBook5,2, BootROM 4.7.1f1, 1 processors, PowerPC G4 (1.1), 1 GHz, 768 MB Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Reply

Answer 8

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Apr 18, 2006 2:33 PM in response to zeb Dropkin

Zeb, it is some extra work, but as I said test it for only two accounts with short dummy signatures. If it does the trick, then yes there is extra work to replace all text but you can make an text file in which you copy /paste the orginals for restoring purposes.

If it does not help, simply drag the files back to restore the original info.

Maybe just dragging the .plist file will do it, but make sure you duplicate the signatures folder first in case it start overwriting your data.

And yes, my guess is it has more to do with the signature files than Mail prefs. Replacing those would be even more work as you have to re-install account data too.

Reply

Answer 9

Apr 18, 2006 5:09 PM in response to zeb Dropkin

Hi zeb.

I find your problem interesting, although I must say that I've been unable to completely understand it yet. While I keep trying 🙂, you may want to open Terminal and type the following command:

plutil ~/Library/Mail/Signatures/SignaturesByAccount.plist

What does it say?

Reply

Answer 10

zeb Dropkin Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 18, 2006 5:19 PM in response to David Gimeno Gost

it says /Users/zeb/Library/Mail/Signatures/SignaturesByAccount.plist: OK
zeb-dropkins-powerbook-g4-15:~ zeb$

Yea I guess the problem is hard to explain...

Say I have a work email account and a home email account.
I make my work email my "send new mail using" account.
Someone writes me on my home account.
I hit reply.
Mail correctly opens a reply using my home account, but it inserts my work signature in there. Further, the signature dropdown in the composition window is set to None. When I go to the sig dropdown, it only offers zeb@home -- the correct sig, and the only sig associated with my home account. I choose it and the correct sig replaces the incorrect work sig.
Every time I reply using any account, my work sig is sitting there in the reply. It's not assigned to those accounts. It's not available via the dropdown when composing/replying in those accounts. It just gets slapped in there every time, regardless.
This is what I want to fix.
Clearer?

Reply

Answer 11

YoCraig

Level 1

31 points

Apr 27, 2006 11:29 AM in response to zeb Dropkin

Someone writes me on my home account.
I hit reply.
Mail correctly opens a reply using my home account,
but it inserts my work signature in there.

I too have just experienced this problem, except the other way around. In fact I just sent a "work" email to my boss from my home that has my home signature in it. Hope she doesn't notice!!

I have a work account (IMAP) with 2 work sigs with one as the default and 2 home accounts with several home sigs, each account also with one as the default. Whenever I reply to a work email, the window that pops open ALWAYs has a home sig in it. I have to either click on the account pop-up list and re-select the work account (and then the correct sig magically appears) or go to the sig pop-up where (unlike you if I'm understanding correctly) the work sigs ARE listed and I can choose it from there.

Further,
the signature dropdown in the composition window is
set to None.

Yes I'm experiencing that also.

When I go to the sig dropdown, it only
offers zeb@home -- the correct sig, and the only sig
associated with my home account. I choose it and the
correct sig replaces the incorrect work sig.

This I'm not seeing...the sig list in these wrongly sigged work reply emails shows the correct list of work sigs. It's displaying a home sig which is labelled as "None". But unlike you, for me the right sigs are listed there and I can choose it then and all is well. My only problem is that now I have to check my sigs to make sure.

Also, this only happens when I reply to work emails. New work emails don't have this problem. It doesn't happen at all with any of my other two accounts.

Reply

Answer 12

zeb Dropkin Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 27, 2006 1:15 PM in response to David Gimeno Gost

How do you associate a signature with its account? I
mean, does the Choose Signature popup menu in
Preferences > Signatures have the right
setting for all of them?

Yes, I have one signature made for each account, named after that account. So zeb@z.com has only one sig applied to it, called zeb@z.

Also, you say this behavior depends on your Send
new mail from: setting in Preferences >
Composing. What happens if you change this
setting to any of the other accounts. Does the
problem happen with the new account, or with the same
as before, or with none at all? If it happens with
the new account as well, that would clearly indicate
a bug in Mail.

It happens consistently, regardless of the account I choose.

Reply

Answer 13

zeb Dropkin Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 27, 2006 1:18 PM in response to YoCraig

This I'm not seeing...the sig list in these wrongly
sigged work reply emails shows the correct list of
work sigs. It's displaying a home sig which is
labelled as "None". But unlike you, for me the right
sigs are listed there and I can choose it then and
all is well. My only problem is that now I have to
check my sigs to make sure.

Also, this only happens when I reply to work emails.
New work emails don't have this problem. It doesn't
happen at all with any of my other two accounts.

I think I just confused you in my post. It sounds to me like we are seeing the exact same errors, under the same circumstances. The "right" sig is listed for me in the dropdown, while the wrong sig (the sig associated with the account I chose to send mail from by default) is always inserted -- even though it's not in the dropdown and not associated with the account the email is being composed in.

PowerBook5,2, BootROM 4.7.1f1, 1 processors, PowerPC G4 (1.1), 1 GHz, 768 MB Mac OS X (10.4.6)

PowerBook5,2, BootROM 4.7.1f1, 1 processors, PowerPC G4 (1.1), 1 GHz, 768 MB Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Reply

Answer 14

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Apr 27, 2006 1:28 PM in response to zeb Dropkin

Zeb, you seem to have a stubborn problem indeed.

Could you check if this occurs too when you set up a new user account on your Mac?

Check Mail just prior to this as you may receive a few mails in the new user account and you probably don't want them there (although you can always forward them to yourself just before switching bacl to your regular user account).

No need to add all accounts and all sigs, but obviously at least two.

Reply

Answer 15

YoCraig

Level 1

31 points

Apr 27, 2006 2:01 PM in response to zeb Dropkin

I think I just confused you in my post. It sounds to
me like we are seeing the exact same errors, under
the same circumstances.

You are right...I was confused with all the home vs. work references. We are experiencing the same problem. The problem is new to me because today was the first time I ever actually replied to work email from home. Usually I just use that account to look up information from old email.

Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.6) 512MB Ram 1.25Ghz G4

Reply