Sender and From address differs in Mail delivery reports

[Duffman36]

Hi All.

First time poster.

I just want to find out. Why would the sender and from address be different?

or more specifically why would a users email be in there if he is one of the recipients?

 

[cPRex]

Hey there! There are some situations where the Sender and From can be different. Often the root user shows a full email for From and then Sender just shows root. Mailing lists may also show the list name as the From and the cPanel username as the Sender. So while it looks like, it's not out of the ordinary and doesn't necessarily indicate a server issue.

 

[Duffman36]

Hey there! There are some situations where the Sender and From can be different. Often the root user shows a full email for From and then Sender just shows root. Mailing lists may also show the list name as the From and the cPanel username as the Sender. So while it looks like, it's not out of the ordinary and doesn't necessarily indicate a server issue.

Ok it just looks weird as we have been having issues with 1 particular email sending us emails and we get them sometimes and not other times. We have an account [email protected] and this gets forwarded to a few people but i for instance get the message but 1 other person does not. It shows in the delivery report it got delivered but it never shows up in the users mailbox. which is weird.

 

[cPRex]

If you check the delivery report it should show the transaction, but you could always search the Exim log at /var/log/exim_mainlog for the mail ID to see if there is anything else there. If you see the mail leaving the server and reaching the recipient's server, it sounds like the issue is on their end if the message isn't reaching their inbox and you also do not receive a bounceback.

 

[sparek-3]

Again, the disingenuous of email rears it's ugly head.

There's actually two "from" addresses in every email.

The envelope-sender (sometimes called return-path or bounce address) and the header From

These do not have to be the same thing.

The envelope-sender is what the MTA will see and report as sending the email. It's called the bounce address because if the MTA can't deliver the message - for whatever reason - it will send an error message back to this email address.

The From header is included in the DATA part of the email. It may or may not be read by the email client. The MTA has no jurisdiction here. Since the headers are in the DATA part of the email, the MTA treats all of that data the same.

It's entirely possible that someone may send an email with an envelope-sender set to a special address so that bounced messages are collected there and a FROM address in the headers to better identify who they are when the recipient reads the message in their email client.

Now... what does Sender and From Address refer to here? No idea. I'd bet one is the envelope-sender and one is the header FROM address. But which is which? Who knows.

Use a different tool and it may use the same Sender and From Address titles, but their meanings could be reversed. ... Again, the disingenuous of email.

 

[Duffman36]

Again, the disingenuous of email rears it's ugly head.

There's actually two "from" addresses in every email.

The envelope-sender (sometimes called return-path or bounce address) and the header From

These do not have to be the same thing.

The envelope-sender is what the MTA will see and report as sending the email. It's called the bounce address because if the MTA can't deliver the message - for whatever reason - it will send an error message back to this email address.

The From header is included in the DATA part of the email. It may or may not be read by the email client. The MTA has no jurisdiction here. Since the headers are in the DATA part of the email, the MTA treats all of that data the same.

It's entirely possible that someone may send an email with an envelope-sender set to a special address so that bounced messages are collected there and a FROM address in the headers to better identify who they are when the recipient reads the message in their email client.

Now... what does Sender and From Address refer to here? No idea. I'd bet one is the envelope-sender and one is the header FROM address. But which is which? Who knows.

Use a different tool and it may use the same Sender and From Address titles, but their meanings could be reversed. ... Again, the disingenuous of email.

Ok cool. Seems a bit complicated but i get the gist of it.

If you check the delivery report it should show the transaction, but you could always search the Exim log at /var/log/exim_mainlog for the mail ID to see if there is anything else there. If you see the mail leaving the server and reaching the recipient's server, it sounds like the issue is on their end if the message isn't reaching their inbox and you also do not receive a bounceback.

Yeah will need to investigate on the client machine why the mail did not get pulled through.

Maybe just deleted it by accident or something like that you never know with end users.