Gmail does not detect the reply-to field.

Question

Hi,

I have following settings in my FeedbackMailer.

def notification(feedback)

  from       "[email protected]"
  subject    "Some feedback"
  recipients "[email protected]"
  reply_to   feedback.creator.email
  body({ :feedback => feedback })
  content_type "text/html"
end

I am using [email protected] account to send emails for this application. The emails are delivered perfectly. And when I check the details of the email after receiving it, I see following:

from     "[email protected]"
reply-to "[email protected]"
to       "[email protected]"

Now when I press on the reply button in the gmail interface, the to field should now have the "[email protected]" but it is having "[email protected]". Am I doing something wrong or gmail is?

Answer 1

You should check the raw headers of the email instead of just looking on the details, as it is possible that other header affecting the reply function were set by your email server - Sender header, for example. You can see the raw email code using "Show original" function, under the arrow icon in the top-right corner.

Answer 2

There is a feature in gmail itself to allow you to change the reply to address.

I can't figure out a way to dynamically change the reply to address, but here's how you can do it if you need to send email from several addresses (such as shipping, orders, feedback) but have it reply to a separate account.

Here's how I have it set it up.

Email address ($50/year) :

 [email protected]          (I use this account to send from in code)
 [email protected]    (customer service logs into this account)

Aliases (free) :

 [email protected]
 [email protected]
 [email protected]
 [email protected]

All these aliases are configured to send mail to [email protected] and they are put into labels there via filter rules.

I send out from shipping, orders, feedback but want any replies to come to customerservice.

Here's how I set it up :

• Log into gmail as automated - must be logged in directly as the user you're sending from
• Click the accounts tab
• Add each alias you want to send from with the Add another email address you own feature
• Log in to customerservice and approve all the requests that should have been sent to each alias.
• Log back in as automated and click edit info next to each email
• Here you can click Specify a different "reply-to" address and enter [email protected] as the reply to address.

I have slightly more complex reasons that I won't go into here why I have things set up like this - but if you want to change the 'reply-to' address this is the only way I've found to do it. Aliases allow you to send from multiple addresses and set reply-to to whatever you want. unfortunately though I cannot find a way to do this in code