On an incoming message, you should never see any BCC recipients. A properly configured mail server will not include that field in the message sent to you (you can confirm that by viewing the full message headers).

To a Mr. Top 10: thank you for your valuable time. I will trust your “expert” judgment on this issue, but somewhere along the way [last 2 +/- years], it was showing this in Thunderbird. Outlook has no issues with this, so have to say disappointed on this one and TYVM once again.

ALLEN12 said

Outlook has no issues with this, so have to say disappointed on this one and TYVM once again.

As far as I know, Outlook does not show BCCs on received messages, only Sent Items where you assigned a BCC. Do you have a screenshot of where it shows BCCs on a received message?

"As far as I know, Outlook does not show BCCs on received messages, only Sent Items where you assigned a BCC. Do you have a screenshot of where it shows BCCs on a received message?"

That is correct; however, see jpg attached and TYVM!

My experience in years past has told me that when I am communicating with a Top 10 Contributor, or others with senior titles at Thunderbird, that when there is no follow up answer, it is not a good sign or followed by “smoke and mirrors” e.g. with my background, this tells me that in one of Thunderbird’s not too distant updates, this Bcc software featured item [great to have] was removed without notice.

I could be wrong, but know you have the knowledge to find this fact out for the members or perhaps you already have this of record and could give us all an honest update to this issue, sans the smoke and mirrors and TYVM for your valuable time jscher2000.

Hi Allen, I don't use Thunderbird on my current system (I use Outlook). There's an older system I could start up to look at my own mail, but I can't promise a time frame for that.

In your screenshot, what do you mean by "when I archive these emails to my hard drive"? What is the process you're referring to there? I assume it is something different from the automatic mirroring done between Thunderbird and the mail server when they have an IMAP connection. Are you copying from an IMAP mirror folder to another folder under Local Folders?

APPRECIATE the over the top on the "older system," and if you ever got around to that one, tip of the hat for it. Here are the mechanics I go through:

For example, I get an email from a friend to outlook.live.com [the free one that has ads] and want to save it on my hard drive. I have set Thunderbird up to grab it from the email server at pop.centurylink.net AFTER I have forwarded the item from outlook.live.com, that is, it is sitting at a Century Link server until I acquire it from Thunderbird which saves it to a wdseml file. All saved emails go to my Local Folders, Imported Folder in Thunderbird.

Hope that gets it for us and again, TYVM!

Does Outlook let you forward your original sent message as an attachment so the intact original message arrives in Thunderbird as an attachment? I'm assuming so, otherwise, the message would have a new set of headers showing it was sent from your Outlook account to your Century Link account rather than the to and from.

If you view the full message headers for the forwarded message in Thunderbird, does it show the BCC(s) still in there?

I believe I answered that in my 10.4.2018 post in the jpg. If not, then I need more info as to what you want here and TYVM.

Full message headers are a dozen or more lines of accumulated data from the transmission of the message. The short headers you see in the earlier screenshot are extracted from the full headers. I think there's a menu option to switch between full header view and the more attractive shorter view.

If the BCC field is in the full headers, then it would seem to be part of Thunderbird's design not to show it in that folder. If the BCC field is gone from the full headers, then there was some kind of issue in how it was forwarded that caused loss of that data.

Under VIEW, HEADERS, choices are ALL or NORMAL. Although I get a dumb slap for missing that one, it still does not get us what we are looking for; however, with the ALL radio button ON along with the right scroll bar, that info is over the top for even an Advanced User.

If your assumption is correct and with all the privacy paranoia going around, it was Microsoft that should have killed the forwarding of the Bcc, not Thunderbird. Dealing with MSFT over the decades on an issue like this, I will unfortunately pass, as in max time kill on a if-maybe-low level tech blow off answer[s], no TYVM.

I think we may have hit the proverbial wall on this one?

If the ALL headers doesn't list the BCC anywhere, then Thunderbird couldn't display it. If it does list the BCC, then Thunderbird is choosing not to display it. I can't tell whether you were able to slog your way through the headers to check on that.

Before knowing who you even were, there is a drop down box in the middle of all messages called More with a down carrot; in that, you click on View Source, which I have done in All and Normal Headers, and searched bc, bcc and Bcc [overkill, yes], with hits, but code numbers running before and after it, nothing more. I would assume that I "slogged" through it[?], LOL and TYVM.

That message you showed previously - that's one you sent, isn't it? So of course it shows the Bcc'd addresses.

Show us one that was sent to you that includes Bcc addresses.

A correctly configured email server will not include Bcc information in sent messages. So an email client cannot show this data (in an incoming email messages) as it simply isn't there - so long as the server wasn't mis-configured by some numpty who doesn't understand the RFCs.

Hi Zenos, I think the scenario is that the user forwarded Sent messages from Outlook.com to a different account to collect them in Thunderbird. The BCC seems to be lost in the forwarding process.

EDIT: It might not be a problem in the forwarding itself, assuming it was forwarded as an attachment, but might arise when the forwarded message is moved into a local folder from which it did not originate.

Using outlook live webmail you forwarded an email to others and put yourself as the Bcc. This forwarded email was therefore a received email on the Century Link account and you downloaded it into Thunderbird as a received incoming email.

The Bcc recipient only sees a copy of an email sent to those entered in the TO or Cc field. If others were in the Bcc as well as you then you would not see them either as that is the purpose of Bcc.

There was a time not long back when outlook had issues with Bcc. They were displaying data that should not have been displayed. This I can assume has been remedied. The stripping out of Bcc is done by the sender, in this case outlook.live.com. If it is not stripped by sender then the recipient will see it no matter what method eg: viewed via email client or webmail.

If you used Thunderbird to compose email and entered Bcc and sent emails then the Bcc should be seen in the stored email in Sent folder.

As you used outlook.live to forward the email, then the Bcc info should be displayed in that sent/forwarded email copy on outlook.live.com.

Hmmm, I am obliged to use Outlook myself at work. I find it quite unpredictable in how it goes about including material from the original message when forwarding. It may, or may not, include images, other email addresses or attachments.

And, oh, it is so clumsy compared with Thunderbird. Searching and filtering are weak. Moving messages between folders is hard work, moving between accounts even harder.

To Zenos on 10.30 @ 11.57 am: First statement is correct. Second is also right in that no Bcc included.

To jscher2000 6 minutes later: Comments are spot on.

To Toad-Hall 4 minutes later: First two paragraphs spot on. Third I believe is exactly what this thread is all about as defining the issue. Last two paragraphs clarifies the mechanics further and I confirm.

To Zenos 14 minutes after Toad: First paragraph with using Outlook.live.com, I cannot recall those issues over the years and last somewhat so, but "moving between accounts," is a real pill and TYVM to all the Jump'ins.