Replying in sent: send to them, not to me

Question

I come from Thunderbird/Evolution and I'm used to their behaviour when I send an email, and then want to add to what I said, or I've thought of something, I can go to my sent folder and just hit reply.

This keeps my sent message quoted in the new email, and just re-sends with some added stuff.
But in outlook it seems to take "reply" too literally, and sets the to of the new email to the from of the original; id est it will send this new email to me, not to them.

Is this configurable?

I agree, this seems to be a really dumb behavior. It's a poor choice for a default, but even more infuriating that there does not seem to be any way to change this. I can't imagine a scenario where someone would want the reply to only go to themselves. — Bernoulli Lizard, Oct 21 '22 at 12:53

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 28 '21 at 14:21

2

I use reply all when I remember. I don't always think of it. I use reply, hit send, get my email back because someone lacks creativity.

"Say when to stop pouring" [dumps hot coffee in your lap] "You didn't say when"

is a type of logic that really gets on my nerves. I'm sure the programmers at Microsoft are smart enough to include, intuitively, the exception case in their algorithm logic, and not just (imagine this being said in a really derpy voice) "Well, that's what you told me to do".

answered Aug 28 '21 at 14:21

Agnes Krawczyk

21

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Please provide additional details in your answer. As it's currently written, it's hard to understand your solution. – Community Aug 28 '21 at 14:25
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This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. – Aulis Ronkainen Aug 28 '21 at 15:18
I like your answer. You did say "use reply all is the only solution" so it's a contributing post. Let's give you some reputation. – Yvon Mar 10 '22 at 22:35
I think a possible reason this doesn't get fixed is there are people used to the existing way and a change of convention can confuse them, although that doesn't mean they prefer hot coffee on the lap. I hope the talents at MS at some time can add an option to adapt to the modern way. – Yvon Mar 10 '22 at 22:37

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 07 '19 at 02:37

1

Yes, this is by design that the sender will be yourself if clicking "Reply". Outlook will reply to the sender by default. While the sender of sent emails is yourself. You can click "Reply All" and then will get original recipients.

You can check this similar thread in TechNet fourm: Reply to recipient instead of myself

answered May 07 '19 at 02:37

Perry

1,271

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Boy, that was not a super-helpful set of replies on that TechNet thread. "Use reply all" "But is there an extension that can change this?" "USE REPLY ALL" ;^) It would be nice to get to Thunderbird's more intuitive [to me and OP, at least] behavior. The number of times I want to reply to myself when dealing with a message I sent to someone else is very low! – ruffin Jul 21 '21 at 13:28

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 27 '22 at 15:10

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Agreed this is extremely annoying and inconsistent with all other email clients I have used. When I reply to the last message in a thread I expect the OTHER PARTIES to the thread will receive the message, not that it will get sent back to me just because the last message in the thread happened to be my own message. On a number of occasions I have been snared by this defect, thinking I have sent a Followup message only to find I MYSELF was the only recipient!

answered May 27 '22 at 15:10

Rich

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As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community May 27 '22 at 15:29
This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review – DarkDiamond May 27 '22 at 16:10

Replying in sent: send to them, not to me

3 Answers3