Adhoc Identities when composing
 

Hi,

I use the service@something.mydomain.tld structure when signing up for new things (and dropping those emails into a folder called something until I know I can trust that service to not spam/share my details etc). I then convert to me@mydomain.tld when I am sure about them.

Every so often I need to compose and email to that service using that email address (mainly to cancel the service). However I need to create a new identity for the email to be coming from that email address.

I am sure we used to be able to edit the "from" field in the past. Does anyone know if this is still possible or do I really need to create a new identity for a single email?

thanks,
James.

Hi James,


I think the way you can do this changed some time ago, but you're still able to do so: Simply create an identity with *@something.mydomain.tld as your From address. Now when you compose a new mail and choose this identity, you're able to edit the From address.


Cheers,
Michael

Thanks, Michael, your suggestion is what I am currently doing.

cheers,
J.

So not what you were looking for? Then I don’t understand your question.

To be sure: Your identity’s email address needs to be *@something.mydomain.tld (exactly like this with * at the beginning and of course your domain name and your “something”). With this identity you can edit the from address each time you compose a new mail.

Hi - I think we are at cross-purposes here.

I wasn't asking how to setup an identity of how two use the @something.mydomain.tld - I know how to do these things.

I was asking whether there was still a quick adhoc way to change your identity in the compose screen to something new for the sake of a single email. Like you, I remember being able to do this in the past.

...I believe you have already confirmed that this is no longer possible - i.e. I will have to setup an identity for every @something.mydomain.tld if I wish to email from that address (which, for me, is typically only once).

thanks!
James.

As stated, once you have set up the wildcard alias, you can edit the From address as in the past. The only new limitation is that the address must be within your domain. This is a reasonable limitation on ad hoc addresses.

You don't have to have a separate identity for each subdomain, and you are not restricted to a domain that you own.
If you have an identity *.mydomain.tld, when you select it in the 'from' address drop-down list you can edit it to anything you like.

Let's make this very clear:

• Go to Settings>Identities & Fetch
• Click Add Identity/Fetch at the top
• Enter *@domain, where domain is any domain. I suggest either using a domain you own or *@example.com (since example.com is a recognized test domain). Then click Next.
• Now enter your name (used in From) and a signature. Then click Save at the top.

Now when you start a Compose message (or reply or forward), you can change the sender identity (shown above the To line) to the wildcard identity you created.

• The wildcard * in the identity is initially automatically replaced with the local-part of your default Fastmail account local-part to create the default From address.
• You can now edit From to anything you like (at any domain).
• But reputation indicators (DMARC and SPF, for example) may fail, since you are sending a message from a SMTP server which isn't allowed by domain records.
• For example, if you try sending in this manner using a Gmail From address to a Gmail recipient address, the recipient will see a very large warning about the message probably being fake.
• But if you send such a message with a Gmail From address to a different Fastmail account, the message will be received with no serious warning.
  • Examining the full headers shows that "Email failed DMARC policy for domain" and the vacation response and address book whitelisting features will be ignored (since SPF and DMARC fail).
  • At this time, Fastmail generates a SPF_SOFTFAIL X-Spam-hits score and as described above makes it easier to fail the spam filter.
  • If the recipient replies to that message, the reply will be sent to the From address you created.
• In the future Fastmail (and many other email providers) will most probably start using DMARC and ARC. See:
  https://fastmail.blog/2016/12/24/spf-dkim-dmarc/

Bill

ugh - I get it now
 

Hi all,

Thanks for your persistence in explaining this - I get it now and apologise for being slow to understand.

I realise now that I was confusing alias with identity and totally missed you all telling me to setup a single identity beginning with *@ (which was made crystal clear by Bill).

Reading back through the tread, I can see that is what you were all saying, so thanks to you all.

J.

As so often, Bill's talent for crystal clear explanation has proved invaluable.
Thank you, Bill, you're a hero to us all!

Yes its people like Bill who keep this forum alive.

That seems to be true when you try to compose a brand-new email. But - usefully - I find that when you are instead making a reply to something, the initial value seems to be whatever the fastmail system would previously have assumed was the most appropriate identity.

So for someone like me who currently has a lot of separately-defined identities, and lots of folders with their own default sending-id, the asterisked definition gets preloaded with different values in different circumstances. Whether that's useful or not depends on how you use your identities.