gmail Auto Bcc

2nd December 2005, 02:45:20

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NOTE: This page has become unmanageable and has been retired. See the project page for further updates.

gmailAutoBcc is a greasemonkey script that automatically BCCs (or CCs) all outgoing gmail emails to a specified email address.

Why?

Quite a few of us use gmail as a secondary email access tool. The common use is to forward all incoming email to a gmail address. Gmail already has custom from addresses, this allows you to use your gmail account to send and respond to emails using your old, primary (non-gmail) email address. The only limitation of this is that you wouldn’t have a copy of the emails you send from your gmail account at your primary email access location.

Where?

Install greasemonkey, then, right-click gmailAutoBcc to install. It’ll ask you for an email address the first time you click on ‘send’ through gmail. If you’re on the newer version of gmail (Nov 2007), use gmailAutoBcc 2.0.

Tips, Tricks and Gotchas!

  • If you want it to cc an address instead of BCC, set the preference gBccHeader to cc
  • If you want it to prompt every time, set the preference gBccPopup to true
  • If you want to disable gmailAutoBcc, set the preference gBccEnabled to false
  • If someone else uses your browser to send emails from gmail, you might get a copy of their outgoing emails. (Cool ain’t it?)
  • Oh yeah, firefox only of course!

Setting Preferences in Firefox

To change any firefox preference, type about:config in the address bar and press enter. In the filter field, type the name of the preference. Double click on the result to change it.

Update (15th June 2006):

gmailAutoBcc now supports bcc/cc based on identities. i.e., it can bcc or cc to different addresses based on the from address being used. To enable this, toggle the preference gBccMapFromAddress to true. You’re prompted for a new bcc/cc address everytime you use a new “Identity” (from address). This is based on José’s request.

To remove bcc/cc for a particular identity (say, from@address.com), search for the preference gBccMail_from@address.com and change it to the string disabled.

If you do enable this feature, be prepared for a pop up the first time you send email from every one of your addresses.

Update (2nd November 2007):

It appears that gmailAutoBcc fails with “gmail 2.0″. I’m not on gmail 2.0 yet, but I promise to work on a fix as soon as I am.

Gmail 2.0 update (16th November 2007):

If you’re on the newer version of gmail a.k.a. “gmail 2.0″ (Nov 2007), use gmailAutoBcc 2.0.

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  • http://www.JasonDeppen.com jDeppen

    I set “gBccPopup to true” but if I don’t want to BCC and hit cancel (or esc) I get stuck in a loop and it keeps prompting, any ideas?

  • Mark

    I just installed this script for the first time but the script preferences are not showing up in about:config. I am running FF 3.0.5 and have multiple “send from” addresses configured. Has this item been fixed and I missed it in the above postings? Does anyone else have the same problem with the preferences not showing up for them in FF 3.0.X.

  • Mark

    Ok, I got this to work with FF 3.0.5. How?
    I:
    -installed the greasemonkey add-on and restarted FF;
    -installed the script (right click, open w/FF), restarted FF;
    -opened about:config and made changes as I saw fit (changed gBccHeader from Bcc to cc), restarted;
    -sent a whole bunch of emails to my primary account to test out the functionality and to make sure the rules I had set up on my primary email account worked. They did!

    Declared victory and went to bed.

    Thanks for the script! It’s a huge help in trying to reconcile my mail!

  • Sousbois

    Trying to get this to work with Trixie on IE 7.0 – am I wasting my time, or has this ever been done?

    Love the idea of the script, but the guys I’m helping don’t/can’t use Firefox.

    It’d be great if they could use this in IE…

    Thanks.

  • http://www.acunote.com Ilya Furman

    No country for IE, Sousbois, your friends should use firefox in order to use this script.

  • http://jaidev.info Jaidev

    I have a new version — cleaner and with comments as requested. Let me know how it goes!

    @Sousbois: I believe there is a greasemonkey for IE. If you install that first, this script may / should work.

  • http://jaidev.info Jaidev

    This page has become a clutter and the time has come to retire it. I’ve created a new project page here. There’ll be no more updates here!

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