Change the default sorting order in Thunderbird
Open the Config Editor from the following menu options:
Preferences > General > Config Editor
You might also find it at:
Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Config Editor
Or if you are using an older version of Thunderbird:
Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor
Type mailnews.default
in the Filter bar to bring up a small list of preferences to configure. It will display similar to below:
Preference Name Status Type Value
mailnews.default_news_sort_order: default integer x
mailnews.default_news_sort_type: default integer y
mailnews.default_sort_order: default integer x
mailnews.default_sort_type: default integer y
In the above, replace the x
and y
of the value by double-clicking the name of the preference and replacing it with one of the following values as required:
x (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en/nsMsgViewSortOrder)
1 = Ascending
2 = Descending
y (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en/nsMsgViewSortType)
17 = None
18 = Date
19 = Subject
20 = Author
21 = ID (Order Received)
22 = Thread
23 = Priority
24 = Status
25 = Size
26 = Flagged
27 = Unread
28 = Recipient
29 = Location
30 = Label
31 = Junk Status
32 = Attachments
33 = Account
34 = Custom
35 = Received
So if you wanted to sort all mail by Thread, Descending (newest at top), the preferences in the config editor will look like this:
mailnews.default_sort_order: default integer 2
mailnews.default_sort_type: default integer 22
There are also default_(news_)view_flags
settings (for mail and news), which allow to turn on the "Threaded" flag:
view_flags -- the second group of values can be added to one of the first group to combine effects, with several limitations:
Unthreaded 0
Threaded 1
Grouped 64 [mail only (?)]
ShowIgnored 8 [news only]
ShowUnreadOnly 16
ShowExpanded 32 [doesn't seem to work]
ShowUnreadOnly will check the View|Threads|Unread menu; this will cause only
unread items to be seen, but doesn't force a threaded view.
(See also: https://bugzil.la/86845#c74)
A simpler solution : Using the Thunderbird SortPref module.
Provides settings to control which order messages are sorted initially and by which field as well as whether to display in threaded mode. Please note this data ends up stored in each folder, so changing control values only affect new folders or those with a rebuilt index. The mechanics are described in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=86845 - this extension merely adds gloss to somebody else's actual code.
This is just an extension to the accepted answer, since unfortunately such types of edits are not accepted.
The only problem that the answer doesn't address is getting this applied everywhere, not only to the folders that were first opened after the change. Thanks Danation for providing the idea.
- Close Thunderbird
- Locate your Thunderbird profile folder (mine was under /home/my_user_name/.thunderbird)
cd
to that folder- Run
find . -name '*.msf' -print0 | xargs -0 rm
- Open Thunderbird