Change the default sorting order in Thunderbird

Question

Thunderbird (2.something here as 3 is still not stable and had some nasty bugs last I tried) sorts mails by date by default. This is fine, however, it sorts them so that the newest ones are at the bottom of the list, which ... is not fine. Since Thunderbird saves its sort settings on a per-folder basis (and I have many folders) I regularly run into folders I've rarely or never been in which still have the old sorting order.

Is there any way to globally change the default sorting order to "Threads, newest messages at the top" (or anything else, which, I assume might be possible as well then)?

Answer 1

Open the Config Editor from the following menu options:

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)

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

Using about:config (under Preferences -> Advanced -> General)

mailnews.default_news_sort_order: news sort order
mailnews.default_news_sort_type: news sort column
mailnews.default_sort_order: mail sort order
mailnews.default_sort_type: mail sort column

had this saved in a text file, got it from an article a long time ago don't remember where, but those are the values that will flip sort order.

Answer 5

Actually, in version 17.08, you just need to go to Menu > View > Sort by > Date > Descending, and voilà.

Answer 6

I had this same problem. I solved it by: Clicking on the drop down menu titled as "select columns to display" when you hover over it. The menu icon is on the right of the inbox - it looks like a picture of two columns. Tick the option "Order recieved". This adds a new column to your inbox titled "order recieved". When you click on this title, the order of mail received will change so that newest emails are at the top of the inbox. When you're done just untick "order recieved" from the list of optional columns.

Answer 7

In Thunderbird 45.8.0 the Config Editor (also known as about:config) can be open via

Edit → Preferences → Advanced → Config Editor...

The option is still called mailnews.default_sort_order and is set to 1 by default.

Answer 8

Finding this in 2020, just in case someone else finds this, there is an alternative to the above methods to set an ordering and apply it to all of the folders:

1. Go into one folder (eg: Inbox) and set the date ordering by clicking on the "Date" heading.
2. Right click on the "Date" heading (or any of the other headings, actually) and select "Apply columns to" > "Folder and its children" > [Your mailbox name] > [Your mailbox name (top item in the list).

... this will apply the sorting to all folders, and has the advantage of not requiring you to edit config files.

Bonus/Warning: This will also apply reordering of columns, additions of columns, etc... to those folders, too (but that was desired in my case).