Thunderbird thread view - sort by star then date

Question

So far I've been sorting my emails in non-threaded view, by star, then by date. Understand, first all starred message (sorted by date) then non-starred message (also sorted by date)

Either this doesn't work in TB 38.6.0 or there is clearly a bug, but the above gets wrecked in a weird way when using threaded view :

Suppose I have initially the aforementionned non-threaded view sorted by star then date. Now I click the thread button. Messages gets threaded in the right way: pseudo-starred threads first (ie. if the thread contains at least one message that is starred it still appears as a threaded message even though the "façade" email is not starred) and then non-starred threads also by date.

Now I switch to a random view, and then I switch back to the view I had just "threaded". That view is now completely destroyed. The messages are only sorted by star (and, only if the façade message of the thread is starred), the date sorting went to the trash, I have emails from 2009 next to 2016 =_=.

Seems like a bug, but I couldn't find it on the bugtracker ?

Answer 1

This appears to have been open in Bugzilla from 2000 to at least 2015. Some users claim that sorting on the secondary column and then the primary works, but others users don't. It's current status is "RESOLVED FIXED", though

Answer 2

1. Click the Date header once or twice, in order to sort it in the direction you want.
2. Click the Star header once or twice, in order to sort starred messages on top.

When you sort by a column by clicking on it, that column will become the highest priority column. The priority of columns, as determined by the order in which they are clicked, persists. If two messages have identical sorting weight, the column of next priority will be tested, and so on, in order to determine which is heavier.

I just confirmed that this works with a threaded view in Thunderbird 52.4.0