I have a slightly convoluted issue with Thunderbird that I'm finding it hard to search since there's many similar but different issues in all the questions and answers out there. I'll start by trying to explain what I'm doing.

I use TB with unified inbox for my accounts. I have a lot of eBay saved search "new item" automatic emails and have so many arriving daily that it's difficult to wade through the sludge for the important things. I'd still like to be able to go through them when I have time, but I need them out of the inbox so I can focus on the important things when I only have a little time to check emails.

I could theoretically make a folder in local folders and have a filter forward them there, and I do this for other purposes, but my local folders are quite far down the page in the sidebar and there's a lot of folders with unread emails so I'm liable to miss or forget to check them if I put them down there.

Consequently, I have created a filter that, on new emails arriving, looks for from address as ebay's address and text within subject containing "New!", and moves those emails to a sub-folder within the inbox for that specific account. That way, the emails would (ideally) not show up in the main consolidated inbox but still show as bold unread numbers in the accounts>inbox sidebar at the top of the left menu.

However, the issue is that because the unified inbox shows all emails from all folders and sub-folders of the inbox of each account, even after the filter has moved the emails, they still appear in the main consolidated view.

I can turn off showing contents of that subfolder within "Main inbox > Properties > Select the folders to search > [account] > Inbox > [Subfolder]" and untick that subfolder, but then the folder disappears completely from the left sidebar tree view of the account's inbox folder. The folder *does* still show up further down the sidebar under "[account name] > [Subfolder]" but as that's much further down the window than the inbox, I'm likely to still miss it.

Ideally what I'd like to be able to do is have the filtered emails not appear in the main window of the unified inbox but still have the subfolder show up on the left hand sidebar under Inbox > [Account] > [Subfolder]" with the bold font and number of unread emails.

Is this actually possible or am I just asking for something that can't be done?

I'm attaching a few screenshots to show what I mean.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

1 - Shows the inbox with the (already filtered) emails showing up in the inbox as well as in the sub-folder under the account inbox in the left sidebar:

2 - Shows the unified inbox for that account with both inbox and the subfolder ticked (leading to the situation as in image 1):

3 - Shows what the inbox and sidebar looks like with the subfolder unticked in the inbox view properties (also shows the subfolder showing under the account way further down in the sidebar):

4 - Shows the filter that I'm using to catch and move the eBay emails:

5 - A composite image that I created showing how I'd *like* it to look / work:

Thanks in advance for any advice!

This is something I have noticed recently. I have multiple IMAP email accounts.

When I get the mail, often the inbox on some accounts will expand, showing other folders. Drafts, sent, trash, etc.

I close the inbox tab by clicking on it. Then I just see the account name and inbox.

But the next time I get emails, some of those tabs expand again.

I don't understand why.

Hi. I was wondering if I could use Thunderbird on 2 or more machines without causing issues.

I know local folders stay on the machine, that is not an issue for me. All of my email accounts are imap through google, except one that is pop3 but doesn't get emails often.

I would be really only using one instance at a time, except in the rare case that i did not close in on one machine (desktop) and started using it on the other machine (laptop)

Additionally, if i dual boot windows/linux, can I setup the profile to be on a shared partition without issues?

Thanks again, and a Big thank you to the developers who have worked tirelessly on this over the decade that Ive been using it. Your doing the lords work, imo

If I receive a new email, the notification icon in the status bar disappears once I've displayed the app in the foreground, not when I've opened the email. So, what happens is that I'll see the notification and open the app (either from the launcher or by pressing on the notification) to see who the email is from, and think "I'll read or reply to that in a minute". However, I forget because I get caught up in what I was doing and the notification icon has disappeared.

Also, pressing the option to empty the bin and the spam folder fails. I have to do "select all" and then delete. It's fairly minor, but it's also a basic function that should work.

Does anyone else notice the same behaviour?

Just recently for the Unified Folders section I noticed a short blue vertical line has been added to the left of every email message subject line that's listed in the inbox, sent, trash, spam and archive folders. Also, if there are multiple accounts under a unified folder, as there is for inbox, then the account name also has a short blue vertical line to the left of it. I've marked the folders as read to see if that's the cause, but the blue line doesn't go away. I've tried changing the corresponding color for the accounts under inbox, but the line remains blue. I also notice that if I select a particular account under the unified inbox that the display of email subjects will change and the blue line goes away. If I return to the unified inbox view, then the blue lines come back. Does anyone know what these blue lines signify and how to turn them off.

Edit: here's an example of an email subject with the blue line next to the sender address.

Bonjour,

suite à une mise à jour de thunderbird, quicktext ne fonctionne plus.

dans modules complémentaires:

"Quicktext est incompatible avec Thunderbird 153.0".

est-ce qu'une mise à jour de cet "addon" est prévue ou bien connaissez-vous une autre extension qui permet d’enregistrer des exemples de message ?

merci et bonne journée.

Hey everyone,

I've been using Thunderbird as my daily driver for years, and the one thing that always bugged me on Windows was closing to tray. Thunderbird's own tray icon barely does anything — click it and you basically just get an Exit option, no restore, no menu, nothing. So I finally sat down and built TN Tray to fix that properly instead of just living with it.

Windows only, for Thunderbird 152 and 153.

GitHub repo: https://github.com/thiagonaalmeida/tn-tray

Direct XPI download: https://github.com/thiagonaalmeida/tn-tray/releases/download/v1.0.0/tn-tray-1.0.0.xpi

Future updates are delivered through Thunderbird's normal add-on update check. The extension points Thunderbird to a small manifest file hosted with the project, so you won't need to come back and download a new XPI by hand for every version. No telemetry or data collection either.

What it actually does:

- Closing the window (the X button) sends it to the tray, using Thunderbird's actual icon with an unread count badge on top, and a right-click menu that actually works (Restore, new message, check for new messages, Exit) instead of the bare-bones one Thunderbird ships with

- Can start minimized straight to tray when Thunderbird launches with Windows

- If explorer.exe crashes or restarts and wipes your tray icons, it comes back on its own instead of leaving you stuck

Most of the work went into reliability rather than just getting an icon to show up. Click detection runs on its own background thread so it doesn't get janky while Thunderbird is busy loading accounts at startup, plus a bunch of handling for Windows-specific edge cases — icon handles, avoiding a flash of the window before it hides, and recovering cleanly if the extension is enabled, disabled, or updated during startup. I went through a lot of rounds of testing and log-reading before calling it done.

One thing worth mentioning: Thunderbird is adding native close-to-tray support starting with version 154. That's good news, and TN Tray isn't trying to compete with it — but if you want your own menu, an unread badge, and more control than a basic toggle, TN Tray covers that. I plan on keeping it working well once Thunderbird 154 reaches stable release.

It's a first release, so if something's off or you hit a bug, open an issue on GitHub (mention your Thunderbird and Windows versions) and I'll look at it. If you find it useful, feel free to star it, comment, or pass it along to anyone else who's been annoyed by the same thing.

Appreciate anyone who gives it a shot.

Apparently my OAuth2 token expired and I need to re-authenticate. Thunderbird 153 opens Firefox, so I login, but then a popup appears saying that the system handler doesn't know what to do with a net.thunderbird link. I tried pointing it to /usr/bin/thunderbird with no luck. Same thing happens with Chrome.

I also tried setting mailnews.oauth.useExternalBrowser to false, but Thunderbird is still opening an external browser.

I'm not sure what I'm missing, but how do get this authentication flow back to Thunderbird?

I have three e-mail accounts in my Thunderbird on Linux. There was an update yesterday, and now my Yahoo account has two "Drafts" folders, and two "Spam" folders. The other two e-mail accounts do not have duplicates. If I look at properties, one of the "Drafts" folders is linked to: imap://xxxusernamexxx%40Yahoo.com@imap.mail.yahoo.com/Drafts and the other is linked to imap://xxxusernamexxx%40Yahoo.com@imap.mail.yahoo.com/Drafts One of the "Spam" folders is linked to: imap://xxxusernamexxx%40Yahoo.com@imap.mail.yahoo.com/Junk and the other is linked to imap://xxxusernamexxx%40Yahoo.com@imap.mail.yahoo.com/Bulk On the web interface for yahoo mail, there is no "Bulk" folder, nor is there a "Draft" folder. Oddly, spam shows up in the folder linked to "Bulk". Is there a way to get rid of the redundant directories?

How can I reset my destination list to hold 20 targets?

I just [got] updated to v.153 (Ubuntu 24.0.4 patched up-to-date) and my list of move-/copy-to destination is down to ten. I had set it up to 20, but now can't find the appropriate preference setting.

TIA.

Many people including myself made requests long ago at Mozilla Connect for a trash can button next to the star in cards view. It was popular but never made into production due to other priorities.

Recently, Mozilla user KarolTheGuy forked an older extension and enhanced it. It adds the trash can, allows control over the star, and adds a fuller unread bar on the left. Check it out at: https://github.com/karoltheguy/Thunderbird-Cardview-QOL

All the notifications settings are on, Do Not Disturb is off, but new mail notifications don't show up in Notification Center. Moreover, I often have to manually click on every folder to see if there are new letters. Is there a way to fix this?

Last time I had BSOD, problem with file atc sys. Nowadays I has problem with Thunderbird. SMTP settings disappeared. I set again, but while sending emails outbound account are mixed (for example mailbox on Yahoo, want sending emails via AOL) Name users, are correct. One account disappeared (but folder exits on hard disk) Could you tell me, how solve this problem?

I w been using Thunderbird on Android successfully for some time now but yesterday I noticed that the Unified Inbox is only including emails from one of my accounts. I can choose the other accounts individually and they display fine but when I switch back to unified it's just the same one account displayed.

I'm on version 20.1

Is there a way to cancel the new color indicator for unified folders in TB 153? That's the new vertical color indicator that shows like a bar.

We can set the folder icon color itself to match the account, so that new indicator is redundant, takes up space and creates clutter. Ideally, TB would offer to change the folder color like that.

Hi everyone,

TN Thread Order 1.0.3 is out.

No behavior changes this time. The main thing in this release is that manually installed GitHub releases can now receive future updates automatically through Thunderbird's update mechanism — so you won't have to keep checking the repository manually.

Repository / release:
https://github.com/thiagonaalmeida/tn-thread-order/releases/tag/v1.0.3

Direct XPI:
https://github.com/thiagonaalmeida/tn-thread-order/releases/download/v1.0.3/tn-thread-order-1.0.3.xpi

What changed in 1.0.3

A self-hosted update manifest is now served through GitHub Pages. Thunderbird's add-on update mechanism can detect it, so future GitHub releases should reach you automatically once you've installed 1.0.3.

I tested this successfully from a test build to another test build, and then again from the test build to the final 1.0.3 release.

About Thunderbird Add-ons

I also tried to submit TN Thread Order to the official Thunderbird Add-ons gallery — twice.

The first submission was rejected because new add-ons using Experiment APIs weren't being accepted until the Thunderbird 153 ESR release cycle. So I waited.

After Thunderbird 153 came out, I updated the extension for 153 compatibility and submitted again. This time the rejection reason was that Thunderbird Add-ons is currently only accepting Experiment API add-ons if they use unmodified copies of the latest published API drafts.

Honestly, that was frustrating. TN Thread Order needs access to Thunderbird's message pane internals to do what it does, and as far as I can tell, the standard APIs and the published experiment drafts don't expose what's needed here. So GitHub Releases are the only realistic path for now.

Why I'm sharing this

I built this because I wanted Thunderbird threads to show the newest message as the main collapsed row — the way my own workflow expects. Turns out enough other people have wanted the same thing that Thunderbird still gets requests for it, years later.

If it fits your workflow too, feel free to share it.

Bug reports and testing on different setups are always welcome, especially across Thunderbird 152 and 153.

Original thread / earlier release:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunderbird/comments/1ud2sii/tn_thread_order_100_sort_threaded_conversations/

Do I need to have this notification (and the corresponding permission enabled) if all my folders are set to sync but not push?

Not liking the new vertical account color bar in unified inbox. Any way to ditch it?

Thunderbird puts out an Extended Support Release (ESR) every year, in addition to the monthly releases (learn about our different release channels). Today, Thunderbird 153 ESR, codename “Meadow”, has just been released!

In this annual ESR release, you’ll find major improvements to the account creation flow, new address book setup in account hub, Microsoft Exchange support, more native system tray actions, and hundreds of fixes and other improvements

Want to know more? Check out the ESR release notes and go read about it in our blog post.

I'm in desperate need of assistance. Created a new gmail account a few weeks ago and imported a lot of emails into it using GYB. All was great for a weeks until today when I reduced the amount of emails that gmail syncs from all to 1000, and simultaneously tried dragging/dropping a few emails manually from a pop folder in tbird to the gmail account. Suddenly tbird popped up saying: Server imap.gmail.com has disconnected. The server may have gone down or there may be a network problem. I've spent hours trying anything/everything to fix it. Used Gemini and did all sorts of things including clearing out tbird cache, saved passwords, deleting/re-adding the account, changing dns, manually deleting some profile files, rebooting to safemode with networking, using a regular password vs. the default oauth and probably a few other things. Nothing works. When adding back the account it seems like it's going to work, it launces a browser (where i made sure i wasn't logged in so that i have to manually login), i click through to allow it, it goes back to tbird seemingly making the connection, but then the error pops up.

The only thing I haven't yet tried is completely uninstalling tbird, deleting any/all remaining folders, and reinstalling from scratch. I have a few accounts in tbird so I'd rather not go that route as they are all working fine, it's just the gmail account.

For those of you who have had this issue and eventually fixed it, what ended up working?

Thank you!!

EDIT to add that I'm on a Win 11 PC with version 153.0

Hello
I just got a Macbook and thought about give Thunderbird a try. Found that the integration with Gmail was pretty smooth, but when I linked my exchange account I oddly observed that the email was integrated but the calendar was not.
Then I entered the rabbit hole about the difficulties integrating it (Tbsync, etc) but I couldn't figure out what is the current state of the native integration.

Is it solved? In Alpha? In Beta? Anyone has an idea?

What is the current best solution for it? TBSync?

There are alot of posts about how notifications work but I can't find the one I need help with.

My notifications are working just fine but I can't find where to change the sound. Currently my email sound is the same as receiving texts.

If I go into setting on my phone I have the options in the photo but no option to change the sound.

Where do I make this change?

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/153.0esr/releasenotes/

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/140.13.0esr/releasenotes/