Change the default sort for all Thunderbird folders, inc RSS

[batfastad]

Hi everyone

I've been using Thunderbird for a few years now and it's great.
I've just investigated the RSS feeds function within Thunderbird (I usually use Sage in Firefox).

Is there a way to change the default sorting behaviour of the RSS feeds?
At the moment they all seem to sort by date in ascending order.

Poking around in the config, I've found the following keys with the following values:

Code: Select all

mailnews.default_news_sort_order          1
mailnews.default_news_sort_type          22
mailnews.default_sort_order          1
mailnews.default_sort_type          18

I changed these settings to:

Code: Select all

mailnews.default_news_sort_order          2
mailnews.default_news_sort_type          22
mailnews.default_sort_order          2
mailnews.default_sort_type          18

By following this info:
http://xulplanet.com/references/xpcomre ... Order.html
http://xulplanet.com/references/xpcomre ... tType.html

And the changes seem to be correct... apart from RSS feeds.
All my news groups and mail folders are now sorted correctly, but my RSS feeds still default to date ascending.

Is there a way to change this for RSS feeds?
I don't really want to go through each RSS feed I have and change each one. Be useful if there was an automatic way though.

[goa103]

At the moment they all seem to sort by date in ascending order.

Poking around in the config, I've found the following keys with the following values:
[…]
I changed these settings to:

Code: Select all

mailnews.default_news_sort_order          2
mailnews.default_news_sort_type          22
mailnews.default_sort_order          2
mailnews.default_sort_type          18

Thanks ! These settings are listed in the Mail and news settings MozillaZine Knowledge Base article but are not described. The "default_*sort_order" settings are integers and "default_*sort_type" booleans. It seems there're no "rss" settings. Moreover I'm surprised "magic numbers" are used to set them. 1 for ascending, 2 for descending… "Defines" should be used instead like for the other settings. Moreover the values you use don't match the setting types, 22 for a boolean ? Magic binary

All my news groups and mail folders are now sorted correctly, but my RSS feeds still default to date ascending.

Is there a way to change this for RSS feeds?
I don't really want to go through each RSS feed I have and change each one. Be useful if there was an automatic way though.

Well I'm new to Thunderbird and was only looking for a solution to sort all my folders by date in descending order, so I'm not familiar with using it as a syndication feed (RSS, ATOM...) client. However it seems syndication settings don't exist for the moment, they're probably "hard coded". The following settings should be added :

mailnews . default_feed_sort_order Integer
mailnews . default_feed_sort_type Boolean

I really don't understand why the default sorting order is set to ascending date, it doesn't make sense as the newest mails are lost at the bottom of a folder. In fact I think I never encountered such a weird behavior until I stumbled upon Thunderbird.

I also think the following "Folder views" features from Windows Explorer would be useful : "You can set all of your folders to the same view.", "Like Current Folder" and "Reset All Folders". An extension could do the job nicely.

[batfastad]

I really don't understand why the default sorting order is set to ascending date, it doesn't make sense as the newest mails are lost at the bottom of a folder. In fact I think I never encountered such a weird behavior until I stumbled upon Thunderbird.

I also think the following "Folder views" features from Windows Explorer would be useful : "You can set all of your folders to the same view.", "Like Current Folder" and "Reset All Folders". An extension could do the job nicely.

Yeah that did confuse me a bit when I first started using Thunderbird a while back.
I've stopped using Thunderbird for now though as all my email is done by the free Google Apps for Domains

That extension would be mega-cool though. And IMO it's something missing from Outlook, the ability to set all folder views to the same with one click.

[timl006]

At the moment they all seem to sort by date in ascending order.

Poking around in the config, I've found the following keys with the following values:
[…]
I changed these settings to:

Code: Select all

mailnews.default_news_sort_order          2
mailnews.default_news_sort_type          22
mailnews.default_sort_order          2
mailnews.default_sort_type          18

Thanks ! These settings are listed in the Mail and news settings MozillaZine Knowledge Base article but are not described. The "default_*sort_order" settings are integers and "default_*sort_type" booleans. It seems there're no "rss" settings. Moreover I'm surprised "magic numbers" are used to set them. 1 for ascending, 2 for descending… "Defines" should be used instead like for the other settings. Moreover the values you use don't match the setting types, 22 for a boolean ? Magic binary

All my news groups and mail folders are now sorted correctly, but my RSS feeds still default to date ascending.

Is there a way to change this for RSS feeds?
I don't really want to go through each RSS feed I have and change each one. Be useful if there was an automatic way though.

Well I'm new to Thunderbird and was only looking for a solution to sort all my folders by date in descending order, so I'm not familiar with using it as a syndication feed (RSS, ATOM...) client. However it seems syndication settings don't exist for the moment, they're probably "hard coded". The following settings should be added :

mailnews . default_feed_sort_order Integer
mailnews . default_feed_sort_type Boolean

I really don't understand why the default sorting order is set to ascending date, it doesn't make sense as the newest mails are lost at the bottom of a folder. In fact I think I never encountered such a weird behavior until I stumbled upon Thunderbird.

I also think the following "Folder views" features from Windows Explorer would be useful : "You can set all of your folders to the same view.", "Like Current Folder" and "Reset All Folders". An extension could do the job nicely.

The problem is that such changes seem to be for NEW folders only. I want a way to change my existing folders as well. I have been using T-bird in its default config for some time, even though it's the only one of my mail clients that behave in this way (Eudora did the same but I no longer use it for other reasons). I finally had enough of it and started learning about the problem today. It's amazing how long we can put up with something until we reach our breaking point. I found the menus, I found the config fields but nothing for a program wide change on existing folders.

The result is that even with the changes made, I still had to go through all my existing folders one by one to change them.

EDIT:
Just to be sure, I did two things. First, I changed an existing folder to the wrong setting. Then I changed the config values. I checked the folder and it was not changed to match the config settings. I quit and restarted T-Bird just in case. The incorrect setting persisted.

However, when I created a new folder, then the config changes were respected.

[sdoherty]

In order to have all your folders realigned in the correct sort order, the .msf files will need to be rebuild by thunderbird. They are the files that keep track of what you have done in each folder. You can either right click on each folder and click rebuild index, which takes as much time as going to each folder and clicking the date field to resort.
OR you can cd to ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/<your-profile>.default/<ImapMail> or <Mail> and type rm -r */*.msf
This will delete all the .msf files and when you open each folder it will automatically resort to the newly set default.

[batfastad]

Ok this is interesting. I kinda gave up because all my folders were sorted how I wanted.
But I've always thought there should be an option somewhere to apply the current view to all folders, it's been a slight annoyance for me with Thunderbird. Only slight annoyance though, it's still the best mail client out there IMO

[Guest]

Mike Cowperthwaite 2007-01-13 11:06:57 PST

OK, here's some off-the-cuff documentation:

Prefs are named as follows; first three apply to Mail and RSS folders, the
second three to Newsgroups.
mailnews.default_sort_order
mailnews.default_sort_type
mailnews.default_view_flags
mailnews.default_news_sort_order
mailnews.default_news_sort_type
mailnews.default_news_view_flags
In about:config (Tools | Options | Advanced | General, Config Editor), you can
enter "news._def" to filter out all the prefs but these.

sort_order:
byNone 17 byPriority 23 byLocation 29
byDate 18 * byStatus 24 byTags 30
bySubject 19 * bySize 25 byJunkStatus 31
byAuthor 20 * byFlagged 26 byAttachments 32
byId 21 ** byUnread 27 byAccount 33
byThread 22 byRecipient 28 byCustom 34
* = commonly desired values
** = by Order Received (?)

sort_type:
ascending 1
descending 2

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.

[MWanon]

I am also looking for a "set all folders to this view" option. I am disappointed that it doesnt exist. Even cranky email clients like Groupwise have it...

[GadgetHW]

Is there a way to set up a combined value for mailnews.default_sort_order, in order to sort for example by date & by label name?

I need to sort by label ascending, and by date descending, simultaneously.

[batfastad]

Just checked out the latest version of Thunderbird... so I can now open things up in tabs
However I still can't find a way to apply a default sort order to all folders?
Not going to be fun for a nested IMAP folder heirarchy of 1000+ folders all shared out from Zimbra.

I found this bug which shows it can be done through about:config... https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=86845
But not having an option in View > Sort By to reset to a default is a real shame.

What would be really cool is the ability to set a default "view"
So any columns you've chosen to show/hide, the order of the columns from left to right, and the sort order
Then the ability to apply that to all existing and new folders

I really want to transition users from Outlook to Thunderbird in our small business.
But even the thought of having to explain to some of them (not exactly computer literate) how edit the default sort order in about:config makes me want to do violence!!

[batfastad]

On a more positive note I found this addon...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunde ... ddon/57219
Which can set it for all new folders which is handy for a new account. But doesn't help if you've got an extensive set of folders already

Hope this helps someone out

[ciderous]

Just checked out the latest version of Thunderbird... so I can now open things up in tabs
However I still can't find a way to apply a default sort order to all folders?
Not going to be fun for a nested IMAP folder heirarchy of 1000+ folders all shared out from Zimbra.

I found this bug which shows it can be done through about:config... https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=86845
But not having an option in View > Sort By to reset to a default is a real shame.

What would be really cool is the ability to set a default "view"
So any columns you've chosen to show/hide, the order of the columns from left to right, and the sort order
Then the ability to apply that to all existing and new folders

I really want to transition users from Outlook to Thunderbird in our small business.
But even the thought of having to explain to some of them (not exactly computer literate) how edit the default sort order in about:config makes me want to do violence!!

I found out in the process of writing a post about the Thunderbird/Icedove sort order and delete order on Debian Squeeze that you can delete the .msf files in your profile after setting the sort orders and types in your preferences from the config editor. You might need to dig around the documentation for the 'view' settings. But I think that would do it.

[midnighter]

Just for removing the .msf files I think a better way would be:

Code: Select all

find  ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/<your-profile>.default/ -name \*.msf -exec rm {} \;

or sometimes also:

Code: Select all

find  ~/.thunderbird/<your-profile>.default/ -name \*.msf -exec rm {} \;