Current Situation: This is what is seen when using the 'Table View'

All threads relate to the initial thread - the first email which started the conversation of emails back and forth. That initial top level email will always be the email that is sorted by your preferences. eg: View > Sort by > Date, Descending, threaded

It will contain all threads relating to that specific intitial email. The threads are always displayed in the order received, so that the first subthread will be the first 'reply' to the initial email. So each time an email receives a new thread to the conversation, it gets appended to the list. In other words all subthreads are in conversation order - newest at bottom.

Any top level newly created thread/email will have a star will display against the Subject and the 'Sort by read' column will have a green dot icon against relevant email and it wil be using a bold font. As per a normal received email.

Any top level collapsed thread displaying a > chevron which receives a new appended but 'hidden' thread will be shown as underlined. (There are requests to make this more obvious as the underline is not always so easy to see as eg: bold font)

If you expand the collapsed thread then all unread mail will have the following:

• If it is new and unread - a star will display against the Subject and the 'Sort by read' column will have a green dot icon against relevant email and it wil be using a bold font.
• If it is unread the 'Sort by read' column will have a green dot icon against relevant email and it will be using a bold font.

Note - I sometimes use this method as it's quick and filters out clutter and saves a lot of searching etc: Quick method of seeing Only unread mail is to use the Quick Filter Bar icon 'Show only unread messages' Click on that icon to display just unread messages - any new unread will have a star as well. When finished - click on same icon again to revert back to threaded view.

If using the 'Cards View': You will not see columns but you will see ' threads envelope icon x Replies >' below each email. If it has any replies and if there are unread emails in that thread, there will be a 'green dot unread' icon displayed on the threads envelope icon.

Additional Alternative to using the Quick Filter Bar 'Show only unread messages' icon which shows all unread threads no matter what the topic, use the following to see uncluttered contents of a specific thread.

• Right click on the top level collapsed thread and select 'Open in Conversation'

It opens in a new tab displaying all emails in that thread as a list. As I use the sort by > 'Descending' option to display all emails newest at top. This should display as a list with newest at top.

The information I posted told you how Thunderbird works when it comes to threaded emails.

I've also provided a free handy hints on what to look out for and the alternatives to display just unread for all threads in that folder and the other option of displaying all threads for a specific email in list form with newest on top. Those two alternatives to see emails do not effect the display, so the Sort by > threaded is not effected. So no need to switch threading on and off.

It's not possible to sort a conversation in reverse order. The 'View' > 'Sort by' > etc options only apply to top level threads - not subthreads.

Toad-Hall, thank you very much for this very useful explanations. Now I understand the logic behind and I can stop searching for the correct setting. Still, I think the 'Show as Conversations' mode in Outlook is more productive and easier to manage since it relates the thread topic to the newest and not to the oldest message. But I did not know about the possibility to 'Open Message in Conversation'. Thanks a lot for that hint! This allows me to turn off the threaded view in the main tab to avoid overlooking a message, but follow the thread in an extra tab. After selecting the "Unthreaded" sorting option, even the conversation tab is ordered as descending. This solution allows me to keep going without major limitations, thank you! The only thing which would even improve it: A marker if a message is related to other messages at all, when "Unthreaded" is selected.

@Toad-Hall I love using the Sort function simply, by date. When i conduct a search, results present [descending] as a list of full posts with filters and folders in left hand panel, and that's okay. I'm also presented with the option to Show results as list, which I find more helpful. When I click on that link, messages sort as date but default to ascending. How do i save my view preferences to a different default, e.g.: descending?

Thanks!

Sorry to bring up an older topic. We are transitioning from Outlook to Thunderbird here at our office, and so far thumbs up except for this sticking point with threaded messages showing the oldest first. Everyone coming from Outlook is used to it having the most recent message in a thread at the top and the oldest at the bottom. The trick of opening in conversation works, but all our team here is looking to have it just sorted in the way they want in the inbox right away. Is this something that is possible to add in the future?

Over the years, there have been several people who have asked for the threaded conversation to be in reverse order - meaning newest on top. This is usually asked for by people who use Sort by > Descending because they have newest mail at the top of the Message List. However, a conversation has always had newest comments appended to the conversation.

So a Sort by > Descending and Date means sorting on the List by Date with newest on top, but if you enable 'Threading', the 'Sort by' > 'Descending' is applied to the oldest thread in conversation not the newest and all appended conversations are listed in date order from oldest at top to newest at bottom. This may seem odd to some people. This has been the prefered method in Thunderbird because a 'Reply' to a particular section of that conversation may create a split in the conversation. This may not be noticed in a simple back and forth reply conversation between 2 people, but may be seen if a group is responding to various sections of that thread.

This is a hyperthetical example, but you can end up with something like this:

> Oldest original email mentions two problems. >> 1st reply Discussing first problem >>> 4th Reply >>>> 6th Reply >>2nd Reply Discussing 2nd problem >>> 3rd Reply >>>> 5th Reply >> 7th Reply discussing both problems

Using current format this is a simple design structure. Now, if you put that into reverse where newest is at the top you start to have a problem and that issue is partly why it has not been implemented. It's not that simple in certain circumstances.

There is bug report which you can follow: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=479969

I greatly appreciate the explanation. Personally I don't use threads, but most of the team here does, and with everyone preprogrammed from Outlook to have newest on top, it is extremely hard to break that habit. This is the only thing holding everyone back, as the rest of the interface, look and feel of Thunderbird is preferred to Outlook.