How can I check if I have replied to an email and automatically see it at the top of my conversation (thread) if it is the most recent message in the chain?
In general, how do you know if you sent a response to an email using Thunderbird? When using conversations (threading), how can I make my reply appear on the top of the thread, even if it is the most recent message in the chain? This helps me to keep track of if/when I replied.
In general, I am new to using non-gmail email and also desktop clients. I have searched a LOT for this answer and not found a good answer, so please excuse my ignorance and if I missed a good solution somewhere. In Thunderbird, I have threads where messages are missing (even using the Conversations Add-On). I think this is mostly due to the algorithms that combine messages into threads being not as powerful as those used in Gmail, so sometimes they aren't put together properly. Is this also correct?
THANK YOU for any help :)
All Replies (11)
One way to check if you've replied to a message is to right-click, Open Message In Conversation. This shows the entire thread of received and sent messages in a thread, independent of whether there's a 'replied' arrow next to the received message.
There is a description of threading logic here:
Hi sfhowes, Thank you for pointing out some of the threading logic.
I tried the "Open Message In Conversation" and it still didn't find or show that I had replied to the email. However, after I went and manually found my reply in the Sent Items folder and simply opened that message (no further processing of the message on my part), it then added my reply to the conversation chain with a notice saying "In [email protected]/Sent Items". Any ideas why it couldn't do this on its own?
Thank you very much.
When you open an IMAP folder, it automatically prompts a resync with the IMAP server. If this particular sent message hadn't been synced when you opened the received message in Conversation, and this folder isn't checked when getting new messages, that might explain your result. In my IMAP accounts, right-clicking Sent, Properties, shows that Sent is not checked when getting new mail.
Awesome! Thanks again sfhowes - I think that's it. I followed this guide to force all folders to be synced if anyone else runs into this problem.
Well I may have jumped the gun. Changing mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new to true seemed to work on my initial trials, but after the fist few minutes, it no longer syncs (gets new messages automatically in the sent folder) and I have manually tell it to "Get Messages" from inside the Sent Items folder. Even after I get sent messages manually, it does not associate the new sent messages with the conversation unless I click on each sent message individually. I even removed my account and re-added it to see if that would help - it didn't. I'm about out of ideas. You have any others?
~Thanks
The preference is set to its default on my system, and the Sent folder resyncs when I open it - no need to select (open) each sent message.
There is a connection between the Open Message in Conversation option and the global search index, so it may work differently for you after rebuilding the database - assuming you have global search enabled in Tools/Options/Advanced/General:
Hi, just chiming in here. I'm finding this to be a bit of a fail in Thunderbird. (I hope I'm missing something!) When I reply to emails, the only way I can access those replies is to go into the "sent" folder. They are not automatically attached to the thread to which they belong. It's non-intuitive and time consuming.
In reading this thread, I was surprised there isn't a simple answer to this issue. There's got to be a better solution, but maybe it doesn't exist yet?
There is a setting in Account Settings, Copies & Folders 'Place replies in the folder of the message being replied to', and an add-on that provides more options.
Excellent (as usual sfhowes). One more question on the subject:
When viewing a thread with the structure collapsed in the left panel, messages in the reading pane are listed oldest to newest - with the newest at the bottom. Is it possible to reverse that order (in the reading pane) so that the newest are at the top? (see attached image)
I found a couple of discussions on this subject, which you may have seen:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=2911529
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3025095
You can try the Conversations add-on, which others have used with mixed success. I haven't thought too much about this, preferring unthreaded view.
Thanks sfhowes. Perhaps this is primarily an issue for people coming from Gmail - who are used to efficient threading of emails.
It looks like the "Thunderbird Conversations" addon can't address the issue. From the FAQ page of that add on:
I want the most recent message on top The conversation view doesn't have support for reversing the order of the messages. There used to be such a feature, but it added a tremendous amount of complexity in the code, so the big 2011 summer rewrite removed the feature.
It does help though. It's a great add on. I ended up deciding not to use it though as snoozing emails is more important to me and that plugin makes mailmindr hard to use.