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Folder appearance and priority

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 40 views
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Thunderbird 91.6.2, MacOS 12.2.1

At least since the 9x.x.x releases, and maybe earlier, Thunderbird's folder pane displays some folders using document-like icons instead of folders. Also, with Favourite Folders and Compact View enabled, these document-like icons appear near the top of the list, just under Inbox, instead of being alphanumerically sorted like regular folders.

Here are two screenshots contrasting the document-like icons with the regular folder icons. As far as I can tell there is nothing in preferences or account settings that would account for the difference.

I'd like all folders to use folder icons, and to use alphanumeric sorting in all cases. How to achieve that?

Thanks in advance.

Thunderbird 91.6.2, MacOS 12.2.1 At least since the 9x.x.x releases, and maybe earlier, Thunderbird's folder pane displays some folders using document-like icons instead of folders. Also, with Favourite Folders and Compact View enabled, these document-like icons appear near the top of the list, just under Inbox, instead of being alphanumerically sorted like regular folders. Here are two screenshots contrasting the document-like icons with the regular folder icons. As far as I can tell there is nothing in preferences or account settings that would account for the difference. I'd like all folders to use folder icons, and to use alphanumeric sorting in all cases. How to achieve that? Thanks in advance.
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

info7087 said

Thanks for your email. Looking under 'View Source', none of the messages in this folder have X-Mozilla headers of any kind. Same thing for all messages under a different folder on a different account that doesn't have the draft-like folder appearance. I'm hardly an email protocol expert, but I thought with IMAP it's the server and not the client that writes message headers.

That's good. I wanted to make sure - if it was pop then did it contain wrong header data or if imap then did it contain something that should not be there.

re : near the top of the Favourite Folders list Please bare with me as I need to identify whether setting as 'Favourite' has influenced the situation.

Right click on 'cvcbikep' folder and uncheck the 'favourite folder' - so it gets removed from the 'Favourite Folders' list.

Please let me know results at each step:

It should now appear in the All folders section. Does the 'cvcbikep' folder still have wrong icon?

Right click on 'cvcbikep' folder and select Properties click on 'Repair Folder' click on OK Does the 'cvcbikep' folder still have wrong icon?

If yes: In Thunderbird Menu app icon > Help > More Trounbleshooting information Under 'Application Basics' - 'Profile Folder' - click on 'Open Folder'

A new window opens showing contents of your profile name folder. Exit thunderbird now:

Scroll down, locate and delete the following files:

  • folderTree.json
  • global-messages-db.sqlite
  • panacea.dat
  • session.json
  • virtualFolders.dat

Click on 'Mail' folder Delete this folder: 'smart mailboxes'


Start Thunderbird Does the 'cvcbikep' folder still have wrong icon?

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document-like icons shown in image are the icons used for the designated 'Drafts' folder.

Right click on mail account name folder in Folder Pane and select 'Settings' 'Account Settings' opens in new tab For each account - select 'Copies & Folders' Check the 'Keep draft messages in:' setting. If POP account: Select 'Drafts folder on' and choose name of pop account. IF IMAP account: Select 'Other' and choose the 'Drafts on imap mail account name'

If you have more than one identity applied to one mail account: Select mail account name in left pane Look bottom right and click on 'Manage Identities' button If it lists only one default then do not bother to do anything. If you have more than one identity - select identity and click on 'Edit' Select 'Copies & Folders' tab and check the 'Drafts' is set up correctly as per info above. click on OK

After making changes in Account Settings, restart Thunderbird.

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Thanks for your reply. Sorry, but this did not resolve the issue.

For each of the five IMAP accounts defined in Thunderbird, I went into Account Settings/Copies and Folders/Draft and Templates and changed the draft location from "Drafts folder on" to "Other" and explicitly pointed at the Drafts folder for that IMAP account. I also verified that each IMAP account uses exactly one identity.

Then I quit Thunderbird. Then I launched Activity Monitor to verify no Thunderbird processes were still active. Then I restarted Thunderbird.

After the relaunch, the same two folders still use document-like icons as shown in the original post, and are still shown near the top of the Favourite Folders list, just under the inboxes.

Thanks in advance for clues on what other changes Thunderbird needs to display these as regular folders.

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Update: On one of the two problem IMAP accounts, pointing to a different non-Drafts folder and restarting, then pointing to Drafts and restarting, cleared the issue.

However, the same maneuver on the the other problem account did not clear the issue. For this account, as shown here and in the original post, the folder "cvcbikep" continues to appear as a document-like icon regardless of which folder is configured for Drafts. This latest screenshot shows two document-like icons, only one of which is the Drafts folder.

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re :Update: On one of the two problem IMAP accounts, pointing to a different non-Drafts folder and restarting, then pointing to Drafts and restarting, cleared the issue.

Thanks for the feedback - at least that worked for one account. This is a real weirdness which I'm trying to locate various information to help those suffering from same/similar issue. So your help is appreciated.

Regarding the 'cvcbikep' folder Select folder Select an email so it displays in the lower Message Pane. Click on 'More' and choose 'View Source' it opens in a new window Look for these lines.

  • X-Mozilla-Status: 0015
  • X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
  • X-Mozilla-Draft-Info:

Please post image showing what you see as I need to know what numbers etc are displaying.

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Thanks for your email. Looking under 'View Source', none of the messages in this folder have X-Mozilla headers of any kind. Same thing for all messages under a different folder on a different account that doesn't have the draft-like folder appearance. I'm hardly an email protocol expert, but I thought with IMAP it's the server and not the client that writes message headers.

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Chosen Solution

info7087 said

Thanks for your email. Looking under 'View Source', none of the messages in this folder have X-Mozilla headers of any kind. Same thing for all messages under a different folder on a different account that doesn't have the draft-like folder appearance. I'm hardly an email protocol expert, but I thought with IMAP it's the server and not the client that writes message headers.

That's good. I wanted to make sure - if it was pop then did it contain wrong header data or if imap then did it contain something that should not be there.

re : near the top of the Favourite Folders list Please bare with me as I need to identify whether setting as 'Favourite' has influenced the situation.

Right click on 'cvcbikep' folder and uncheck the 'favourite folder' - so it gets removed from the 'Favourite Folders' list.

Please let me know results at each step:

It should now appear in the All folders section. Does the 'cvcbikep' folder still have wrong icon?

Right click on 'cvcbikep' folder and select Properties click on 'Repair Folder' click on OK Does the 'cvcbikep' folder still have wrong icon?

If yes: In Thunderbird Menu app icon > Help > More Trounbleshooting information Under 'Application Basics' - 'Profile Folder' - click on 'Open Folder'

A new window opens showing contents of your profile name folder. Exit thunderbird now:

Scroll down, locate and delete the following files:

  • folderTree.json
  • global-messages-db.sqlite
  • panacea.dat
  • session.json
  • virtualFolders.dat

Click on 'Mail' folder Delete this folder: 'smart mailboxes'


Start Thunderbird Does the 'cvcbikep' folder still have wrong icon?

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The first two steps (all folders and folder repair) did not clear the issue.

The third step (deleting files in the profile folder) did clear the issue.

Thank you!

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Many thanks for feedback. Good to hear normality has been restored.