What is the meaning of the flag that looks like an asterisk next to messages in my inbox?
When I download emails into Thunderbird from my pop server, all of the new messages have a yellow asterisk immediately to the left of the Subject line. I assume that this is to identify the newly downloaded messages so that I can make sure that I have read any of the new messages before closing Thunderbird, but I cannot find anything in the Thunderbird documentation that verifies this. I have attached a screen print of my inbox that shows these asterisk "flags". Can someone more familiar with Thunderbird tell me exactly what they are for?
In addition, these asterisk flags disappear as soon as I open just one of the new messages. Once this happens, I can no longer tell which of the other messages in my inbox are newly downloaded, so this defeats the purpose of the flag. I tried adjusting the setting under Options,Display,Advanced for when a message is marked as read, but that only controls when the Subject line in the Inbox is no longer Bold. It doesn't appear to affect how long the asterisk flag remains.
Hoping someone here can help. If not, is there a phone number I can call to talk to a Mozilla employee?
Chosen solution
OK I can explain that apparent behavior difference. When I read an email I am not Opening, and then Closing it. I just use the split screen view and read the email in the lower part of the screen. That way, the stars don't disappear for any message I have not read, until I next check for new messages. You could try that... To turn it on -> View - layout - Message pane. (Or press F8) Agnes
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (5)
Hi Yes that eight pointed yellow star indicates messages that you have just downloaded. You can tell which of your messages are newest by looking at the date and time column. 'Marked as read' shows which you have opened, and you can adjust the settings for that but not the 'recently downloaded' star. I am not sure why yours disappear so quickly - my 'newly loaded' stars stay for a several minutes, even if I have opened and read one or more of the messages. This is a guess - but perhaps it is related to how often Thunderbird checks for new mail? Try setting that to check only every 10 minutes and see if the stars stay longer. Best wishes, Agnes
Re calling an employee - there's just us volunteers. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-faq#w_where-can-i-get-help-with-using-thunderbird
AgnesRM said
Hi Yes that eight pointed yellow star indicates messages that you have just downloaded. You can tell which of your messages are newest by looking at the date and time column. 'Marked as read' shows which you have opened, and you can adjust the settings for that but not the 'recently downloaded' star. I am not sure why yours disappear so quickly - my 'newly loaded' stars stay for a several minutes, even if I have opened and read one or more of the messages. This is a guess - but perhaps it is related to how often Thunderbird checks for new mail? Try setting that to check only every 10 minutes and see if the stars stay longer. Best wishes, Agnes
Thanks for the suggestion; I didn't have Thunderbird setup to either download messages at startup or to check for new messages. I simply manually download messages once or twice a day or when I am expecting an important email. However, to see if it helped, I changed it to check for new emails every 50 minutes.
That didn't seem to matter. Here's what happens: If I download a bunch of messages and don't read any of them, the asterisks seem to stay for quite a while (I haven't timed it). If I open one or more of the new emails, but don't close them by removing them from the message bar at the top of the screen, the asterisks remain for at least a while. But as soon as I close any of those messages, the asterisks go away immediately.
I guess I could work around this by opening any of the new messages that interest me and then after reading them, close them, causing the asterisks to go away. Just seems weird that it behaves differently for me than you.
Chosen Solution
OK I can explain that apparent behavior difference. When I read an email I am not Opening, and then Closing it. I just use the split screen view and read the email in the lower part of the screen. That way, the stars don't disappear for any message I have not read, until I next check for new messages. You could try that... To turn it on -> View - layout - Message pane. (Or press F8) Agnes
AgnesRM said
OK I can explain that apparent behavior difference. When I read an email I am not Opening, and then Closing it. I just use the split screen view and read the email in the lower part of the screen. That way, the stars don't disappear for any message I have not read, until I next check for new messages. You could try that... To turn it on -> View - layout - Message pane. (Or press F8) Agnes
Agnes, that indeed explains the difference. I'll give the message pane a try, but in the meantime, I've figured out how to delay the flags going away when I actually read the emails the old fashioned way. Thanks a lot for all your help.