I have always found it so much easier and more logical to see the new emails at the top. You could try it to see if it works better for you.

click on the 'Date' column header to change the sort. If it shows oldest on top, click again to put newest on top.

If you prefer to see new mail at the bottom, try this.

• Tools > Options > advanced > General tab
• click on 'Config Editor' button
• it will tell you to be careful :)

• In the top search type: scroll

look for this line:

• mailnews.scroll_to_new_message; Value = 'false'
• double click on this line to toggle the 'false' to a 'true'

• close the window - top right X
• click on OK to save changes to Options.
• Close and reopen Thunderbird.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I do prefer oldest to newest.

It already was set to "True"! But it isn't scrolling to the new message.

Can you check something for me. The 'Date' column header Please click on the Date column header to sort by newest on top

check: View > Sort by > and 'Date' and 'Descending' should be selected Is it selectd? If yes - good if no: select 'Date' and 'Descending'

Repeat as follows: The 'Date' column header Please click on the Date column header to sort by newest on bottom

check: View > Sort by > and 'Date' and 'Ascending' should be selected Is it selectd? If yes - good if no: select 'Date' and 'Ascending'

Please report back on findings and results.

Sorry about the delay in responding. Even though I know that my messages are in ascending order, I double-checked just so that I could assure you of that.

Thank you again for your time and help.

So . . . nobody's got a clue?

This isn't an answer to your particular query, but it suggests other ways of working that makes the ordering of messages less important.

I don't let messages accumulate in the Inbox. New messages are moved, (some automatically by filters) or read and deleted immediately, so by definition, the only stuff in my Inbox is newly arrived. So there's no need to sift through old stuff to find new stuff. And Thunderbird doesn't work at its best (IOW, "well") with large folders, so organizing messages into a large number of smaller folders makes it all go more smoothly.

On top of that I used View|Folders|Unread, a Saved Search Unread folder and the Quickfilter to rapidly locate and identify unread messages. Hence their order in the Inbox is pretty much irrelevant.

Most email clients occasionally burp or fart and destroy their users' mail stores. Thunderbird is no exception. The Inbox is noticeably the most often affected folder, so keeping it empty minimizes your exposure to this risk.

Thank you for your reply. Your technique is interesting. However, since there's a natural resistance to changing one's way of doing things, this could take some time to absorb and incorporate.

This is not to dispute what you wrote, but my personal experience with Outlook Express over a period of some 20 years was fine - it never, ever destroyed my mail folders.

Thanks again.

Tools > Options > advanced > General tab click on 'Config Editor' button it will tell you to be careful :)

In the top search type: sort

look for these lines: mail.delete_matches_sort_order; Value = ? mailnews.default_news_sort_order; Value = ? mailnews.default_sort_order; Value = ?

What Value do you have for each of these?

False 1 1

mailnews.default_news_sort_order; Value = 1 mailnews.default_sort_order; Value = 1

This means your default sort order is ascending.

(Value = 2 means descending.)

i'm wondering if you have something set to overrule the scroll to incoming new messages....Done some digging around and located this info....

If you have a setting that remembers the last selected message, it may be overruling incoming new messages. This would mean that you can continue reading mail from where ever you last stopped, even if new mails arrived. So, thunderbird may scroll initially on startup if new messages have arrived, but thereafter it might not auto scroll because of the setting to remember last selection.

So, I therefore think that if you want to remember last message you would not be using auto scroll, so the auto scroll would be false. However, you have this set to true and want auto scroll, so try to turn off the remember last message preference and note the effects.

Please check this setting in the 'Config Editor as before. top search type 'remember' mailnews.remember_selected_message

Value = true would switch on the remember last message and could be overriding the scroll. Value = false (respectively switches off the preference).

Suggest you double click on the line to toggle to 'false'. close the window - top right X click on OK to save changes to Options. Close and reopen Thunderbird.

If the effects of changing this do not suit you, change the setting back to 'true'.

Thank you so much for trying to find a solution for me. Whether it took you an hour or five minutes, I really appreciate it.

I made the change, but it didn't help.

It would be nice to know if Thunderbird scrolls down to show new messages as they arrive for anybody else.