Change Thunderbird's Email Folder Sort Order
The desktop email client Thunderbird does not offer different options to sort mail folders in a different way.
The only option users have is to make use of the A-Z order but that does not include special folders (like inbox or drafts) which will remain at the top all the time.
The Thunderbird add-on Manually Sort Folders brings more options to the table.
As the name implies it adds the option to manually sort folders in Thunderbird including all special folders.
But that's just one option; The other option provided by the Thunderbird extension is the ability to use Unicode characters in front of folders to put them on the top just like Gmail offers to do.
The string sorting option can be very interesting for users of webmail accounts that support Unicode characters like Gmail. The default sorting order in Thunderbird changes the sort order of the Gmail folder as Thunderbird does not use these characters in the sorting process.
The manual folder sorting on the other hand gives users of the email client versatile options to sort folders exactly how they should look like without having to care about a specific sort order.
It could take longer to sort but in the end it should be the most comfortable option for most users.
You can access the extension from the Tools menu after installation. The interface looks similar to the one you see on the screenshot above.
To start select the mail folder you want to change the sort order for. The default is always set to Thunderbird's default sort order. Switch that to "use a manually defined sort function" for options to change the order of folders manually.
This is done by selecting a folder first and using the move up or move down buttons in the interface to move it to another position.
Update: The most recent version of the extension supports two additional features. The first enables you to select a startup folder. This is the folder that is selected by default when Thunderbird starts.
The second allows you to change the order of mail accounts in Thunderbird.
Manually Sort Folders is available for Thunderbird 3 and newer. It can be downloaded at the Mozilla Thunderbird website.
You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!