I hit sort by and selected date and still only get the time not the date the mail arrived

Today's mail shows just the time; older mail shows the date and time.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Change_the_Date_Format

ok thank you I appreciate that answer. i do ahve a question though if for somereason i need to reinstall will i lose all my drafts extentions and contacts'

so no date is shown with this current update

so will i ever see the date

like if tomorrow morning will  i see  the date

Uninstalling or reinstalling the program doesn't affect your data, which is stored in the separate profile folder.

The best thing to back up, in case of data loss or to copy to another computer, is the Thunderbird folder, located at

C:\Users\windowsusername\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

Yes, tomorrow you will see the date along with the time.

thank you not sure i know what you mean but I am afraid i will lose the data

 thanks again for your response