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Is it possible to renumber the order-received values in a subfolder?

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  • Last reply by Matt

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I sometimes collect emails from various subfolders into a new subfolder to better reflect their topic. When I do this, I would like the order-received associated with each message to reflect the date-received, rather than the date/time I moved the message into the new folder. (The order in which I have moved the messages is pretty much irrelevant.) Once I have the messages moved and incoming-mail processing is back to normal, I'd like further order-received values to be generated as usual.

I realize that this cannot be done, in a general way, at the time I move the message: if I move a message into a long-used folder, it could possibly trigger the unwieldy regeneration of many other order-received fields. But it would be useful to be able to instruct Thunderbird, on a subfolder I constructed by populating it, to regenerate the order-received values according to date-received.

It this possible? Either for the end user, or as an enhancement.

I sometimes collect emails from various subfolders into a new subfolder to better reflect their topic. When I do this, I would like the order-received associated with each message to reflect the date-received, rather than the date/time I moved the message into the new folder. (The order in which I have moved the messages is pretty much irrelevant.) Once I have the messages moved and incoming-mail processing is back to normal, I'd like further order-received values to be generated as usual. I realize that this cannot be done, in a general way, at the time I move the message: if I move a message into a long-used folder, it could possibly trigger the unwieldy regeneration of many other order-received fields. But it would be useful to be able to instruct Thunderbird, on a subfolder I constructed by populating it, to regenerate the order-received values according to date-received. It this possible? Either for the end user, or as an enhancement.

Chosen solution

Thanks, Matt. Yes, I meant date-sent, as you mentioned, rather than date-received.

I can fake the order-received to be by date by first collecting the emails into a temporary folder, then sorting by date-sent and moving them again into my new folder. (But it requires moving each one to the destination folder individually; otherwise, it retains the order-received value.) Rather a kludge, but it works.

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Generally mail lists are sorted by date. That is the date set when the sender send the email, not the time of delivery.

There is an option for order received, but it is strictly the order of the email in question in the underlying storage file. Hence your issue with the order received being a mess when you build a new folder with old mail. I even have a maildir store (normally blocked) which uses individual files for each email. I have no idea how it does the order received. But it might help you. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/maildir-thunderbird

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Chosen Solution

Thanks, Matt. Yes, I meant date-sent, as you mentioned, rather than date-received.

I can fake the order-received to be by date by first collecting the emails into a temporary folder, then sorting by date-sent and moving them again into my new folder. (But it requires moving each one to the destination folder individually; otherwise, it retains the order-received value.) Rather a kludge, but it works.

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Personally I use date sent and threading. The references header ties the linked mails together in the order they were in play. Regardless of the system date used. So there is no I told you allowed.