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Messages received today have erroneous "order received"

  • 5 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by Norio

nkennington
nkennington
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I have set "View">"Sort by">"order received". This has behaved well for many months. However, messages sent today have values for "order received" that sort them with messages received on 7-12-15. I have tested this with messages I sent to myself today. (I prefer to sort by "order received" instead of "Date" because occasionally some of my correspondents have their system dates set erroneously.)

I have set "View">"Sort by">"order received". This has behaved well for many months. However, messages sent today have values for "order received" that sort them with messages received on 7-12-15. I have tested this with messages I sent to myself today. (I prefer to sort by "order received" instead of "Date" because occasionally some of my correspondents have their system dates set erroneously.)

All Replies (5)

Norio
Norio
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I also use "order received," as my default sort (primarily because spammers will often date their emails far into the future so they will float to the top). I have not experienced the issue you describe. What version of Thunderbird are you using? Are you on Windows? If so, what version? Are you using IMAP or POP3?

nkennington
nkennington Question owner
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Hi Norio, 

      I am using Thunderbird 38.1.0, Windows 8.1, I believe that I am using POP3.  Thank you for considering the problem.
Norio
Norio
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Hi nkennington, Please verify whether you are using IMAP or POP3. This information would be in Tools-Account Settings-Server Settings (for your email server). It should say either "POP Mail Server" or "IMAP Mail Server". The reason this is important is because there have been problems for many years with Thunderbird sorting in the "order received" on IMAP accounts. For example see http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=59640 and https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=570355.

If you are using IMAP, it may be more difficult to pin down the source of the problem, and may be due to changes on the mail server or the aforementioned bug in Thunderbird (which as far as I know is still alive).

But if you are using a POP Mail Server, then you might try changing the default sort order in Thunderbird. Look at http://superuser.com/questions/13518/change-the-default-sorting-order-in-thunderbird, and follow the instructions in the first reply/answer (the one with "97" next to it). BE CAREFUL when making changes in the about:config section. In fact, I would use Mozbackup to create a backup of your Thunderbird profile before making changes.

Good luck!

nkennington
nkennington Question owner
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Hi Norio, 

     Many thanks.  (I am using the POP mail Server.)    I have set "View">"Sort by" to "Received", and that seems to be working for me.

      I am still curious about why "order received" is suddenly producing errors.
Norio
Norio
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Hello again nkennington, I am glad that you have figured out a fix (and a much easier one than anything I suggested, too!). I am also curious as to why "order received" has suddenly stopped working effectively for you. Good luck, Norio