This is a useful addon for many reasons including the issue you mention: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/

Once downloaded access 'Menu app icon' > 'Addons and Themes' Locate the ImportExportTools NG addon and click on the spanner icon Select the 'Filenames' tab Select checkbox 'Use Following Format'

You can now choose whatever you desire. As an example you could use:

Set 'Date', 'Subject' and 'Index' Custom Date: %Y-%m-%d Note: %m = Month as a decimal number (range 01 to 12). %d = Day of the month as a decimal number (range 01 to 31). %y = Year as a decimal number without a century (range 00 to 99). %Y = Year as a decimal number including the century.

Selected 'Use Extended Format' Format says: ${date-custom}-${subject}-${index} click on 'OK'

Then using 'Save selected messages' > 'EML' Email save with the following example: 2021-06-13-[Bug 1683321] Loss of events and tasks w_reminder-5195.eml

I find the index number quite useful as I can use it in other notes or in Calendar to remind me what email I'm refering to, so it can also be used in searches.

Hello Toad-Hall,

thank you very much for your answer, I just tried out the ImportExport-AddOn and was successful after several attempts. I found out that the "Use Extended Format" must be written ${date_custom)... instead of ${date-custom)...

It seems that with the (more long-winded version) "Save selected Messages - EML" you can't save more than one single email. But what doesn't work is saving with the (faster version) ctrl+s shortcut: The email-filename is still fromatted in the annoying way I described above (without the desired "yyyy-mm-dd" and with the unwanted "sender" and "date" at the end). Unfortunately the settings in the ImportExport-AddOn seem to have no effect on the ctrl+s-saving-method.

re :It seems that with the (more long-winded version) "Save selected Messages - EML" you can't save more than one single email.

You can save as many as you like, but you must select/highlight them first, then right click on highlighted emails and use "Save selected Messages - EML" Window opens asking to choose a folder on computer. Select a folder where you want the .eml files to be saved and then click on 'Select folder' button.

all highlighted emails will get saved as per instructons in the selected folder. I've just chosen a folder in a mail account - used Ctrl+A to highlight all emails in the Thread Pane list then used instructions I've mentioned above and all those emails appeared as saved .eml files in the selected folder.

It works very well whether you want to save one or some or all.

re :Unfortunately the settings in the ImportExport-AddOn seem to have no effect on the ctrl+s-saving-method.

You are using an addon to produce the desired format and not the TB default saving method. Hence why I gave instructions on how to use that addon to save messages in a format you desire. Right click on a single highlighted email use 'save selected messages' > 'eml' will ask where to save that email. Using Ctrl+A will highlight all emails in that folder - then the right click - 'save selected messages' > 'eml' will ask where to save them all. Using 'Ctrl+click' is the method to select various emails OR use the new column header called 'Select messages' which provides checkboxes, so just select checkboxes to highlight various emails.

There is nothing stopping you from using the default ctrl+s method in Thunderbird, but you have already stated that you would need to manually alter the filename each time and this was deemed as undesirable and a lengthy process.

About your answer from 8:22:

Ok, thank you for the further information. It works now as you decribed it. I did select several emails, but I tried to save them using the menue "File > Save selected emails..." Here you can only save one selected message, otherwise the method is set on grey and not chooseable.

But using the right-click method I can do it as you did. Thank you, this was very helpful !

About your answer from 8:37: You don't know how to prevent the new (since version 91) habit of Tbd. to name the message with the additional "sender" and "date" information at the end (using ctrl+s) ?

Hello online25, I also work on a lot of different projects and also store every e-mail as a single .eml-file on my project directories, with also a date prefix yymmdd, using as you do the ctrl-s save command. I also tried the solution with the ImportExport-addon (which works) but is not as easy as ctrl-s...

Also the feature of adding the name and email adress of the sender is not wanted by me, now i have to delete that manually...

Thunderbird has a "configuration-editor" in which some settings can be changed. Unfortunately, the date setting and name + adress adding to the file name cannot be edited. Hopefully Thunderbird will add this possibility soon or an add-on will be presented.

Hello md001, thank you for your message.

So I feel I'm not alone, and 1. knowing that it's not my nescience or foolishness with the program, 2. hoping for inprovements by Thunderbird not to far in the future !

re :You don't know how to prevent the new (since version 91) habit of Tbd. to name the message with the additional "sender" and "date" information at the end (using ctrl+s) ?

I agree with you that this creates very long titles and it would be nice to have more control options within Thunderbird by default, but I can see an advantage. Previously, you had to know the subject, or a reasonale idea of the date, when quite often people would ask how they could search when they only knew the sender. So perhaps it will help those in the community who wanted the sender included. Some people save their emails in folders with a year date, so date whilst useful was not top of their list, they wanted to sort by subject.

There is no preference in the 'Config Editor' for the default Ctrl+S - Save as

As there is a method of gaining more control via the addon, I cannot see the developers putting any valuable time into coming up with save options regarding filename.

Yes, the titles are getting very long (or perhaps even too long - depending on the number of subfolders you have in your project structure and eventually already very long subject-names). A huge amount of saved emails with such long titles also get confusing, for example when you're searching for a special message (subject).

You're right, I may be an advantage, under certain conditions, but for me - and I think also for many other users - it is unnecessary or annoying. So it would be more than consequential to have the possibility to deactivate this kind of the naming of the emails. So I keep hoping....

@ online25: no you are not alone...!

@ Toad Hall: thank you for your explanations; I have now put some extra effort in testing the importexport add-on, which indeed works good and makes it possible to set my own preferences.

Nevertheless, some where in Thunderbird is now programmed that by Ctrl-S the default file name is subject-sendername - sender adress- date - time, so I hope it is not that much of a programming effort to make this setting adjustable via the Config Editor... and that it will be possible soon!

Thank you, md001, for your comment about the new ctrl+s-manner.

You're right regarding programming effort: the programming of the version that used to be the default setting since years (oder decades) must "still be known" by someone... And I think, the new version can indeed make sense for some users, but I doubt that the majority finds the new version better than the old one. So, it is "just" the effort to create an option where you can choose the version you like.