Thunderbird Community Forum

This is more of a suggestion than a question.

I have been enjoying Thunderbird's Email account immensely, however there is one area of the interface that drives me a bit batty.

I really like using the Unified inbox, so that I can see all of the new emails from all of the accounts connected to the interface. However, I would love to see some kind of change to the interface that would reduce the duplicate notifications I get when new messages get downloaded.

When a new message comes in I get multiple notifications for it, one in the unified inbox and one in the local folders (two notifs for the same message). Additionally if I delete a new email without opening it I get notifications for trash and even spam (I really have no desire to see those ever again, they were deleted or put in spam for reasons). As you can imagine if this happens with the three or four accounts attached (especially after a few days without opening it), it can get overwhelming trying to sort how many new emails I REALLY have.

If there was a way to modify the code involved to only report the unified (or individual) inbox rather than it and the local folders and trash and spam, it would be even better than it already is.

Thank you for your time! I hope this is a suggestion that can be integrated in upcoming updates.

Sincerely, DDRandall

I have over a hundred message rules which I have listed in alphabetical order. However, every time I add a new rule, it is a chore to alphabetically place it in with the existing list of rules. Is there a current way to have the list automatically be put/kept in alphabetical order? If not, perhaps including a method to do so in a future update? Thank you.

All of a sudden my emails are permanently staying in bold in my folders, in Settings >Reading & Display Ive tried changing the 'Automatically mark messages as read radio buttons and quit etc and the same issue is happening, please advise

Subject: Persistent Column and Folder Layout Issues — Not Being Saved Between Sessions

This is a follow-up to my previous support requests regarding two ongoing problems that significantly impact daily usability.

Column Settings I manage multiple accounts, and my preferred column layout is: Starred, Read Status, Attachment, Subject, From, and Date/Time. I do not use Threads, Correspondents, or Spam Status columns. Despite setting these preferences repeatedly, Thunderbird fails to retain them. Every day I must spend time reconfiguring columns across some or all of my accounts — the state varies unpredictably from one session to the next. This is a persistent, daily frustration that costs meaningful time. Most other major email clients save and reliably maintain column preferences. I'd expect Thunderbird to do the same.

Folder Panel Layout Two problems occur regularly when Thunderbird loads:

Folder order — Standard system folders (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, All Mail, Trash, Spam) should appear at the top of each account. Instead, Sent, All Mail, Trash, and/or Spam are frequently scattered among custom folders, with no apparent consistency.

Folder expansion — Most or all folders load in an expanded state, exposing every nested sub-folder regardless of whether they contain unread mail. This creates unnecessary visual clutter and requires manual collapsing each session.

Again, this behavior is uncommon in other widely-used email clients. Summary These are not one-time glitches — they recur daily and represent a significant usability gap. I'd appreciate confirmation that these are known issues being tracked, or guidance on a reliable fix. Reformatting the interface every morning is not a reasonable expectation for users.

Hi,

I used to scroll up in current message using Shift+Space, but it stopped working for a few days now. it's not mentionned in moving around TB, so I don't know if it was normal behaviour or a feature added by TB's arch maintainer.

So thunderbird mail has this system where old emails spread horizontally across the top of the screen in small icons and if you select and open an older email from the sidebar for the inbox and then want to return to the inbox, the only way I have found to return to the inbox is to click and hold the left arrow on that horizontal bar at the top with the email icons. This is too time consuming. Is there a faster way? Also, is that bar necessary? Why not just have a system that uses the sidebar that actually identifies the individual emails.

Windows 11 Pro 64bit. I actually want to customise the tool bar - right click on that, you get 'Customise Menu", which does nothing. All I'm trying to do is recover the layout I had before this update. Calendar is missing for example.

Hi folks, I'm a happy Thunderbird user since more than 20 years.

I just updated my TB to Version V.153.0.1esr.

Then I want to compose an eMail and suddenly I recognized the two Menus with File, Edit, View and Send.... Attach are gone.

Normally from the top to the buttom I see the following menu lines: 1. Write: (no subject).... 2. File Edit View... 3. Send........ and Attach at the end 4. From.. 5. To... 6. Subject 7. The line with Paragraph etc. 8. The area to put my email text in

The lines 2. and 3. are fully gone.

Can you please give an answer how to reactive the lines 2. und 3. during composing an eMail?

My Thunderbird does look strange, though it works alright. It annoys me, there are black-gray rectanguler spots left top and bottom. It dissapears when in full screen mode. It is not in any other program. I add a picture. Is there anybody who knows how to solve this. Thanks, Hans, Netherlands

Is there a way to change the default font color for replies in Thunderbird? Nothing I do works, and it is a real pain to have to manually change the color every time I reply to an email.

Thanks.

All of my emails are being marked as read immediately. I have that option turned off in settings on all devices. I am not using bit defender. This only started after I moved to a windows 11 computer. I only have one account. I have read the previous forum similar issues.

As the topic says, the message list turned from the usual dark-mode look, to a full black background after updating to 151.0.

Was this an intentional change? How can I revert it?

Hi,

I've just updated my Thunderbird for Windows to 151 and I got this nasty surprise (this is why I hate updates these days).

The message list in dark mode, in a table view, now has this awful pitch black background instead of the normal dark brown as it used to have. It looks OK in cards mode, but I don't like cards mode.

I certainly hope this is a bug and not by design. Can this be fixed, please? It looks terrible, it's hard to look at, like old Windows 10 dark mode or some high contrast accessibility mode.

Thank you!

I keep getting alert notices on my phone from thunderbird. It started when i was going to add thunderbird to one of my other devices. But i changed my mind and deleted it on that device.

Thunderbird display messages in boxes arranged horizontally accross the top of the screen. How do I change that displAy to a list of messages listed from the top of the page to the bottom

No matter how large or small the Thunderbird window is, I can't see all 3 of the Address Book columns without expanding the window to take up the entire laptop screen. The column width seem to be locked in at a pre-set number of pixels. I've tried to grab the edges of the columns to reduce their width, but they don't seem to be active. What I would really like would be for the Book to adjust to the Thunderbird window's width, or at least let me scroll between the columns. As it is, I can't view or edit the entry details of a individual listing in my Book without greatly enlarging the whole window.

Any ideas on changing these column widths would be appreciated. I've got Windows 11, and TB version 140.13.0esr (64-bit).

Thanks, Grasses

I have a rather intriguing issue with the message editor which isn't a problem but puzzles me.

I monitor a number of email accounts. When compiling a message using one particular sending account the line spacing in the editor is reduced, as in the second attached image. If I use any of the other accounts it is correct, as in the first image . In each case the line spacing of the message that is actually sent is correct.

It's obviously not a big issue, but I'm struggling to understand how the editor can change depending on the sender account. Any ideas?