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Thunderbird Inbox Threads not wanted

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by christ1

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I have just had to have Thunderbird re-installed on a new hard drive. Replies to my emails are now shown out of date order, in thread format. I Hate this!! How can I return to my former view of all my Inbox mail showing every email separately in order of date, and Not in threads? I have spent an hour searching the settings and cannot figure this out. TIA.

I have just had to have Thunderbird re-installed on a new hard drive. Replies to my emails are now shown out of date order, in thread format. I Hate this!! How can I return to my former view of all my Inbox mail showing every email separately in order of date, and Not in threads? I have spent an hour searching the settings and cannot figure this out. TIA.

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You need to highlight each folder and click View>sort by>unthreaded. If this applies to just a few folders, just repeat the process as necessary. If you have many folders or plan to add many new folders, you may wish a different approach, below:

More info: To change default for new folders, In config editor, you can change default that applies to NEW folders you set up: mailnews.default_view_flags 0=unthreaded

Config editor is available at Tools>settings>general and scroll to bottom right.

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To set many *existing* folders, follow these steps: (I creates a crude video that walks through the steps at

   https://davidkirk.org/SettingDefaultFolderView.mp4  that demonstrates the following steps:
  First, highlight a folder that you have set to unthreaded	
  In the Message List view, in the column header, on the far right, open the options button that shows    
   context menu.:
  At the very bottom is the option:
  -> "Apply current view to..."
  -> "Folder and its children..."
  -> Hover over an account
  -> In the next menu don't select a folder. Instead select the account name itself.

This isn't a perfect solution, but it does address the issue of unthreading many folders.

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