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Date display in Thunderbird : today's messages displays only the time, not the date

  • 12 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 206 views
  • Last reply by chenmau

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Thunderbird 68.6 In the message list of a newsgroup for instance, today's messages display only the time not the date. I can understand people might like this because today's messages are singled out, but others prefer to have all the dates displayed the same.

I searched in all kind of places. Tried the Application or regional settings locale. My OS is configured to display long and short dates as yyyy-mm-dd

In Thunderbird (about:config) the Calendar.date.format is set to 1 (long date)

One post on the community support mentions the following settings in "about:config" starting with version 60 : mail.ui.display.dateformat.today (default 0) mail.ui.display.dateformat.thisweek (default 2) mail.ui.display.dateformat.default (default 2) None of these settings seem to exist (no setting with even "dateformat" or "today".)

Is there a way to have all message dates displayed as "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM" in the folders and in the messages ? (If not who decides what and how software users must see their data ? I could try to petition them, not with much hope : it seems the current trend to have all programs get a google chrome or even worse a smartphone interface often pinned to the (historical but still absurd) US date formats can't be turned :-( But I digress.)

Jacob

Thunderbird 68.6 In the message list of a newsgroup for instance, today's messages display only the time not the date. I can understand people might like this because today's messages are singled out, but others prefer to have all the dates displayed the same. I searched in all kind of places. Tried the Application or regional settings locale. My OS is configured to display long and short dates as yyyy-mm-dd In Thunderbird (about:config) the Calendar.date.format is set to 1 (long date) One post on the community support mentions the following settings in "about:config" starting with version 60 : mail.ui.display.dateformat.today (default 0) mail.ui.display.dateformat.thisweek (default 2) mail.ui.display.dateformat.default (default 2) None of these settings seem to exist (no setting with even "dateformat" or "today".) Is there a way to have all message dates displayed as "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM" in the folders and in the messages ? (If not who decides what and how software users must see their data ? I could try to petition them, not with much hope : it seems the current trend to have all programs get a google chrome or even worse a smartphone interface often pinned to the (historical but still absurd) US date formats can't be turned :-( But I digress.) Jacob

Chosen solution

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Date_display_format

Right-click in the Config. editor, New, Integer, with the name mail.ui.display.dateformat.today and value 2, restart TB. Today's mail now has the full system short date in the Date column. Tested in TB 68.6.

See also ConfigDate.

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All Replies (12)

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Chosen Solution

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Date_display_format

Right-click in the Config. editor, New, Integer, with the name mail.ui.display.dateformat.today and value 2, restart TB. Today's mail now has the full system short date in the Date column. Tested in TB 68.6.

See also ConfigDate.

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Indeed ! I had never dreamed of creating new values. With all the warnings one gets when entering "about:config"... Then I also thought that any setting that was not present would not be valid.

Thanks !

Jacob

(I am off to create quite a few values now : restore old UI, eradicate the coronavirus and so on ;-)

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I have already created a new entry and set the value to 2 as shown in the screenshots. But only the time is still shown in the header of every email received today. What am I doing wrong?

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chenmau said

I have already created a new entry and set the value to 2 as shown in the screenshots. But only the time is still shown in the header of every email received today. What am I doing wrong?

Did you restart TB?

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Yes I did. But no changes on the email header which is just showing the time for the emails received today.

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Try rebuilding the index: right-click the folder, Properties, Repair Folder.

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Sorry I don't understand. Right click where?

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Right-click the folder in the Folder Pane, i.e. Inbox.

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I have rebuilt the index but still the full date is not shown at the email header.

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Screenshot as attached.

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The Date changes only in the Threads Pane, not the Header Pane, and I've no idea how to extend it to the HP.

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OK understood. Thanks for your help anyway.