Email threads by subject in Thunderbird (just as in Gmail)

Question

Is it possible to have threaded email conversations in Thunderbird just like how it is in Gmail? How can I do that?

score 15 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 24 '11 at 09:06

15

Use Thunderbird Conversations. Never look back :-) Threaded view alone was too little for me.

answered Oct 24 '11 at 09:06

Christoph

3,108

Nice find, just installed that & like it. – Tom Brossman Oct 24 '11 at 16:08
Does this extension support the keyboard shortcuts? It doesn't seem to; am I overlooking it? With Gmail I can really fly using J, K, N, P, O, E, and so on. I would love to have that experience. – Greg Hendershott Mar 18 '13 at 14:25
afaik, no. you should file a feature request at https://github.com/protz/GMail-Conversation-View/issues – Christoph Mar 18 '13 at 16:15
I found this plugin very buggy. – datka Nov 06 '16 at 19:11

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 24 '11 at 13:58

11

Sort of: View -> sort by -> threaded.

However, if your answer is not in the folder you're viewing, it is not visible in the thread view.

There's also a plug-in called conversations that usually gives you the gmail look (your mail from 'sent' folder is visible in the conversation view -- most of the times ).

edited Oct 24 '11 at 13:58

Kris Harper

13,477

answered Oct 24 '11 at 08:40

ang mo

243

Is there a Thunderbird equivalent of All Mail folder? – Oxwivi Oct 24 '11 at 09:54
1

@Oxwivi: Do you mean the Global Inbox or Unified Folders? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Global_Inbox http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_3.1_-_New_Features_and_Changes#Folder_Pane – Christoph Oct 24 '11 at 10:10
@Christoph I mean something that has all sent, received, archived and draft messages in. – Oxwivi Oct 24 '11 at 10:18
hm, not that I know of. what would be the use-case for that, btw? i don't see it. getting to view mails as conversations, including your sent messages, works with the tb conversations addon (see my other answer), even without having all of them in one folder. – Christoph Oct 24 '11 at 11:20
@Christoph the Gmail model is that there is only one folder called All Mail. Everything else is just labels. When a message is "in your inbox", that simply means it has the Inbox label. When you "archive", it simply removes the Inbox label. The message is still sitting in the same folder the whole time. Ditto for Sent. (Of course any message can have multiple labels, which is how you can "file" things in more than one "folder".) – Greg Hendershott Mar 18 '13 at 14:22
@Christoph thx! helped me on this answer! – Aquarius Power Aug 11 '14 at 23:39

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

This answer is a copy of mine one at SuperUser following these rules.

It "is" built-in on thunderbird now, if you do the right steps:

There is the "Global Inbox" (if there isn't one, you have to activate it at View >> Folders >> Unified from this tip)

Go on its properties at "Select the folders to search:"
and click on "Choose...", you will see that your top inbox is checked;
just check the "sent" one, click "ok", and "Update".

Now, go to your top "inbox" that is the global one, activate the threaded column and you have a three with all incoming and outgoing messages!

Email threads by subject in Thunderbird (just as in Gmail)

3 Answers3